US job recruitment company CareerBuilder acquires Vietnam Online Network to expand reach

CareerBuilder, one of America’s largest job and recruitment companies, has just acquired Vietnam Online Network (VON) for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 2007, VON operates one of the largest job recruitment website in Vietnam. According to TechInAsia, the acquisition deal only includes just two of VON’s four main sites: HRVietnam and KiemViec. In 2012, VON sold one of its other sites, Yume, to Nhom Mua, Vietnam’s once-leading daily deals site. The other online property, Tim Nhanh, is not part of today’s acquisition and will be split off, leaving VON’s principal investor, DFJVinaCapital, looking for another buyer for that site.

KiemViec boasts over 1 million registered users and attracts over 400,000 unique visitors per month. CareerBuilder on the other hand, has over a million jobs and 24 million unique visitors.

The acquisition will see CareerBuilder strengthening its presence in Asia. In Asia, CareerBuilder is already present in acquisitions and partnerships in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, and India. Closer to home, Singapore based top jobs recruitment site JobsCentral was also acquired by CareerBuilder back in May 2011.

By 2015, CareerBuilder plans to enter all the major markets in Asia, sending a signal that prospective acquisitions might also be in talks in countries which CareerBuilder is looking at entering. That probably includes Taiwan, Thailand, Japan or Australia.

The post US job recruitment company CareerBuilder acquires Vietnam Online Network to expand reach appeared first on e27.

Link to full article

Read More

Online Code learning tool, Programr pivots to crowdsourcing model

We earlier profiled Programr, a super cool platform that enables users to write, compile and run piece of code online. The Pune based startup has now pivoted to a crowdsourcing model  for generating interactive coding examples & exercises for its learning zone. Essentially, users now contribute their own bite-sized examples and exercises in 5-10 minutes each. Other users then upvote the good content such that the best content bubbles up to the top in the learning zones.

How has the pivot been working out with Programr?
Cofounder Rajesh Moorjani shares that since this month, Programr have received immense contributions from developers, faculty and students from around the world: 5500+ examples, 1200+ exercises and 700+ projects have been already contributed just in the last 3 weeks. The company expects this to double in the next 2 months.

But what about the quality of the content coming in?
Rajesh mentions that Programr has a dedicated team of 5 engineers that tests, approves and organizes each piece of contributed content within 24 hours of it being contributed.

If you are coder, do give Programr a spin and share your comments. Very recently, Bangalore based CodeLearn raised angel funding from France based Kima Ventures.

Recommended Read : CourseBuffet wants to be the meta university among online learning courses

Also: The List of Indian Startups that pivoted succesfully

Related posts:

1. Code Online Using Programr, Pune Based Startup
2. Pune based Programr launches online iOS Development Lab – Code & Run iOS apps in your browser
3. Creating Android Apps just got easier, thanks to Pune based Programr

Link to full article

Read More

Keio Univ Uses Sudoku On Entrance Exam

Keio University is reported to ask Sudoku solution on its entrance exam, a Twitter user reported with a photo.

pic.twitter.com/QfEVKliy

There is an additional rule added so no pure Sudoku though.

via ITMedia

Keio Univ Uses Sudoku On Entrance Exam

Link to full article

Read More

ShopSpot Talks About Expansion, Monetization, and JFDI

Thailand and Singapore-based mobile commerce startup ShopSpot recently raised $630,000 from Jungle Ventures and SingTel Innov8. The startup said it pivoted, but I wasn’t sure from what exactly. Co-founder Natsakon Kiatsuranon said that the first version of the service was more like a mobile Craigslist.

Two months into it, his team didn’t believe that it would work in Asia. While building the product, Natsakon and co also realized that there was high demand for shops that are looking at sales from mobile channels. Seeking the possible product-market fit, ShopSpot moved into this space to become a serious mobile commerce startup. Natsakon called the current version the “real ShopSpot,” he told me:

The real ShopSpot is where people can go on to have inspirational casual shopping anywhere any time. Imagine the inspirational experience on Pinterest combining with the personalization on Amazon, simplifying right in your pocket via ShopSpot.

