2C2P Only Singapore Finalist in Nokia Competition Singapore company 2C2P has just been selected as a Top 3 finalist from amongst 1,700 submissions in 85 countries in the Nokia Calling All Innovators competition. The challenge was to create new mobile applications, solutions and services for use on Nokia devices in these categories: Internet Innovation, Flash, Emerging Markets and Mobile Necessities. Not only was 2C2P’s Mobile Credit Card Terminal the only Singapore finalist, it was also selected as top 3 in two categories: Emerging Markets and Mobile Necessities. A demo of all the finalists can be viewed here. 2C2P’s Mobile Credit Card Terminal gives business owners the ability to charge a credit or debit card and to manage transactions securely and smoothly from Nokia S60 devices without the need for additional equipment. The application uses a standard Card Not Present message format, bypassing the need for a cardholder signature. If 2C2P does win the competition, they will get a cash award and the opportunity to demo at Nokia World in Stuttgart, Germany come September 2009. They will also be highlighted on the newly announced Ovi Store so that the winning apps will have more visibility. 2C2P has been funded by Expara IDM Ventures and MDA under the iJAM programme. Related posts:Forum Nokia Calling All Innovators 2009 ContestForum Nokia Calling All Innovators Global Developer ContestNokia Developer Summit 2009, Monte Carlo Day 1 Government Provides Subsidies to Upgrade your Book-Keeping Capabilities Is your finance department having a hard time keeping compliant with the XBML format for submission of your annual returns? Maybe you have considered upgrading your book-keeping capabilities but have been holding back because the economic climate looks glum and you want to stretch every dollar? Well, now is the best time to take advantage of this new government subsidy and get that accounting software package. To help Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) improve operational efficiency, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) in conjunction with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) launched the Accounting Software Assistance Scheme (ASAS). ASAS will provide SMEs with up to 50% subsidy for the procurement of their first accounting software to improve the financial management process. Parliamentary Secretary Sam Tan Chin Siong for Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA) announced the news on Thursday at the 13th Infocomm Commerce Conference (ICC) organised by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCCI). I happened to be in attendance as one of the invited panelists to share about blogging and new media. Entrepreneurs should find this subsidy a welcome move, on top of existing grants and subsidies like Technology Innovation Program (TIP) and SME Infocom Package (SIP) currently available to help SMEs upgrade their IT capabilities. But non-entrepreneurs might question why taxpayers’ money are being spent to help businesses. The truth is, if the government don’t help businesses through this difficult times, then in the bigger picture, not only will our economy suffer, but more jobs will be lost. So, what does the subsidy cover? The subsidy defrays up to 50% of the qualifying costs capped at S$1,500 per SME. The qualifying costs include: Purchasing of Accounting software. Accounting software must be listed in the IRAS Accounting Sofrware Register (www.iras.gov.sg) Installation/deployment of the account training on the use of the accounting software To find how more about whether your business qualifies for the subsidy and how to apply for it, head on down to http://www.ida.gov.sg/sme. This story has been adapted from my original story on CNET Asia as that version was catered to a slightly different audience. Image courtesy of ansik. Related posts:Tyler Projects wins award at National Infocomm Awards 08Singtel i.Challenge08 - win 20k & commercialization opportunity65 Bits Episode 78 : Cheap iPhones? Events For The Week - Week of 22-29th Aug Sat, 22nd Aug: Geek Camp Singapore 2009 Tues, 25th Aug: Entrepreneurship Forum by Stanford Club and The Financial Women’s Association Wed, 26th Aug: Web Wednesday - Future of Online Measurement Thurs, 27th Aug: (1) CocoaHeads Aug Meetup (2) Microsoft Mix-It-Up - Win Mobile 6.5 Development (3) Techno-Venture Forum - What They Do Not Teach You In University (4) The 3rd WIT*E Fri, 28th Aug: Launch of NUS Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy Sat, 29th Aug: (1) CodeAndroid Singapore 4th Meetup (2) 1st SG-Google Tech User Group Meetup No related posts. In Conversation with Keith Ng, co-founder of FAME & Socialico Are you one of those who are always chasing entertainment news about celebrities? Or, are you someone who prefer to spend the time on the stock exchange to sieve out the most interesting stocks to invest? If you like both, then the Facebook application and game, FAME will be something that you will check out. An interesting application that combined stock market exchange game and people, FAME started from two founders, Keith Ng and Damon Widjaja who have worked with each other for the longest time, like 7 academic projects before deciding to get into it. Since they have launched the FAME beta on March 2009, they have started talking about their product from the tech conferences within Singapore and was a finalist to the FB Fund 2009 (a contest run by Facebook to source for the latest and innovative apps out there). We have managed to catch up with Keith Ng, one of the founders from FAME (under the company Socialico Pte LTD) for an extensive interview, chatting with him about FAME and its features, the tips on how to develop on Facebook Platform and entrepreneurship in general. Bernard Leong: Tell us about your background. What did you do before setting up FAME? Keith Ng: Damon and I have Ngee Ann Polytechnic to thank for our software engineering roots, and later SMU where we met, for our business and management education. We both graduated with BSc (Information Systems Management); Damon pursued Organizational Behavior & Human Resource as a double major while I majored in Finance for my second degree, Bachelor in Business Management. Personally, FAME was not my first foray into entrepreneurship. I started my own party lights stall along Orchard Road risking fines for illegal hawking when I was just 16, which the turnover of $500 per night was irresistible. When I was 18, I earned my first freelancing contract developing CRM solutions for a TCM firm. I registered my first startup, SWOOZH, in my second year of undergraduate mainly for Web development services to my clients. Damon has strong family roots embedded deeply in entrepreneurship, especially in where he comes from – Indonesia. As a foreign student, he actively participates in events that assimilate him to the local culture, such as being an acting vice?chairman for the ushers in National Day Parade 2006. He too enjoys helping others through voluntarism and acts as youth advisor in Heartware Network. Bernard Leong: What motivated you and your fellow co-founders to set up FAME? How did the idea come about? Keith Ng: Damon Widjaja (my co-founder) and I have worked together in at least 7 academic projects, amongst which we landed a top 5 Software Engineering team award as well as $12,000 from Standard Chartered Bank as one of the top 3 teams for our final year project. In early 2008, we discussed the possibility of starting a venture together in view of our complementary strengths and buddy relationship, also with 2 more regular teammates (aka drinking buddies), who unfortunately opted for job offers later on to enhance their working experience. After much brainstorming, FAME was an eureka epiphany over beer in our school’s pub when we revisited our internship in Standard Chartered Bank developing a virtual stock exchange trading prediction ideas (which did not commercialize eventually). Prediction market is a great research tool for corporations compared to traditional expensive and slow methods, but has not gained mainstream popularity. We decided that we could package this concept into Facebook trading real life personalities, in a similar fashion like “Friends for Sale” or “Human Pets” on a stock market platform. Through this interesting concoction, we also hope to attract players into our prediction market realm within FAME, which consists of prediction-based securities like “North Korea to release US Journalists by 2009”. As such, FAME was a novel combination of a few existing ideas. Evolvement of a product is always to be expected, especially after we began to feel the market pulse and listen to our users. In general though, FAME remains true to the original intention; to be a multi-faceted game that appeals to a niche group of sophisticated players. Bernard Leong: Can you tell us what is the FAME exchange about and is it a game or a stock market exchange about people? Keith Ng: You can say it is a hybridization of both a game and a market exchange of people! FAME (Famous Market Exchange) is a social game for buying and selling virtual shares of players, celebrities, predictions and other unique stocks based on real stock market features. FAME is also the world’s first virtual stock exchange of people where anyone can apply to be listed. Users like your friends or yourself can be traded like any other counters in this free-to-play social game with virtual FAME dollars. Popular personalities will rise in price and their shares can be owned. Primed as “NASDAQ of Social Networking”, FAME is currently deployed in social networks such as Facebook and as a standalone site. Each and every one of us is a brand and a promise, whether you like it or not. Every individual will be subjected to sentiments of others. Now, the question here is how can you measure your own brand and fame? How so too, for everything else, such as a slogan, a football player or a product? In FAME, we cast you and these subjects as stock securities and let the market determine the price, and that’s our answer to measuring fame. We build a stock market environment where prices go up or down demanding on market orders. We pay dividends on stocks that meet certain performance targets, such as profile views, or even a TV appearance. We also empower our users to be individual research analysts who can give