Tech in Asia » Emily Goh

16 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 19 May 2013 07:30:29 +0000

Here we are again with our weekly startup list! Remember, for startup tips and story suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list:

1. KreditAjai | Singapore

Singapore-based Loan Garage, a startup that aims to help people get loans online, announced that it has launched its Indonesian platform KreditAja.com just two months after Loan Garage made its full launch in Singapore. The Indonesian counterpart has also secured a partnership with Indonesia’s Ministry of Economic Coordination (KUR) to distribute loans and microcredit.

2. Videogram | Japan

Developed by Sandeep Casi at Cinemacraft in Japan – before moving to Silicon Valley as part of 500 Startups – it’s about helping people discover videos by displaying them in a sort of comic-book format (think of Flipboard) where the size of the frames is determined by how important Videogram’s algorithm thinks they are.

3. Kpaper | Vietnam

Kpaper is the first of its kind in Vietnam, and it’s an iOS and Android mobile app that allows users to read local magazines online, instead of having to download them.

4. Reep | Japan

Japan’s Reep is a mobile app that remembers the photos you took a year ago. It syncs with your iPhone camera folder, Instagram, Facebook, and Flickr to help sort your images based on dates.

5. Money Lover | Vietnam

Vietnam’s Money Lover is a finances and expenses manager application for individuals that enables users to track their spending over time and manage monthly or annual budget.

Zoolook is a Japanese app that has focuses on the social and photography side of clothing, and is made up of a social network where people can share and tag their favorite looks. It also has the presence of top fashion labels who have virtual “showrooms” within the social network.

7. HaivL | Vietnam

HaivL is like the 9gag of Vietnam and is a platform for users to throw up funny content that they found or created, and other users can like or comment on them. Presently, Haivl users are uploading between 3,000 to 4,000 photos daily.

8. ChatPerf | Japan

Currently still a prototype, Japanese ChatPerf is a hardware add-on for your iPhone that can actually emit smells – such as the smell of burning rubber in a racing game, the scent of coffee to wake you up in conjunction with an alarm app, or to blast some soothing incense as you use a yoga app.

9. CocCoc | Vietnam

CocCoc is a Russian-financed Vietnamese search engine that released of a new browser called Corom this week in their bid to take on search google giant Google.

10. W-Locate | Singapore

Singapore-based startup W-Locate recently announced that it has successfully raised a pre-series A funding, led by TNF Ventures under Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF) Technology Incubation Scheme (TIS), and has two core products- FIND and XimLoc, which are both location technologies that help manage companies’ vehicle fleets and workforces respectively.

11. PicMix | Indonesia

Indonesian-made photo app PicMix revealed this week that it passed the 10 million user mark last month, around three months after the app reached eight million users.

12. Muse & Co | Japan

Launched in February 2012, Muse & Co is a VIP flash sales site targeted at Japan’s savviest and most stylish shoppers. This week, the startup announced that it has raised series B funding for its fledgling e-commerce business with primary investors from Itochu Technology Ventures, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Infinity Ventures Partners (IVP).

13. Indiescapes | Singapore

Singapore-based Indiescapes is a curated marketplace dedicated to wanderlusts who seek out local, authentic travel experiences and to find experiences that are different from what normal travel packages from travel agencies can offer.

14. AppAnnie | China

App Annie is a mobile app store data provider with its headquarters in Beijing, China but it is operated with an international team and vision led by founder and CEO Bertrand Schmitt. Read about the story behind this startup!

15. Rumahku | Indonesia

Launched in February 2011 during the property boom in Indonesia, Rumahku is an online property portal which aims to help Indonesians find their desired properties online.

16. Wooz.in | Indonesia

Wooz.in is an Indonesian startup that incoporates NFC and RFID into its three different business models that utilizes online connection (such as Facebook and Twitter) in the offline world.

Events

Our upcoming Tech in Asia Meetup in Vietnam this 23 May 2013 (Thursday) in Ho Chi Minh City is officially sold out. However, we have another one upcoming. Join us on 9 June 2013 (Thursday) in Bangkok, as we have 500 Startups‘ Dave McClure with us to share about what he sees in Southeast Asia. Click here for event and free registration details!

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14 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 12 May 2013 10:00:21 +0000

This week, we have a bunch of inspiring founder stories from Singapore and South Korea, as well as investment news from a number of startups! Remember, for startup tips and story suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list:

1. CodeToki | Philippines

Codetoki is an achievement-based and game-like platform that aids fellow graduates in finding employment, by specifically matching applicants to the most suitable employers, and making them visible to future employers.

2. Dreadout | Indonesia

Developed by Badung-based Digital Happiness, Dreadout is a horror PC game that is receiving quite a bit of publicity both in Indonesia and globally.

3. Crowdbaron | Hong Kong

Crowdbaron wants to help make investing in real estate as simple as booking a hotel online. Folks who want to bolster their personal investment portfolio, the idea is that buying a small stake in one or numerous properties lets you take advantage of surging property prices in several countries.

4. Camera360 | China

Sichuan-based popular photo filter app Camera360 has announced this week that it accumulated 100 million global users across its three versions for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone. Camera360 is now in talks with a number of smartphone manufacturers to have its filters pre installed in some new phones.

5. Foodpanda | Asia

Launched in April 2012, Rocket Internet’s Foodpanda is an Asia-based food delivery startup that takes orders online from over 5,000 partner restaurants in nine Asian countries and employs 150 staff. It announced this week that it has grabbed another major round of funding from Sweden’s AB Kinnevik, Russia’s Phenomen Ventures, and several other unnamed investors.

6. Ticket Solutions | Indonesia

Launched in August 2012, Ticket Solutions’s Android app ‘Indonesia Flight’ enables its users to compare and book domestic flights in real time. The company revealed that it is now generating revenue of over IDR 4 billion ($400,000) every month using the ticket booking platform Tiket’s API, and has also released an iOS version of ‘Indonesia Flight’ this week.

7. StreetDirectory | Singapore

Founded back in 2000, StreetDirectory is a portfolio company of Hong Kong’s JDB Holdings, whose portfolio also includes JobsDB, 88DB, Openrice, Cozycot, FlowerAdvisor and SgCarmart (which was recently acquired by SPH). We recently had a chance to meet the founder during Startup Asia Singapore 2013. Read his inspiring startup story here!

8. Themis Reader | Indonesia

Meet Indonesian developer team Mahoni and its flagship iOS app Themis Reader The team claims that the app is the most expensive one made in Southeast Asia, and that it is actually selling. Guess how much does that app cost?

9. RocketLabs | Philippines

Designed as an educational software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform and currently still in beta, RocketLabs aims to integrate virtual labs, course media, and one-on-one instruction for enterprise-grade tech training. The startup was a finalist at the recent 2013 Echelon Philippines Satellite.

10. Mention | China

Beijing-based startup Mention recently walked away with the GMIC Seed Stage Award with its flagship product, Traintracks, a real-time behavioral analytics tool made by game designers for game designers to give them useful and powerful insights on user behavioral patterns.

11. Visualead | Israel

Israel-based startup Visualead is a QR code generator that converts ugly QR codes into visually appealing ones, and aims to be one of the most effective and useful technologies in leading consumers from offline to online. The startup walked away as the winner of the GMIC G-Startup Growth Stage competition.

12. Umeng | China

Founded in 2010, Umeng is like the Google Analytics for mobile applications in China and its currently serving over 100,000 mobile applications across all major mobile platforms — iOS, Android, and Windows Phone — with more than 50 percent of all Chinese developers using the service.

13. VNTIC | Vietnam

VNTIC is an online platform for buying and selling tickets for entertainment events and is connected to the ticket networks of other countries such as Singapore’s Sistic, Malaysia’s Ticketcharge, and Indonesia’s Kiostix, thus they are able to offer Vietnamese audiences access to events on these platforms.

14. MadeiraCloud | China

Beijing-based MadeiraCloud is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) venture that has the great concept of managing your cloud architecture the way you design it – diagrammatically. This week, the startup announced that it raised a round of series A funding from Sequoia Capital.

Events

Join us at our upcoming Tech in Asia Meetup in Jakarta this 16 May 2013 (Thursday) at 6.30pm. We look forward to seeing you there!

Jakarta Meetup: How To Monetize Mobile Apps

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Be Our ‘Plus Friend’ on KakaoTalk!

Emily Goh — Mon, 06 May 2013 05:00:48 +0000

Hello readers, Tech in Asia is now an official Plus Friend on KakaoTalk’s mobile messaging platform. We will be sending you two to three pieces of selected articles and updates via our KakaoTalk Plus Friend account each week.

If you are one of the 89 million KakaoTalk users, add us by scanning the QRcode on the right. Alternatively, you may also find our Plus Friend account by searching @techinasia within the app. We have more than 5,000 KakaoTalk friends connecting with us so far.

We welcome suggestions and feedback on what you’d like to receive on our official account platforms – we’re now on WeChat as well as KakaoTalk. Drop us a note via the comments below. See you on KakaoTalk!

How Memebox Bootstrapped to Become a $1 Million Company (VIDEO)

Emily Goh — Mon, 06 May 2013 03:00:13 +0000

Last Thursday, we had our second ever Tech in Asia Meetup in Singapore. This one featured Hyungseok Dino Ha, CEO and founder of Memebox Korea. To those who are not familiar with Memebox, it is basically the Birchbox of South Korea- a beauty sample subscription e-commerce service that is currently leading in terms of market share.

During the session, we were pleased to have Dino share with us his startup story, as well as providing insightful (and honest) answers to the questions posed by our audience during the Q&A segment.

Here are the highlights just in case you have missed the event. You can also watch the full video at the bottom of this post.

Humble beginnings

At the beginning, the three co-founders raised about $35,000 which Dino mentioned was not a huge amount of money, but just enough to get it running for about two to three months. They did not raise investment during the early stage because they simply did not have the luxury of time to prepare financial statements or reports for VCs. Thus, they decided that rather than wasting time preparing such reports, they’d focus on running the business.

In the first month, the Memebox team achieved $19,000 in revenue, followed by $54,000 in the second and $180,000 in the third. And so they accumulated sufficient funds to get the business going.

Hiring and motivating staff with few resources

In order to bootstrap, their first strategy was to hire interns from university and college at a salary of about $200 per month. Though it was really low, the interns still accepted the offer. Memebox retained their talent by keeping their promise on subsequent pay raises. As for the co-founders, they took home a salary of $700 each month.

Dino mentioned that in Korea, startups are a megatrend among intelligent people. Their main motivator is not the money, but the ambition of wanting to build the future. In fact, the first questions these talented individuals posed to the company was about the vision and culture, not about their salary and employee benefits.

Memebox marketing tactics

Dino emphasized that the co-founders’ DNA is in sales. For the first six months, they didn’t believe in hiring any engineers or designers, and instead outsourced everything cheaply. Thus in order not to lose focus, they invested only in hiring sales people at the start as an excellent sales team will drive sales.

Furthermore, they focused mainly on partnering with great brands, thinking that if they have good products on the site, subscribers will naturally start pouring in. No investments were made in Google Adwords, but instead, they engaged on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to spread the word on Memebox.

Complimentary Memebox samples were also distributed to bloggers to review, and Memebox also entered into a revenue-share model partnership with a Korean television talk show called Get it Beauty.

Another interesting fact: the company also roped in the famous entertainer PSY to collaborate for a special Memebox called PSY Energy Factory without having to fork out a single cent.

Before seeing the video of the Singapore event, you might like to know our next Meetup is back in Jakarta on Thursday May 16th, featuring Lichi Wu from Millennial Media who’ll share tips on mobile app monetization. You may refer here for event and registration details. We certainly hope to see you there! Here’s the Singapore Meetup video in full:

Not forgetting, a huge thank you to our awesome Sponsors:

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14 Startups in Asia that Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 05 May 2013 10:30:21 +0000

We welcome the week of May with a round-up of startups from all across the region. Remember, for startup tips and story suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list:

1. Instapps | Malaysia

Made in Malaysia, Instapps helps merchants to set up an online storefront within their Facebook page, allowing merchants to easily manage their product listings and sales.

2. Yongche | China

Beijing-based car rental startup Yongche has been diversifying recently, with its launch of a taxi finding app in the form of “DaChe Xiaomi”. This week, the startup has secured a massive new round of funding led by China Broadband Capital Partners. It previously raised series A funding in August 2011.

3. VietnamGeeks | Vietnam

VietnamGeeks is a specialist human resources site that focuses on software engineers.

4. My Dentist Pal | Philippines

Founded in January of 2012 by Cloudwalk Digital, My Dentist Pal is a web-based tool for dentists that aims to digitize the dental practice. It basically allows dentists to access patient records, tooth charting, and even simple do accounting.

5. Lenddo | Philippines

Philippines’ Lenddo utilizes connections, relations, and reputations from multiple social media sites to build a credit rating. Basically, it’s like Klout for credit ratings.

6. Hashiji | China

Hashiji is a curated directory of products (mostly clothing) that are actually sold on other e-commerce platforms in China, like Taobao. But in addition to the curation aspect, it offers users a much more pleasant shopping experience without the abundance of annoying advertisements.

7. SinglePet | Korea

SinglePet (not yet online) is a Korean startup that builds pet-care hardware which can be controlled through a mobile app. The hardware also enables owners to communicate with their pets when they are away, and even dispenses food for the pets. This startup was one of the winners of this week’s beLAUNCH 2013 Startup Battle in Seoul.

8. MessageSong | Korea

Another contender from the beLAUNCH event, MessageSong turns your messages into music.

9. STEP Journal | Korea

STEP Journal might look like just another social media application, but actually it serves as a personal private journal for users to record their daily activities. The startup was one of the ‘K-APP Global Business Project’ winners in at the beLAUNCH 2013 Startup Battle.

10. Perples | Korea

Perples enables smartphones to display relevant content upon detecting inaudible sound signals. So far, the company provides soundtag SDKs for brands, such as Dunkin Donuts, to make use of its technology to engage with customers.

11. CloudHerd | Australia

CloudHerd is a platform that allows farmers to manage the inventory and auctioning of their livestock.

12. Dokter Gratis | Indonesia

Indonesia’s Dokter Gratis is a mobile app for people in Indonesia to get a live consultation with a doctor, and the service is absolutely free of charge.

13. Tapxxi | Vietnam

Tapxxi allows folks in Vietnam to book a taxi and calculate the most effective route. It’s really useful for tourists and expats as it also brings down the language barrier.

14. LivEpicly | Indonesia

LivEpicly is looking to make your life more epic with easy and free restaurant table reservations in some Indonesian cities. It’s a bit like Singapore’s Chope.

Events

Join us at our upcoming Tech in Asia Meetup in Jakarta, on May 16th (Thursday):

Jakarta Meetup: How To Monetize Mobile Apps

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!

STEP Journal Visualizes Your Life

Emily Goh — Fri, 03 May 2013 02:00:29 +0000

STEP Journal might look like just another social media application, but on the contrary, it serves as a personal private journal for users to record their daily activities. The mobile app was developed by Korean startup WePlanet, and was one of the K-APP Global Business Project winners in Korea’s beLAUNCH 2013 Startup Battle.

One key feature of this app allows users to record their daily activities and life moments simply by clicking on a range of preset icons, instead of having to record via tedious text-based entries, which might be prevalent in other journal apps in the market. Users can also add in custom activities, events and even items to make the recording experience even more personalized.

