NOC Alumni remembers Professor Jacob Phang

e27 pays our tribute to the late Professor Jacob Phang, who was instrumental in putting the NUS Overseas College Programme together.

The long tech startup history in Silicon Valley has formed several alumni networks and its own elite inner circles. It is common to hear about the Stanford alumni network or even elite groups consisting of the engineers from the early days of Google or Facebook.

Back in Singapore, while we have a strong university alumni network from the various local universities, there is still no network of startup community which has something in common (other than the passion for entrepreneurship) that connects everyone. Probably the closest one would be the NUS NOC programme. Disclosure: I am part of the programme where I spent one year in Shanghai back in 2011.

What is NOC?

NOC stands for the National University of Singapore Overseas College Programme. The programme is one of the main projects under the NUS Enterprise (the entrepreneurial and venture arm for NUS), formed back in 2001. The NOC programme aims to promote entrepreneurship among students. Any NUS undergraduate who is interested in entrepreneurship can sign up for the programme.

Once you get through the selection process, you can choose to be placed at one of the top startup hotspots around the world. Students then work closely with a startup for a year and also get the chance to study at prestigious overseas universities such as Stanford, UPenn, Fudan and Tsinghua.

Naturally, Silicon Valley is the first overseas college for the programme. Since the inception of the programme, it is now available in Philadelphia, Shanghai, Beijing, Stockholm, India, Israel, and of course, Singapore.

Startups from the NOC programme

The programme has successfully catalysed the formation of a number of startups in Singapore. Some of the successful startup stories from the programme include tenCube which was acquired by McAfee, Brandtology which was acquired by Media Monitors, as well as Peekspy, which was acquired by StubHub (and then eBay).

Other Singapore startups that have also stemmed from the 11 year old programme are AllDealsAsia, Zopim, 2359Media, TechSailor, Burpple, Carousell, Action.io, Stickery, Catapult Ventures, PlayMoolah, Stream Media, PatSnap, Billpin, Sent.ly, Around!, Give.sg and Milaap. Other than tech startups, several Singapore local cafe such Broadway Cafe, Strictly Pancakes and The Lawn were also founded by alumni’s of the programme.

Our directors at e27 and its original co- founders are all from the same programme as well. Alongside SGEntreprenuers, we can all trace our roots back to the programme.

How NOC began with the help of Professor Jacob Phang

Professor Jacob Phang, who was the CEO of NUS Enterprise from 2002 to 2006 and instrumental in the starting of NOC, has just passed away and we would like to pay our tribute to him. While Prof Jacob is only known to those from the earlier NOC batches, without him leading the programme, NOC would not have been where it is today: spanning across multiple continents with a strong network of over 1000 alumni.

Here’s what Tay Kae Fong, founder of brand consultancy Tangible had to say about the late Prof Phang:

“When then-President Shih Choon Foong announced the formation of NUS Enterprise in 2001, Prof Phang was tasked to lead it. By the end of that year, 14 of us were chosen to head over to Silicon Valley. There were many uncertainties back then, but Prof Phang, Yuling and team made it easy for us to focus on working, learning and networking, while they took care of the gnarly, behind-the-scenes issues.

For the programme, he had to design it from scratch … the thinking started with a school in SV and then in BV. But what next? He often discussed this with us, and from setting up more schools, it went to funding & incubators. He also believed in the power of the network of ‘enlightened’ alumni, and encouraged us to stay connected as a community.

From the get-go, Prof Phang was very supportive of our efforts – he was instrumental in the creation of NUSEA, our mixers, and later on, NOC Alumni. I also remember him always asking “what’s next?” … to us, it was a start-up experience-cum-Stanford thing, but to him, it was always about Big Hairy Audacious Goals that will lead to the next Creative Technologies (ok, this was 2002 when Creative Technologies was still holy grail for Singapore start-ups). Even when we were back, he would push us to think beyond NUS and challenged us to find a way to get started in the entrepreneurial scene whenever he met up with us.