ratings and insights to every stock in the game! We seek to build a sizable community by enticing with visually attractive interfaces coupled with an innovative game experience to list their online personas, and even get famous in the cyberspace! To further incentivize players to participate, 3 lucky winners will walk away with US$100; players with higher profits have better chances. Through wisdom of crowds, FAME also aspires to collect crowdsourced market data on current affairs/brands/ predictions in an innovative and rewarding manner. FAME is also a marketing and publicity enabler for our corporate customers, and functions as a simulation tool that educates the public on stock trading. FAME is currently represented by Socialico Pte Ltd, founded by Damon and Keith. Bernard Leong: What are the three interesting features in FAME that you want users to know about? Keith Ng: FAME is an unlicensed school for anyone to learn about the stock market and yet be rewarded with tangible prizes and fun. The skills any players acquired in FAME can be transferrable to transacting in real stock markets, and vice versa as well. At the same time, it can be a great community to discuss current affairs, sports, and even brands. Here’s how: 1) FAME is build to replicate a real stock market as much as possible. We use the “Zaraba” method (used in Tokyo Stock Exchange and other major markets) to match orders in a proprietary system we codenamed “EVE” (Exchange Vectoring Engine). We also developed a market maker bot (JOSHUA) in which the AI is carefully designed to ensure liquidity and to stimulate the market through automated trading. Everyone is also encouraged to become an analyst and give ratings/commentary on other stocks. Your own price goes up and down the same way real markets determine; based on price others decide, user generated analysis, your visibility in the game and your own dividends payout! 2) I have to share with you my favorite stock exchanges in FAME, Predictions Stock Exchange (PSX) and EPL Stock Exchange (EPLX)! In PSX, you are betting on events such as “North Korea to release 2 US Journalist by 2009” – which is already proven true. Shareholders can get a handsome payout since our market maker will buy out the stock with a premium price. In EPLX, you earn from not only betting on the champion this season, but also earn from dividends - $30 per lot for a win, and $10 per lot for a draw. FAME is therefore more than a game; it is where you pit your wits against the rest and become Mr/Mrs I-Told-Cha! 3) We currently run a “Mystery Auction” segment, where users are invited to buy FAME chips with their virtual cash. 3 users with the most number of chips will each win US$100 each! Previously, we also selected a lucky winner for an iPod Touch prize. This is our way of rewarding players who are active and make profits in the game. Bernard Leong: How do you initially gather users to come to the FAME exchange? What are the marketing methods you employ to gather people within the social graph? It is a misconception that it is easy to gain critical mass when you park your application in Facebook’s application platform. A quick search in the application directory can present many applications with 1 to 10 active monthly users. It may be much easier 1,2 years ago when there is less competition for users’ attention, but right now users have developed an ignorance effect for invitations as well as become very selective in adding applications. The novelty within FAME is the earliest devised marketing strategy to gain interests. As a beta product though, FAME has not yet formulated a wholesome strategy to gather users. There were however several brutal bootstrapping measures, first beginning with appealing to FF (family and friends), and then establishing relationships with institutions such as SMU and SP to send email blasts. Next, it is then critical to get visibility through exhibitions where media strongholds will be scouting around. In fact, it was through exhibiting in E27’s unConference where we aroused the attention of TODAY and Digital Life that propelled our user base by thousands when we were featured. Some in-game elements that we initiated to induce the viral effects is rewarding our users with virtual cash when they invite their friends to FAME, or when they successfully refer registrations. Similarly, we utilize Facebook’s notification feed engine to inform friends of new registrants that he/she “has been IPOed for $XX”, arousing interests in curious friends. Currently, we are experimenting on the best possible methods for users to publish on the news feed, a strategy that I personally deem to be the most effective viral tool. Packaging our news in a “reporting” manner where a fictional broadcast journalist updates the audience has so far been encouraging, but there can be many ways we can present the copy and the graphics. One of the best lessons we have learnt in marketing through the social graph is in A/B testing, and finding out what appeals most to most, least to most. Sometimes, what may seem to be a terrific copy that the marketing dude in the team conjures may not appeal at all. Testing and tracking is to startup as what rice is to Asians; they are absolutely critical steps to survivability albeit painful, and they will help increase the user base. Bernard Leong: Is there any new features coming on the horizon for FAME? Will you be interested to share it with us? Keith Ng: This question is a great flattery (we assume so :) to us because there is so much to work on for FAME! We will be happy to share some updates that have been at the tip of our tongues. Do look out for more collaboration-enabling features where players join certain “hedge fund companies” within FAME to synchronize their collective strategies. Our virtual relationship managers in future will have better developed Artificial Intelligence to assist our users, while the game will be much more vibrant with more multimedia elements such as videos. We want to help steer our users who are in the game to become FAMOUS with some unique talents to showcase. You can also expect interesting game generated events in the virtual world of FAME that affect stock prices! *Hint, you may be able to generate these events if you have some spare changes in your pockets :P* We are also finalizing a dividends payment system where stocks that perform will pay out dividends to the shareholders. And finally, it may not be a big deal if we tell you anyone can become a stock, but what if we tell you anyone can create a stock market on our platform on any social networks? And wouldn’t it be nice if FAME is playable on iPhone and Android? I’ll leave you to your imagination what we have up our sleeves (: Bernard Leong: Does FAME have a business model to work on or do you want to gather more users before monetization? Keith Ng: We have identified our key business models. Right now, we are concentrating on delivering a sticky game and eventually provide values to our paid users who demand specific features, as well as value to our potential corporate customers who desire enabling of marketing and research. We have gathered much feedback from our users and have been carefully observing market trends in our industry on what users would be willing to pay for. On the other hand, the concept of prediction market is still a very new concept and we hope to familiarize the market before thinking about money. The team is excited about the wisdom of crowd that prediction markets can glorify. Of course we always wanted monetization yesterday but we have to balance the delicate act of not turning off potential players and at the same time paying off our bills in time. Bernard Leong: What are the tips that you will give to a person who is developing on Facebook platform? Keith Ng: I had to consult my sidekick Damon, who has been the more intimate one with Facebook platform. Now, the geek says: Development on Facebook supported platform like PHP is preferred compared to non-supported platform like JAVA (which is our weapon of choice) as Facebook has stopped providing the latest API and comprehensive documentation and there are also lesser web communities discussing about it. Despite the above, be daring in pursuing language of your choice. Little help from the web communities is not equal to NO help at all. It might take a longer time to find a specific solution but it is worth all the effort. Be creative in using Facebook specific function and do not let them form the core of your application. This direction will bound the application to Facebook and much effort will be needed to port this application to other platform as these functions will not work outside Facebook environment. Do not forget to look at Facebook Connect as it allows your non-Facebook application to retrieve Facebook information without the hassle of creating a Facebook application Bernard Leong: What are the major challenges that you encounter in your enterprise? Keith Ng: Everyday brings about new challenges, but in the technical side we have to exhaust a lot of resources learning about Facebook’s Application Platform and coping with frequent changes Facebook is implementing. On the conceptualization aspects, we hear many differing feedbacks on how our product should eventually manifest, but it is important to stick to our guns at times and remain faithful to our vision, and at other times maintain that dose of receptivity. It can be especially challenging not to get swayed easily! At times, dealing with harsh critics from business competitions or pitching sessions is equally daunting and discouraging, and again this is the time to revisit our faith in our visions and ourselves. Pertaining to the creation of a business, we were saddened that of our potential partners opted for work experience and stability upon graduation (last year was a very good year). It was very unfortunate as they were great group-mates and pals whom we have won awards together. Moving on, there is also much family pressure on myself financially since both of us draws only a minute amount of allowance from our funding. Bernard Leong: What are the three most important traits of an entrepreneur? Keith Ng: Creativity, Situational awareness and Integrity (how I remember it, CSI) Creativity: Set the company culture right by not stupidfiying any ideas, including your own ones. Situational