STEP Journal also took its app one step further, adding value to the logged data by introducing a dashboard furnished with compiled information (see screenshots below) on the various activities the users have engaged in, along with the frequency level of each activity and concise descriptions.

Though it’s meant to be a personal journal, users can still share their activities on other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare.

In a conversation with CEO of WePlanet Daniel Cho, I learned that a new feature would be introduced to STEP Journal soon. By analyzing the collected data, the app will be able to make suggestions to help improve the life of the user, such as encouraging them to exercise if they don’t log physical activity often enough. It can also provide an infographic of recommended places for activities based on the total accumulated data from other STEP Journal users.

Currently, STEP Journal is only available on the iOS platform. An Android version is currently in the making.

14 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 07:30:21 +0000

Let’s sum up this week’s action with a round-up of startups from all across the region. Remember, for startup tips and story suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list:

1. Dreamdays | China

Built by the Guxiu team of three in Beijing, Dreamdays helps users remember and be alerted of dates and events that matter to them most. This mobile app is available in both English and Japanese.

2. Traverik | India

Bangalore-based Traverik helps to build your itinerary for you based on the places other travelers liked. In a way, it’s like crowdsourcing your travel plans.

Fully launched in December 2012, Shopby has a unique model that integrates both social and e-commerce to provide daily deals in Vietnam.

4. Bukalapak | Indonesia

We first mentioned Bukalapak back in 2011, so now’s a good time for an update. It’s an online C2C marketplace where people can buy or sell any goods at no cost, and also has the reputation of being the largest marketplace for bikes in Indonesia. This week, the founder also announced that he has started Netpreneur.co.id as a blog dedicated to advising people how to run a business.

5. GoRated | Philippines

GoRated is a platform that allows users to rate and give testimonials to your website, at no cost and without a steep learning curve.

6. Mou | China

The Chinese creator of Mou, a good-looking writing app for OS X, has launched interesting merchandise such as a tablet stand, beer bottle openers, and badges. It’s an unusual move for a startup to make, so we wanted to find out why.

7. Kleii | Vietnam

Kleii is an online cloud storage service from Vietnam. This week it closed its first round of seed funding with the goal of increasing brand awareness in Southeast Asia.

8. Taembe | Vietnam

Based in Vietnam and you in need of diapers? Look no further than Taembe.vn. The new e-commerce site, quietly released two weeks ago, focuses very specifically on online sales of diapers.

9. Dropmysite | Singapore

Dropmysite, a website and email cloud backup service has previously acquired a US rival and expanded into numerous countries. Just this week, the startup announced an investment from Dave McClure’s 500 Startups.

10. Gengo | Japan

Founded in 2009, Gengo is a platform for human translation of 33 languages, with over 7,500 experienced translators providing their linguistic services to small- and medium-sized business and major corporations. This week it secured a round of series B funding led by Intel Capital.

11. Triip | Vietnam

Vietnam’s Triip provides a platform to allow anybody with a tour idea to create their own travel package and sell it to interested tourists.

12. Sribu | Indonesia

Sribu is a startup marketplace from Indonesia that offers crowdsourced designs. Check out its newest growth statistics.

13. MoneyTree | Japan

MoneyTree aims to simplify the lives of users in Japan by providing them an effective way to record their finances. It’s kind of like Mint for Japan. It launched this week with a new iOS app.

14. Edisse | Australia

Sydney-based startup Edisse makes what it calls an innovative and lightweight watch that aims to minimize the risk of elderly people not being attended to when they fall.

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!

22 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:00:40 +0000

Here’s another lengthy round-up of startups this week from all across the region. Remember, for startup tips and story suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list:

1. 5945 | Taiwan

5945 is Taiwan’s up-and-coming online home repairs marketplace startup. The model is similar to America’s Redbeacon, which was acquired by Home Depot last year.

2. Wish.vn | Vietnam

Wish.vn is a healthcare social network community in Vietnam. It is basically a combination of electronic health records, a social network to allow patients to rate health care, healthcare information, promotions connecting with partners, and tools to help you keep up your health.

3. Zipdial | India

ZipDial is a unique company from Bangalore, India, that monetizes from missed calls. Its business model has caught the attention of Singapore-based Jungle Ventures who invested in the startup this week. Plus, ZipDial unveiled some expansion plans.

4. The Spark Project | Philippines

Officially launched in February 2012, The Spark Project is a crowdfunding community where Filipinos can support and fund creative, innovative, and passion driven projects.

5. Sieu Web | Vietnam

Sieu Web, which means Super Web in Vietnamese, is a new website-building platform that’s designed to make website creation very easy, with responsive designs and an easy-to-use dashboard for the user backend. It’s specifically designed for small businesses, e-commerce sites, and individuals – many of whom won’t be familiar with HTML or CSS.

6. Gotcha | Indonesia

Gotcha.in, which will fully launch next month, has created its own version of captcha which doesn’t require site visitors to type given words. Plus it gives website owners a way to make money while blocking spammers.

7. ZAPTag | Philippines

ZAPTag is a loyalty rewards platform from the Philippines with an impressive list of partnering merchants. It also claims to bring an innovative approach to the table, not even requiring a smartphone or a data plan.

8. Thehallyu | Indonesia

With the Korean cultural wave taking Indonesia by storm, Korean fashion e-store Thehallyu has rolled out an Indonesian language version of the site and is one of the latest vertical e-commerce sites popping up in Indonesia.

9. Nitrous.IO | Singapore

Singapore’s Nitrous.IO, Action.IO’s software development platform and key product, aims to help developers create a development environment in the cloud in a matter of seconds. It has also received a round of seed funding from a handful of VC firms in Silicon Valley.

10. Terrabook | Vietnam

Terrabook is a startup that develops educational mobile apps and platforms for Vietnamese kids. Terrabook has been a side project that the founders are hoping to grow into a fully-fledged app-making studio.

11. Xend | Philippines

Xend is a courier service provider that provides online real-time booking, online waybill printing, and auto-email shipment status notifications. It focuses primarily on online establishments and sellers, and has over 50,000 partnering e-commerce merchants.

12. Yodo1 | China

Yodo1 is a Beijing-based game development studio and publisher that helps overseas developers to publish and distribute their games in mainland China. It announced this week a major round of series A funding.

13. Burpple | Singapore

This week, social food app Burpple rolled out a user-submitted restaurant listings and reviews site in Singapore called Burpple Find. It’s an interesting challenge to Yelp from this local startup.

14. Hike | India

The New Delhi-based startup has rolled out Hike v2.0, a major update to its messaging app that aims to connect you more directly with what your friends are feeling.

15. Piktochart | Malyasia

Piktochart is a simple, fast online infographic builder for both designers and non-designers. Check out our interview with the co-founder, which is part of our female entrepreneurship series – she believes that women in startups are less stuck in the mud when the going gets tough.

16. Touchten | Indonesia

Indonesian game developer Touchten announced this week that the company has made a soft launch of its mobile game publishing platform and has secured its first publishing deal is with Indonesian game developer Tinker Games.

17. WeFuel | Singapore

Singapore-based non-profit organization One Cent Movement has launched a food delivery project called WeFuel, which strives to deliver quality food to office workers. It’s starting out by selling only soup dumplings.

18. PosteVN | Vietnam

Launched in February 2012, PosteVn is a Craigslist-esque site for Japanese expats living in Vietnam. It was immediately profitable via its online ads.

19. Shutterpair | Singapore

Singapore’s photo app Shutterpair is an instant and easy way for users to share photos taken on their mobile photos and digital cameras via collaborative albums.

20. Kay | Vietnam

If you’ve been following e-commerce and daily deals in Vietnam, you know that Nhom Mua fell hard late last year due to internal issues. And in the midst of that, Nhom Mua’s original founder, Tom Tran, got ousted. Well, Tom is back, with a new daily deals site to take on Nhom Mua, and it’s called Kay.

21 and 22. Lolabox, BeautyTreats | Indonesia

‘Beauty box’ startups – sites that offer monthly subscriptions for boxes of beauty products – seem to be taking off in Indonesia. These two rivals both launched recently – BeautyTreats last month, and Lolabox a few days ago. So we talked to both founders about their plans.

Events

It’s happening this week! Join us at our upcoming Tech in Asia Meetup in Singapore, which is on Thursday (25th):

Singapore Meetup: How Memebox Bootstrapped to $1 Million Annual Revenue

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!

19 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 09:08:45 +0000

Another really long list of startups this week from all across the region. Remember, for startup tips and story suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list:

Singapore’s Qlubbr is a brand new social nightlife app that focuses on gigs, festivals, and clubs. It helps people discover nightlife events in Singapore, and this startup has plans to expand in the region.

2. Lavandera | Philippines

Lavandera aims to streamline the laundry service industry in the Philippines and is designed to be used by both owners and customers of laundromats.

LongPlay is a very fun iPhone app that allows your friends to listen to your music. It originally started as a web service before launching its shiny new mobile app.

4. Coconuts | Thailand

Founded by journalist and entrepreneur Byron Perry in September 2011, Coconuts Media is a local review and news media company that now covers news in Bangkok and Manila – with a Singapore site scheduled to launch soon. The startup has also recently received funding from angel investors in Silicon Valley

FunSpot is a Singapore-based mobile social gaming company that recently announced a partnership with Indonesia’s largest telco, Telkomsel, to bring FunSpot’s services into neighboring Indonesia.

6. Geeky.vn | Vietnam

Geeky.vn is an interesting startup that ranks developers after putting them through a series of tests. It’s to help companies identify talented developers to recruit.

7. Wantedly | Japan

Wantedly is a Japan-based social recruiting site that was built on the belief that good hires usually happen through social recommendations. Read the startup founding story here.

8. KimZua | Singapore

Instead of heading to brick-and-mortar shops to purchase paper gifts and joss sticks for departed loved ones, Singaporeans now have the alternative to purchase them online at KimZua. Yes, it’s an e-commerce site dedicated to gifts for dead friends.

9. Pedala Bike Messengers | Philippines

Pedala Bike Messengers is a bicycle courier service in Manila founded and born out of the gas crisis in 2008 which aims to help companies save money and beat the traffic. It’s also a method to reduce the carbon footprint of companies.

10. Batdongsan | Vietnam

Launched in 2008, Batdongsan is one of Vietnam’s top real estate listings sites which has shown impressive growth statistics.

11. Maskr | Singapore

Maskr is a privacy service that allows you to create an unlimited number of free, anonymous aliases that can be tied to a single email address that you own.

12. Eventifier | India

Eventifier archives your events by collecting posts using the events’ official hashtags across major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. The startup has recently concluded a financing round for an undisclosed sum from KAE Capital and Chennai-based incubator The Startup Centre.

13. ImpulseFlyer | Singapore

ImpulseFlyer is a Singapore members-only online luxury travel site. It has just launched an iOS app, but has no plans to develop one for the Android platform as they believe that most of its members are iPhone users.

14. BrightPod | India

Mumbai-based startup Synage Software is taking on the world’s top project management web apps – things like Basecamp and Trello – with its minimalist and good-looking BrightPod. This will launch to the public next week, but TechinAsia readers can get early access right now.

15. Kuaidi Dache | China

Chinese startup Kuaidi Dache (meaning “fast taxis”) is a taxi-finding app that has flagged down seed funding this week. It currently operates in Shanghai and nearby Hangzhou.

16. CocCoc | Vietnam

CocCoc is a Russian-financed Vietnamese search engine that plans on pumping another $100 million into its business in the next decade to battle it out with Google.

17. Soccer Ticker | Indonesia

Soccer Ticker is a mobile application for BB10 that provides users with live soccer updates and scores and supports major European leagues. This application was also the overall winner of the Blackberry JamHack Asia competition.

18. VietnamWorks | Vietnam

VietnamWorks, Vietnam’s biggest recruitment firm, announced the other day that it has been acquired by En-Japan, one of Japan’s top online HR firms.

19. Iwannabuy | China

Iwannabuy is an e-commerce startup from China that caters to expats living in China. Uniquely, it supports payments in Bitcoin.

Events

Join us at our upcoming Tech in Asia Meetup in Singapore, happening on April 25th:

Singapore Meetup: How Memebox Bootstrapped to $1 Million Annual Revenue

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!

Coffee Chat: The Nuffnang Founders’ Story and The Lessons They Learned

Emily Goh — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 06:42:17 +0000

Most bloggers in Singapore would have probably heard of Nuffnang. But little do we know that the co-founders of the blog ad network actually first met at Pussycat Dolls concert, and admittedly, the initial success was propelled by our home-grown popular blogger, Xiaxue. So what are the lessons learned in this entrepreneurial journey since 2007? Our very own blogger, Willis Wee, takes to the stage to find out more from co-founder Ming Shen.

#14:26: MingShen says that they have about 7 million unique visitors a day currently. Nuffnang is a Singapore startup company with operations worldwide.

#14:25: In 2010, they were making $10million revenue. Presently, they have about double digit growth in revenue.

#14:28: Regarding the success of Nuffnang, he said it is contributed mainly due to luck and flawless execution as well.

#14:29: SPH has approached them regarding acquisition years ago. SPH offered a valuation of S$2 million initially.

#14:31: He makes more than enough to fly business class!

#14:32: Ming Shen says that as a small company, being quick and decisive has competitive advantage compared to bigger organisations.

#14:34: He finds that rejecting offers from potential investors and acquisitions is not challenging at all. To him, the most challenging problem so far was when one of his developers deleted the entire database!

#14:35: Nuffnang has just opened an office in UK.

#14:36: The key to expand out of Singapore- one can do it alone, or enter into a good partnership. He mentioned that Malaysia is the most profitable, firstly because of the productivity of the workers.

#14:37: Besides Nuffnang, they founded a social media seeding community called Churp Churp which helps spread brand messages, an online shopping mall called Jipaban and an online video producing company.

#14:39: Regarding the current entrepreneur system right now, Ming Shen says that the focus is just to make money (at least for sustainability) instead on just focusing on getting funding. Start lean at the beginning, and find a strategy to cover the bases as soon as possible.

#14:40: Ming Shen believes in investing in a person- a true entrepreneur. In his words, a true entrepreneur is someone who is willing to takes risks in time, money and even life.

#14:43: That’s all for the the live coverage!

This is a part of our coverage of Startup Asia Singapore 2013, our event running on April 4 and 5. For all our newest Startup Arena pitches, see here. You can follow along on Twitter at @techinasia, and on our Facebook page.

3D Without Glasses with EyeFly3D

Emily Goh — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 14:35:21 +0000

Now, consumers are able to abandon bulky 3D glasses and carry a 3D screen on-the-go with Singapore’s EyeFly3D, the brainchild of Temasek Polytechnic (TP) and A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE).

Launched officially yesterday, EyeFly3D is a simple plastic filter, similar to a regular mobile device screen protector, which allows distortion-free viewing of 3D content in both portrait and landscape mode. It’s less than 0.1mm thick and can be added onto or removed from your smartphone with ease. Using IMRE’s proprietary nanoimprinting technology, the plastic film has about half a million ‘perfectly shaped’ lenses engineered onto its surface. It’s being marketed by local startup Nanoveu.