The team is split between Thailand and Singapore and is run by seven founders. With the new funding, Natsakon says that he is looking to hire more folks for the team, mainly developers and a community manager. The new funding will also allow the team to expand to other parts of Southeast Asia once Thailand is conquered. But first, Natsakon is focused on building a rock solid product. As expected, ShopSpot’s Android version will be out soon, most likely in April, says Natsakon.

ShopSpot has thought of several possible business models. A freemium model with verified sellers and featured listings is a likely route. Advertising and stickers (like what LINE has) to decorate merchant shops are also some possible monetization methods. But it is all too early to put a business model into concrete plans for now.

When asked about his experience at JFDI, Natsakon was thankful, saying:

JFDI has been very supportive from the beginning until today. They prepared us a lot in terms of team building, business processes, lean startup methodologies, and connecting with people. All I can say is that we wouldn’t have come this far without them.

If you’re an online retailer looking to promote your products on ShopSpot, Natsakon hopes to connect with you. You can contact him directly through his email.

The post ShopSpot Talks About Expansion, Monetization, and JFDI appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

Social ads platform for Twitter by Salesforce: keeping up with the tweets

Marketers can now manage their Twitter campaigns without having to move from other existing social marketing programs with Salesforce.com’s Social Ads Platform for Twitter.

Salesforce.com, an enterprise cloud computing company, today announced the launch of its Social Ads Platform for Twitter, the online social networking service with its new ads API. This means that Twitter advertising can now be managed by marketers without having to deviate from their other existing social marketing programs. The platform is currently only available under a closed beta, though.

Michael Lazerow, Chief Marketing Officer of Salesforce Marketing Cloud at salesforce.com, said this will help improve efficiency. “From the CMO to the community manager, our customers will see increased efficiency and return on investment from our new Social Ads Platform for Twitter, combined with our industry leading Twitter Certified Products for engagement and analytics,” he said.

Adam Bain, president of global revenue at Twitter, said this will help improve scalability of marketing campaigns. “As we built out Twitter’s ads API, we knew it would be important to work closely with our advertising partners to understand how to effectively scale their marketing campaign.”

Lisa Cucinotta, the associate director of social media at Resolution Media, an Omnicom Group company, said that this will result in improved management efficiencies, targeting and optimization capabilities, and stronger insights, which will help them drive better results through Twitter advertising programs for their clients.

With this new social ads platform for the global site with over 500 million registered users as of 2012, brands and agencies will be able to build and execute real-time Twitter advertising campaigns, enable advertisers to scale campaigns through innovative workflows, increase revenue through creative, bid and targeting optimization, and track real time conversations from more than 540 million social sources across the web including social platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

To engage with customers faster, and route feedback and opportunities internally, these brands and agencies have to constantly keep up with social media and its real time nature.

Salesforce aims to use this new social ads platform for Twitter to help businesses transform and get empowered by scaling social media across departments within organizations.

Image Credit: computing.co.uk

The post Social ads platform for Twitter by Salesforce: keeping up with the tweets appeared first on e27.

Link to full article

Read More

Deezer to deliver music streams through HTC’s Blinkfeed interface

HTC has just launched its latest flagship smartphone, the HTC One, and among its highlight features is the “Blinkfeed” interface. Music streaming service Deezer has partnered with HTC to push their content to the home screen.

HTC has announced the HTC One as its latest Android smartphone targeted at the premium user. One of the updates that the One features is its Blinkfeed interface, part of the newest Sense UI improvements.

HTC’s Blinkfeed interface showcases content and media right from the home screen. (Credit: HTC)

Blinkfeed basically presents content and social streams onto the device’s screen without a user having to access or open an app or other widgets. It’s somewhat like the “live tiles” from Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 platform, but presented with HTC’s usual flair. One of the advantages of this interface is that HTC has been able to sign partnerships with content providers to deliver media and information straight to the home screen.