awareness: Be sensitive to all reactions, be it the frown on your investor, the unhappiness of your star programmer, or the latest trends in town. Integrity: Work no lesser than your most worked employee or partner, and be honest about everything. Stick by your comrades in the darkest time and earn the respect. Bernard Leong: Thank you for the interview, Keith and Damon for that special question on Facebook Platform. Do let us know of the latest developments of FAME. We wish you and the team in FAME all the best and good luck with the road ahead. About Keith Ng: Keith is the co-founder of FAME. He graduated with a Bachelor in Business Management(Finance) and Bachelor of Science(Information Systems Management) in Singapore Management University (SMU) under a DFS Scholarship. His main expertise and interest lies in exploiting the power of IT to drive business opportunities and creating values, and he have been involved in such developments since 1999. He first started out as a freelancer at the age of 17 and worked with a major pharmaceutical firm to produce a CRM system which focused on slightly complicated MLM algorithms. His most memorable stints were in Johnson and Johnson, DFS Venture and Standard Chartered Bank. He was involved in developing a predictions market (Stock Exchange) system and Asterisk IVR system coupled with Voice Biometrics system, both as a project manager, and streamlining of a global financial work flow involving more than USD$100k monthly. In particular, his team was awarded SGD$12,000 for the voice biometrics project by Standard Chartered in recognition of the top 3 projects in the year. He also assisted several professors and lecturers in SMU as a teaching assistant as well as head teaching assistant. Related posts:Interview with Leonard Lin, Tyler Projects and BattleStations 2 Years LaterOrSiSo Launches New Functionality & Enhancements6 Essential Social Media Tools for Start-Ups CocoaHeads Aug Meetup - 27 Aug CocoaHeads Singapore is once again organizing another meetup and new leader Carl Coryell-Martinwill be presenting some architectural lessons that he has learned from rewriting his app from scratch at least twice. But the rest of the programme is still in the works and the organizers are looking for speakers who would like to present something iPhone related or just suggest topics. Event Details Date: Thursday, 27 August 2009 Time: 7-9pm Venue: Cafe Salivation, 75 Syed Alwi Road Related posts:Event: CocoaHeads Mar Meet-Up - 26 Mar 2009Event: CocoaHeads Feb Meet-Up - 26 Feb 2009 Web Wednesday - Future of Online Measurement - 26 Aug In today’s world where online advertising is no longer just measured by CTR and clicks, one of the toughest question we all have to answer is “so what is beyond clicks”? This month, the team at Web Wednesday hopes to help shed some light on what is being done globally to answer this question. The speaker this session is Andreas Cohen, Chairman of the I-COM (International Conference on Online Media Measurement) from Geneva, Switzerland. Andreas will be speaking about the Future of Online Measurement and the related major challenges for advertisers. The I-COM is an industry backed global forum for exploring measurement issues facing the Digital Advertising Industry, with the goals of international cooperation, information sharing and working toward consensus on best practices. Event Details Date: Wednesday 26th Aug 2009 Time: 630pm-830pm Venue: Home Club (located on the Riverwalk B1-01/06, 20 Upper Circular Road- between Boat Quay and Clarke Quay) Related posts:Event: Web Wednesday - How To Get Luxury Brands And Others Advertising OnlineWeb Wednesday - Maximizing Returns in Digital - 29 Jul Techno-Venture Forum - What They Do Not Teach You In University Founder & CEO of DSC Holdings Pte Ltd, Mr. Seah Liang Chiang will share his past experiences of how he first started his business, his failures and why he is doing well today. He will be sharing useful pointers with students who wish to start their own business as well. Event Details Date: Thursday, 27 Aug 2009 Time: 6:00 - 7:30pm Venue: National University of Singapore, Engineering Auditorium [map] Register by 26th Aug here. About the Speaker Mr. Seah Liang Chiang is the founder and CEO of the DSC Group of companies. He leads the management and has been in the IT industry for over 20 years. He has the requisite in-depth experience and knowledge in the various aspects of the IT industry. He graduated from the National University of Singapore with an Economics degree in 1987. Upon graduation he joined the IT industry as a Marketing Executive in Computer Industries Pte Ltd. His competitive sales and marketing record has resulted in him being headhunted within six months to another company, TrioTech Pte Ltd, assigned to the computer division. Within the same year, he joined an US-based MNC company dealing with automated identification and data capture (AIDC) products, Dynamar Computer Products Pte Ltd, as a sales engineer and was promoted to sales manager within six months of service. He then decided to leave the commercial fold and setup a company with a few colleagues in the industry, called Datacorp Pte Ltd. He was the Sales Director of the company until 1992. In 1993, he decided to start out on his own and established Digital Scanning Corporation Pte Ltd. In addition to his commercial and business success, Mr Seah has also been invited to participate in several industry forums and business committees organized by the Singapore Government. He was President of the Young Entrepreneurs’ Organization (2000-2009), committee member of the Institute of Policy Studies (2002), committee member of the Council for Corporate Disclosures & Governance under the Ministry of Finance (2003), committee member of the Temasek Polytechnic Business Advisory Board (2003-2006), committee member of the Accounting & Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) Standing Law Review Focus Group (2005- 2006), committee member of the Pro-Enterprise Panel under Ministry of Trade and Industries (2003-present) and executive committee member of the Action Committee for Entrepreneurship (ACE) under Ministry of Trade and Industries (2005-present). He was nominated and was a finalist for the inaugural Phoenix award by the Singapore Economic Development Board (“EDB”) and received the Spirit of Enterprise Award (SOE) in 2007. His leadership in the AIDC industry also attracted the attention of the EDB and subsequently DSC Group also received investments and grants for R&D of approximately S$ 900,000. Related posts:Techno-Venture Forum - Inspiring Entrepreneurs from Medical and Clean Tech Entrepreneurship Forum by Stanford Club and The Financial Women’s Association FWA and the Stanford Club have brought together an outstanding panel of new and experienced entrepreneurs who have struck out on their own in fields ranging from retail and media to financial services and software. Particularly at this time of economic uncertainty, more and more professionals are assessing their priorities and looking at setting up their own companies. Starting up something new seems daunting yet it can also offer tremendous opportunities. This panel session gives you a chance to hear how entrepreneurs decided to set up their own businesses, what worked well and what didn’t, and how they’re faring in today’s difficult times. Moderated by NUS Adjunct Professor Eric Tachibana, the panel features Jeremy Brest of financial services firm Framework Capital, Forrest Li from online gaming company Garena, Deborah Ng of clothing rental store Maternity Exchange, and Joel Lin from the media company Omnimedia that produced Contender Asia. The range of experiences these participants bring will offer valuable insights that can help you make your own decision about whether and how to leverage your expertise and passion. More information about each of the panelists is on the following page. The panel discussion will be followed by a question-and-answer session, and you’ll be able to talk with the panelists as well as fellow participants over light refreshments before and after the event. Event Details Date: Tuesday, 25th August, 2009 Time: 6:30pm Venue:, UBS AG Auditorium, One Raffles Quay, #49-00 North Tower Cost: Stanford Club members: $30/person; Non-members: $45/person To reserve your place, please complete this form and email it to Richard Hartung at rlhartung@stanfordalumni.org or Liew Weylin at liewweylin@gmail.com. Reservations must be received by 20 August 2009, and you must register prior to the event. Panelists Jeremy Brest, Managing Director, Framework Capital Solutions [Financial Services] Jeremy is co-founder of Framework capital, a specialist investment and advisory firm that works for both investors and capital users. Before founding Framework, Jeremy spent four years at Credit Suisse First Boston in Singapore structuring principal transactions for CSFB’s own account and for external investors. Jeremy has extensive experience in Indonesia, where he has worked on a range of transactions from non-performing loan investments to large, syndicated acquisition financings. Prior to CSFB, Jeremy worked at Goldman Sachs in New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. He holds a JD and an MBA from Stanford University, and an AB in Mathematics from Swarthmore College. Forrest Li, CEO, Garena Online Forrest started Garena in early 2007 and grew the company from scratch to a 30 people team, located in Singapore, Taipei and Hanoi. In less than 2 years Garena has built a world class online gaming community and acquired more than 17 million users in 200 countries. Forrest also secured Garena’s venture funding from international investors. Prior to Garena, Forrest worked for MTV Networks as senior manager of digital media business development for Asia Pacific. Forrest holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Shanghai Jiaotong University and a MBA from Stanford University. Deborah Ng, Maternity Exchange Deborah is the founder of multi-label maternity boutique Maternity Exchange. Maternity Exchange’s concept allows customers to buy or rent maternity wear, allowing expectant mothers to balance fashion and affordability during their pregnancy period. The idea for the store grew out of her own first pregnancy, when she was looking for an economic yet varied way to make the most out of maternity