EyeFly3D is a two-year project that was funded under a National Research Foundation (NRF) R&D grant in December 2010 and was initially focused on optimizing control of the nanostructures and integrating them with complementary software applications. Now, TP and IMRE have since shifted their focus towards commercialization with the assistance of Exploit Technologies Pte Ltd which is ASTAR’s technology transfer arm that also helps to gather home-grown technology, funding, networks and collaboration together to help ASTAR startups.

The team will also be exploring the possibilities of implementing the same technology in banking and security, such as for security access tokens. In a preview shown to the media, an example was to have a credit card installed with the plastic filter that allows the holder to decode an encrypted pin on the website to prevent phishing and fraud.

According to Alfred Chong, founder and CEO of Nanoveu:

This removable plastic also opens up a multitude of opportunities for anyone wanting to create affordable premium 3D content and games for quick adoption to existing portable devices easily.

The startup is also in the midst of licensing the technology exclusive for ETPL and TP and will be collaborating with local stereoscopic 3D CG animation production company Tiny Island Productions, to create more 3D content for EyeFly3D.

Presently, the plastic screen filter on the EyeFly3D is only compatible with the Apple iPhone 5 and iPod Touch (5th generation). Owners of other mobile devices, such as Android or iPads will have to wait a few more months. As for compatibility with other devices such as Blackberry and Windows Phone, the company will be gauging the market demand before initializing its production, which takes place in Japan and Korea.

EyeFly3D is open for preorders on their website, retailing at US$34.95 per piece, and it is expected to ship internationally from April 27th 2013. It will also hit the shelves of local distributors such as Epicentre, in mid-April. Nanoveu will also be working with distributors to bring EyeFly3D to other countries such as the US, UK, Australia, and Thailand.

Check out the video below for an introduction of how EyeFly3D works:

Women in Startups: Why We Need Them, and Why You Should Care (Live Blog)

Emily Goh — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:54:58 +0000

Following up, we have an all-woman discussion panel on female entreprenurship featuring the following entrepreneurs:

Aileen Sim, Co-founder at BillPin
Alexis Horowitz-Burdick, Founder and CEO at Luxola.com
Meri Rosich, Founder and CEO at Quality Time Lab
Gina Romero, Head of The Athena Network, Singapore
Carmen Benitez, Founder at Fetch Plus Inc

#15:38: Alexis finds that gender is not an issue in hiring. As for Carmen, she finds that hiring woman will affect business in a positive way.

#15:39: For Meri, she finds that hiring female might provide a different perspective to the business in terms of marketing and strategy and that having gender diversity is a good idea. Gina also agrees, but emphasizes that it is essential to hire people that will fit the company’s culture.

#15:43: The question posed to Gina: What is the statistic of women demographic in the startup scene? She states that 5% of startups are owned by woman in Singapore, while in Silicon Valley, 10% of the startups are founded by women.

#15:44: Alexis shares that employs 60% women and 40% men in Luxola.com. Carmen finds that we should encourage woman to work in startups, as she feels that at the end of the day it is easier to work in a startup.

#15:47: Aileen says the main point is to find the best person for the job, but not to discriminate any gender. However, there is still no doubt that everyone has gender biases, and that our mindset has already been conditioned.

#15:49: Vanessa pointed out that in the panel, Aileen is the only Asian entrepreneur stage. What is typically expected of an Asian woman and do such expectations are actually stops them from entering startups or even taking on leadership positions?

#15:50: Meri mentioned that every country has different expectations for men and women, and says that we should encourage and have more female role models to show that the startup world is exciting.

#15:57: For Alexis, she mentioned that they are adding 20% headcount to Luxola every month and is on the lookout for the best skillset.

#15:59: Carmen said that she will not rule off hiring females who are bearing a child as they might be able to work from home, instead from the office.

#16:00: Meri also commented that females entrepreneurs should not hold back if they would like to start a family. She added that multi-tasking could even make themselves more efficient.

#16:03: Meri mentioned that Asia is the next emerging market with a great talent pool be it female or male.

#16:05: Gina advise potential female entrepreneurs to actively seek for opportunities in the market for their ideas. Meri also agrees that everyone should dream big, and to look out for investors for instance.

#16:09: An audience brought up the issue of funding from investors for female entrepreneurs, whether if it is difficult to convince investors to invest in them compared to a male entrepreneur. Meri says that it depends on the investors you speak to. If the investor is a good match for you, they will create a good connection and bring your business to the next level.

#16:10:Alexis finds that the most important issue is to sell your idea and represent your startup well, and not an issue of gender when it comes to investing.

#16:13: Meri finds that it is similar to dating. As for Aileen, she has yet to run into problems explicitly when looking for funding, or have investors asking her questions about her personal life.

#16:18: That’s all folks for the live coverage for this interesting discussion! Stay tuned for our Startup Arena coverage coming up next!

Understanding Neighbouring Markets with Mike, Mimee and Reza

Emily Goh — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 11:55:53 +0000

This evening, we are pleased to have a panel of distinguished guests from Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam to give us an insight on Singapore’s neighbouring markets. Held at Biopolis, tonight’s sharing and networking session is a prelude to tomorrow’s Startup Asia Singapore conference involving speakers:

Reza, FOWAB in Bandung, representing Indonesia startup scene
Mimee, Thumbsup, representing Thailand startup scene
Mike Tran, Keewi, representing Vietnam startup scene

(The liveblog will auto-update below)

12 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 07:30:45 +0000

We hope you’re loving our new site makeover! As always, here’s our weekly list featuring a bunch of hot startups from all over Asia. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list:

1. Tribehired | Singapore

Tribehired is a social recruitment startup based in Singapore, and taps into its users’ Facebook connections to spread job recommendations. The startup wrapped up a round of funding led by TNF Ventures this week.

Thai startup Fourleaf helps hotels to create beautiful looking menus on that can be given to guests on iPads. So, instead of browsing through the usual paper menu, Fourleaf conveniently digitizes menu content and order processes on the device.

3. Adzcentral | Singapore

Founded in 2009, Singaporean startup AdzCentral coins its service as “scientific media buying”. It provides advertisers with a one-stop shop to buy ad spots in real-time, using techniques such as visitor profiling, targeting, optimization and differential bidding.

4. Kreditmart | Indonesia

Started in 2008, Kreditmart sells a range of large, business-oriented goods, from heavy machines to electronics, and offers payment in installments to consumers even if they do not own any credit cards.

5. CheckInTonight | Cambodia

Founded in late 2012, CheckInTonight is a Cambodia-made mobile app that helps users find hotels and book them quickly and cheaply on the very day you need a place to rest your head.

6. Not A Basement Studio | Vietnam

Not A Basement Studio is an mobile app developer startup based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It has recently released a brand new app, KeepShot, on the US app store. Do also check out our previous interview with them here.

7. Scoop | Indonesia

Scoop is an Indonesian e-reader startup and book webstore that announced this week a range of major partnerships with publishers across India, Singapore, and the Philippines. Those will bring a lot more magazines into the Scoop store.

8. Giao Hang Nhanh | Vietnam

Vietnam’s Giao Hang Nhanh (GHN), which means “Fast Delivery”, is an e-commerce delivery and logistics business, aiming to solve the payments and deliveries issues in Vietnam’s growing online shopping industry. Read our exclusive interview the the founder.

9. OfferChat | Philippines

Founded in August 2012, Philippines’ OfferChat is a live chat software that is available for use at absolutely no cost for users. So, how do they monetize? Read our story to find out!

10. Stilomo | Indonesia

Stilomo, one of the first graduates from the Jakarta Founders Institute, is a mobile app that allows users to get promotions/deals by sharing them to social media accounts. It launched its mobile site for daily deals last month and now also lists current deals from nearby venues and companies like malls and banks.

11. TradeHero | Singapore

TradeHero is a mobile app for trading virtual money based on real-world stock market data. We checked out the startup’s growth statistics since its launch in late 2012.

12. KT Care | Myanmmar

The Myanmar-based NGO is fighting to improve education in Myanmar through increasing computer and internet literacy in the region. KT Care is currently running a crowdfunding campaign (you can donate here) that, if successful, will allow it to open a print shop where all proceeds will be funneled directly into computer and IT training classes that will be provided at minimal cost to students.

Events

It’s just four days until we return with TechinAsia’s Startup Asia Singapore 2013 Conference. Here’s the almost-complete compilation of all the previews of the awesome speakers that will be onstage:

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!

Startup Lessons from Evernote (VIDEO)

Emily Goh — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:52:41 +0000

Last Thursday marked our first meetup in Bangkok where we were pleased to have Evernote’s Tiang Lim Foo for a coffee chat to share with our participants some interesting insights on the company’s culture – and to give some valuable startup lessons.

We know that Evernote has a lot of users in Asia, especially in the Southeast Asia region, so it’s a company to watch.

Tiang Lim now ~~heads Asia-Pacific~~ manages the Southeast Asia market development at Evernote, but has previously worked with startups in Singapore prior to his stint in Evernote. He mentioned several key differences between working in a Singapore-based startup and a larger-scale one. Funding and cash-flow were the first issues to be brought up (see the whole chat in the video below).

He explained more about the changes he experienced being in Evernote:

We’re quite lucky in the fact that we are at the position where we are pretty well-funded – that allows us to be at the position where we could take more creative risks. Not just in terms of product design, but also in terms of marketing and expansion. And that’s a really exciting phase for us to be in. And to me, it’s learning very fresh new things at a very fresh company cycle.

Key startup lessons learned from Evernote

One of the key things that Tiang Lim shared was the need for startups to be consistent, be it in leadership or communicating the brand, business, or product to the users.

In the case of Evernote, it has kept the message really consistent over the years, such as making privacy their top priority and treating all data seriously. He emphasized that building trust with customers takes years of effort, and this can only be achieved through consistency.

He advised startups to always keep in mind the core mission and the promise to deliver:

You can have different products, different services, or pivot, but at its core, you need to have some principles and values to stick by as this builds trust – and trust builds brands.

Evernote currently has about 270 employees in eight offices around the world. In Asia specifically, there are 25 employees across the Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and China offices.

Watch the full video below to understand more about Tiang Lim’s role at Evernote, the company culture, and expansion into the Asian market:

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13 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 12:10:53 +0000

Here’s our newest weekly list featuring a bunch of hot startups from all over Asia. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list:

1. Cubie | Taiwan

Launched in March 2012, Taiwan’s Cubie is a mobile messenging app that has almost 8 million users, and is run with a bootstrap team of 12. It’s up against giant messaging apps like Line and KakaoTalk. Cubie received a round of investment late last year, and was recently featured on the front page of the Google Play store for a good nine days. Learn how the team got their app featured in this report.

2. Nonstop Games | Singapore

Nonstop Games is a Singapore-based tablet and mobile game development startup with Finnish roots. This week it raised a big round of funding that will help boost its popular Heroes of Honor title.

3. Alegrium | Indonesia

Alegrium is a self-funded startup based in Indonesia that is the brain behind the Icon Pop Quiz[a] game that received props from Korean singer PSY back in December. Now the developers launched a sequel called Icon Pop Brand. The new game is proving so popular in Indonesia that it even knocked a very popular messaging app from the first position on the country’s iOS free app chart.

4. Tapmee | Vietnam

Tapmee is a Vietnam-made location-based chat and dating app just launched this week on Android. The app is being developed by five people and looks really good.

5. Veritrans | Indonesia

Veritrans is an Indonesian payment gateway for credit cards which promises to deliver online transactions that are easy, cheap, and quick. It has recently relocated to a brand new office and has also released news about its plans for the next few months

6. IG9 | Vietnam

Officially launched this week, IG9 is Vietnam’s first homegrown crowdfunding platform. It is founded by Nam Do, the current CEO of Emotiv, along with a full-time team of seven from a motley crew of startups based out of Hanoi

7. Kleii | Vietnam

Kleii is a Vietnam online cloud storage service, similar to Dropbox, which was covered by us earlier this year. Recently, it has amassed significant growth in the number of users, despite suffering a week-long downtime outage.

8. Adzcentral | Singapore

Singapore-based AdzCentral provides clients with a one-stop platform for convenient automated digital ads-buying, covering social ads, search, mobile, email, and video. The startup concluded a financing round with Electric Sheep Capital and Digital Media Partners (DMP) this week.

9. Brand24 | Indonesia

Brand24.co.id, an Indonesian company that specializes in monitoring online social marketing, opened its doors last week. It analyzes conversations across Indonesia’s social media, identifies people’s sentiment, and points out the current trends. The service can also help make reports and infographics for brands. (It’s the same team us this fun graphic about social Jakartans!)

10. HotelQuickly | Thailand

Launched just this week at Webmob’s Bangkok Meetup, HotelQuickly is a convenient mobile-only service that helps users book hotels really quickly. It’s available in six Asian countries now. Four out of five of HotelQuickly’s founders are based in Bangkok, Thailand.

11. Zomato | India

Not long after expanding to Europe with restaurant listings for London, now India’s Zomato has launched for foodies in Manila, capital of the Philippines. It marks the first move into Southeast Asia for Zomato, and brings in-depth information on over 9,000 restaurants in Metro Manila.

12. Luxa | Japan

Luxa.jp is a luxury-oriented e-commerce site where items, (from pricey sake to expensive skincare products), are sold at useful discounts during flash sales. Just this week, Luxa announced major series B funding.

13. Perx | Singapore

Singapore-based mobile loyalty app Perx has been showing steady growth over the past year. Besides helping merchants to manage their loyalty cards digitally, the app now incorporates a new Net Promoter Score (NPS) Loyalty Task feature for merchants.

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Learn to Design and Code at Startup Academy
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Kompas Group’s Gramediana Hints at Emulating Amazon’s Kindle Business Model?

Events

TechinAsia’s Startup Asia Singapore 2013 Conference is now less than two weeks away and we are really excited! Here are two more previews of the great speakers we’ll have onstage:

KakaoTalk: From Startup to a Giant Mobile Platform (Startup Asia Preview)
How E-Commerce King Taobao Is Expanding Out of China (Startup Asia Preview)

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!

10 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 12:30:49 +0000

1. Appota | Vietnam

Founded in 2011, Appota is a mobile app delivery platform that serves as a medium between app developers and smartphone users – and aims to get the general public to pay up for their apps.

2. Guanxi.me | China

Chinese startup Guanxi.me is a Momo and Skout-like location-based dating and chat app. Back in October last year, the startup received series A funding from Singtel Innov8. This week the startup came up with a funny music video about the dangers of modern day dating – see the video in the post.

3. Jooix | Singapore

Launched in 2011, Singapore’s Jooix is a highly-curated fashion/beauty e-commerce startup which announced this week that it successfully raised a round of funding from Beacon New Ventures.

4. OgahMahal | Indonesia

While many people in Indonesia are still reluctant to purchase sexy lingerie from brick-and-mortar shops, OgahMahal, a one-month-old specialist online store that sells only lingerie, steps in to provide consumers a more convenient avenue for alluring attire.

5. Medeel | India

Indian startup Medeel is a useful online platform that lets patients submit their medical records to multiple hospitals and solicit bids for their treatment options online.

6. Scoop | Indonesia

Scoop is an Indonesian e-reader startup and book webstore that has just announced a major new distribution partnership with arguably Indonesia’s number one national newspaper, Kompas.

