China’s Baidu to Focus on Local and LBS, Says it Has 77 Million Online Maps Users

The Baidu Shenbian app for local listings - now under Baidu's newly spun-off LBS division.

At an event in Beijing this morning, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), China’s biggest search engine, revealed that it has set up a dedicated location-based services (LBS) division that will focus on local listings and online maps. Techweb reports that Baidu also revealed that its online maps, now in their fourth year of operations, have 77 million users and that more than 4,000 businesses use its maps as a part of their online marketing.

Baidu’s move – which we heard rumors of last week – clearly emphasizes how local searches and lifestyle suggestions are an important part of what people are looking for on the web. Indeed, Baidu’s new LBS head, Mr. Shen Li, said at the event that Baidu has 100 million users across all its location-oriented services, such as its Baidu Shenbian (“Local”) app for nearby listings and reviews.

A big part of the new Baidu LBS division will be working with partners, such as the businesses who offer discounts via the newly-update Baidu Maps mobile app. The company noted that currently there are over one million developers making use of Baidu’s open platform.

Stronger local searches and app offerings will help Baidu fight off competition from all directions: startups making neat listings and/or coupons apps (like DDmaps), China’s Yelp-like Dianping which does daily deals, and also many products from rival Chinese web portals (such as Tencent’s Soso Maps).

Baidu has one other major corporate division, which is the one that covers mobile and cloud products. That includes its cloud-oriented, Android-based smartphone OS which can be found running on three handsets.

[Source: Techweb - article in Chinese]

The post China’s Baidu to Focus on Local and LBS, Says it Has 77 Million Online Maps Users appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

Report: 30-50% revenue of radio cab market comes from airport transfers, availability of cabs still a challenge

Getting cabs for short-distances within city limits or to get to the airport was greatly inconvenient until recently. However, introduction of radio cabs in 2007 has changed all that. The 5 year old radio cab industry has grown to Rs. 1100 crore industry in 2012. According to a recent study conducted by Sunstone Business School, the radio cab market is 15,000+ cabs in size with three large multi-city operators (Meru, Easy, Mega Cabs) holding nearly 70% market share as well as several smaller operators mushrooming in different cities.

Despite growing tremendously over the last 5 years, radio cabs are a minuscule portion of the overall private taxi business in cities. For instance, in Mumbai the total strength of the radio cab offering is less than 3% of overall market share. However, demand for radio cabs, is set to grow with rising middle class as they seek better transport.

The report quotes Rajiv Vij, CEO, EasyCabs as saying

Over next 5 years, we expect to see 5-6 big cities each with a population of about 20,000 radio taxis with 3 large operators controlling 80% market share. We also see the rise of 20 tier-2 cities with a population of 5,000- 10,000 radio taxis each with 5-6 players controlling up to 70% market share

The radio cab market is also likely to witness a shift from largely catering to airport pickups and drops to providing point-to-point commuting services across big cities. Currently, operators earn between 30-50% of their revenue from the airport segment. However, with increasing demand for services within the city and rising tariffs for parking at airports, operators are thinking about new ways to cater to the non-airport demand.

For most operators, availability of cabs including recruitment and retention of drivers continue to be challenging.

On regulation front,  the lack of a clear cut laws and dealing with different state laws gets very tedious. For instance, Chennai and Pune still don’t have the requisite regulations in spite of significant demand for these services and top operators’ eagerness to cater to these cities. Similarly Kolkata has been very slow in adopting these regulations and has only recently opened the market allowing each operator to have a maximum of 200 cabs.

The report notes that as operators get over the teething stage, the market is slowly beginning to see the emergence of aggregation models from existing and new operators in point-to-point transportation market. Over the past one year industry has seen debut of players such as OlaCabs, Savaari, TaxiGuide and Taxiforsure. Over the past 6 months VC firms, including Tiger Global Management, Inventus Capital, Helion, Accel Partners and Blume, have invested in tech-startups operating in the online cab rental space.

In April this year, car rental service, Savaari secured Rs. 5 Crores ($1mn) in Series A from Inventus Capital, in the same month Olacabs had raised Series A funding from Tiger Global. Bangalore based TaxiForSure, had raised venture capital funding from Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Blume Ventures in June.