wear. The Maternity Exchange store at Marina Square and their online store at www.maternityexchange.com.sg has been featured widely in the local news, TimeOut, parenthood magazines and on MoneyWeek. Deborah is a dedicated mother to two daughters and prior to running Maternity Exchange, she was a journalist with Singapore Press Holdings. Joel Lin, Managing Partner, Green Mountain Investments Joel is the founder and managing partner of Green Mountains Investments Pte Ltd, a corporate finance advisory and investment holding company. He plays an active role in a portfolio of companies including roles as Executive Director of Imagine OmniMedia and Executive Producer of reality TV show The Contender Asia, founder and president of the Singapore office of sales management training company Sandler. Before starting Green Mountains, Mr. Lin was the co-founder of IB Capital, a boutique advisory and investments firm. Mr. Lin’s other work experience included The Boston Consulting Group, Monsanto and the US Army. He has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S., Aerospace Engineering, from the US Military Academy at West Point. Eric Tachibana, Adjunct Professor, NUS and Business Manager, Bank of America Eric Tachibana is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore business school. He currently works for Bank of America-Merrill Lynch as the Business Manager for the Global Markets and Research Technology organizations in Asia Pacific and across Bank of America’s Business Technology Centers globally. Before joining Merrill Lynch, Eric was an entrepreneur for over 14 years - creating, building, and eventually exiting, successful small and mid-sized companies in Silicon Valley, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the U.K. Today he continues as an active angel investor regionally. Eric is also an author of 8 books on technology development and innovation management. No related posts. 65Bits Episode 131: Bite of the week live Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: [1] APCN2 cable cut cripples connections, [2] Judge orders Microsoft to stop selling Word, [3] Microsoft and Nokia Announces Office Coming to Symbian, [4] Michael Arrington quits the iPhone, [5] Google Voice to be retooled as Web app for iPhone, [6] Apple again offers matt screen option for 15-inch MacBook Pro, [7] Facebook Aquires Friendfeed and the Byte of the Week: PublicTransport@SG. Do click and check out their podcast. Related posts:65 Bits Episode 72 : Penguin Killers + Widgeous!65Bits Episode 117: A crazy episode-sode-sode of 65bits-bits-bits…65Bits Episode 75 : Firefox 2 is dead! Long Live Firefox 3! Xsago Appoints Ex-CTO of mixi as Technical Advisor Local mobile technology provider, Xsago has recently appointed Batara Eto, co-founder and ex-CTO of the largest Japanese social network mixi, as Technical Advisor. Xsago has also raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Batara. The undisclosed amount is the second round of funding for Xsago, following its first round with MDA and Thymos Capital (Disclosure: I’m a Partner there and have invested in Xsago). One of Xsago’s flagship products is Foyage, a mobile application to find interesting and useful places nearby. Foyage is available in the iTunes App Store and Android Market. Apart from the usual location-based data like restaurants, petrol kiosks and ATMs, Foyage also caters to couples with babies. If you’re a parent with unanticipated emergency nursing needs, Foyage allows you to find the nearest nursing room available to change your child’s diapers. It’s exciting having someone like Batara on the team of Xsago, shows that Singapore-based startups are getting visibility overseas. About Batara Eto Batara Eto, was born in 1979 in Indonesia. He graduated from Engineering Department of Takushoku University in Tokyo, Japan. He is the co-founder of mixi, the largest Social Networking Service in Japan. He proposed mixi in December 2003, and he was in charge for the development of the site. He served as Chief Technology Officer in mixi until 2007. He is a well known for advocating the use of the open source LAMP stack, Perl, MySQL and the Apache web server, especially in Japan. In February 2008, he set up his new company called Etolabo Corporation. His new company is developing a couple of web applications that have not been released. About Xsago Pte Ltd Xsago is an emerging mobile company that brings the latest mobile technology into your daily life. Working with technology and content partners, Xsago builds applications for both consumers and enterprises. Xsago mostly develops applications for mobile internet platform like the Apple iPhone and Google Android. Xsago’s mobile products have been used by consumers in Singapore and Indonesia. Contact: Founder, Willson Cuaca. willson@xsago.com. Related posts:MDA FutureMobile Partner Network and Call For ProposalsWorkshop: From Idea To Investment For The IDM Industry65Bits Episode 118: Live from The Sail Ideas for the Economic Strategies Committee Solicited Guest contributor, Prof Wong Poh Kam is part of the National University of Singapore (NUS) taskforce to give inputs to the government-led initiative, the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC). Out of the broad range of topics covered, one of Prof Wong’s task is also to solicit ideas as to how to improve the Singapore entrepreneurial support ecosystem. Here, he explains the initiative and seeks your ideas. Marina Bay, Singapore Skyline. Prof Wong Poh Kam writes: As some of you may be aware, the Singapore government has recently established a high-level, inter-ministerial Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) to develop and recommend strategies to grow Singapore’s future as a leading global city in the heart of Asia. You can visit the ESC website to get more details on the composition, scope and objectives of the ESC, which aims to put forward its key recommendations in January 2010 and will release its full report by mid-2010. One of the sub-committees (Sub-committee 2) set up under the ESC is tasked to look into “Developing A Vibrant SME Sector And Globally Competitive Local Companies”. Co-chaired by Mrs. Lim Hwee Hua (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and 2nd Minister (Finance and Transport)) and Dr. Ricky Souw (CEO, Sanwa Group and President of Singapore Precision Engineering and Tools Association), this sub-committee will recommend strategies to: * Develop a vibrant landscape of entrepreneurial activity * Foster the growth and internationalisation of Local Globally Competitive Companies * Strengthen synergies between small and large enterprises The above issues are highly relevant to the future development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Singapore. In addition, there are several other ESC sub-committees that may cover issues of relevant interest to the entrepreneurial community, including Sub-committee 1 (Seizing Growth Opportunities), Sub-committee 4 (Growing Knowledge Capital) and Sub-committee 5 (Making Singapore a Leading Global City). I would like to strongly encourage everyone in the entrepreneurial community of Singapore to contribute your ideas. You can do so directly by going to the online consultation page of the ESC website to submit your suggestions and feedback. If you like to share your ideas with others in the community so as the solicit comments and feedback from others, can I suggest that you also submit your thoughts as a response to this blog post - hopefully we can then generate a healthy online discussion among the community. I happened to be involved in a task force set up within NUS to provide inputs to the ESC, and so will be more than happy to not only participate in this online discussion myself, but also to champion some of the best ideas emerging from this online discussion (with appropriate attribution of course) through this channel as well. I look forward to your active contribution! This post has been republished with permission of the author. About the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) The ESC will develop strategies for Singapore to build capabilities and maximise opportunities as a global city in a new world environment, so as to achieve sustained and inclusive growth. Chaired by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the ESC comprises members drawn from Government, the labour movement and the private sector. The 25-member Committee aims to bring a wide range of views and fresh ideas. They include 14 private sector representatives, drawn from the manufacturing and services sectors; foreign and local enterprises, large and small; as well as academia. About the Author Dr. Wong Poh Kam [LinkedIn] is a professor, angel investor and consultant. He holds positions at the NUS Business School, (by courtesy) at the NUS Engineering School and LKY School of Public Policy. He is also the Director of the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre. As an angel investor, Dr. Wong has invested in many high-tech firms and sits on the boards of many. His portfolio companies include Invantest, iWow and GlobalRoam. He has consulted widely for international agencies such as the World Bank and ADB, various government agencies in Singapore such as EDB, IDA and A*STAR, as well as many high tech firms in Asia. Dr. Wong Poh Kam blogs at Connect The Dots@Singapore. Image courtesy of yeowatzup. No related posts. Bringing Your Startup Into The Chinese Market - 4 Sep Meet and learn from a VC and Business Development director investing and doing business in China. Organised by the Business Angel Network (Southeast Asia) (BANSEA), this workshop will give companies who want to venture into mainland China a head start as to what to expect. Register online. Related posts:Startups’ free software dream come true Meet TechCrunch CTO Nik Cubrilovic - 18 Aug Nik is in Singapore working with the Fusion Garage team on the Crunchpad and it keen on meeting local startups and entrepreneurs. Event Details Date: Tuesday, 18th August 2009 Time: 6.30pm to 9.30pm Venue: Garag3, NUS [map] There are limited spaces available, so do sign up here. No related posts. Total Users Playing Games by Tyler Projects Reach 1 Million A nice milestone has been reached by social gaming company, Tyler Projects. On Facebook, its portfolio of games now have more than 1 million registered users. They focus on the promotion of these three games: Battle Stations, Pirates of the World (Mandarin version of Battle Stations) and Mafia Empire (now undergoing a huge game redesign)), of which Battle Stations is still the most popular and makes up a large chunk of the traffic and game play. A point to note though, this 1 million registered users is not unique number of users. It’s simply a summation of the number of users per game for all the games. And since there are people who play the various games, the number of unique users is perhaps not quite 1 million. [Update: Tyler Projects have gotten back to me and they said that this 1 million has already accounted for the overlap of users amongst the games (their user count using Facebook statistics is currently around 1.2 million), and so they have indeed reached a total of 1 million unique users.] July 2009 was a good month for them as average monthly page views tripled from 22 million (historical average) to 66 million (in July). Related posts:Jobs At Tyler ProjectsS$500,000/yr from a Facebook Game made in SingaporeInterview with Leonard Lin, Tyler Projects and BattleStations 2 Years Later 13th Infocomm Commerce Conference - 20 Aug Organized by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the 13th Infocomm Commerce Conference will bring together players in the infocomm industry and provide you with access to government agencies and other infocomm players to meet your business needs. Register for a spot here. No related posts. 