7. Agate Jogja | Indonesia

Indonesian game developer Agate Jogja this week released its twenty-third Titok title called Titok: Menerjang Meteor (meaning “charging against meteors”). Always keen on topical subjects for its games, this latest Flash-based game was inspired by the meteor that hit Russia last month.

8. Chope | Singapore

Singapore-based restaurant booking site Chope has more good news in the form of an investment round led by Singapore Press Holdings. We talked to Chope’s CEO about expansion plans.

9. NusaResearch | Indonesia

Launched in November 2011, NusaResearch is an Indonesian online market research startup that aims to be the nation’s top online survey site by the end of 2013. The startup believes that its Japanese expertise can help spice up the Indonesian research ecosystem.

10. Colorbox | Vietnam

Colorbox is a mobile gaming startup that started in 2009 with seven co-founders who used to work at Gameloft. Last February, the startup received investment from Japanese VC firm Cyberagent Ventures, and after showing impressive growth overseas, Colorbox will be releasing a new game aimed at its home market.

Events

TechinAsia’s Startup Asia Singapore 2013 Conference is getting even closer now, and we’re counting the days til the April 4 and 5 event. Here are five more previews of the great guests we’ll have onstage:

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!

12 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 08:50:08 +0000

Beijing-based ZaiZheris a location-based business messaging service app that was acquired this week by one of China’s top LinkedIn-like sites.

2. MyRepublic | Singapore

MyRepublicis a new internet service provider in Singapore that provides high-speed fibre optic web connections for consumers and enterprises, and has recently celebrated its one year anniversary last week. Read about its huge battle up against the country’s top three ISPs.

3. SilverLine | Singapore

SilverLineis a civic-minded startup from Singapore that builds specialist apps for senior citizens that will then be given to elderly folks on donated iPhones.

4. Paishouba | China / Germany

Paishouba is a multimedia app store from Berlin and Beijing-based startup 88tc88that sells totally legal apps, mobile games, e-books, and music, with a social networking element. But are Chinese netizens ready to pay up?

5. Qajoo | Indonesia

Indonesian game developer Qajoo has released its second game title, Cak DuRae, on the new Blackberry 10 platform, concurrently with the launch of the Blackberry Z10 in Indonesia. The game is soon heading to Android and iOS as well.

6. Metaps | Japan

Launched in August 2011, Metapsis an Android monetization platform that helps developers earn money from their Android apps by applying adverts, in-app cross-promotions, or gaining new users from social media sharing. This week, the Japan-born startup announced series B funding that’ll help with its overseas push – including into China.

7. Lots of Buttons | Hong Kong

Lots of Buttons is a Hong Kong-based vertical e-commerce site that sells just buttons. It initially started out as a fashion site, but was advised by an investor to sell only buttons to maximize the impact of the URL.

8. Happy Ending | Vietnam

HappyEndingis in the serious business of being a specialist e-commerce store that offers a selection of flower collections – despite greeting its visitors with a unique and very sexy site introduction.

9. Passkit | Hong Kong

Founded in June 2012, Hong Kong-based startup PassKitenables customers to create mobile wallet passes for both iOS and Android devices. The startup has just concluded series A funding this week.

10. Redmart | Singapore

Redmart is a Singapore-based online supermarket that has groceries delivered right to your doorstep. This week the startup confirmed that it has received investment from East Ventures. The investment follows the same terms as Golden Gate Ventures who invested in December.

11. iCarsClub | Singapore

Singapore-based iCarsClub is a peer-to-peer marketplace for renting cars. Just this week, it announced that it has successfully wrapped up a round of investment from Red Dot Ventures, and will be looking to expand the business to other countries in the region, starting with mainland China.

12. SocialCops| Singapore

Singapore-based civic startup SocialCops lets citizens in India report everyday issues – such as pollution, potholes, and other street-level hazards – so that they can be solved by local authorities.

Interested to pitch at our Bangkok Meetup on March 21st? Click to find out more! Bangkok Meetup: Startup Lessons from Evernote
Project Eden Shares Lesson in Mentoring Startups
Why (Almost) Every Startup Should Be Working From Home
Thailand’s Chiang Mai Now Has a Co-Working Office with ‘Pun Space’
Less Than 14% of Chinese App Developers Make a Profit, Says China Mobile Executive
How 2C2P Plans To Solve Payment Problem in Southeast Asia [VIDEO]
Lei Jun Explains Xiaomi’s ‘Selling-Through-Scarcity’ Sales Tactic
Rakuten Sets Up $10 Million Startup Strategic Fund in Southeast Asia
There is No Glamour in an Asia Startup
Happy Ending’s Shock Advertising Teaches you to Think Different
Part of our Female Entrepreneurship series: Founder of Fetch Plus: Many Women Carry the ‘Survivalist’ Mentality

Events

TechinAsia’s Startup Asia Singapore 2013 Conferenceis just a few weeks away. To hype you guys up for the event, here are a few sneak previews of what you can expect from Startup Asia 2013:

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!

Starhub Partners with Taiwan’s KKbox to Launch its Own Spotify, Music Anywhere

Emily Goh — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 03:08:00 +0000

Singapore telco Starhub has officially announced Music Anywhere, an online digital music streaming service and store, in collaboration with Taiwan’s Spotify-like company KKBox which has over 10 million songs from 500 international labels.

With the collaboration, Music Anywhere users will be able to enjoy KKBox content in Singapore. The service will be launched in April and it still an unknown if the service is run as native mobile app/desktop client or through a web browser. Music Anywhere will be available to everyone in Singapore, not just Starhub subscribers. All that is required to enjoy the service is a free registered Hub ID account with Starhub.

To ensure users purchase music content legally, Music Anywhere entices users with exclusive perks such as music concert tickets, meet-and-greet sessions and even interact with their favorite artists on the site’s new social networking platform.

The company has yet to reveal details about the cost and availability of Music Anywhere – all that will be announced next month when the service makes it official debut. If you’re in Singapore and are interested in Music Anywhere, you may register your interest here.

Another similar service in Singapore is fellow telco Singtel’s Amped, which offers music streaming and track downloads at various price plans.

10 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 13:33:09 +0000

1. Maskool | Indonesia

Maskool.in is an Indonesian men’s fashion e-commerce website with locally-made products that ship for free to customers in the country. This e-tailer startup recently received funding from Indonesian venture capital firm Grupara.

2. Teknoup | Indonesia

Indonesian gadget review and e-commerce site TeknoUp announced this Friday that it now accepts payment by credit card, which is an all-too-rare development on the country’s shopping sites.

3. Appconomy | China

Sino-US startup Appconomy launched a service called Zhangyingbao to help merchants on China’s seminal e-commerce site Taobao to create a native mobile app for their online stores.

4. Nulisbuku | Indonesia

NulisBuku, branded as a print-on-demand publisher, was launched back in October 2010 to help users publish and sell their books quickly.

5. ACproperty | Australia

Australia-based ACproperty was launched officially in June 2012 as a property listings portal aimed at mainland Chinese and overseas Chinese property buyers.

The India-based startup Creative Nature’s DepartedLife project calls itself “the world’s first social networking site for departed souls.” We just had to take a look at this.

7. SnapTee | Hong Kong

SnapTee is a fashion e-commerce startup from Hong Kong, which has an iPhone app where users can customize and create their own T-shirts – then get the finished garment delivered to their door anywhere in the world. This week, the startup attracted some useful seed funding.

8. ChatWork | Japan

Japan’s ChatWork is an easy-to-use business communication and collaboration platform, sort of like Yammer. It turned two years old this week and has revealed some pretty impressive figures on its growth.

9. White As Milk | Singapore

Singapore-based White As Milk is a new online store where parents can either get monthly ‘subcom’ babycare parcels, or order individual items like diapers and baby milk formula.

10. Oi Zoi Oi | Vietnam

With Vietnam’s e-commerce scene now flourishing, it’s a good time for one startup to try to corner the market as a product search engine for all these online stores. That’s where Oi Zoi Oi comes in.

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!

8 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 10:00:58 +0000

Here’s our newest weekly startup list, once again with a number of startups receiving rounds of investment. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list.

1. ShopSpot | Singapore

ShopSpot is a Thailand and Singapore-based mobile commerce startup that follows a consumer-to-consumer (C2C) model, similar to that of China’s Taobao, but mainly for mobile. The startup recently received a round of funding from Jungle Ventures (with Singapore government money) and SingTel Innov8.

2. Scirocco Cloud | Japan

Scirocco Cloud is a Japan-made, cloud-based Android compatibility testing platform for developers. To date, Scirocco Cloud has over 250 clients using its service and plans to open data centres in Singapore and Silicon Valley.

3. Cheers In | China

China-based Cheers In is an e-commerce startup that delivers some of the world’s most unique beers to the doorsteps of Shanghai residents, served chilled, within one to three hours. Just this week, the startup wrapped up seed funding and is planning to expand around China as well.

4. WalletKit | India

India’s WalletKit is a platform for creating good-looking cards for Apple’s Passbook or Google Wallet. The startup is one of the most recent batch of 500 Startups graduates, emerging from the incubator with some funding and renewed conviction about the path ahead.

5. MOGi | Singapore

Singapore’s MOGi Mobile Wallet is a mobile app which allows users to pay for goods and services using their phone and to store things like discount vouchers and loyalty cards in one convenient, virtual space. The startup secured investment led by TNF Ventures (TNF) this week.

6. MeroCampus | Nepal

Nepal-based MeroCampus aims to be an online hub and marketplace for students and educational establishments. Among many plans for expansion, it’s soon aiming at other developing nations.

7. Payroll Hero | Philippines

Philippines and Canada-based Payroll Hero offers a unique service that helps companies keep track of employees using biometric facial recognition to ensure workers are at work when they should be. Happily, it got funding this week too.

8. Zalora | Indonesia and SEA

Rocket Internet e-commerce portfolio company Zalora Indonesia celebrated its first anniversary earlier this week by holding another sales program for its customers. The Indonesia branch announced some expansion details as well as new mobile applications for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry coming soon.

11 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 08:00:50 +0000

Here’s our newest weekly startup list, this time featuring eleven young companies from across the region. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list.

1. Trip Tern | India

Trip Tern automates the travel-planning process, giving you a daily itinerary that’s designed to fit your interests and maximize your traveling efficiency. It is currently only accessible via web browsers, but a mobile application is in the making and will be aiming for launch sometime this year.

2. Karir Rakyat | Indonesia

Karir Rakyat (meaning “people’s career”) is an Indonesian job portal launched last month. It offers yet another alternative for Indonesians who are looking for jobs online and focuses on being a lot more visual and pleasant to browse. It even has localized job maps.

3. JinJin | China

JinJin is an app developed by the Sino-US startup Appconomy, and appeals to both shoppers and retailers. It can serve as a mobile wallet that holds loyalty cards, discount coupons, allows mobile payments in-store, and even lets you gift a product to a friend. For retail partners, it offers tools for understanding customers and how they shop, and permits the targeting and automation of shopping promotions.

4. Tokyo Otaku Mode | Japan

Tokyo Otaku Mode focuses on the otaku community surrounding Japanese anime, manga, and cosplay, with its venture starting out as a Facebook page before launching as a standalone site. Then came its funy photo app. Just this week, it announced that it has attracted funding from YJ Capital (an investment subsidiary of Yahoo Japan) and more investors.

5. e27 | Singapore

Singapore’s technology-focused media company e27 has announced this week that it has concluded a S$760,000 ($614,000) financing round from B Dash Ventures, Pinehurst Advisors, Ardent Capital, Dan Neary, and some other undisclosed angel investors.

6. PairBuddy | India

PairBuddy was built by Nirav Shah and a small team in under 48 hours. Appropriately for a dating app, it launched on Valentine’s Day. PairBuddy focuses more on outing a secret crush on Facebook than getting people hooked up immediately – in contrast to the notorious Bang With Friends.

7. WearYouWant | Thailand

Founded in October 2011, Thailand’s WearYouWant is a B2B2C fashion e-commerce site which helps other retailers to feature and sell their products to consumers online. The Bangkok-based startup is backed by Digital Media Partners (DMP) and also other undisclosed investors.

8. Surround App | Hong Kong

Hong Kong-based startup Surround App is an upcoming English mobile client for Sina Weibo, with its first release planned for April 2013. It stands out by offering a mix of machine and human translation to help you make sense of the content on Weibo, China’s vast, real-time social network. Surround App received some seed funding this week.

9. Nuffnang | Singapore

Singapore’s Nuffnang, is arguably the largest blog ad network in Southeast Asia which delivers a whopping 13 million page-views per day. Here’s the inspiring founder’s story.

10. Startup Jobs Asia | Singapore

Singapore-based StartupJobs Asia is an online jobs portal which helps overcome the hiring barriers existing within the startup ecosystem and aims to form the bridge between potential employees and startup founders.

11. Tujia | China

Tujia is an online Chinese vacation home rental startup which now has over 400,000 holiday rental homes in 65 Chinese cities and 45 overseas locations.

After attracting its first major financing in May of last year, it has wrapped up series B funding yesterday, and finally revealed the first two rounds’ investment amount.

Startup Jobs Asia: A Hiring Solution for Startup Founders

Emily Goh — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:30:34 +0000

Hiring talent with the right fit of skills and outlook is always a constant, pressing issue for startup companies. Ben Chew, an entrepreneur and angel investor, founded StartupJobs Asia to help overcome the hiring barriers and aims to form the bridge between potential employees and startup founders.

Founded in late 2012, the hiring platform allows startup company founders from various parts of Asia to list their job openings in the database for free. To make things even clearer, all job listings are conveniently broken down into various categories, such as full-time, part-time, freelance, temporary, and even internships.

Another feature which might be useful on Startup Jobs Asia is the availability and abundance of social media platform share buttons on every single job description page to encourage the sharing of jobs that might be of interest. This is a function that many current job portals lack, with most having just a simple ‘share via email’ feature, or social media sharing buttons tucked and hidden away within sub-pages.

Startup Jobs Asia recently added brand-new resume deposit feature to the site, which allows job seekers to upload their resumes into the database. From this pool of CV’s, startup founders are able to select their ideal candidate for a position.

According to Ben’s prior experience in the hiring field, he mentioned that there’s a large number of passive talented individuals when it comes to job-searching and pursuing a career change, not forgetting those job-seekers who already have a mainstream career but are still open to the idea of venturing into startup companies.

Ben explained:

We see that this alternative process is becoming an increasingly popular process for talent search among startups as the talent crunch continues to be a constant challenge in this part of the region.

This new feature would enable startup companies to make the first move in approaching potential candidates after searching through their profiles and resumes, thus making job matching effective for both active and passive startup job seekers in Asia.

14 Popular E-Commerce Sites in Singapore

Emily Goh — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 02:08:42 +0000

Singapore has seen a huge rise in e-commerce activity over the past few years, with some e-commerce startups receiving investment or even proceeding to expand across the Asia-Pacific region.

Here’s a list of what we think are up-and-rising and popular e-commerce sites and platforms in Singapore.

1. Reebonz / Kwerkee

Launched in March 2009, Reebonz is an e-commerce site that deals in luxury products and services, such as high-end handbags and luxury travel packages, offering them at a discounted price compared to brick-and-mortar retailers. It is backed by Intel Capital.