Deezer is one such service provider to announce a partnership with HTC.

“The great thing about the HTC One is that through a series of deep integrations, partner content is accessible straight to the home screen. So with Blinkfeed, you’ll be able to use your phone to get hold of the music you love from Deezer immediately, without going through an app.”

See also: Music streaming services in Asia, the breakdown

Through the partnership, users can access their Deezer music straight from the home screen, without having to access the Deezer app itself. The music streaming service is available in 182 countries and offers both free and premium access. Deezer offers 20 million licensed tracks and 30,000 “radio” channels streamed to 30 million users (of which 3 million are subscribers).

HTC promises more than 10,000 news feeds available in 16 languages. Users get fresh content from among content providers of their choice. HTC also pushes featured content partners from within its ecosystem of global and local content.

The post Deezer to deliver music streams through HTC’s Blinkfeed interface appeared first on e27.

Link to full article

Read More

Flipkart & WhatsApp top Nielsen Consumer Rankings, Nokia is still #1 in India

Mobile messaging app WhatsApp and e-commerce company Flipkart are two of the most popular brands among consumers in their category, according to a new ranking.

The consumer ranking, released by Nielsen covered categories such as smartphone apps, online retailing sites, mobile phones and books. Nielsen uses proprietary tools to create these rankings every year.

About 50% of the people surveyed for the rankings used WhatsApp and spend nearly 24 minutes using the app every day. Facebook is a second in the Smartphone category with 51% engagement and 10 minutes a day. Newshunt, Youtube and Tubemate also figure lower down the list. Whatsapp, the popular messaging app is particularly popular with youngsters who send many text messages. It recenly partnered with Reliance Communications in India to offer its services free for college goers.

In ecommerce, Flipkart, E-bay and Homeshop18 are the top three sites, according to over 1000 active internet users surveyed by Nielsen in the fourth quarter of 2012. Snapdeal, Jabong, Yebhi, Fashionandyou and Myntra also figure in the list in that order. Flipkart, launched in 2007 in India by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal has gone to become one of the largest online retailers in the country.

Nielsen’s study of 6,000 consumers in 8 cities in India last year found that 30% of the people use multimedia phones while 49% of the users had feature phones and 20% had smartphone devices. Nokia was their preferred brand followed by Samsung and Blackberry.

Vodafone was the top mobile operator followed by Airtel and Idea.

Related posts:

1. Flipkart Has a new Logo, to soon expand into Consumer Electronics Space
2. WhatsApp in India: Partners with Reliance Communications, is free for college kids
3. Whatsapp Messenger – Cross platform messenger for mobile phones [Drop the Pin!]

Link to full article

Read More

Now type even faster on Android with Swiftkey 4

Swiftkey, one of the most popular keyboard replacement apps for Android just got a massive update. Swiftkey Flow, which was released as a standalone beta in October 2012, is now a part of the main app.

Similar to the keyboard in Swype and stock Android 4.2, Swiftkey Flow allows users to type by sliding a finger from one letter to another and even type entire sentences without even lifting that finger. Swiftkey claims that it has the most accurate gesture input and next word prediction technology.

Swiftkey 4 with Flow

The keyboard learns as you use it to make corrections and predictions based on the way that you write. It can even learn from your Gmail, Facebook and Twitter to make it even more personalized.

Swiftkey now supports typing in 60 languages which include Albanian, Bosnian, Javanese, Sundanese, Thai and Vietnamese. Swiftkey has had support for typing Hindi and Hinglish for some time now. A user can have up to 3 active languages at any given time.