---

---

» Report: 30-50% revenue of radio cab market comes from airport transfers, availability of cabs still a challenge @Pluggd.in.

Link to full article

Read More

Online kidswear brand, Unamia secures $1.2mn funding from Blume Ventures and AngelPrime

Bangalore based online kidswear brand Unamia has raised $1.2 million in seed round round funding from Blume Ventures and AngelPrime . The company targets Rs38,000 crore kidswear market by creating a world class range of kidswear and building deep
engagement with customers.

Unamia, founded by NIFT, IIT and Stanford graduates, aims to make world class kidswear accessible to parents across India.

“Parents, especially moms, want quality at par with international standards with!pricing that is reasonable. Ironically, some of the world’s best kidswear is made in India but is not available to children here. It should be!” says  founder CEO Jyotsna Pattabiraman, a mother herself.

Unamia funding comes at a time when investors are wary of ecommerce segment, though there still is a huge opportunity in vertical/niche ecommerce space, targeting specific segments.

Unamia founder, Jo Pattabiraman earlier shared her insights on vertical commerce market : Vertically Integrated Ecommerce stores in India : What’s the big deal?.

---

---

» Online kidswear brand, Unamia secures $1.2mn funding from Blume Ventures and AngelPrime @Pluggd.in.

Link to full article

Read More

China’s Shanda Games Partners with Square Enix on Mobile Games around Asia

photo: hankyung.com

China’s Shanda Games (NASDAQ:GAME) and Japanese game developer Square Enix (TYO:9684) have announced a mobile gaming partnership, reports Marbridge Daily.

The partnership will include joint development of four titles (Final Fantasy I, II, III, and Diffusion Million Arthur) for distribution in China, Taiwan, Korea, and Southeast Asia. For China and Taiwan, Shanda Games will be the operator, while in Korea and Southeast Asia, it will be the company’s subsidiary, Actoz Soft.

According to the report, Shanda also has plans for more mobile gaming in the upcoming year, with 25 titles planned by the end of 2013.

Earlier this year Shanda Games launched its first ever mobile gaming title, called My Country, a city building game for Android. The company is best known as a developer and operator of MMO titles, so it will be interesting to see how this push into the mobile space goes.

The post China’s Shanda Games Partners with Square Enix on Mobile Games around Asia appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

The Chinese user is more like you than you think

Editor’s Note: The piece originally appears on LinkedIn, we reproduced it here under Kaifu Lee’s authorization. Kaifu is the founder of Chinese incubator Innovation Works , he also served as Google and Microsoft VP.

To an American, China feels very distant, very different, and very difficult.  You hear bizzarre tales, and see American companies fail in China, so you assume Chinese Internet users must be very different from you.

But actually, the Chinese Internet user is a lot like you — He browses, searches, and plays.  She uses SNS, IM, and mobile apps.  They all love smart phones, Angry Birds, and iPads.

But there are also significant differences between Chinese and American Internet users.  Can you guess the single biggest difference?

Culture?  Expressiveness?  Mobility?  Government regulations?  No, the single largest difference is age!  The average Chinese internet user is almost young enough to be the average American user’s son/daughter!

That is why Chinese users tend to use less email and more IM, less e-commerce and more games, less search and more blogging.  See the chart below for a more detailed breakdown.

The study above was done before mobile and SNS really took off in China.  I’ll tell you more about these trends in the coming weeks.

 

Related posts:

1. Sohu Unifies User Accounts across 6 Platforms
2. Tuding User Statistics – Photo, Weibo, LBS. What’s Next?
3. DCCI Reports: Average 80 Millions Chinese Users Tracking Olympics Online Daily

Link to full article

Read More

This is Vietnam’s Web in 2012, As Facebook Overtakes Zing In the Country [INFOGRAPHIC]

After last week’s Asia-wide report on the state of the web, mobile, and social media, comes the infographic from digital agency WeAreSocial that focuses on Vietnam. The big news is that Facebook has overtaken Zing as Vietnam’s social network of choice – now Facebook has 8.5 million Vietnamese users, surpassing Zing’s 8.2 million in the country.