Customers get to enjoy free shipping for all orders, which arrive wrapped in their a signature Reebonz black box with gold ribbon. The company also absorbs all customs duties and taxes that might be incurred during overseas deliveries.

In addition to their focus on luxury products, Reebonz also launched Kwerkee in mid-2012. Kwerkee is an e-commerce site that carries a lot of unique, novelty household items and gizmos.

2. Qoo10

Qoo10, also previously known as Gmarket, is a major global e-commerce site originating from Korea after forming a partnership between eBay and Giosis Gmarket. It has several other localized sites in five countries, including Japan and Singapore.

Qoo10 is a huge B2C marketplace, offering products such as clothes, gadgets, and groceries. There are many discounts and promotions held almost daily to encourage repeated purchases and retain loyal buyers, such as a ‘lucky lounge’ where members stand a chance to win coupons and stamps for future purchases.

There are also many payment methods accepted, like credit cards, Paypal, ENETS (a real-time online bank transfer service), and even via AXS payment stations (a Singapore payment transaction terminal system) strategically located around Singapore. As not all Qoo10 sellers are based in Singapore, shipping methods and duration vary greatly.

3. Redmart

Launched in late 2011, Redmart is one of Singapore’s most prominent online stores that caters especially to busy people.

This online grocery mart offers a selection of up to 8,000 products including from household items to groceries. Without heading out of the house and waiting in line for their purchases, customers are able to pay via credit cards and receive orders right at their doorstep.

Redmart has attracted investments from Skype co-founder Toivo Annus and Golden Gate Ventures, and has recently announced an expansion of its warehouse and team.

4. Luxola

Luxola is an online beauty and cosmetics store, launched in September 2011. It raised US$590,000 back in August 2012 and plans to expand its reach across Southeast Asia.

It offers a selection of curated products from highly sought after international brands and offers delivery not only to Singapore, but to Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, and Indonesia.

5. OpenTrolley

OpenTrolley started out in 2008 and claims to be one of Singapore’s leading online book stores, offering more than two million imported titles from the US and the UK at prices somewhat cheaper than physical bookstores in Singapore.

Customers can opt between courier delivery to their home at a minimal flat charge or self-collection at a pickup points in central Singapore. OpenTrolley also offers night-time delivery, which is targeted at the working crowd who are not at home to receive any parcels during working hours.

OpenTrolley has also expanded its business to Indonesia.

6. Jipaban

Jipaban, launched in May 2010, brands itself as an online social shopping mall. It is owned by Netccentric, which is also the parent company of Asia’s leading blog advertising community, Nuffnang. Jipaban operates in both Singapore and Malaysia.

It currently offers shipping to other countries, such as Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, and New Zealand, to name a few. Users can customize their own ideal online mall by selecting their favourite brands into a list. To encourage loyal customers, loyalty points are offered with each purchase and can be redeemed from a 1276-item catalogue of products.

7. Bellabox

Bellabox is a subscription e-commerce startup focusing on cosmetics for both men and women, and it recently raised US$1.37 million in series A funding. Founded in October 2011, Bellabox operates in both Singapore and Australia.

It sends subscribers a box of hand-picked products or samples every month at a fee starting from SG$19.95. Satisfied customers who would like to get the full-size products after testing the items from the box can then purchase the products directly from Bellabox’s online site.

8. AllDealsAsia

AllDealsAsia is a Singapore daily deals aggregator and group-buying site launched in July 2010. In 2011, the startup received investment from Iconic Investment at an undisclosed figure.

It provides daily deals and coupons for a wide variety of products such as beauty services, household products, language courses, and travel packages.

9. Sold.sg

Sold.sg is an online penny auction site that began operations in 2010. It has a pretty unique concept that provides a gamification experience for users who are looking for the extra ‘thrill’ in attempting to outbid others to win the auction, which is an item offered at a highly discounted price.

Besides having an auction component on their site, they have a conventional online store that sells interesting and quirky novelties.

Sold.sg attracted almost S$1 million in funding back in late 2011.

10. iLoveBooks

iLoveBooks is an e-books store owned by Singapore media company, Mediacorp. The site claims to have 600,000 e-book titles from more than 3,000 publishers. E-books can be purchased and downloaded into their own e-reader app available on iOS and Android.

Payments on iLoveBooks can be made only by credit cards, and downloaded e-books are only readable on the company’s e-readers and not compatible with popular Kindle or Nook devices.

11. VanityTrove

Another subscription-based e-commerce startup in Singapore, Vanity Trove started up in late 2011. Similar to most subscription-based e-commerce services out there, it offers a range of beauty samples every month. However, VanityTrove does not operate an online store as well.

VanityTrove also has an online community made up of members who put up reviews on tested products. Just last week, the startup announced that it has acquired Glossybox Taiwan, and prior to this acquisition, it had already expanded to Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia.

12. Clozette.co

Clozette.co is an online shopping and social networking network and portal for women, launched in November 2010. It also has localized sites for Japan and Indonesia. At the start of January this year, it announced a partnership with inSing, a subsidiary of SingTel Digital Media.

Besides being able to shop from a selection of curated brands on the site, members are able to create and share their online personal closets and discover new fashion trends and statement pieces from other community members. There is also a C2C marketplace section, called Bazaar, where members are able to buy and sell items from other vendors from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia.

13. Livejournal

Livejournal might not be an e-commerce site, but in Singapore it functions as a very popular e-commerce platform that allows budding entrepreneurs to start their own online shops.

In fact, just in 2011 alone, Livejournal Singapore saw US$72 million worth of transactions from the e-commerce shops hosted on its service. To facilitate the booming growth of blogshops in Singapore, Livejournal introduced a LJ Checkout service in February 2012 to provide sellers more efficient and convenient e-commerce tools.

14. Wego

Founded in 2005, Wego is a Singapore-based online travel e-commerce site and metasearch engine. It has a large number of localized sites catered specifically for different markets such as India, Vietnam, and China, and has offices in Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, India, and the Middle East.

In May last year, Wego invested in Valadoo, a social commerce startup focused on curated travel packages, in its bid to further expand in Indonesia.

Though Singapore’s e-commerce industry is starting to pick up, there are still a large number of Singaporeans shopping on e-commerce sites like China’s Taobao.com and Alibaba.com due to cheaper deals and cost savings with a direct link to the manufacturer. Those sites have a respective Alexa ranking of 27 and 61 in Singapore.

As compared to other Asian countries like South Korea and China, Singapore’s e-commerce scene is still considered to be in its infancy with much room for growth. According to Gmarket’s Founder, it is similar to South Korea’s e-commerce scene 10 years ago!

(This list is not meant to be exhaustive, but hopefully it’s representative of the online shopping scene in Singapore in 2013. Should you have any suggestions or recommendations of other popular e-commerce platforms and sites in Singapore, feel free to drop them in the comments.)

13 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 09:08:52 +0000

Happy Lunar New Year to all our readers! Here’s the list of startups which we have written about in the past seven days. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list!

1. The Mobile Gamer | Singapore

The Mobile Gamer (TMG) is a Singapore startup that builds mobile games on platforms like mig33, as well as, Kotagames, TMG’s very own platform. This week, we have a story on how this startup hustles for growth in Southeast Asia.

2. Harpoen | Indonesia

Indonesia’s Harpoen is a location-based messaging platform and wants users to leave digital marks at their locations. It has recently rolled out a major update and has tens of thousands of users leaving over 50,000 of those digital tags around the world to date. Harpoen is also one of the three Asian startups to win the World Summit Awards.

3. Redmart | Singapore

Redmart is a Singapore-based e-commerce startup that sells necessities and groceries, and has them delivered right to your doorstep. It seems to be doing pretty well these days, as they have recently announced their move to a much spacious 12,000 sq ft. warehouse and increasing their product offerings to over 8,000. The team has also grown from a humble team of four to a team of 48.

4. PicMix | Indonesia

Indonesia’s photo app PicMix, which stands for ‘pictures’ and ‘mixing,’ impressively passed eight million users last month in just nine months since the app’s inception, with more than 108 million photos posted on the app so far. The app was initially just for the old Blackberry OS, but now also supports Blackberry 10 and Android.

5. Burpple | Singapore

Burrple is a Singapore-based social food journal that mixes photo-sharing with foodie fanaticism. This week, it has hit a new milestone with the launch of Burpple for Android, today landing on Google Play to accompany its iOS iteration.

6. InstaWaves | Sri Lanka

InstaWaves is an interesting startup from Sri Lanka that provides a pictorial storytelling approach for users to consume Instagram content, similar to the way you can use Storify to contextualize Twitter posts about a certain event.

7. Frenzoo | Hong Kong

Frenzoo, a Hong Kong-based startup who specializes in 3D lifestyle games for girls, has recently partnered with Teen Vogue to launch Teen Vogue Me Girl.

8. SCOOP | Indonesia

SCOOP is an Indonesian e-reader that allows users to download and read magazines via the iPad or Android devices. This week, they have announced that they will be making a push onto the web by launching its web store.

9. Viddsee | Singapore

Singapore’s Viddsee aims to be a hub for Southeast Asian short films and will be showcasing the best indie directors in the region for a worldwide audience whilst letting users rate the films for the quality of the story, acting, camera, and sound.

10. Vida | China

China’s Vida is one of many Instagram-like photo-sharing apps in the country, combining funky filters with a mini social network, and claims to have about 4 million users. This week, it joined in the national discussion about China’s polluted skies by adding a PM2.5 photo filter.

11. MOL | Malaysia

MOL is one of Southeast Asia’s biggest payment companies, with over 680,000 physical and online payment channels, 60 million annual transactions, and yearly revenue over $300 million.

12. File Expert | China

File Expert is a file manager style app, developed by the team at Xi’an-based GeekSoft. It has revealed this week that it has surpassed 20 million installations across Android and iPhone.

13. Pixtem | Indonesia

Indonesia’s Pixtem helps people to simply build general as well as e-commerce websites, without any coding knowledge required with affordable price plans. The startup was inspired by similar business models offered by US-based website platforms like Shopify and Squarespace.

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!

12 Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day Promotions

Emily Goh — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:46:40 +0000

The festive season is just around the corner. So in light of the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday in the many countries around Asia, and followed immediately by Valentine’s Day, we’ve made a list of promotions and events that are happening in various Asian startups and web companies!

1.GITS | Indonesia

GITS Indonesia creates mobile marketing tools, like mobile web and mobile apps, aiming to make life more efficient on the go.
They claim to be one of Indonesia’s best Android developers with a huge portfolio of projects. For both Chinese New Year and Valentine’s day, GITS Indonesia is offering mobile apps development on Android platform for non-profit communities and organisations, as well as online news website, at no cost. For more information, you may contact them directly here.

2. Jooix | Singapore

Jooix is a Singaporean e-commerce site launched in 2011 that provides highly curated and design-centric products. It’s holding its first Lunar New Year mega online sale from now to February 12th with items going at discounts of up to 30 percent. Free shipping and a mystery $100 hongbao, those red envelopes stuffed with cash usually given to youngsters at this time of year, will be presented to shoppers who spend above SGD$188.

For Valentine’s day, Jooix offers a special service called “The Cupid Express”, where orders made by February 14th (at 10am) will be delivered on the very same day before 5pm. Of course, this is just within Singapore.

3. Exabytes Network | Singapore

Exabytes Network was established in 2011, and has since provided web hosting, dedicated servers and domain names. For this Chinese New Year, Exabytes is joining the celebrations with its “CNY .sg hongbao promotion”.

Up to the February 28th, all new “.sg” and “.per.sg” domain name registrations under this promotion are available at SGD$6.88 each for the first year.

4. iTwin | Singapore

iTwin offers solutions that enable security and privacy for your data when using public internet connections.

For this festival, the company is offering iTwin Connect (a personal VPN device) at US$129, along with a free pouch and free shipping. Readers can also enter a Chinese New Year lucky draw to win an iTwin File Access device by entering the promotional code “CNY2013” during checkout here. Valid from February 9th to 25th.

For their Valentine’s day promotion, readers can purchase both the iTwin Connect and the iTwin File Access (which provides simple and secure file sharing) for US$188 using the promo code “ITTAKES2” here. This promotion is valid from now to February 28th.

5. Sold.sg | Singapore

Sold.sg is an online auction website that lets users bid for brand-new products and services at a highly discounted price.

Sign up as a Sold.sg member between now and February 24th and stand a chance to win in the Lunar New Year lucky draw. New members will receive an additional chance if they purchase their first Sold.sg Token Packs during the promotion period.

6. Sribu | Indonesia

Sribu offers crowdsourced designs on things like T-shirts, brochures, calendars.

To celebrate the start of another lunar new year, Sribu is giving a deal on new posters, flyers, invitations, and banner designs on its site. Get 20 percent off from their Bronze, Silver or Gold contest packages and 90 percent off additional designs from the entries. Create your first design contest by visiting here.

7. Etable | India

Etable is a social platform for food lovers to discover and recommend restaurants, sharing their experiences with the community.

To commemorate the month of love, Etable is having a Valentine’s day event where users are invited to share a picture of themselves and their Valentine at their favorite restaurant, and get your friends to vote for the picture. More details on this event will be released on their event page on Monday, the 11th.

8. Tackthis | Singapore

Singapore-based start-up TackThis is a platform where anyone can create an e-commerce store and embed it on their Facebook pages, blogs, or any website.

With its all-new Chinese New Year “prosperity promotion”, users can start their very own e-store at just SGD$3.90 per month instead of the usual SGD $9.90 by clicking here or enter the promo code “HappyTack390” when signing up for the novice plan.

Readers who are fretting over gifts for their significant other this Valentine’s day could also take advantage of the offers for Tackthis’ Protag, a slim, credit card-sized device that helps prevent theft and loss of belongings. Enter the code “protageyourbelongings” upon checkout to receive a 20 percent discount. You can also opt for quintessential geek gear from Altego and get 20 percent off when you use the promo code “maytheforcebywithyou” upon checkout.

9. Webvisions | Singapore

Webvisions is a web hosting service provider that is also having a Chinese New Year domain registration promotion where all new “.sg” and “.per.sg” domain name registrations under this promotion are available at SGD$6.88 each for the first year

10. Zopim | Singapore

Zopim is a six-year old Singaporean startup that provides live chat software for websites. For Valentine’s Day, it will be giving away twenty $20 Amazon vouchers for folks who can guess three Valentine’s phrases that have been drawn by their illustrator. Readers who want to take a guess can visit their event page here.

In addition, they are offering a free Valentine’s day theme for all Zopim users too.

11. Softlayer Technologies | Singapore

Softlayer, a leading provider of cloud computing and dedicated and managed hosting, is giving a chance for brand-new customers to try out their cloud server service for one month for free.

Softlayer’s CloudLayer Computing allows users to deploy public cloud instances with exceptional features in as few as five minutes, and such features includes seamless integration with dedicated servers, custom configurations (cores, RAM, and storage) and an easy to use customer portal and mobile apps.

12. Facinate Chinese New Year | Thailand

Last of all, here’s the most festive-looking of the bunch, and it’s a totally free app. Facinate Chinese New Year is a brand new app created by Thailand-based company i-App Creation for iPhone users to commemorate the year of the snake. There are plenty of Chinese New Year-themed frames within the app, plus props and stickers to decorate your photos, and they can be shared with buddies via email or Facebook.