Those of us who knew him better would also know he was generous with his time and contacts, and was always happy to meet and offer his thoughts on problems we face in our forays into new ventures, or connect us to people he knew who could help. I could go on, but I just wanted to let recent alumni know a bit more about Prof Phang: his passing is a loss to our community, but I suppose he’d be glad to know he’s succeeded in his work to create a generation of entrepreneurial-minded people who’s constantly finding ways to make ‘dents in the universe’.

I think Prof Phang showed us by example what it means to not accept roadblocks and think beyond. He never took status quo as satisfactory and constantly challenged it to see how it can be better. Maybe it’s something everyone is used to now, but back in 2002, when the entrepreneurial mindset was new, it was liberating to know we can change anything we don’t like.”

Thank you Prof Phang, from all of us.

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NOC Alumni remembers Professor Jacob Phang

e27 pays our tribute to the late Professor Jacob Phang, who was instrumental in putting the NUS Overseas College Programme together.

The long tech startup history in Silicon Valley has formed several alumni networks and its own elite inner circles. It is common to hear about the Stanford alumni network or even elite groups consisting of the engineers from the early days of Google or Facebook.

Back in Singapore, while we have a strong university alumni network from the various local universities, there is still no network of startup community which has something in common (other than the passion for entrepreneurship) that connects everyone. Probably the closest one would be the NUS NOC programme. Disclosure: I am part of the programme where I spent one year in Shanghai back in 2011.

What is NOC?

NOC stands for the National University of Singapore Overseas College Programme. The programme is one of the main projects under the NUS Enterprise (the entrepreneurial and venture arm for NUS), formed back in 2001. The NOC programme aims to promote entrepreneurship among students. Any NUS undergraduate who is interested in entrepreneurship can sign up for the programme.

Once you get through the selection process, you can choose to be placed at one of the top startup hotspots around the world. Students then work closely with a startup for a year and also get the chance to study at prestigious overseas universities such as Stanford, UPenn, Fudan and Tsinghua.

Naturally, Silicon Valley is the first overseas college for the programme. Since the inception of the programme, it is now available in Philadelphia, Shanghai, Beijing, Stockholm, India, Israel, and of course, Singapore.

Startups from the NOC programme

The programme has successfully catalysed the formation of a number of startups in Singapore. Some of the successful startup stories from the programme include tenCube which was acquired by McAfee, Brandtology which was acquired by Media Monitors, as well as Peekspy, which was acquired by StubHub (and then eBay).

Other Singapore startups that have also stemmed from the 11 year old programme are AllDealsAsia, Zopim, 2359Media, TechSailor, Burpple, Carousell, Action.io, Stickery, Catapult Ventures, PlayMoolah, Stream Media, PatSnap, Billpin, Sent.ly, Around!, Give.sg and Milaap. Other than tech startups, several Singapore local cafe such Broadway Cafe, Strictly Pancakes and The Lawn were also founded by alumni’s of the programme.

Our directors at e27 and its original co- founders are all from the same programme as well. Alongside SGEntreprenuers, we can all trace our roots back to the programme.

How NOC began with the help of Professor Jacob Phang

Professor Jacob Phang, who was the CEO of NUS Enterprise from 2002 to 2006 and instrumental in the starting of NOC, has just passed away and we would like to pay our tribute to him. While Prof Jacob is only known to those from the earlier NOC batches, without him leading the programme, NOC would not have been where it is today: spanning across multiple continents with a strong network of over 1000 alumni.

Here’s what Tay Kae Fong, founder of brand consultancy Tangible had to say about the late Prof Phang:

“When then-President Shih Choon Foong announced the formation of NUS Enterprise in 2001, Prof Phang was tasked to lead it. By the end of that year, 14 of us were chosen to head over to Silicon Valley. There were many uncertainties back then, but Prof Phang, Yuling and team made it easy for us to focus on working, learning and networking, while they took care of the gnarly, behind-the-scenes issues.

For the programme, he had to design it from scratch … the thinking started with a school in SV and then in BV. But what next? He often discussed this with us, and from setting up more schools, it went to funding & incubators. He also believed in the power of the network of ‘enlightened’ alumni, and encouraged us to stay connected as a community.