Key feature updates in Swiftkey 4

•    SwiftKey Flow: a more accurate gesture input. Write by gliding your finger on the keyboard.
•    Multimodal – SwiftKey Flow can be mixed with tap input, with switching mid-word.
•    Mid-word completion: when you see the word you want just lift your finger off and the word will be inserted.
•    Flow Through Space: Gesture multiple words without lifting a finger, just by sliding your finger down to the space bar between words
•    Flow with next-word prediction: when you finish flowing a word, SwiftKey immediately shows you its best guesses for your next word
•    Easier corrections: Tap anywhere on any word to choose an alternative from SwiftKey’s three best guesses, based on the context and on your input
•    Hold to delete: Long-press the delete key to remove the whole word. Deletion accelerates as you continue to hold. Slide to delete gesture can only be used when SwiftKey Flow is disabled.

Although there are a number of options for keyboards on Android that support typing in Hindi like Hindi Bindi, Swiftkey and Swype are much better since they are much ahead in their product life cycle.

The app is available at Rs 50 for Indian users and can be downloaded from Google Play. SwiftKey 4 is a free upgrade for existing users.

Related posts:

1. Now type in Hindi and Hinglish on your Android phone [SwiftKey adds 9 new languages]
2. Hindi Bindi to type in Hindi on your Android Phone
3. Local languages on the mobile, the problem few are trying to solve & how to type in Malayalam

Link to full article

Read More

Two Chinese Web Giants Get Approval for Online Insurance Business

Alibaba’s Jack Ma (left) and Tencent’s Pony Ma (right) are unlikely new biz partners.

China’s insurance regulator has confirmed approval, say sources, of a major new online insurance joint-venture between two Chinese web giants. As was first proposed last August, the new business sees e-commerce company Alibaba teaming up with social and gaming-oriented Tencent (HKG:0700), who – along with the country’s top insurer, PingAn (HKG:2318) – will soon launch this online-only joint-venture that will be called ZhongAn.

Neither Tencent nor Alibaba have commented on the apparent approval, pending official word from the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) itself.

Unlike traditional insurers – like PingAn – the forthcoming ZhongAn company will not open brick-and-mortar stores across China. The new business will reportedly focus on liability and guarantee insurance, such as for homes and possessions. It’s not clear how much of a financial investment this entails.

Alibaba, which runs online malls like Tmall and Taobao, will be the top shareholder in ZhongAn with a 19.9 percent stake. Tencent (makers of QQ and WeChat) and PingAn Insurance will each own five percent. There are also six smaller shareholders, including online travel booking site Ctrip.

E-commerce rivals forced to work together

With China having over 200 million e-commerce shoppers at present, and an anticipated 420 million e-shoppers by 2016, these companies will be hoping that the populace is ready and keen to handle its financial services online as well.

Both Tencent and Alibaba are old hands in the online finance business, as they run major e-payments platforms (Tenpay and Alipay, respectively). Plus, Alibaba has been micro-lending to small businesses on its e-commerce platforms for quite some time. Nonetheless, it’s still a major business move by the two web companies.

Tencent also has its own e-commerce business, making it a rival to Alibaba in several areas. But it’s likely that China’s strictly regulated financial sector necessitated the two rivals working together for this new business.

(Source: GlobalTimes; Image from Techweb.com.cn)

The post Two Chinese Web Giants Get Approval for Online Insurance Business appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More

Watch the best of Singapore’s short films on Viddsee and hear from their co-founder

If you’re a movie buff or a film junkie, it’s time for good news. Other than going to the cinemas, or waiting for film festivals, you have the power to discover new films (possibly future blockbusters) through your digital devices.

A digital platform where Southeast Asian independent movie producers can showcase their short films, Viddsee has reinvented the traditional model of short filmmaking to fit the digital space. In the past, it was always about “making a film, then getting it out to a film festival for screenings, and then subsequently doing a DVD distribution. Short films have always been seen as the calling card for the next big feature film,” says Ho Jia Jian, the co-founder of Viddsee.