6 Essential Social Media Tools for Start-Ups If you are starting up a new company that primarily goes from business to consumer, without a big budget in marketing or PR, your best chance for getting your message across will be via social media. Most start-ups or major corporations which adopt social media tools to market and engage their customers in Southeast Asia, are essentially in the IT, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG - for example, mobile phones, computers and gadgets) or online media space. Specifically in this article, we want to focus essentially on the start-ups space and offer 6 essential social media tools that a start-up will need. The only essential principle for adopting social media is the strategic objective i.e. why are you using these social media tools for your start-up? It can vary from companies to companies. If you are not sure which one to use, at least first register your URLs to create accounts for Facebook Pages, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr first. Do not tap on them until you figure out exactly what you want to do with them. The backlash can be worst if you have started using these tools without an objective. Each tool can be specifically tapped to focus on one specific objective, for example, engaging customers’ feedback, providing documentation on how to use the product and talking about the design and the issue that your product is trying to solve. So, here are our 6 essential social media tools for start-ups: Blogs - Blogger/Wordpress: You can always start a corporate blog to talk about your product/service. There are many reasons why you should have a corporate blog. Remember the objective. The essential rule is not to plug your product too much. Don’t talk about your company, but focus on the people within the company, or you or your team’s thoughts about the industry in general. Intangible good will generate via corporate blogs usually spread via word of mouth marketing or the blog becomes a must-read for those who are in the industry. Here are two ways: either you do a http://blog.yourcompany.com or register the blogs on blogger or wordpress. If you are greedy, you can grab typepad, tumblr, posterous and many other blogs out there. Rich Media Content Sharing - Flickr/YouTube: Sometimes, if you want to provide screenshots or do a video documentation of your product or service, a good way to use the distribution channels via rich media content sharing sites. The reason why you put it up in the public channel is not necessary for people to view. As a start-up, since you have relatively low amount of funds, make use the bandwidth of Flickr and YouTube and then utilize the power of social networking tools to share across platforms thru your friends, family and fans. You can always consider alternative means of photo (Picasa, Facebook Photos, Phlook) and video sharing (Vimeo, Viddler, Tudou, Youku). Social Networks - Facebook/Linkedin/Ning: If you are unable to build a platform to get a community, make use the power of the social networks to spread your message. If you want to have a small social network for specific purposes, create a simple one via Ning. If you want to share via social bookmarking tools, then spread it via shared links in Facebook. Of course, you can create a Facebook group to organize your customers, or better, create a Facebook Page to illustrate the profile of your company, engage your customers, share links on content and also do social advertising within Facebook. The same principle can be applied to Linkedin, MySpace (particularly if you are in the entertainment industry and wants to expand into the US market), China based social networks (51.com, Kaixin001, RenRen - former Xiaonei) CyWorld (Korea) and Mixi (Japan). Micro-Blogging - Twitter/Plurk: The streaming of information about the latest product from your start-up can be facilitated in real time through the help of micro-blogging, text-based messages with the maximum of 140 characters. Twitter is currently the most popular way of spreading information. Well, if you are in Singapore, you can give Plurk a shot as well, which is micro-blogging with a timeline. However, do not always send out tweets that concerns the company. One advice given by social media experts is that you stem your thoughts as a specialist of the industry and at times, provide tweets regarding the industry as a whole. Make use of auxiliary services such as bit.ly for URL shortening and link tracing to check how many people are clicking thru your tweets to see the site or Twitpic to show pictures via twitter. Alternatively, try Tweet.SG and SGBeat for local presence. Aggregators - Digg: If the founders within your company get a feature in a notable blogs, a immediate strategy is to submit it to Digg. If you want to turn one of your blog posts, audio podcasts or video with the assistance of viral marketing, the best strategy is to use Digg or other related aggregators that will broadcast your message quickly. Of course, the key of using aggregator is that you have an interesting story to tell. The best way to work with this, is to keep trying different means and ways to send out ideas about the products and services on your company. In Singapore, you can also try using Ping.SG as an alternative. Forums - HardWareZone, Comsenz or your industry-centric forum: Unlike the West, the bulletin board services (BBS) in the form of online forums are still popular. You should probably post on issues relating to your area of work. The same strategy can work in China (Comsenz) since online forums are more popular than social networks and blogs there as well. The strategy of writing in discussion forums is the same as in what has mentioned in blogs. In fact, in the area of web development, and if your company specialize in creating new plugins and modules for the platform, you might want to get into the discussion forums and chat with fellow developers. Sometimes, someone might take notice of your product and spread the word. Of course, the tools are always ready for your disposal, but the key is how you use it to maximize publicity and marketing for your start-up. Of course, I have not included analysis tools to track social media presence. Related posts:PR Strategies for Start-UpsAfter Blogout! 2009 - Social Media For Enterprises And BloggersHow To Handle Negative Media Coverage Launch of SMU IIE and Open Mic Entrepreneurs’ Corner This 3rd Sept will see the official launch of the SMU Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IIE) and their Open Mic Entrepreneurs’ Corner. Open Mic is meant to be a monthly networking platform for startups to get early feedback from mentors and investors on their ideas though a 5-min pitch, with opportunities for private follow-up sessions. Event Details Date: Thursday, 3rd Sept 2009 Time: Launch of SMU II (3-430pm), Launch of Entrepreneur’s Corner-Open Mic (430-6pm) Venue: SMU Administration Building, Level 5 and 6, Conference Hall & Foyer Register for SMU II Launch. For Open Mic, register here if you’re a mentor or investor and email here if you’re a startup. No related posts. Launch of NUS Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy The NUS Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy (CSEP) will be having their official this 28th August. Focusing on research, increase awareness of social entrepreneurship and philanthropy and the development of courses, CSEP also supports social entrepreneurship efforts by giving out grants. Event Details Date: Friday, 28th Aug 2009 Time: 10am-4pm Venue: Shaw Foundation Alumni House Auditorium Register here. Speakers Some of the speakers: - Associate Professor Albert Teo, Director of the NUS Centre for Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy - Howard Ling, Senior Manager of HKCSS-HSBC Social Enterprise Business Centre, Hong Kong Council of Social Service - Ms Marie So, Co-Founder of Ventures in Development For the programme and a full list of speakers, click here. No related posts. Events For The Week - Week of 15-22nd Aug Tues, 18th Aug: Meet TechCrunch CTO, Nik Cubrilovic Thurs, 20th Aug: (1) Shekhar Mitra - SMU IIE Distinguished Speaker (2) 13th Infocomm Commerce Conference Fri, 21st Aug: BuzzCity Developer Garage (2nd Series) Sat, 22nd Aug: Geek Camp Singapore 2009 No related posts. Thoughts on Setting up in China from an SG Entrepreneur in Beijing Setting up an enterprise in China is a relatively challenging task. While traveling across from Shanghai to Beijing, I met up with my friend Boon, a Singaporean entrepreneur who set up shop in China. He runs the Eden Juice bar, located somewhere in Sanlitun North Road, Chaoyang District (an area that is reminiscent of Holland Village in Singapore). While following him across Beijing, here are some thoughts that I extracted out from him which may be of help to those who might be thinking about setting up in China: Thoughts for SG Entrepreneurs before setting up in China Networking and Importance of Local Partners: It is not advisable to go into China without working with someone local there. The important thing to note when talking to local people there is not to make a quick assessment but rather take some time to build the relationship. You should also find ways to test the person who you might be interested to get as a local partner so that you can roughly know if the person really know what he or she is doing. Of course, be careful that everyone does name-dropping in Beijing and it would be better if you slowly sieve your way through. Being able to speak Chinese makes a lot of difference to get the first impression. If you can’t speak the language properly, the Chinese will like you, similar to the French who prefer you speak broken French to English to them. Sales lead can be tedious and ardous for many: If you are talking to a potential customer or client particularly in the realm of sales, it is not so straightforward that you can get them on board after a while. Don’t take too long in following one lead. Oftentimes, you will have to go through many iterations to find the customer. Hence, it is frustrating but it is part of the process. It is also good to speak to people who are in your relevant industry so that they can offer you leads and help along the way. Of course, the rule of doing due diligence on that person is important. One advice is to hire a local who you have properly checked out to do sales for you. Check Currency Transactions: If you are setting up retail or F&B businesses, it is important to make sure that you have a device which most shops in China used to sieve out fake Chinese RMB notes. I observe a lot of shops doing checks on the currencies from Shanghai to Beijing. You should try making purchases in retail stores and you should be able to check out how the cashier checks the RMB notes. Following up with people in Shanghai and Beijing: In Shanghai, the follow up procedure after meetings is closer to the West, i.e. you send a follow up email in Mandarin and then with the action points required for both parties. While in Beijing, you may find yourself caught in many discussion points and you have to really restrict what your follow up points are with the people there. Beijing is more representative of the rest of China while Shanghai is a hub where most foreigner expats set up their shops first before their entry into the rest of the Chinese domestic market. From a SG Entrepreneur in Beijing - Eden Juice Bar My friend, Boon is a serial entrepreneur and while running his tech company for 9 years and making the transition from Singapore to Beijing for about 2-3 years ago, he went back to basics and started a juice bar in Sanlitun North Road, Chaoyang District. He ran it with some partners, and the most distinct feature you will find out about the juice bar are the chairs based on an unique European design. If one needs a comparison to Singapore, Sanlitun North Road is reminiscent of Holland Village in Singapore where most expats will hang out. In fact, for the Apple fans, the Beijing Apple store is right next to the the juice bar. For one, he picked that place because he knows that the foreign expats prefer the healthy juicebar type of drinks. In fact, if you think that it’s easy to set up such a business, there are a few challenges that he has faced in running this enterprise for a year: Getting the proper ingredients: While China is plagued with quality problems on certain dairy products, one of the challenges Boon and his team faced is to find a good source of milk that is imported directly from outside China. The reason is clear, the juice bar focussed on quality drinks and is a luxury which the foreign expats can afford. Once he has established which ingredients he can buy (which is directly imported to China) and which ones he can get it fresh from the market, it is straightforward to work out the prices. Location, Location and Location: It is important to stress that location is an important issue for the Eden juice bar. If you have a niche product which only a certain group of people can afford, your natural response is to position the store right in the middle where that group of people hang out. In fact, through his juice bar, Boon has encountered the most interesting people who are passing by China to set up big multi-national companies. Just when I was there, I bumped into a senior executive from Norvatis and people who I may not be able to have access if I am in Singapore. Four seasons can make life complicated: So, the Juice bar sells cold healthy fruit juices and does relatively well in summer. In fact, business according to Boon, during the Beijing Olympics 2008, was amazing. What happens when Beijing hits winter? In fact, they have to go back to the drawing board and worked out how to bring people into the juice bar. Perhaps, such circumstances will push people to think about how to deal with various situations. It’s actually an interesting time to visit my business partner and checking out how a Singaporean entrepreneur does business in China. If you are a Singaporean doing business in Beijing or making a social visit, do pop by the Eden Juice Bar, and perhaps, you will learn more about how a Singaporean entrepreneur have to deal with just to run a business in China. Some photos from the Eden Juice Bar in the Night Related posts:In Conversation with Dr Gang Lu, MOBINODE and OpenWeb AsiaGeeks On A Plane - 7 to 16 JunePress Release: UeeeU.com, Leading Provider of Digital Commerce Platform for Global Travel, Tourism, and Leisure Market, Receives First Round Financing from BAF Spectrum NTU Entrepreneurship and Innovation Festival - The BIG Idea Competition If you’re from NTU or NIE and have been chewing over that Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) or Idea of yours, The BIG Idea Competition organized as part of the NTU Entrepreneurship & Innovation (E&I) Festival might be your chance to get some recognition for it. They welcome ideas which can be “far-fetched or realisitic, conventional or revolutionary, dull or exciting”. Ideas submitted are Twitter-styled 140 characters or less, and you can submit as many ideas as you want. Examples of BIG ideas given are “websites that auctions junk like broken laser points” and “an iPhone app that shakes virtual babies” (we know how that one turned out). The top three ideas will be chosen based on: “Most Creative”, “Most Popular” and “Most Noble”. Each winner will get a netbook (they didn’t say what brand). All ideas will be published online for audience voting but the entries will also be “screened by the E&I Commmitte”. So, will the winners be chosen purely as audience-choice? Or just decided by the Committee or a mixture of both? Competition is open for entries from August 13-21, 2009. Submission of entries closes on August 21 and winners published online on August 31. Send in your ideas here. The Idea Bank would be a good way to spark your own brainstorming, don’t you think? Go on and try to spot gems, though as of writing, there are only four ideas there. No related posts. Progeniq and cebas Visual Technology announce Accelerating Hollywood Initiative Press Release August 3rd, New Orleans LA, - cebas VISUAL TECHNOLOGY Inc. a leading provider of CGI and VFX rendering software, and Singapore based technology company, Progeniq, a leader in optimized hardware accelerated computing solutions, today announced the availability of their hardware-accelerated solution for Hollywood CGI/VFX studios, initially powering cebas’ finalRender, the rendering system of choice at Uncharted Territory which recently completed VFX production for Roland Emmerich’s “2012” movie. Progeniq’s hardware accelerated platforms provide over an order of magnitude speedup, at a fraction of the power consumption and space needed by typical server farms or workstations used by CG artists. Progeniq accelerated solutions have already allowed end users around the world to slash their compute infrastructure costs and complete their projects faster, with the best in class performance-per-dollar and performance-per-watt. By teaming up, Progeniq and cebas VISUAL TECHNOLOGY Inc. were able to develop a whole new approach to hardware accelerated rendering, physics simulation, particle effects as well as image manipulation effects usually done in post production stages of a movie. Both engineering teams of Progeniq and cebas VISUAL TECHNOLOGY Inc. were able to achieve immense speedups in rendering complex scenes with finalRender by using the latest in re-configurable processors and advanced rendering algorithms incorporated in finalRender and Progeniq RenderBoost hardware acceleration technology. At the SIGGRAPH 2009 exhibition, both companies announce their world premiere of a hardware accelerated rendering solution based on finalRender and RenderBoost. This will be expanded with further releases to even more broadly optimize and accelerate other movie production tasks in entire CG workflows under the companies’ “Accelerating Hollywood Initiative”. With its technologies and products, cebas VISUAL TECHNOLOGY Inc. holds the key to all of the important fields of modern CG movie effects production pipelines. Together with the genius of Progeniq hardware acceleration and optimized software technologies, the companies are developing one unified integrated acceleration platform for all aspects of modern movie production. Internal rendering benchmark tests done by both companies with real world production scenes from “2012”, with thousands of objects and millions of polygons were rendered with hardware-accelerated finalRender in an average of minutes compared to hours on a 8-core CPU server CGI/VFX studios interested in integrating accelerated rendering solutions into their workflows can contact cebas VISUAL TECHNOLOGY Inc. and Progeniq to analyze and optimize their workflows for maximum compute efficiency leveraging on the hardware accelerators. About Cebas cebas VISUAL TECHNOLOGY Inc. is a German developer of advanced 3D special effects software for all major 3D applications on the market, now based in Victoria, BC Canada. With 20 years of experience in software development for the 3D market, cebas has become renowned for its quality and unique software products serving graphics and animation studios around