From the get-go, Prof Phang was very supportive of our efforts – he was instrumental in the creation of NUSEA, our mixers, and later on, NOC Alumni. I also remember him always asking “what’s next?” … to us, it was a start-up experience-cum-Stanford thing, but to him, it was always about Big Hairy Audacious Goals that will lead to the next Creative Technologies (ok, this was 2002 when Creative Technologies was still holy grail for Singapore start-ups). Even when we were back, he would push us to think beyond NUS and challenged us to find a way to get started in the entrepreneurial scene whenever he met up with us.

Those of us who knew him better would also know he was generous with his time and contacts, and was always happy to meet and offer his thoughts on problems we face in our forays into new ventures, or connect us to people he knew who could help. I could go on, but I just wanted to let recent alumni know a bit more about Prof Phang: his passing is a loss to our community, but I suppose he’d be glad to know he’s succeeded in his work to create a generation of entrepreneurial-minded people who’s constantly finding ways to make ‘dents in the universe’.

I think Prof Phang showed us by example what it means to not accept roadblocks and think beyond. He never took status quo as satisfactory and constantly challenged it to see how it can be better. Maybe it’s something everyone is used to now, but back in 2002, when the entrepreneurial mindset was new, it was liberating to know we can change anything we don’t like.”

Thank you Prof Phang, from all of us.

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Delhi based TheOtherHome aims to create peer to peer marketplace to help travelers

While consumers have many options to book hotels online, a peer to peer network for people looking for a place to stay isn’t that popular in India yet, unlike in the west where services like Airbnb and Couchsurfing are used extensively.

But as disposable income increases and a largely young population looks to travel the country, there is a need to help them find alternative accommodation such as homestays. Delhi based TheOtherHome is taking a crack at that market.

The startup wants to aggregate non hotel properties such as holiday homes, homestays, heritage, eco-resorts and outdoor adventure packages to create a platform for travellers to explore local food, culture, heritage and lifestyle.

TheOtherHome

At present, they offer adventure destinations, itineraries, state guide and deals with over 500 properties in 24 states. On adventure front, the platform enables users to explore or travel to remote or exotic areas and engage travelers or adventure seekers in different kinds of outdoor activities in the natural environment.

Under itineraries category, travelers can choose themes activities (such as adventure, cultural tours, eco-friendly, cycling, desert safari, jungle safari) and places (backwaters, beach lake and rivers etc).

According to Jaspal Singh, the founder of TheOtherHome, the company wants to create a peer to peer network or a marketplace where suppliers and buyers meet. Till date, the company has booked nearly 1,500 rooms nights, worked on 10 advertising assignments and generated “some revenues” from property listings, says Singh.

Singh says that they have plans to increase presence in other cities over the coming months. The company is also entering into tie-up with various service providers who are offering specialized services like heritage walks, trekking, cookery and Indian music.

TheOtherHome aims to generate revenue through booking commission, property listing, advertising and other value added services such as transportation. “We are creating special tour packages around these properties creating unique experience such as Tea Tours, Wine Tours, Photography Workshops,” added Singh.

Very recently, NCR based Oravel secured seed funding from VentureNursery’s Angels funded and it’s also confirmed that AirBnB is launching in India (they are already active).

Related posts:

1. TouristLink, a social marketplace connecting travelers to local experts
2. TravelTriangle : A Marketplace that connects travelers and local operators
3. Bangalore Based Travel Tours Pvt. Ltd. Acquires Adventure Company getoffurass

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Blackberry 10’s Arrival in Indonesia Will be Delayed

Blackberry 10′s arrival in Indonesia will be delayed because of a new import regulation which has come in effect this year. Detik cites Erik Meijer, the director and CCO of Indonesian telecom Indosat yesterday as saying that the delay is definitely going to happen, but he doesn’t know how long the delay would be for. The new BB10 OS and phones are due to launch at the end of January in the US and some other markets.

Erik fears that the delay could also result in a further opportunity for illegal black market phones to make their way into the country. The folks over on IndoTelko explained that the new import regulation is meant to filter low quality imported products, but it resulted in additional terms and requirements needed to be fulfilled for all imported products now.