The WeAreSocial team notes that Facebook had a mere 2.9 million Facebook users in Vietnam last summer, so it’s seeing stellar growth among Vietnam’s very young and mobile netizens. But a note of caution: Zing’s self-reported figures are a little older than Facebook’s, so there’s still a chance for the homegrown service to regain its crown. After all, Zing is still growing from its 6.8 million figure last year.

Here’s the key slide from the infographic presentation showing Vietnam’s web scene:

Some highlights in Vietnam to look out for:

• Social media penetration of nine percent shows there’s massive room for growth
• 127.3 million mobile subscribers in total, which is above the population figure of 91.5 million
• 19 million mobile internet users, which works out at penetration of around 21 percent
• 35 percent of those user their phones to access social media
• 28 percent of Vietnamese netizens now have a Facebook account

And here is the full deck for you to browse:

[Source: WeAreSocial blog]

For more fun graphics like this one, check out previous entries in our infographic series.

The post This is Vietnam’s Web in 2012, As Facebook Overtakes Zing In the Country [INFOGRAPHIC] appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

Jungle Ventures announces new US$10M pan-Asian super angel fund

Jungle Ventures has announced a new US$ 10 million pan-Asian super-angel fund to launch at TechVenture. The new fund has raised a US$10 million first closing from leading Asian entrepreneurs, including Peng T. Ong (founder, Match.com, Interwoven and Encentuate), Dan Neary (VP & GM Global Market Development, Skype), Anurag Srivastava (CEO, Spacematrix), Jayesh Parekh (co-founder, Sony...

The post Jungle Ventures announces new US$10M pan-Asian super angel fund appeared first on e27.

Link to full article

Read More

DBS Bank gives USD 278,000 in project grants to 4 social enterprises in Singapore

DBS Bank will give SGD 340,000 (USD 278,000) in project grants to 4 social enterprises. The money is part of SGD 1 million (USD 818,000) that will be doled out by the bank to worthy projects. DBS will also provide process improvement expertise to help the businesses expand.

The 4 companies that will receive funds are:

 A-changin, a social enterprise that provides training and employment opportunities to women in need. DBS will provide SGD 100,000 which will be used by the company to set up a second sewing lab. It will also be used as working capital.

Adrenalin Events & Education, an events management company that employs youths-at-risk, ex-offenders, the hearing-impaired, and people with physical disabilities. DBS will provide SGD 100,000, which will be used by Adrenalin to expand its audio, visuals, effects, and launch mechanisms department.

Aii, a candy wrapping company that employs hearing-impaired individuals. DBS will provide SGD 40,000 (USD 32,700), which will be used by Aii to set up an e-commerce site, purchase an in-house candy wrapper printer and provide staff training.

Bizlink Centre Singapore, an organisation that provides comprehensive employment services for disadvantaged people. DBS will give SGD 100,000, which will be used to set up a new bakery social enterprise.

These social enterprises were picked based on the sustainability of their business models, level of social impact and how innovation their proposed projects are. The bank is currently finding more ways to support social enterprises.

DBS says it has been working with social enterprises since 2008. It now banks over 80% of social enterprises in Singapore, dedicating a team of relationship managers to this niche.  Here’s how it has been helping:

• It was the first bank in Singapore to launch a banking package aimed at social enterprises. In July 2012, it upgraded the package to offer social enterprises virtually free banking transaction services and loans with preferential terms. DBS plans to launch similar packages for social enterprises in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, and Taiwan in 2013.
• DBS is working with industry associations, academic institutions and government bodies to promote social entrepreneurship. In Singapore, it has been working with the Social Enterprise Association (SEA) since 2008 to help profile social enterprises. In August 2012, the bank partnered with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to support social enterprises in India.
• DBS has been actively procuring the goods of social enterprises and encouraging its employees to be advocates. The bank has dedicated a special area in its headquarters for social enterprises to showcase their goods and services, and promote their causes.

The post DBS Bank gives USD 278,000 in project grants to 4 social enterprises in Singapore appeared first on SGE.