the world. cebas VISUAL TECHNOLOGY Inc. has been part of many large scale movie productions like the upcoming “2012” or SPIDERMAN 3 and Blade Trinity to name a few. About Progeniq Progeniq is a leader in reconfigurable computing applications for High Performance Computing (HPC) industries, with accelerated algorithm engines already adopted by clients across different vertical markets worldwide. Today Progeniq continues to reinvent the way computing is done by leveraging on the Boost Platform to introduce reconfigurable computing into new compute-intensive industries, increasing the efficiency of computing systems while slashing acquisition and electricity costs. Related posts:Progeniq Launches RenderBoost Accelerated Engines for CGI / VFX AnimationsPress Release: Progeniq Receives Financing from BAF Spectrum 65Bits Episode 130: We are back, with plugs Our friends at Tech65 start their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape last week: [1] Singapore first in world to sell titles via direct download at stores, [2] Microsoft in new EU browser offer [a] [b], [3] How To Hijack ‘Every iPhone In The World’, [4] Windows Mobile becomes Windows Phone, [5] Microsoft and Yahoo in 10-year Web search partnership, [6] Twitter, Facebook attack targeted one user and the Byte of the week: Etherpad. Do click and check out their podcast. Related posts:65Bits Episode 126: Month of Smartphones 5 - The Summary65Bits Episode 111: !!!!111oneOneONE65 Bits Episode 78 : Cheap iPhones? In Conversation with the ThoughtBuzz Team ThoughtBuzz is a feature rich and powerful 24/7 real time application for tracking public content on social media networks. While it is a rather congested space considering two other competitors vying in the same place, the team seeks to make a difference with their new product, providing brands new analysis tools to understand the sentiments of their consumers. We caught up with both founders Anshul Jain and Ashok Patro and discussed about their product, what value does it generate for customers and not to mention how they plan to be different from their competitors. BL: Tell us about your background. What did you do before setting up ThoughtBuzz? ThoughtBuzz Team: Anshul Jain is the Founder/CEO of ThoughtBuzz. Anshul holds a Masters in Business Administration from SP Jain Centre of Management and an Honours Bachelors degree in Information Systems Management from Singapore Management University. A certified MCSE, Certified Ethical Hacker and Certified Citrix Administrator, he has worked for Oracle Financial Services, Singapore, managing clients such as Citigroup, Barclays and HSBC. With more than five years’ experience in social media, Anshul has led various discussions on Web 2.0 and its applications for business. He recently completed a paper on Enterprise 2.0: Dawn of Emergent Collaboration, which details how companies can use Web 2.0 tools and processes to add value to their businesses despite this economic downturn. Ashok Patro is the Co-Founder/COO of ThoughtBuzz. Ashok holds a Masters in Business Administration from SP Jain Centre of Management and a Bachelors Degree in Telecommunications Engineering from India. He has extensive experience in the wireless industry, working for a variety of clients including Samsung and Qualcomm Inc, USA for close to 5 years. Ashok has worked on various mobile frameworks like Windows Mobile 5.0, BREW, etc, consistently achieving high performance targets in his previous positions. From left: Anshul and Ashok. BL: What motivated you and your fellow co-founders to set up ThoughtBuzz? ThoughtBuzz Team: Initially when ThoughtBuzz was started in Feb 2009 our aim was to provide individuals a central place to manage their profiles on multiple social networks. However, soon we realized that such tools already exist and are pretty good so we decided that this wasn’t the right way to go. We then decided to shift focus to social media measurement when during our research we came across how increasingly important social media is to brands and companies. Almost all companies make use of social media some way or the other and they have no certain way to measure their ROI. This is where we believe we can help them and provide them with a platform to measure the impact and success of their social media campaigns. Though later we realized that there are a few products in this area, but they were a few issues which we felt are never answered like cost effectiveness, user friendliness and accuracy. Thus we target these 3 things to build upon. BL: Can you tell us about the product ThoughtBuzz as a social media monitoring tool? ThoughtBuzz Team: ThoughtBuzz is into media monitoring and helps companies monitor and track online conversations. It offers a full-feature analytics service with access to billions of social media conversations, as well as features such as automated sentiment and key themes. ThoughtBuzz is ideal for research, historical analysis, and the preparation of reports. It goes beyond what companies offer today and makes extensive use of real-time information. Other features such as demographics, topic intentions are also available. BL: What are the three interesting features on ThoughtBuzz that you want users to know about? ThoughtBuzz Team: Patent Pending sentiment analysis technology, Real time data tracking and analysis and User friendliness BL: Who are the customers for ThoughtBuzz? How do you create value for them? ThoughtBuzz Team: Any person or company with market presence and who get in contact with the consumers are our customers. As more and more people have access to internet and the different forms of social media, monitoring these has become very important. Thus MNCs, SMEs to PR and MR firms (taking care of their clients) and even individuals who are public figures can use ThoughtBuzz services. We create value by following ways: Keep them Informed – In the tangles of the worldwide web, ThoughtBuzz helps clients determine what’s important and what’s just noise. We have analytical and segmentation capabilities so they only pick up what’s relevant to them. Keep them Empowered – ThoughtBuzz finds out what customers love and hate about our client’s brand and competitors’, and enables them to make timely, informed strategic decisions to win in the marketplace Keep them Engaged – With ThoughtBuzz, B2C companies, from SMEs to MNCs, can proactively engage in a dialogue with consumers discussing their brand and effectively manage their online reputation. BL: How does ThoughtBuzz generate revenue as a social media monitoring tool? ThoughtBuzz provides a monthly subscription based monitoring tool to customers. Customers can enroll for an engagement period starting from as short as 3 months to 2 years. BL: Given there are other two competitors in the space: JamiQ and Brandtology, what makes you different from them? ThoughtBuzz Team: Real time data tracking and analysis, User friendliness and an exhaustive list of key features are among a few things which differentiates us from the competitors here in Singapore. BL: What are the major challenges that you encounter in your enterprise? ThoughtBuzz Team: As the story is with any young upstart, offering a cost effective service better than the competitors and being very young in the industry makes our work even more challenging as a new enterprise. BL: What are the three most important traits of an entrepreneur? ThoughtBuzz Team: Focus, hard work and belief in yourself are the 3 important traits of an entrepreneur. Everyone has ideas, but the tough part is to be focused and work towards executing it what makes an entrepreneur successful. And all these without the support of family and friends is next to impossible. BL: Thank you both for the interview and we wish ThoughtBuzz all the best in the road ahead. Related posts:Interview with Kelly Choo, Cofounder Of BrandtologyTBWA and Brandtology Partnership - AsiaPac Brands to Get More Strategic Digital OfferingCareer Opportunities At Brandtology TBWA and Brandtology Partnership - AsiaPac Brands to Get More Strategic Digital Offering One of the fastest growing top-ten global ad agency networks, the Asia Pacific unit of TBWA Worldwide has partnered global business and brand online intelligence service, Brandtology to develop a proprietary planning methodology to understand online behavior and drive brand strategies. A unit of Omnicom Group Inc, a leading global advertising, marketing and corporate communications company, TBWA Worldwide calls brands such as Adidas, Apple, Infiniti, McDonald’s, Michelin, Nissan, Samsonite, Singapore Airlines, Standard Chartered Bank and Sony PlayStation clients. This partnership will allow brands to create planned, anticipated or reactive strategies across owned, bought, earned or created channels, both online and offline. Both TBWA\ and Brandtology will also offer joint client solutions digital conversation research, auditing, ongoing monitoring, analytics and co-marketing activities. The TBWA\ and Brandtology proprietary methodology is being developed by TBWA\ Hong Kong and Brandtology’s China and Singapore Research Centres. They aim to roll out their offering in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore first and expand to cover other Asia Pacific countries over the next few months. For TBWA\, this partnership will strengthen their digital offering and add value to their clients. Clients who are these days, aware of the importance of online brand marketing and advertising and want to create a more holistic brand strategy. If you recall, Brandtology also has a partnership with Edelman. These two partnerships help Brandtology go-to-market more effectively by partnering an international public relations firms (Edelman) and an international advertising agency (TBWA). Increasingly, the roles of advertising and PR have begun to merge and the lines are becoming more blur. But the two partners will still leverage on Brandtology in slightly different ways: being a PR firm, Edelman will be better able to monitor their client’s online brand equity, engage the media and do damage control when needed; and being an ad agency, TBWA will be able to better target which mix of media channels will be best suited for their clients. To find out more about Brandtology, check out our interview with one of their co-founders a few months ago. Related posts:Edelman And Brandtology Partner