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Click and Send: Sukamart Offers to Deliver Your Groceries in Indonesia

Today, Sumisho E-Commerce Indonesia, a joint venture between Japan-based Sumitomo Corporation and Sumitomo Indonesia, officially launched its Indonesian grocery e-commerce website Sukamart.com (“suka” means “like” in Indonesian). Sporting the tagline “less traffic jam, more quality time,” the e-commerce site promises to save your time by providing delivery services for your groceries.

Sukamart has six main product categories: food, beverages, personal care, health products, baby care, and home and kitchen. The website boasts of over 1,000 products at the moment and promises to deliver your groceries in the space of two days for Jabodetabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi) residents. It can also deliver nationwide, but that may take more delivery time – up to seven days – and is quite expensive. All deliveries will be done by JNE services.

Users then can choose to make their payments using bank transfer from BCA, Mandiri, and BRI accounts. At the moment Sukamart offers a free delivery service for up to 5 kg of groceries in the Jabodetabek area until January 31st. The site supports English and Indonesian.

Briefly comparing the new site with Carrefour’s Click and Drive, I found that Sukamart’s site’s products are generally a bit more expensive. But of course Sukamart also has some products that aren’t available on Carrefour, and Carrefour doesn’t offer delivery services yet and demands that customers pick up their own items. I’d say that Sukamart is an interesting option if you want to save time on grocery shopping, but I wouldn’t recommend this just yet for those of you living outside the Jabodetabek area due to the aforementioned delivery charges there.

Sukamart plans to add more products – over 15,000 by the end of this year – and to build warehouses outside Jakarta to widen the delivery service outside the Jabodetabek area and make it more affordable too. Furthermore, Sukamart is going to offer a cash on delivery (COD) payment service starting this week. Payment methods like credit cards, internet banking, and other methods, will be supported in the near future.

It should be noted that Sumitomo Corporation has previously built two other grocery e-commerce sites in Japan and China. The one in Japan is Soukai.com, and the Shanghai-based service is PinStore.cn. The success of China’s largest online groceries mall, Yihaodian.com, which is now largely owned by Walmart, shows that this can be a very lucrative sector.

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Payroll Hero: optimizing productivity one happy employee at a time

We had a chat with Payroll Hero co-founder Stephen Jagger to find out about the startup’s upcoming funding round, stand-up meetings and the future.

We recently featured Payroll Hero as a startup that has received quite a lot of accolades and awards in the previous year. From being the judges’ choice at the Echelon Satellite in Manila to being chosen as the Philippine CyberPress IT startup of 2012, the team is going a long way in ensuring it attains its goals of improving productivity one happy employee at a time.

I got in touch with co-founder Stephen Jagger, who handles the business development side of Payroll Hero. Stephen just got back from Whistler, BC, where the startup opened an engineering office last August. He says he will be working full time again from Payroll Hero’s Manila headquarters, overseeing product development, signing up new clients and finalizing a funding round.

Our chat was fascinating in that we did not only focus on specifics of Payroll Hero’s business, but also some nuances that make the company interesting. But first, on to business.

If you’re not already aware, the premise of Payroll Hero is that human resources can be a drag. Companies spend a lot of money, time and resources on accounting for proper time-in and time-out for employees, and other details like taxation, social security contributions and other deductions. Stephen tells me that the businesses he has worked in have been using a mix of manual paper-based HR processes or archaic software-based methods such as spreadsheets.

These contribute to a lag of up to two weeks or more when accounting for just how much an employee has earned within a set period. This delay can lead to errors, and will often result in frustration from employees wondering why they have to wait for a certain number of days before their half-month’s compensation is computed and released.

What makes it interesting

Payroll Hero does more than just timekeeping, though. There are a few facets to the startup that make HR more interesting.

Face recognition. Payroll Hero lets employees clock in and out through compatible devices — currently iOS devices like the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Logging in is done through face recognition, which makes clocking in more exciting and more secure. First, buddy-punching is eliminated, as employees’ biometrics are unique. Forget the Android Jelly Bean “face unlock” fumble. Stephen says that Payroll Hero’s biometric system has been fool-proof to date.

Social. What makes face recognition even more exciting is that clocking in can also be a social activity. Friends or groups of friends can time-in at the same time, with their photo captured. This can be shared with friends and social networks. Employees are said to be happier when they can better relate with each other, and this can happen right when they arrive.