Today, Viddsee has not only transferred the power of discovery from film buyers and distributors to audiences, it has also allowed audiences to get access to archived films through their digital devices and the social web. With a recent partnership with the Singapore Short Film Awards (SSFA) to showcase nominated short films from last year’s 3rd SSFA. Audiences can expect a line-up of 9 short films with one film released everyday at 7pm. This leads up to the 4th Singapore Short Film Awards from 25 February to 3 March 2013.

The co-founder of Viddsee, Ho Jia Jian will also be speaking at the upcoming fifth installation of Creative Mixer on 27 February 2013, an event that brings together the best of creatives, entrepreneurs and hackers into a single space to redefine creativity. At the event, Jia Jian would be sharing with us some insights into the film industry in the digital space together with his experiences with start Viddsee.

As filmmakers themselves, the founders of Viddsee were struggling with finding a targeted place for film discovery when they wanted to release their own short film, Paper Boxes. Not wanting to compete with other user generate content which are of a different category type, they resorted to building their own site which eventually led them to build Viddsee.

Toady, their site not only houses their own short films, it is helping other filmmakers who want to focus on their craft over building sites just for the films. It is definitely an interesting story of how an industry could be disrupted when the consumer decided to take things into his hands and turned into an entrepreneur.

You can get exclusive e27 discounts to Creative Mixer here, or catch the nominated short films from last year’s 3rd SSFA on Viddsee.

The post Watch the best of Singapore’s short films on Viddsee and hear from their co-founder appeared first on e27.

Link to full article

Read More

CareerBuilder Acquires VON to Expand Job Recruitment in Vietnam

CareerBuilder (NYSE:GCI), one of the largest American job and recruitment companies, is acquiring Vietnam Online Network (VON) for an undisclosed amount. The deal includes just two of VON’s four main sites, HRVietnam and KiemViec, which are the principal real estates that Career Builder is after.

VON was founded in 2007 and is the second in terms of revenue generation in the job recruitment market in the country. The top two companies in this space, Vietnamworks and VON’s KimViec, account for 90 percent of the revenue in this industry.

In 2012, VON sold one of its other sites, Yume, to Nhom Mua, Vietnam’s once-leading daily deals site. The other online property, Tim Nhanh, is not part of today’s acquisition and will be split off, leaving VON’s principal investor, DFJVinaCapital, looking for another buyer for that site.

CareerBuilder Vietnam

Paul Hung Nguyen, CEO of KiemViec and HRVietnam, said in today’s announcement:

CareerBuilder will help us provide the best recruitment solutions to our clients and users. Like CareerBuilder, KiemViec.com is more than just a job portal and we look forward to continue to help our clients find the right talent as well as our users find the right opportunity through new solutions and products.

KiemViec has over one million registered users and attracts over 400,000 unique visitors per month. In comparison, CareerBuilder has over one million jobs, and 24 million unique visitors. The acquisition will also add the ‘CareerBuilder Vietnam’ branding on the CareerBuilder.vn domain, which will redirect to KiemViec. International recruiters will now have access to CVs and job applications from Vietnam. The company also plans to open an office in Hanoi in the near future.

With Vietnam’s recent poor economic performance, unemployed folks will be increasingly looking toward jobs sites to hook them up with the jobs they need to support their family and life.

CareerBuilder’s entrance to the Vietnam market will certainly be a concern for VietnamWorks and Anphabe, who are both in the job search business in Vietnam.

Asia plans

Worldwide, CareerBuilder operates in 22 markets. In Asia, CareerBuilder is already present in acquisitions and partnerships in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea, and India. CareerBuilder has emphasized its interest in expanding in Asia and Hunter Arnold, president of CareerBuilder Asia Pacific, who spent the last four years traveling around Asia, is optimistic about the Vietnamese market’s education level and hungry workforce.

By 2015, CareerBuilder plans to enter all the major markets in Asia, I assume that includes the big Southeast Asian markets like Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, as well as Asian tigers like Japan and Taiwan.

The post CareerBuilder Acquires VON to Expand Job Recruitment in Vietnam appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Link to full article

Read More