Tech in Asia would like to wish our readers a very Happy Lunar New Year and Valentine’s day! Bask in the festive mood with the promotions listed above!

Disclosure: Sribu.com and TackThis are our sponsors for the Tech in Asia Meetups; please see our ethics page for more information. Note that we asked startups and companies in the region to tell us about their festive promotions, and did not charge for this.

(Image: CityofSydney.nsw.gov.au)

Microsoft Singapore to Award Founder Institute Scholarship in App Dev Contest

Emily Goh — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 09:43:35 +0000

Microsoft Singapore recently introduced the BizSpark Launch Academy, a Windows developer competition aimed at startups and individual developers. The top three winners of this competition will be awarded Founder Institute scholarships that will give them the opportunity to receive mentorship to launch their startup companies with the Founder Institute starting April 2013.

According to Jeffrey Paine, head of the Founder Institute’s Singapore Chapter:

We are keen to help individual developers take their prototypes to the next level and equip them with the right knowledge and network to know what it takes to build enduring technology companies.

Apps built on Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, or Windows Azure are accepted in the competition. Entries are judged based on “user experience design, innovativeness, and startup viability.” The Microsoft Singapore ‘developer and platform evangelism team’ will also be providing devs with the Windows Apps Lab development tools, personal consultations, and even loan devices.

Participants of the BizSpark Launch Academy can also join the Windows Startup Challenge, which could give them a chance to launch their app at DEMO mobile, a global launchpad to be held in April 2013 in San Francisco, California.

To qualify for the BizSpark Launch Academy, interested applicants will have to submit their prototype image to this email address, along with a brief overview of the app and the developers’s personal particulars by this Friday, February 8th.

Successful applicants will be notified within 24 to 48 hours. For more details, please head to the official website.

8 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 08:30:09 +0000

Here’s the list of startups which we have written about in the past seven days. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can send tips here and/or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list!

1. LoveByte | Singapore

LoveByte is a Singapore-based popular mobile messaging app for couples. It has recently launched an Android version and is looking to tackle the Korean and Japanese market in the future..

2. Plurk | Taiwan

Plurk has been around since 2008 as a social network that works sort of like Twitter. It has proved popular in Asia – so much so that the team moved from Canada to set up shop in Taiwan. This week it secured series A funding to expand to more countries.

3. SnapDish | Japan

Snapdish, the photosharing app for food lovers, is now coming to the Kindle Fire along with broader language support across all platforms. The app allows users to share food photos and recipes with other foodies. It has since been downloaded over 700,000 times in 82 countries with over 1.9 million photos posted so far.

4. BillPin | Singapore

Singapore’s BillPin is a startup that helps friends and roommates easily manage shared expenses, keeping friendships squabble-free. This article features an interview with the co-founder, Darius Cheung.

5. Skunkworks | Vietnam

Skunkworks was started by Bryan Pelz, the co-founder of VNG. For the past two and a half years, Skunkworks has been working on a social networking and scheduling app called Klamr that was pitted to compete with Silicon Valley giants like Foursquare. However, it was recently announced that Skunkworks will be scaling down and working on a completely new project – so we chatted with the team to find out more.

6. Piktochart | Malaysia

Piktochart is a simple, fast online infographic builder for both designers and non-designers, which recently rolled out a fresh upgrade. The Malaysian startup was part of the 2011 China Accelerator program and also took part in our Startup Arena competition in Singapore last year where the team won third place.

7. Pirate3DP | Singapore

Singapore-based startup Pirate3DP aims to develop the most affordable and user-friendly 3D printer for the mass-consumer market. The company also revealed that it has attracted S$589,000 (US$482,000) in seed investment from Red Dot Ventures, an incubator supported by the Singaporean government.

8. VanityTrove | Singapore

Just yesterday afternoon, Singapore’s beauty box ‘subcom’ startup VanityTrove revealed that it has expanded in the region yet again, this time acquiring Glossybox in Taiwan, a company that was part of Rocket Internet’s array of web companies.

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!

Microsoft Singapore Pushes Office 365, Partners with Starhub and Retailers

Emily Goh — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 01:00:20 +0000

Yesterday morning, Microsoft Singapore officially launched its newest Office consumer product line, Office 365 Home Premium. It is a subscription-based cloud service that can be accessed across various devices such as Windows tablet, PCs, Windows Phone, and Mac, with a renewed emphasis on online collaboration.

To further entice consumers into opting for the subscription-based model, Office 365 offers 20GB of SkyDrive storage for the main subscriber a year, as well as 60 minutes of Skype world calling per month. Microsoft has also partnered with local Singapore telco Starhub to provide a bundle discount with an internet broadband service plan sign-up as well as launching several other promotions with local retailers.

Office 365 Home Premium currently retails at SGD$138 (USD$112) per year and provides licenses for up to five devices which also encompass a complete set of Office applications – that’s Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. That includes support for ‘Office on Demand’ which lets you access Office apps from any online PC or laptop.

In order to cater to different consumer groups, Microsoft also introduced Office 365 University at SGD$108 (USD$88) per four years, for a single user – though you’ll need to prove that you’re a student or teacher – for two PC installations.

Those who are not keen on paying a subscription fee are still able to purchase the traditional suites, such as ‘Home and Business 2013’, but they’ll only get a single device installation. For that, buyers will still be able to save their documents online.

Though Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium might have several added features, we can’t help but wonder, with many other free alternatives available such as Google Documents and OpenOffice, will consumers be willing to pay for either the software or the subscription fee?

10 Tips to Increase Your Mobile App Downloads

Emily Goh — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 06:30:46 +0000

Last Thursday evening marked the very beginning of our series of Tech in Asia Meetups. Held at the Microsoft auditorium in Singapore, we were extremely pleased to have Rico Wyder from Fiksu to share with our participants ten useful mobile application marketing tips that could help mobile app companies or developers to achieve more quality app downloads and outstanding marketing returns on investment.

Rico kicked off the evening by providing an overview (see the video below) of the various opportunities and barriers in the existing mobile app market. In 2012 alone, there was tremendous growth as mobile apps and advertising hit US$19 billion in revenue. It is expected to reach $46 billion in about three to four years. There are approximately 1.4 million apps on the Apple App Store and Google Play platforms, with an average iOS device user having more than 100 apps. However, most of the revenue is going to big companies, with more than 50 percent of the app store revenues controlled by the top 25 developers.

In this scenario, app marketers have to ask themselves: What can we do to stand out from our competitors and gain loyal users while ensuring cost effectiveness with full accountability and insight?

Here are the 10 tips for global user acquisition that Rico shared with the attendees at our event:

Maximize organic lift through optimal rank
Balance incentivized and non-incentivized sources
Incorporate vast global media inventory
Centralize your media buying
Optimize on post-download events based on your loyal users
Integrate attribution with optimization
Learn from the past
Unite all metrics in one place
Take advantage of real-time bidding
Take advantage of holidays and the launches of new devices

For readers who missed our first meetup, or attendees who would like to watch Rico’s insightful presentation once more, check out the video here:

We would also like to thank our participants for attending our first meetup and contributing to its success, and especially friends who have travelled from as far afield as Malaysia and Vietnam!

We look forward to meeting our Jakarta friends on the 21st of February for the next meetup, which was delayed somewhat by the Jakarta floods back in mid-January. See you next time!

Thank you, sponsors:

Corporate sponsors

VC sponsors

Startup sponsors

11 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 12:00:13 +0000

1. Privepass | Thailand

Thailand-based Privepass is a members-only travel site that provides its users exclusive travel experiences such as partying in Shanghai, shopping in Tokyo,

and even attending fashion shows in Milan.

2. BellaBox | Singapore

Bellabox is a subscription e-commerce startup focusing on cosmetics, which recently announced AU$1.3 million (US$1.37 million) in series A funding. It was founded by twin sisters Sarah and Emily Hamilton, and has operations in Singapore and Australia.

3. Burufly | Indonesia

Founded in April of 2012, Indonesia-based travel startup Burufly helps users discover fun places to travel in Indonesia, while making it convenient for users to book hotels and flights online. It prides itself as being a content-first travel site.

4. Saqina | Indonesia

Saqina is an online Indonesian fashion store with a focus on clothing for Muslim women. The startup announced this week that it has received investment from Jakarta-based investment firm Ideosource.

Singapore-based startup Gridblaze makes file storage fast by tracing the user’s location and then deciding the closest point to store their file. To date, Grideblaze is used by over 1,000 developers with 120 applications deployed on its platform.

6. Lojai | Indonesia

Indonesian e-commerce store Lojai is looking to get into the travel industry as early as March by adding an integrated booking mechanism for airlines, trains, and hotels. This is an interesting move as it’s a little uncommon to see B2B e-commerce platforms such as Lojai offering travel products on its site.

7. The VCgroup | Thailand

The VCgroup (VC stands for Venture Catalyst) has launched an interesting new cloud client platform called Penta. Aiming to make a new cloud platform for Smart TVs, VoiP, healthcare solutions, and lots more, the young company partnered up with Hong Kong’s Power-All Networks and Foxconn to launch a joint-venture last year called Power-All Venture.

8. Between | Korea

Korea’s Between has raised 3 billion KRW ($2.8 million) from Stonebridge Capital, KTB Network, Capstone Partners, and SoftBank Ventures Korea. So far, the couples messaging app has been downloaded 2.35 million times and co-founder Edward Lee revealed that 900,000 of them are monthly active users.

9. Pricebaba | India

India’s Pricebaba focuses on finding good prices among offline mobile phone retailers. It differs from other product search services in the region by focusing on listing India’s numerous brick-and-mortar phone resellers, not just online stores. So far it has the details of shops in Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi, and the recent investment will allow the startup to expand that to 10 cities during the course of this year.

10. SetechViet | Vietnam

This Vietnam startup has a young, innovative team and a product that intersects two huge Vietnamese markets: motorbikes and mobile phones. The company designed a cellphone-operated device called S-Bike that installs inside a motorbike to deter and prevent theft. Customers can text their bike to turn it off, activate an alarm, and even obtain its GPS location.

11. Saat Ini | Indonesia

Saat Ini is as an online media gallery which contains very ‘sharable’ content. It is a joint venture startup between Indonesian marketing company eXo Digital Agency and an undisclosed party from the Netherlands.

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PlugFest 2013 Competition Calls For Entries

Emily Goh — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 02:00:52 +0000

The Google Developer Group (GDG) Singapore and the IEEE Computer Society Singapore will be holding their inaugural PlugFest International Programming Competition (IPC) for tertiary students and individuals (postgraduates or working professionals) to develop web applications using datasets from the Singapore government. The focus of this year’s competition is on cloud and mobile technologies.

Inspired by “The Voice”, a reality TV series, PlugFest competition participants will be coached by experienced mentors to guide them through their development process. Dr. Krishnan SPT, the co-founder of GDC Singapore, explained:

The rationale behind the competition is to motivate both budding and established software developers to build scalable web apps that work on mobile devices. With access to data from the Singapore government, we look forward to the interesting apps and projects that come up.

Here’s an overview of the competition timeline:

Mentoring process: February 15 to March 15
Submission of apps to judging panel: by March 15
Presentation and Awards Ceremony: April 3

The top three winners of the Institute of Higher Learning (IHL) category for undergraduate students and the Open category for postgraduates and working professionals will each receive a mobile device. According to Dr. Yap Chern Nam of IEEE Computer Chapter Society Singapore, the date of the presentation and awards ceremony was specially chosen as it coincides with the 40th anniversary of when the first cell phone was made, April 3, 1972.

To better assist participants in their web app development process, the organizers have also planned several free workshops over the weekend between January and early February. The details for the next upcoming workshop, ‘Haptics on Android and Blackberry 10 Runtimes’ are as follows:

Date: January 26
Venue: Plugin @ Blk 71
Time: 0930 to 1630

To register for the workshop and competition, you can see this site for more details.

12 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 08:37:31 +0000

Here we are, ending the week with another compilation of all the startups in Asia that we have covered in the past seven days. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can submit tips here and/or your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list!

1. Tabsquare | Singapore

Singapore-based e-menu startup Tabsquare lets customers browse food on an iPad. The startup offers restaurants cloud-based data storage, inventory managment, CRM, and point-of-sales systems. Tabsquare also announced this week that it has raised funding.

2. Tiket | Indonesia

Indonesian travel booking platform Tiket recently opened its offline agent reseller program to expand its market reach even further. This will allow people to become travel agents even if they do not have a lot of related IT skills.

3. Singapore Geek Girls | Singapore

Singapore Geek Girls is a new organization for women entreprenuers that aims to help them mentor, connect, and collectively share information with one another.

4. Xinci | China

China’s Xinci is basically a version of UrbanDictionary, packed full of user-submitted Chinese slang terms. It has 4,000 entries in its database so far and the founder has a monetization plan in mind. You can also catch the author discussing this startup on ABC Radio Australia.

5. Lola.vn | Vietnam

Vietnam-based startup Lola.vn is geared towards handmade goods, in the spirit of sites like Etsy. It also embraces a culture of educating users about handicrafts alongside its e-commerce angle.

6. Feecha | Singapore

Feecha is a mobile app developed by The Chingchong Group that mixes location, microblogging, and cute creatures into an app. Check out its revamped v2.0.

7. VNG | Vietnam

VNG has grown to be one of Vietnam’s largest web companies. It owns online properties ranging from media to social networking. It’s still predominantly a desktop-first company, and it hasn’t published any mobile games to date. But it has launched several mobile-centric products such as Zalo, a mobile messaging app. VNG’s founder tells us his startup journey.

8. Zopim | Singapore

Zopim is six-year old Singaporean startup that provides live chat software for websites. At moment, they have a team of more than 25 members, with around 70,000 businesses actively using their service to engage with customers.

9. JasaKirim | Indonesia

JasaKirim is a spin-off logistics product developed by Indonesian startup Onigi by integrating with a major logistics company.

10. Carousell | Singapore

Singapore’s Carousell is a lifestyle marketplace that allows you to snap, buy, or sell your pre-loved, newly designed fashion products. Its competitor, Singapore Press Holdings’ STClassifieds, has joined forces with the lifestyle marketplace app startup to create a better mobile experience for users.

11. Cacoo | Japan

Cacoo is a Japan-based online collaborative design service which we have featured a few times before. With over 700,000 users worldwide, the service has rolled out a number of fun features since it was first launched, and has now taken things a step further, unveiling Cacoo for Enterprise.

12. JazzMyApp | Malaysia

Malaysian startup Mobile9 has launched JazzmyApp as a highly social way of finding new apps for iOS and Android. It’s a sort of Pinterest for mobile applications.

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10 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 09:42:50 +0000

Welcome back to another compilation of all the startups in Asia that we have covered this week. We had a couple of interesting startups from Thailand, as well as quite a few startups that have received funding. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can submit tips here and/or your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list!

1. 8villages | Singapore

Southeast Asian startup 8villages is a mobile social network for smallhold farmers. Specifically, it’s an information and experience-sharing platform for these farmers that’s initially focusing on rural Indonesia.

2. Exteen | Thailand

Exteen is Thailand’s most popular content management system (CMS) for bloggers – sort of like WordPress – which generates 30 million monthly page views with over 600,000 registered bloggers so far.