Moods. Payroll Hero does not only capture your photo when you log in. It also attempts to determine your mood, and will keep a record of your moods all throughout. Perhaps you’re always happy Fridays, but you’re in a dour mood every Monday. Payroll Hero will know!

Business intelligence

Going beyond timekeeping, Payroll Hero actually offers business intelligence to customers. The social and mood aspects of clocking in and out actually help employers determine productivity based on certain factors. For instance, are employees more productive when they are happy (perhaps)? Or, are employees happier when the weather is sunny?

The startup is also trying to incorporate other factors as well, including weather and traffic information. Employees might come in late in very bad weather, and they are likely to be unhappy, too, which means they might be unproductive during the workday.

Stephen shared that Payroll Hero is still gathering data, and will be able to release some information within the year. We’ll be sure to watch out for that.

Payroll Hero’s model is also scalable, and Stephen is glad to serve any business, whether you only have five employees or five thousand. The model is paid per active employee, starting at PhP 149 each per month (US$ 3.65), which goes down as the company size goes up. Stephen says this can easily be offset by the productivity gains that a company can realize, or at the very least the cost reduction from having to manually monitor and account for attendance.

The Manila-based crew at their daily standup meeting. (Photo credits: Payroll Hero)

The stand-up meeting

Reading through the Payroll Hero blog, I came across the concept of stand-up meetings, and I asked Stephen about their preference for this. He says that meetings are more productive when participants are standing up. That way, people avoid talking nonsense, and will get straight to the point. Company stand-up meetings are a structured, daily, event meant to discuss what was accomplished yesterday, what everyone is working on in the day, and potential roadblocks along the way.

What’s interesting is that meetings are set 7:37 a.m. every morning in the Manila office and 3:37 p.m. in Whistler B.C — so that everyone can meet through a big-screen Google Hangout (a 16-hour time difference). Why 7:37 and not 7:30, I asked Stephen. He said participants are less likely to be late if you set a weird number like 7:37.

I asked about the team’s interest in psychology, with Stephen claiming that people come in on time for “weird” schedules. He said he and co-founder Michael Stephenson (who is CEO) read a lot and apply their own version of what they learn from other people, businesses, books and interesting things that come along the way.

The future

Payroll hero is working on a funding round, and Stephen told me they will make an announcement in a few days one everything is formalized. For now, Payroll Hero is working on adding “tons of new features” to add to its growing list of functionalities. But more than just adding features, Stephen says they are also going to offer simpler packages to customers who just want one aspect of the service, such as timekeeping only, payroll only, or attendance only.

As for customers, Payroll Hero services 52 branches of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf across the Philippines as one of its bigger clients. The startup also has beta customers around the globe: in Singapore (where Payroll Hero is registered as a business), Cambodia, India, Canada and the U.S. The payroll functionality only works in the Philippines at this time, given the need to incorporate locale-specific tax policies and other payroll deductions.

Looks like you don’t have to be the Man of Steel or the Dark Knight to be a hero. Just try to make everyone productive and happy, and we would already be living in a better world.

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Payroll Hero: optimizing productivity one happy employee at a time

We had a chat with Payroll Hero co-founder Stephen Jagger to find out about the startup’s upcoming funding round, stand-up meetings and the future.

We recently featured Payroll Hero as a startup that has received quite a lot of accolades and awards in the previous year. From being the judges’ choice at the Echelon Satellite in Manila to being chosen as the Philippine CyberPress IT startup of 2012, the team is going a long way in ensuring it attains its goals of improving productivity one happy employee at a time.

I got in touch with co-founder Stephen Jagger, who handles the business development side of Payroll Hero. Stephen just got back from Whistler, BC, where the startup opened an engineering office last August. He says he will be working full time again from Payroll Hero’s Manila headquarters, overseeing product development, signing up new clients and finalizing a funding round.

Our chat was fascinating in that we did not only focus on specifics of Payroll Hero’s business, but also some nuances that make the company interesting. But first, on to business.