To Deliver Pan-Asia End-to-End Social Media SolutionWalden International Invests S$2 Million In BrandtologyBrandtology Gets Visit From PM In Hangzhou Shekhar Mitra - SMU IIE Distinguished Speaker 20 Aug 09 Innovation and branding are core competencies of the world’s largest consumer goods company, Procter & Gamble. Innovation is the “life blood” of how P&G has sustained its strong growth for over 176 years. Senior Vice President, R&D, P&G, Dr. Shekhar Mitra will share case studies of launched products exemplifying how consumer inspiration, breakthrough technology and design comes together in touching/improving lives to the global marketplace. Distinguished Speaker: Dr. Shekhar Mitra, SVP - Research & Development, Global Beauty & Grooming, Materials Science & Technology and Global Fragrances & Flavors, The Procter & Gamble Company Dr. Mitra will talk from his personal experience of how: - Multifunctional teams engage in a creative, yet disciplined process to create delightful experiences for consumers - How “open” innovation, environment creates value and illustrates knowledge-based leadership as a winning organization model. Event details Date: Thursday, 20 August 2009 Time: 6-730 pm Venue: Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium, Level 2, (Schools of Accountancy & Law), SMU Register here. About the Speaker Shekhar Mitra is a Ph.D. Life Scientist who joined Procter & Gamble in 1984 moving up the leadership ranks to become the first Asian to be Senior Vice President of Global R&D. He is a member of P&G’s top executive team, the Global Leadership Council. In his global leadership role, Shekhar has been a “trailblazer” in creating strategic partnerships in many countries and with leading institutions. He was on-ground in China starting P&G’s well recognized global technical center in Beijing, China, and the strategic partnership with Government of India’s Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR). Shekhar’s contributions include leading the creation and development of “game-changing” technology platforms and innovation strategies that have resulted in well-known consumer products like Crest Whitestrips and ProHealth, Aleve Analgesic, Prilosec, Olay Regenerist, Olay Definity Skin Care, Hugo Boss Fragrances and Metamucil (cholesterol lowering) to name a few. Several of these, i.e., Crest Whitening Expressions, Whitestrips, Olay Regenerist and Prilosec were named among the top ten consumer product innovations by the Industrial Pacesetter Awards in the past few years. These innovations have created and grown major P&G brands and their equities with the help of noticeable benefits provided to global consumers fulfilling their unmet needs in a superior way. Shekhar Mitra has been awarded 25 patents to date in various fields and is an invited speaker on topics ranging from game-changing innovation approaches and organization development. Currently, Shekhar’s passion lies in enabling younger generation of professionals across all cultures, companies, and businesses to achieve their full potential in the field of science and engineering. Consistent with this, he is the founder and President of the first North American Society for Asian Scientists & Engineers (registered as SASE). In addition, he continues to collaborate with his wife, Anu, and children over the past 20 years to coordinate the efforts of the Asian community volunteer work with the free food store and soup kitchen in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Related posts:Event: Subroto Bagchi - SMU IIE Distinguished Speaker 8 Apr 09 Mediafreaks Working on New Virtual World Game for Kids Local 3D animation studio Mediafreaks has produced hundreds of projects ranging from animated cartoon series to television commercials to CGI, medical and architectural visualization work. This time, they are working on a virtual world for kids aged 7-14 that would be more like a Role-Playing Game (RPG) with social aspects thrown in rather than a virtual world like Habbo Hotel or Club Penguin. The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks Virtual World will be launched this Christmas. In their words: “The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks promises an experience in which players would be able to travel to factual and mysterious places around the world, travel through time and space, meet famous people from the past, play dozens of enriching and fun games, make new friends and party with them, buy exotic islands, build culture-inspired houses, wear clothes from different countries, explore secret locations, solve mysteries and puzzles and become a legendary traveler!” View this very short video teaser: The storyline of the virtual world is actually adapted from an apparently popular children’s book series so we can be reasonably assured that it is attractive to kids. Aimed at providing an ‘immersive learning’ environment, Wiglington and Wenks allows kids to learn about historical figures and landmarks as they play the game for these characters are all part of the storyline. Wiglington and Wenks will not be competing directly against Habbo Hotel or Club Penguin - where users enter the virtual worlds mainly to play and chat with friends - but against PopTropica and NeoPets, where games come before the social networking. Currently, it seems like Wiglington and Wenks will be most similar to PopTropica, where the player also navigates storylines and does quests. There is even an ‘island’ in PopTropica with the time-travel theme where players learn about different periods in history. The difference is that Wiglington and Wenks has taken the time-travel theme and extended it to the entire game. The virtual world will be in English but they are already planning Spanish, German and Mandarin releases. A futuristic game scenario. The revenue model of Wiglington and Wenks are threefold: premium subscriptions, micro transactions and sponsorships of virtual locations in the virtual world. This is standard play but it remains whether the virtual world will be compelling enough for the first two parts of their revenue model to be viable. As for the third, as long as the storyline is sticky enough, their main job would be to market the game so that the player base will grow quickly and large enough to warrant brands to come a’knocking. Even though they’re still months away from launching, they already have “thousands of signups”. So this means that Wiglington and Wenks will most likely have at least a good initial base of players who will play the game, but it’s what happens after they start playing that matters more. Nevertheless, the team has done a good job of marketing the virtual world and generating hype. The Singapore scenario from the game. The team behind Wiglington and Wenks is headed by Aldric Chang, founder of Mediafreaks. Now a 30-man strong company, Aldric has moved on from his professional music writer and producer days to animation and seems to have made good in this as well. (He has written and produced songs for Ho Yeow Sun!) How the idea of Wiglington and Wenks the virtual world came about was when Aldric thought that there were very few virtual worlds for kids that had really good graphics and a “truly imaginative world”. With his team’s award-winning animation background, he thought that with the right storyline, a great-looking virtual world for kids could result. It would also provide them with a good inroad into the B2C space as Mediafreaks’ B2B model was “slow to profit”. Then, Aldric stumbled onto John Bittleston and Eliza Quek’s The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks, and with the backing of the two authors, The Travels of Wiglington and Wenks Virtual World came to life. The graphics and storyline certainly seem promising, but we’ll have to wait till Christmas to make a proper verdict! View another video teaser for the virtual world, with parts of the storyline revealed [Edit: This was the original storyline, but has been adapted for the virtual world and casual game]: Related posts:The Geek Goddess Show Episode 3: Virtual Worlds & NetBash Events For The Week - Week of 8-15th Aug Sat, 8th Aug: (1) RYSEC Social Entrepreneurship Workshop (2) linuxNUS Hackfest The Third Tues, 11th Aug: (1) Microsoft Azure Bootcamp (2) Creative Crew Aug Meetup Thurs, 13th Aug: Seed Forum Singapore 2009 Fri, 14th Aug: Microsoft BizSpark Startup Night No related posts. Seed Forum Singapore 2009 - 13 Aug This Seed Forum Conference will focus on Information and communication technologies (ICT). The Conference will showcase 5-7 Norwegian ICT start-ups with a global perspective. Each presenting company was meticulously screened and shortlisted by the screening committee of Seed Forum International Foundation. Event Details Date: Thursday, 13th of August 2009 Time: 9am-8pm Venue: Pacific 1 Ballroom, Pan Pacific Singapore, 7 Raffles Boulevard, Marina Square, Singapore 039595 Registration The deadline for registration seems to be over, but you can try your luck here. Registration is on first-come-first-served basis, limited to first 100 seats only. Should you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact Kelly Han from BANSEA at (+65) 6777 7139 or Claus Gaasvig from Innovation Norway at (+65) 6222 1316. Thanks for the tip, Meng! No related posts. linuxNUS Hackfest the Third - Hack Reality - 8 Aug At linuxNUS Hackfests, you’re free to work on whichever development project you want. More importantly, you will get to meet and interact with other hackers with the aim that everyone passes a little knowledge around. This session, there will also be a group of fellow hackers who will be concentrating on looking at Augmented Reality development. Do join them for a day (and night) of hacking. Event Details Date: Saturday, 8th Aug 2009 Time: 1pm till late Venue: Microsoft, 1 Marina Boulevard, #22-01 One Marina Boulevard, Singapore 018989 Registration It’s not usual practice to collect information like that for linuxNUS Hackfests, but this time security at the venue has explicitly requested for such information (Name, NRIC/FIN/etc) in order to grant access. Rest assured the information collected will be used for the purpose mentioned above, and for that only. Collection of email addresses is solely for the use of provisioning for guest wireless accounts at the venue and nothing else. Register here. Thanks for the tip, Ruiwen! No related posts.