3. Wongnai | Thailand

Wongnai is a Thailand-based online restaurant review site and mobile app that has 360,000 users. Thus far in its growth it has about 60,000 restaurant reviews in its database.

4. Playmoolah | Singapore

Singapore startup Playmoolah recently launched its Moolah It app which aims to educate children on how to manage their money.

5. Mizhe | China

Mizhe is a Chinese discounts-oriented shopping guide that monetizes from referral links to e-commerce sites such as Taobao, Amazon China, and many more. IDG Capital Partners has invested just over 10 million RMB (US$1.6 million) in a series A funding round for the startup.

6. Gimme | Singapore

Gimmie is a Singapore-based loyalty platform that recently announced receiving just over US$500,000 from various investors, led by WaveMaker Labs in partnership with the Singapore National Research Foundation.

7. Klik Eat | Indonesia

Klik Eat is an Indonesian online food ordering service which announced this week that it has received investment from Japan. In the space of just one year, Klik Eat has generated more than IDR 1.8 billion ($186,819) for its restaurant partners and has around 175 restaurants listed.

8. Fotorus | China

If you’ve seen your friends taking some wacky photos of themselves recently – as if they’re trapped in a glass, or set as a laptop’s wallpaper – then they’re probably using the new PIP Camera app. It’s made by the camera-loving Chinese startup Fotorus.

9. Xiaozhu | China

Short-term rentals sites in the mold of Airbnb seem to be finally taking off in China, and this week saw two of them secure some serious funding. The first of which is Xiaozhu, which only launched in August of last year.

10. Mayi | China

In the same link as the Xiaozhu story, we also looked at how the very similar holiday rentals startup Mayi has been spun off as an independent entity from its parent company, Ganji, and secured about $10 million in backing

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Wongnai.com Shows Impressive Growth, Upcoming New Features

Emily Goh — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 03:00:34 +0000

It has been five months since we reported on Thailand’s online restaurant review site and mobile app service Wongnai.com (translated literally as ‘Insider’) , and during our trip to Thailand, we had the chance to meet the CEO and co-founder, Yod Chinsupakul.

Based on the statistics he has provided, it seems that Wongnai.com has enjoyed significant growth over the past few months. In August 2012, their community had 200,000 registered users and it has since jumped up to 360,000 users, out of which one third are monthly active users. Chinsupakul also added that the number of community restaurant reviews stand between 50,000 to 60,000 and that in terms of restaurant reviews and listings, Wongnai.com has the best metrics compared to other competitors based in Thailand, which are mostly portals that also have other features such as travel and lifestyle in additon to the food features.

Wongnai.com has also recently partnered with Nostra Maps to populate Nostra’s restaurant listings in the Wongnai database. Prior to this partnership, Wongnai had only 25,000 restaurant listings and now that has more than tripled to 110,000.

Wongnai is tailored specifically for Thai locals, with the bulk of users in Bangkok and the next being Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand, which explains the company’s upcoming plan to open a new office there.

Currently, the startup is working closely with AIS (a telecommunications company in Thailand) so that their next mobile app version can provide information on restaurant discounts. They will also be introducing a new check-in feature for users. Presently, Wongnai is available for free on the iOS and Android platforms. But it will soon be launching its apps on the Blackberry 10 and Windows 8 platform, hoping to be one of the first in the Thai market to launch apps on these new platforms.

9 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 12:00:34 +0000

Welcome to the start of a brand new year! Here we have for you a compilation of all the startups in Asia which we have covered this week. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can submit tips here and/or your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list!

1. Clozette | Singapore

Clozette is an online fashion network based in Singapore that recently entered into a partnership with inSing, a subsidiary of SingTel Digital Media.

2. Berrybenka | Indonesia

Indonesia’s women’s fashion e-commerce site Berrybenka kicks off the new year by announcing that the company has raised series A investment from Japan’s GREE Ventures.

3. Momo | China

Momo is a dating mobile app developed by Beijing-based startup Momo Tech, where it allows users to chat with new friends within his or her proximity. The dating app recently added Foursquare-like listings and check-ins in the experimental update for iPhone and Android.

4. Kleii | Vietnam

Vietnam’s Kleii is an online cloud storage service that has already amassed 320,000 new users worldwide since its launch six months ago. With Kleii’s current growth rate, it is getting five to six thousands sign-ups on average per day and is handling 4 to 5 terabytes of data per day.

5. Qender | Singapore

Spend less time queuing thanks to this new mobile app! Singapore’s Qender allows businesses to offer a virtual queue so their customers do not have to be physically present to stay in line. This allows them to save a spot via their smartphone, freeing up time for them to do other stuff.

7. Sprooki | Singapore

Singapore-based Sprooki is a location-based mobile commerce service that lets retail shops send targeted messages and promotions to potential customers who are passing by via their smartphones. The startup recently announced that it will be partnering with YFind Technologies to offer indoor positioning technology within its mobile, location-based platform.

8. Jing.fm | China

Jing.fm is a music-streaming web app from China, with a wide selection of music both in Chinese and English. There’s a fair amount of Korean and Japanese pop songs in there as well.

9. Haogougou | China

Beijing-based mobile startup Haogougou is the developer of a cool social app which allows you to browse photos of street and rescue dogs up for adoption, and contact the people responsible for them if you’re interested. The startup also developed a separate iPhone app which helps parents search for street and kidnapped children to rescue.

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7 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 10:55:54 +0000

It’s just two more days until we start a brand new exciting year! But before we do, we have for you a compilation of all the Asian startups we have covered this week. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can submit tips here and/or your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list!

1. Kreavi | Indonesia

Kreavi is an Indonesian online creative marketplace where organisations can easily source Indonesian design talents. During the holiday season the startup appealed to noble hearts with its charity project, from which proceeds will be donated to three poor schools in Jakarta.

2. Payroll Hero | Philippines

Payroll Hero offers a unique service that helps companies keep track of employees using biometric facial recognition to ensure workers are at work when they should be. The startup has also been recently selected as ‘IT Startup of the Year’ in the Philippines.

3. PropertyGuru | Singapore

Founded in 2006, PropertyGuru is Singapore’s leading online property portal that covers over 200 property developers, half a million residential and commercial properties listings, and an amazing 82 million property pages.

4. Aothun | Vietnam

Aothun is a four-year old Vietnam-based design and printing startup which has been on an inspiring – and terrifyingly rollercoaster – entrepreneurial journey so far. It has a vision for incubating a thousand fashion and design startups in the next two years.

5. Quit Pro | Singapore

Are you looking to quit smoking this year? Here’s a new application from Singapore-based Bitsmedia which could help you meet that challenge. Quit Pro takes an analytical approach to kicking the habit and also includes various options that can be customized to your own needs.

6. Kamado | Japan

Tokyo-based startup Kamado, which runs auction site Livlis and photo curation site Clipie, was acquired by the country’s top social site, Mixi.

7. Kumami | China

With Chinese parents terrified by food safety issues for pretty much anything that’s made in China, local startup Kumami (the name, fittingly, means “Cool Mommy”) wants to come to the rescue. It’s an online flash sales mall that offers children’s products imported from the US and Europe at discounted prices.

E-Commerce in Vietnam: Goodbye Barriers [Part 2]
Angel’s Gate Opens Auditions for Season 2
What Vietnamese Startups Should Do To Win in 2013
And our first event in the new year: Startup Asia Singapore 2013 is Here

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Angel’s Gate Opens Auditions for Season 2

Emily Goh — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 06:38:45 +0000

Interactive.sg has officially launched its second season auditions for the business reality TV series, The Angel’s Gate. The show, which we have mentioned in the past, focuses on business and entrepreneurship. The producers of this reality program are now on the hunt for “passionate and creative individuals with real, sustainable business ideas.”

Each entrepreneur will have to pitch their business idea in an elevator ride with the investors, within a time limit of 30 seconds. Those who already have a working prototype usually gain an advantage over their competitors. In the previous season, 22 out of the hundreds of ideas submitted were chosen to have the opportunity to pitch directly to the investors on television. The series was also broadcasted on regional network Channel News Asia, as well as on Youtube, gaining over two million views. According to the CEO of Interactive SG and the creator of Angel’s Gate, Ash Singh:

The entrepreneurs we met in season one were hungry for funding and publicity. Those who were really focused got what they wanted and more. Over the course of the eight episodes, successful entrepreneurs were offered more than US$1.5 million in funding.

In Angel’s Gate season two, he says that they will be setting up a fund to provide each entrepreneur up to US$250,000 in cash and grants.

Registration is now open online, from now until March 2013. Selected applicants will be contacted to join one of many auditions, which will be held in major cities around Southeast Asia (in Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta). Depending on the level of response, more cities might be added to the list.

You can find more information over at the Angel’s Gate registration site at AngelsGate.com/auditions.

8 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 08:00:58 +0000

We hope you guys have been having a great week so far and are all hyped up for the upcoming festive season! Here we have for you a compilation of all the startups in Asia we have covered this week. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can submit tips here and/or your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list!

1. Aksara Studio | Indonesia

Starting with a Christmas theme, Indonesian game developer Aksara Studio recently launched a new app called Christmas Hunt for Nokia which looks like good fun for kids.

2. Waigo | China

Waigo is an interesting and useful app from China that helps you to translate Chinese menus via your iPhone camera.

3. Giftee | Japan

Japanese startup Giftee is a service that allows users to send real gifts to their friends via Twitter or Facebook. In a recent fun Christmas campaign, the startup gave away 50,000 pieces of chicken, which can also be gifted to friends.

4. Telunjuk | Indonesia

Indonesian price comparison site Telunjuk announced this week that it has added three home electronic product categories to its product search engine.

5. Voyagin | Japan

Tokyo-based startup Entertainment Kick launched a new web service called Voyagin, which allows you to discover authentic travel experiences, particularly in Southeast Asian countries.

Noi.vn, founded in 2009, is the largest social dating network in Vietnam right now, and has about 720,000 registered members. The startup has previously received funding from YAN Group and IDG Ventures.

7. Sogamo | Singapore

Sogamo is a Singapore-based gaming monetization platform that offers real-time analytics to enable social game developers to better understand their users and how to effectively earn money from them.

8. Hompimplay | Indonesia

Hompimplay is a startup from Indonesia which develops educational mobile apps for children. To get in the Christmas mood, the startup has developed Jolly Jingle, an educational and interactive sing-along app for iOS to teach children timeless Christmas carols at their own pace.

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Crowdsourcing Week to Hold First Global Conference in Singapore

Emily Goh — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 01:00:14 +0000

Yesterday, the event known as Crowdsourcing Week announced its first ever global conference on crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, and open innovation that will run from June 3 to 7, 2013. This five-day event in Singapore will focus on how “a crowd of people” can make remarkable contributions at the enterprise level through a collaborative business model.

According to Epirot Ludvik Nekaj, the CEO and co-founder of Crowdsourcing Week:

Crowdsourcing is rapidly expanding as a disruptive practice in the working world and we see more and more companies trying to utilize the huge potential. The democratized web promises to become the next revolution that will change business as usual.

This international conference aims to help educate, engage, and equip the new generation of top-level business executives, entrepreneurs, government, and nonprofit leaders. It’ll focus on trends and on topics covering best practices in open innovation, delivering insights into the business dynamics of the future, and demonstrating the impact of these technologies.

Crowdsourcing Week 2013 has more than 30 sessions planned for the event, which showcases field experts and practitioners who will address the various topics on latest trends, strategies, and innovations, such as Shelly Kuipers from Chaordix and Sean Moffitt from Wiki Brands.

Furthermore, there will be a pitch competition during the conference targeted at crowd-centric startups selected by a panel of experts from different industry sectors. More information regarding the startup pitch competition will be released next month.

Crowdsourcing Week is also working closely with Singapore’s government agencies with the aim of highlighting Asia, especially Singapore, as the emerging global hub of business innovation.

For more information on Crowdsourcing Week 2013, the conference speaker lineup and topics, please see crowdsourcingweek.com.

Disclosure: Tech in Asia is one of the media partners for Crowdsourcing Week 2013. See our ethics page for more details

14 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 11:46:00 +0000

Once again, for your weekend reading, we have for you a compilation of all the startups in Asia we have covered this week. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can submit tips here and/or your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list!

1. Phewtick | Japan

Japan’s Phewtick is an app that allows its users to meet new people, and even earn money while doing so. The app currently has 600,000 registered users and is aiming to reach four million by the end of 2013.

2. Ookbee | Thailand

Ookbee is a Thai e-book startup that has shown huge growth, with more than 2.5 million users. It also has offices and partnerships across Southeast Asia.

3. Flocations | Singapore

On a tight budget? Singapore’s Flocations helps map out possible travel destinations to fit your budget. Ten months ago, the startup was pitching onstage at our very first Startup Asia Singapore conference – and today Flocations has raised SGD$700,000 (about US$573,000) in a round of funding led by TNF Ventures.

4. Meetrip | Japan

Meetrip is a travel sharing service that matches up travelers and local guides, offering its services to about 12 cities in Asia – and it now has 12 new Android apps for each city.

5. Foody | Vietnam

Foody is a Vietnamese startup that offers food recommendations and restaurant listings with more than 13,000 restaurants listed and 7,000 reviews in its database.

6. FlowerAdvisor | Singapore

Singapore-based FlowerAdvisor is a flower and gift e-commerce service that generated SG$1 million last year, with most of the customers from Singapore and Indonesia. The startup plans to explore market opportunities more closely in other Asian regions like Malaysia and Hong Kong.

7. Fantibody | China

Fantibody is very unique startup from China that allows users to search for medical antibodies on its search engine/e-commerce platform.

8. Looloo | Philippines

Philippine’s Looloo is a mobile app that allows users to discover the best dining, entertainment, and travel destinations within Metro Manila – and it also prides itself as the only friends-powered place discovery app that is focused on Manila at the moment.

9. Hike | India

Hike is a group messaging app from India which this week rolled out internationally.

10. Between | Korea

Korea’s Between is a mobile app aiming to create a one-on-one ‘intimate space’ to share chats, photos, videos, and emoticons between lovers. At the recent Global Brain event held in Tokyo last Friday, the Korean startup mentioned in its pitch that the word “Between” is becoming a verb used in relationships, such as, “Would you between with me?”

11. Heritage Wine Club | China

Heritage Wine Club is both an online seller of premium wines, and also aims to be the leading subscription e-commerce offering on the wine market in China.

12. TradeHero | Singapore

Recently launched on the Apple app store, Singapore’s TradeHero is a mobile app that allows users to trade virtual money based on real-world stock market data and provides money-making opportunities.

13. 8 Securities | China

8 Securities is a Hong Kong-based socially-oriented stocks trading portal that recently closed a $3 million funding round last week and announced they will open a Tokyo office March 2013 with a launch for Japanese users soon.

14. IndSight | Indonesia

NoLimit, an Indonesian startup, recently launched IndSight, a portal where users can monitor the latest social media trends in Indonesia.

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14 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 11:29:58 +0000

It’s been another busy week here at TechinAsia and we have for you a compilation of all the startups in Asia we have covered. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us. Alternatively, you can submit tips here and/or your startup here. Enjoy this week’s list!

1. Venuemob | Australia

Venuemob is a Melbourne-based startup that provides a platform to search for a place to hold events. It aims to gradually add more features for both venue owners and those searching for venues.

