Decades ago, retail was based on personal relationships. As customers entered the store, each would be recognized and greeted personally by the merchant. This helped build friendship and respect between customer and merchant; making the merchant a trusted source of advice and information about products old and new. Fast forward to today. The personalized approach...
The post How should smart merchants deal with smartphones appeared first on e27.
Today laborers across Indonesia are on strike to fight for their working rights. On the same day, Freelancer.com has opened an opportunity for the workforce in Indonesia to create their own workspace online. Freelancer.com is an outsourcing and crowdsourcing platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Here, SMEs could meet freelancers to do jobs that they need. Now Freelancer.co.id is launched with Indonesian language features and support for the local currency, the Rupiah. It hopes to empower entrepreneurship in Indonesia, making it easier, for example, for startups to find designers or coders.
Why is Freelancer targeting Indonesia? This country only contributes 1.5 percent of its four million total users. But the workforce in Indonesia has great potential – because, around 22 percent of the Indonesian population uses the internet.
The vice president of growth for Freelancer.com, Willis Halim, who was born and raised in Indonesia, believes Indonesia is a land where SMEs can grow. The internet should not only be used for Facebook, he says, but also to raise the nation’s economic status. Willis added:
We provide a global labor exchange. We provide the productivity to assist those with a spark of an idea to turn into reality. E-commerce is not just for goods, but it can also be for services. In emerging economies, we empower entrepreneurs to start service organizations.
For its Indonesian version, Freelancer supports Indonesian on its site and for its customer service. It has also established a local team with a regional manager. As for payments, freelancers can bid on projects starting from Rp300,000, which is around the same amount as on the global site: $30.
Before the launch, Freelancer collected success stories from its Indonesian users. One of them is Daniel Pratidya from Jakarta, who has used the international version of Freelancer.com since September, 2011. He worked for additional income for his family as he raised four children. He tried using Freelancer and started off with the low payment of $2 to bid a project. It was only to raise his reputation and reviews for his profile. At first, he says it was hard to win a bid for a project. Now he frequently earns money via Freelancer. He also managed to pay his debts. Daniel said:
There is a lot of opportunity for businessmen in this site. Through Freelancer.com, I changed from a freelancer to an entrepreneur to solve my financial problems.
As for a payment solution, Freelancer is now working to build partnerships with local banks. For now, it’s just HSBC which supports wire transfers for Freelancer in Indonesia. Other methods are still the same as the global site, like Paypal and credit cards. Freelancer is also considering local payment methods such as KasPay from Kaskus.
The post Freelancer.com Releases Indonesian Version with Local Language and Currency Support appeared first on Tech in Asia.
I just came across a very simple, but yet pretty fun little iOS game from called Shutter Chance, released yesterday by the folks at Goodia.
The idea behind the game is very basic. You’re a photographer who has just 30 seconds to snap off a group picture of the students posing in front of you. The problem is, at least one or a few of them occasionally turn their head. Your challenge is to take a picture when everyone is facing the front, and you’ll actually lose points if more students are looking away. You only have five chances in total to take a snapshot.
This game is brand new, and is currently in 18th spot in the Japan app store in the kids and family categories. And while I don’t expect it to be wildly successful, I do like the creative spirit that comes up with such game ideas, as well as the 8-bit style graphics that used to create this one.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a casual game that’s a little bit on the weird side, you can download it from the app store here.
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The post Shutter Chance: Fun App From Japan Tests Your Timing Skills appeared first on Tech in Asia.
I just came across a very simple, but yet pretty fun little iOS game from called Shutter Chance, released yesterday by the folks at Goodia.
The idea behind the game is very basic. You’re a photographer who has just 30 seconds to snap off a group picture of the students posing in front of you. The problem is, at least one or a few of them occasionally turn their head. Your challenge is to take a picture when everyone is facing the front, and you’ll actually lose points if more students are looking away. You only have five chances in total to take a snapshot.
This game is brand new, and is currently in 18th spot in the Japan app store in the kids and family categories. And while I don’t expect it to be wildly successful, I do like the creative spirit that comes up with such game ideas, as well as the 8-bit style graphics that used to create this one.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a casual game that’s a little bit on the weird side, you can download it from the app store here.
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The post Shutter Chance: Fun App From Japan Tests Your Timing Skills appeared first on Tech in Asia.
Free is good. Image credit: Chicagonow.com
Startup reality TV show, Angel’s Gate, just launched its “startup kit” today. Within that kit there are free .com domains, Google Apps service, and $50 worth of Amazon Web Service (AWS) credits. Free stuff is always good, especially as it doesn’t come with major terms and conditions. Angel’s Gate social media guy. Titan Lee, told me:
We’re building the Startup-Kit to increase the value Angel’s Gate brings to the startup ecosystem and members who are starting a project on our platform. We seek to encourage “dormant” entrepreneurs with an idea to start taking action.
The only “catch” or condition is to register for an Angel’s Gate account and start a project! Then share the idea with your friends. Once you gather 10 likes, the domain redemption code will be sent out.
If you have a great idea and are looking for a free .com domain with Google Apps, you can click here to find out more.
The post Angel’s Gate Startup Kit Gives Free Web Domains and Google Apps appeared first on Tech in Asia.
Blackberry ad in Singapore
These past few days, my BlackBerry-using friends have been calling directly rather than using the rather unstable BBM (Blackberry Messenger) – and the issue has blown into a wave of BBM errors across Asia this afternoon. Users are saying that now they can’t even deliver any messages using the service. A lot of BlackBerry users in the region are now complaining about it on Twitter.
Detik cites Yolanda Nainggolan, the PR manager of RIM Indonesia today as saying that the problem is occuring not only in Indonesia, but also across the whole of Asia Pacific. She also said that RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) is doing its best to fix the situation, but conceded that she didn’t know for sure how soon they can fix this problem.
Some of the affected users have been joking the errors, declaring today to be BBM Error Day. While some others have switched to Twitter or WhatsApp to message friends instead. One user highlights how important the BBM services are to her – for business purposes:
What the hell is going on? Bbm was error! Omg!
— Siti Ditya Revanie (@sweetyvanie) October 3, 2012
my timeline flooded with tweets people complaining the error of bbm having difficulties now. it’s only BBM. th… plurk.com/p/heelib
— Metta Tan (@_Mettalia_) October 3, 2012
buat dagang bos.. RT @ravellinomoses : Para blackberry user sedang enjoy menikmati error BBM… so why you still choose Blackberry?~
— Balerina Beautyshop (@balerinaos) October 3, 2012
This is another reputation-damaging episode for RIM, especially when the company has invested so much in promoting the highly-anticipated Blackberry 10 – and trying to stop users going to Android for a new phone, or shifting to some other messaging app instead of BBM. Note that other data-reliant services such as push email, Twitter, Yahoo Messenger, and WhatsApp are still functional.
In October of last year Blackberry users in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa experienced a service outage as well. This latest incident is certainly not a good sign for RIM, especially in one of the few remaining countries that still likes Blackberry handsets.
[Source: Detik, original picture: reactionface.com]
The post RIM Acknowledges Wave of Blackberry Messenger Errors in Asia Pacific appeared first on Tech in Asia.