If you’re not already aware, the premise of Payroll Hero is that human resources can be a drag. Companies spend a lot of money, time and resources on accounting for proper time-in and time-out for employees, and other details like taxation, social security contributions and other deductions. Stephen tells me that the businesses he has worked in have been using a mix of manual paper-based HR processes or archaic software-based methods such as spreadsheets.

These contribute to a lag of up to two weeks or more when accounting for just how much an employee has earned within a set period. This delay can lead to errors, and will often result in frustration from employees wondering why they have to wait for a certain number of days before their half-month’s compensation is computed and released.

What makes it interesting

Payroll Hero does more than just timekeeping, though. There are a few facets to the startup that make HR more interesting.

Face recognition. Payroll Hero lets employees clock in and out through compatible devices — currently iOS devices like the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Logging in is done through face recognition, which makes clocking in more exciting and more secure. First, buddy-punching is eliminated, as employees’ biometrics are unique. Forget the Android Jelly Bean “face unlock” fumble. Stephen says that Payroll Hero’s biometric system has been fool-proof to date.

Social. What makes face recognition even more exciting is that clocking in can also be a social activity. Friends or groups of friends can time-in at the same time, with their photo captured. This can be shared with friends and social networks. Employees are said to be happier when they can better relate with each other, and this can happen right when they arrive.

Moods. Payroll Hero does not only capture your photo when you log in. It also attempts to determine your mood, and will keep a record of your moods all throughout. Perhaps you’re always happy Fridays, but you’re in a dour mood every Monday. Payroll Hero will know!

Business intelligence

Going beyond timekeeping, Payroll Hero actually offers business intelligence to customers. The social and mood aspects of clocking in and out actually help employers determine productivity based on certain factors. For instance, are employees more productive when they are happy (perhaps)? Or, are employees happier when the weather is sunny?

The startup is also trying to incorporate other factors as well, including weather and traffic information. Employees might come in late in very bad weather, and they are likely to be unhappy, too, which means they might be unproductive during the workday.

Stephen shared that Payroll Hero is still gathering data, and will be able to release some information within the year. We’ll be sure to watch out for that.

Payroll Hero’s model is also scalable, and Stephen is glad to serve any business, whether you only have five employees or five thousand. The model is paid per active employee, starting at PhP 149 each per month (US$ 3.65), which goes down as the company size goes up. Stephen says this can easily be offset by the productivity gains that a company can realize, or at the very least the cost reduction from having to manually monitor and account for attendance.

The Manila-based crew at their daily standup meeting. (Photo credits: Payroll Hero)

The stand-up meeting

Reading through the Payroll Hero blog, I came across the concept of stand-up meetings, and I asked Stephen about their preference for this. He says that meetings are more productive when participants are standing up. That way, people avoid talking nonsense, and will get straight to the point. Company stand-up meetings are a structured, daily, event meant to discuss what was accomplished yesterday, what everyone is working on in the day, and potential roadblocks along the way.

What’s interesting is that meetings are set 7:37 a.m. every morning in the Manila office and 3:37 p.m. in Whistler B.C — so that everyone can meet through a big-screen Google Hangout (a 16-hour time difference). Why 7:37 and not 7:30, I asked Stephen. He said participants are less likely to be late if you set a weird number like 7:37.

I asked about the team’s interest in psychology, with Stephen claiming that people come in on time for “weird” schedules. He said he and co-founder Michael Stephenson (who is CEO) read a lot and apply their own version of what they learn from other people, businesses, books and interesting things that come along the way.

The future

Payroll hero is working on a funding round, and Stephen told me they will make an announcement in a few days one everything is formalized. For now, Payroll Hero is working on adding “tons of new features” to add to its growing list of functionalities. But more than just adding features, Stephen says they are also going to offer simpler packages to customers who just want one aspect of the service, such as timekeeping only, payroll only, or attendance only.

As for customers, Payroll Hero services 52 branches of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf across the Philippines as one of its bigger clients. The startup also has beta customers around the globe: in Singapore (where Payroll Hero is registered as a business), Cambodia, India, Canada and the U.S. The payroll functionality only works in the Philippines at this time, given the need to incorporate locale-specific tax policies and other payroll deductions.