Link to full article

Read More

Jungle Ventures launches USD 10M pan-Asian super angel fund

Jungle Ventures, a Singapore-based early stage VC fund, has announced at Techventure 2012 the launch of a pan-Asian super angel fund. USD 10M has been raised in the first round.

Prominent investors in the fund include:

• Peng T. Ong, founder of Match.com, Interwoven and Encentuate
• Dan Neary, VP and GM, global market development, Skype
• Anurag Srivastava, CEO of Space Matrix
• Jayesh Parekh, co-founder of Sony Entertainment Television
• Toivo Annus, former head of engineering at Skype
• Lim Der Shing, founder-CEO at JobsCentral

Other angels and institutional funds are involved too. Singaporean entrepreneur Peng T. Ong will also join Jungle Ventures as Chairman of the Board. Jayesh had also earlier joined the VC firm as a partner.

More coverage of Jungle Ventures here.

The post Jungle Ventures launches USD 10M pan-Asian super angel fund appeared first on SGE.

Link to full article

Read More

TickTok: Save time, Queue Smart

Imagine making a special trip all the way down to your favourite restaurant only to find yourself stuck in a horrendously long queue – or, even worse, to see a ‘closed’ sign.

That’s why a team of entrepreneurs from Singapore Management University – Chong Zi Xin, Lee Jun Kiat, and Tan Junguang – aims to find an answer to this common problem through their new app, Ticktok. It has received funding from Spring Singapore’s Yes! Startup Scheme.

The idea came about when these food lovers felt a pressing need to help others in the community. Tan Junguang explains to us:

Queueing can be an inconvenience, a physical annoyance. But at its very heart, queuing impacts people mostly on the psychological level. What if there is something out there that makes queueing more bearable, or even fun and rewarding?

Recently launched in August 2012, Ticktok contains real-time queue time information at more than 8,000 food and beverage (F&B) establishments in Singapore and is currently working with over 70 merchant partners. Interesting curation features include getting an overview of seating availability, opening hours, and whether the queue is worth the wait.

I particularly find the new element in the recent Ticktok update refreshing. A ‘Fast Forward Mode’ where users can plan in advance their dinner dates or casual brunches based on queue-time estimations from historical data. Furthermore, it is also an advantage to be able to receive instant discount vouchers of nearby locations just by actively sharing accurate information. The app interface is also sleek and user-friendly, making navigation a breeze. It is also thoughtful of the app designer to group, for instance, the numerous hawker centre shops under a common heading, otherwise users would have to spend quite a significant amount of time scrolling down long lists of F&B shops.

  

Initially, I was a little concerned over the accuracy of queue times as that could cause some users to abuse the system to their advantage by constantly submitting incorrect queue times to obtain discount vouchers. Junguang cleared the air by explaining that Ticktok uses a unique mix of crowd-sourcing, dedicated teams of queue auditors, and merchant participation:

Our unique algorithm will interpret existing data and amalgamate all inputs. As our user base and merchant partnership grow, our algorithm will evolve to become even more accurate with time.

The team also tells us that the full version will be released tomorrow and they do have exciting plans in store for users:

Apart from getting more merchant partners, having a version that caters to our Android friends will be a top priority. We are also introducing a key social feature to Ticktok that has not been (to our knowledge) done by anyone.

At the moment, there still seems to be quite a number of F&B establishments with no available queue times or reviews shared by users yet. Perhaps with the release of the full version – with more downloads and greater user participation – Ticktok would be able to maximize its potential.

Ticktok is available on the iTunes App store .

In the meantime, do check out their video below.

The post TickTok: Save time, Queue Smart appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

Jungle Ventures announces new US$10M pan-Asian super angel fund

Jungle Ventures has announced a new US$ 10 million pan-Asian super-angel fund to launch at TechVenture. The new fund has raised a US$10 million first closing from leading Asian entrepreneurs, including Peng T. Ong (founder, Match.com, Interwoven and Encentuate), Dan Neary (VP & GM Global Market Development, Skype), Anurag Srivastava (CEO, Spacematrix), Jayesh Parekh (co-founder, Sony...

The post Jungle Ventures announces new US$10M pan-Asian super angel fund appeared first on e27.

Link to full article

Read More