Looks like you don’t have to be the Man of Steel or the Dark Knight to be a hero. Just try to make everyone productive and happy, and we would already be living in a better world.

The post Payroll Hero: optimizing productivity one happy employee at a time appeared first on e27.

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Finally, China’s Sina Weibo Rolls Out Partial English Interface

Sina Weibo has over 400 million registered users, though it’s hard to know how many of those are overseas. Nonetheless, we’ve noticed today that the Twitter-esque Weibo has just rolled out a partial English-language interface. We’ve reached out to Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) to found out what’s happening. The Weibo.com frontpage – which has a simpler redesign today – now also has an “English” option in the dropdown menu, though it doesn’t convert the whole page from Chinese. Then, once logged in, Sina Weibo now has some English in the menus, but the whole interface is far from transformed. But it seems to be a start. This is how it looks with English, as it appears now for my colleague Charlie in the US. Note that the logo is now in English too: Click to enlarge. You can contrast that with how it looks for me here in China: Click to enlarge. In November of 2011, Sina revealed that it had two million users in Hong Kong, though I suspect many of those are using the traditional Chinese text interface. If Sina Weibo converts its whole UI into English, it could help overseas brands do social marketing to Chinese consumers. Sina’s microblogging platform is having a very rough week with a large-scale revolt among Chinese netizens over heavy-handed censorship of an editorial at the usually quite outspoken magazine Southern Weekend. Much of that anger has been expressed via Sina Weibo, causing one of the moderators (i.e. censors) at Sina Weibo to make the highly unusual move of speaking out, pleading for understanding about how Weibo is a kind of “human flesh shield” between users and authorities. Rival microblog Tencent Weibo added a broader English interface in September 2011.

The post Finally, China’s Sina Weibo Rolls Out Partial English Interface appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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Digital Hearts Buys Out Major Game New Site “4Gamer.net”

Digital Hearts, Inc. [J] through its board of directors, has announced their decision to acquire stock of Aetas Inc., [J] who run the game news site “4Gamer.net” [J], and make it a subsidiary company.  Thus Digital Hearts will earnestly enter the media business as of this.

Aetlas Inc. is a company that manages the PC game online game, consumer game information site “4Gamer.net.”  As a top ranking comprehensive game information site in Japan which boasts 3.3 million unique users and 65 million page views per month, their affinity for exceeding at consumer game relations in the debug business is high according to Digital Hearts.  From now, this company group will unite the information transmission capabilities of their over 7000 registered testers including game core users, debug knowhow extending to 700,000 cases, and the information transmission power of sites such as “Fugai.com” and 4Gamer.net, who provide their users with bug information for various products.  This will form the basis for continuing new business expansion throughout the whole group.

Translation authorized by VSMedia

Digital Hearts Buys Out Major Game New Site “4Gamer.net”

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Ford Makes a Play for Chinese Drivers with In-Car Weibo App

photo: autoblog.com

While we’re not attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, we are paying close attention to news coming out of the annual tech event. Among all the headlines, American car-maker Ford (NYSE:F) made a play to bring more mobile applications to its Sync voice-activated system, and surprisingly China’s most popular microblog, Sina Weibo, is one of nine new apps to be added.

According to the announcement, Ford’s collaboration with Sina (NASDAQ:SINA) makes the Weibo mobile app available in the vehicle via the AppLink API, allowing drivers to access news, weather, microblogging, and location-based services using voice control.

Drivers can connect their phone to the Sync system, and use apps which Ford supports. But the car-maker says it doesn’t allow certain kinds of apps that would be a visual distraction, such as any video or rich imagery apps, games, or any application that requires extensive reading.

Other new apps to join Ford’s AppLink ecosystem are The Wall Street Journal, Amazon Cloud Player, Rhapsody, Glympse, and Aha Radio.

The timing for Ford to offer support for Chinese services with AppLink couldn’t be better, as a new ban on using cell phones while driving just went into effect on New Year’s Day ¹, and we subsequently saw numerous reports of consumers buying up hands-free Bluetooth headsets as a result. It will be interesting to see if Ford can benefit from the new law in a similar way.

(Via LiveScience.com)

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1. Of course, whether this law will actually be enforced is another story.

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