2. Papa | China

China’s Papa brings in the voice messaging element of hit apps like WeChat and Whatsapp, allowing people to add a vocal explainer to their photos. But will this kind of ‘Instagram with voice’ app catch on?

3. Vida | China

Speaking of attaching a voice message to your photos, one established photo-sharing startup exhibited some quick thinking in adding this feature to its own app. Chinese startups sure do move quickly.

4. CliqueFund | Singapore

Singapore-based Cliquefund is a crowdfunding startup that hopes to make it easier for both non-profit and for-profit companies to get their businesses rolling.

5. WangJiu | China

WangJiu is a brand-new entrant to China’s luxury e-commerce segment, where it focuses on premium wines.

6. WineNice | China

In yet more news involving a China-based, wine-oriented e-commerce site, WineNice confirmed $15.8 million in series B funding that it’ll use to expand both its online and fledgling offline operations.

7. Soccer Ticker | Indonesia

Inspira Solusi is the Indonesian startup behind this app, which emerged as the grand champion at the recent Blackberry JamHack Asia content. The upcoming BB10 app provides in-depth, play-by-play live updates on certain soccer matches.

8. The Stakeholder Company | Singapore

The Stakeholder Company, is a data-loving, influence-mapping solution for large corporations to visualize their corporate or market structure – or that of their rivals.

9. TuJia | China

China’s Tujia offers a hotel-like online booking system for vacant and fully-furnished holiday homes. In a recent partnership with American site HomeAway, Tujia now offers even more location choices for holiday homes, such as Australia and western Europe, as compared to having only China-based listings previously.

10. Oompr | Singapore

This startup, Oompr, has the ambitious goal of replacing forum listing, buying, and selling – plus it wants to make the experience easier and more social.

11. EatAds | Singapore

Singapore-based EatAds is an online marketplace for the buying and selling of offline/outdoor advertising space in Asia and Europe.

12. Infinite Sky | Indonesia

Indonesian game developer Touchten’s flagship game, Infinite Sky, which has garnered more than one million downloads and 200,000 daily active users, is going to be adapted for the Chinese and Japanese markets.

13. Setech Viet | Vietnam

We like hardware startups but don’t find too many of them around. This one, Ho Chi Minh-based Setech Viet, is also aiming to solve a very real problem that plagues the nation’s many, many motorobike riders every day.

14. I-Freek | Japan

Japanese mobile internet company I-Freek announced on Friday that it has released Photodeco+ for Android, a premium version of its regular Photodeco camera app that has already seen over 350,000 downloads on Google Play.

14 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 05:00:42 +0000

It’s been another week here at Tech in Asia and we have for you a compilation of all the startups in Asia we have covered. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to e-mail us. Alternatively, you can submit tips here and/or your startup here. Enjoy!

1. Voicepic | Japan

Voicepic received some attention last week at the Techcrunch Tokyo 2012 event, walking away with the ‘Mashup Award.’ This app for iPhone brings the element of sound into your photos, letting you add a brief voice comment, or record and attach ambient sound from where the picture was taken.

Tiket serves as a ticket booking platform for almost everything – travel to entertainment. This startup has also recently bagged several awards such as the [ASEAN ICT Awards (AICTA) held in Seibu, Philippines, a couple of weeks ago.

Travelog is a mobile app developed by the four-person team at Korea-based startup CultStory that takes note of all your key travel details that you want to keep track of or share.

4. Fivepager | Philippines

Fiverpager is a web development startup ~~based in Singapore~~ from the Philippines. Starting from $50 a month, a user can get three web pages with custom design, email service, domain, and hosting. It’s aimed at putting small businesses on the web.

5. Douguo.com | China

Douguo is a social recipes website that recently received its second round of funding worth $8 million from GGV Capital. Douguo has apps for iPhone and Android, and claims to have six million users who have uploaded 10,000 recipes so far.

6. Bilna | Indonesia

Indonesia’s Bilna is a new specialist e-commerce site that sells everything that could be needed for babies and infants – and also the mothers – such as food and milk formula, clothing, toys, accessories, and maternity skincare products. This startup also comes prepared with seed funding from both CyberAgent Ventures and East Ventures.

7. Wego | Indonesia

Travel search engine Wego has announced partnerships with several online travel accommodation websites – and revealed its newest accommodation booking feature called Holiday Rentals. Fancy renting a castle for your next holiday?

8. Tweaky | Australia

Australia’s Tweaky is a service that helps small businesses make small changes (or tweaks) to their website, and after they specify their request, a designer or developer can take up the task in exchange for the specified fee.

9. Eloku | Indonesia

Indonesia’s Eloku is a top-end cloud-based solution to keep track of delivery services. It is one of the three startups that graduated this week from the most recent batch at the Jakarta Founder Institute (JKTFI).

10. Pouch | Indonesia

Here’s another new one fresh out of JKTFI. Pouch is a marketing and loyalty program app which allows customers to collect digital stamps on their smartphones from retail partners.

11. Ticbox | Indonesia

The last of the newest JKTFI batch trio is Ticbox.co, a startup that helps companies conduct credible and fast online surveys at affordable prices in Indonesia. It is scheduled to be launched in February 2013.

12. Rewardz | Singapore

Rewardz is a new Singapore-based company that enables employees in startups and small- to medium-sized companies (SMEs) to have the ability to enjoy welfare benefits.

13. Otaku Camera | Japan

Japan’s Otaku Camera is an Android app by up-and-coming startup Tokyo Otaku Mode that helps turn your phone’s photos into manga-style pictures.

14. FotoRus | China

Speaking of photo apps, the Chinese-made FotoRus has so far seen 20 million downloads worldwide across its iPhone and Android app. The newest feature to be added is the “animegram,” which is a way to animate a single photo by drawing on it or warping it in some fun way; the end result is a short video, not a GIF file.

Like RSS? There’s always our Asia startups RSS feed!.

Document and Share Your Travel Experience with Travelog

Emily Goh — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 08:39:44 +0000

If you love traveling, here’s a mobile app that takes note of all your key travel details that you want to keep track of or share.

Travelog is developed by the four-person team at Korea-based startup CultStory. Prior to the development of Travelog, there was already a Korean version (translated as Travel Diary) launched specifically for the Korean domestic market in March 2011. However, the team decided to widen its scope to the global market with updated and improved functions, and officially launched an English Travelog for iOS in May of this year.

Founder Jepil Yun explained to us that during a trip to New York, he missed several beautiful attractions nearby where he was visiting, and this could have been avoided if he had a tool that could give him location-based information on-the-go. And so they came up with Travelog.

Registration can be done via social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, or you can opt for an email registration. Travelers can then upload their personal notes, recommendations, and photos on their personal log, which becomes like a trip diary. Travelog also offers seven types of photo filters which can be applied to photos prior to uploading.

While logging trips, the Travelog app has a Foursquare-like check-in function whereby locations are mapped and pinned, with the relevant country flag displayed. However, it only allows users to check-in from their current, exact location. This would mean that in order to log your travels when you are overseas, GPS must be enabled at that point.

Travelog also allows users to discover other travelogs within the app, from all over the world. Users can browse through recent feeds by city, or they can follow a specific traveler. In addition, travelogs are not only limited to in-app viewing. Upon registration, each user will be allocated a specific URL that can be entered and viewed in the browser, a page sort of like a photo blog.

Although there are several big competitors like TripColour and Gogobot – or more general social services like Path and Instagram – Jepil Yun says that the main, unique point of Travelog is that it focuses on documenting your travel experiences while also giving you useful information. The startup will be introducing new features such as travel recommendations and the creation of photobooks and slideshows from your Travelogs.

If you’d like to give it a try, you can get Travelog for free in the app store.

13 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 04:00:32 +0000

We here at TechInAsia have been once again busy watching the startup world over the past week. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to e-mail us. Alternatively, you can submit tips here, or tell us about your startup here. Enjoy the list!

1. Infinit Closet | Thailand

Infinit Closetis a web and mobile app for users to share their closets (clothing) with friends. This Thailand-based startup emerged top in the recent Startup Weekend Bangkok.

2. ComeSingapore | Singapore

Two Singapore-based startups, Travelogy and TripFlick, have partnered to create a useful mobile app for tourists called ComeSingapore. Currently available for Android, this mobile app targets travellers visiting Singapore, with features such as trip planning and a travel guide.

3. Aftershock | Singapore

Looking at a hardware startup for a change, Aftershockoffers four laptop configurations from which customers can build upon to create their perfect gaming system.

4. TaxiCrab | China

Created by Shanghai-based startup ExploreMetro, TaxiCrabis an Android and iPhone app that lets you rate Shanghai cabbies on their driving skills, professional appearance, and their personal hygiene.

5. Luxola | Singapore

Luxolais an online cosmetics e-commerce startup which currently carries 48 international brands and over 500 different products on its site.

6. Roam7 | Singapore

Singapore’s Roam7is a startup that aims to map your friends’ travels in the hope of helping you plan your own trips.

7. BillPin | Singapore

Singapore’s BillPinis a startup which helps friends and roommates easily manage shared expenses, keeping friendships squabble-free. This article features an interview with the co-founder, which is a part of our female entrepreneurship series.

8. Dropmyemail | Singapore

Dropmyemailis a startup that offers an email back-up solution. It has expanded into providing enterprise services, offering unlimited email storage and email communications monitoring.

9. Gabble | Taiwan

Taiwan’s Gabble, officially launched in mid-July this year, and is a free app that provides users real-time questions and answers on-the-go.

10. ThatApp | Malaysia

The team behind ThatAppwas awarded first place in the recent Social Innovation Camp Asia. This Malaysia-based startup proposes a mobile application to help answer teens’ questions about sex – so that the youngsters can make smart, informed decisions about their sexual health.

11. Doctorpage | Singapore

DoctorPage.sgallows Singaporeans to browse through doctors in their local area and make appointments in real-time. This startup has received seed funding a mere two months after it launched.

12. Noise Street | Singapore

Singapore startup NoiseStreetand SPH MediaBoxOffice have partnered to launch a smartphone-based solution that aims to bring a new level of engagement, interactivity, and immediacy to what’s called out-of-home advertising – ads in stores and on the street.

13. POPS Worldwide | Vietnam

POPS Worldwide is a Vietnam-based startup that develops and distributes media content through cross-media platforms in Vietnam.

That’s all for this week, folks! For our full coverage of the hottest and most innovative startups in the region, you can click here or subscribe to our Asia startups RSS feed. For tips and news, sent us a note via editors[at]techinasia.com

Noise Street: Making In-Store Advertising More Interactive

Emily Goh — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Yesterday, it was announced that Singapore startup NoiseStreet and SPH MediaBoxOffice have partnered to launch a smartphone-based solution that aims to bring a new level of engagement, interactivity, and immediacy to what’s called out-of-home advertising (OOH) – ads in stores and on the street.

The smartphone-based solution, also known as Noise Street, is part of the drive to make screens a two-way medium, instead of a one-way platform. Noise Street claims to be a one-of-its-kind in Asia, allowing consumers to be engaged with advertisements, and enabling them to play games on their smartphones in order to receive rewards and benefits on-the-spot.

Edward Tang, SPH MediaBoxOffice’s general manager, explains:

We’re committed to bringing leading-edge innovation to our advertisers. This partnership with NoiseStreet allows retail advertisers to increase footfall and sales, and brand owners to create a unique engagement with consumers.

Using Noise Street’s custom analytics, retailers are able to tailor future marketing promotions to suit their customers’ preferences, such as tracking redemption rates, promotion-linked in-store sales, and the level of user engagement during the promotion period. They are also able to select from a ready-made set of available games developed by Noise Street or design a customized one.

In a recently concluded pilot promotion with bubble tea brand GongCha, it is said to have attracted new customers with good redemption results. Customers at the participating branch played a ‘Guess the Drawing and Win!’ game, which could be played by scanning a QR code in the mall’s foyer. With the correct answer, consumers could proceed directly to the mall’s GongCha outlet to redeem their rewards.

Anyone can take advantage of such promotions, provided they have an internet-enabled smartphone. No apps are required.

NoiseStreet : Engage your audience .. from NoiseStreet on Vimeo.

Get Answers to Your Nagging Questions with Gabble [UPDATED]

Emily Goh — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 10:44:07 +0000

Have you ever needed some quick advice on choosing the colour of your shirt for a formal event, or where the nearest cafe with wifi is located? Gabble, a free app that provides users real-time question and answers (Q&A) on-the-go, might be the solution for you.

Gabble is a Taiwan-based startup which officially launched its service in mid-July of this year. And the startup team of four is still working hard to better improve the app’s features and user interface.

CEO and founder, Kenzou Yeh, says that the idea behind Gabble was all due to his frustrating experience with Siri, the iPhone’s personal assistant. Instead of having a machine to answer our queries, why not create an iPhone app where we can push questions to our friends’ devices and have them answered almost instantly? He added:

After [coming up with the idea], I also took around two months to survey the market and look at the current Q&A services as well. In February, I decided to build it up, having faith in a big vision.

Currently, Gabble might not be as sophisticated or as famous as similar apps like Thumb, but it is seems to be off to a good start. Kenzou brought up names like Quora and Yahoo! Answers as their main competitors, however in comparison, Gabble focuses solely on mobile and leverages on the benefits of a smartphone’s mobility and location-based services.

Currently, users are only able to register on Gabble via Facebook, which might be a turn-off to some potential users who prefers to keep their Facebook account out of bounds to external service providers. UPDATE on Nov 23rd: In addition to having a Facebook log-in, users will also be able to log-in via Twitter and Foursquare in the upcoming app update. For registered users who don’t have friends on Gabble, there’s also a cute ‘sidekick’ that will provide suggestions to your queries. My sidekick, Monny, might be a tad bit too slow as it has been three hours since my question was posted and she has yet to speak to me.

In addition to having questions sent to your friends on Gabble, you can also opt to send them to users within your proximity.

However, there are some downsides which I’ve noticed while exploring the app. Besides my sidekick not helping me for three hours, there seems to be no option for users to delete or edit a previously posted message. User profiles also have little room for customization, and the app will only be useful if there are many people within your proximity or if Facebook friends are using it. Otherwise, it will just be a ghost town. Hopefully with greater exposure, the app might be able to gain some traction.

The team behind Gabble is also planning to introduce new features such as recommending questions to friends and enabling answers with videos instead of only text. They are also looking into using Facebook to gather more questions on Gabble. UPDATE on Nov 23rd: An Android version will be developed after the release of the next Gabble update.

Gabble is currently available for iOS over on the app store.

Survey: Adoption of Enterprise Social Tools in Asia Pacific [INFOGRAPHIC]

Emily Goh — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 06:00:02 +0000

In a recent survey conducted by research firm IDC and sponsored by Microsoft, it is seen that 52 percent of organisations in the Asia Pacific region have in place an enterprise social network. Basically, that’s an online community within the organisation that cultivates engagement and collaboration among employees and stakeholders with the familiarity of social networking tools; it might be used internally, or with customers for social marketing. Another 23 percent of firms are planning to adopt one in the next 18 months.

According to Internet World Stats, the growth of internet users in the Asia Pacific region rose from 418 million in 2007 to over one billion in 2012. It also translates to the huge rising trend in the use of social networks, with statistics showing a remarkable 204.9 million Facebook users in Asia.

During the media briefing yesterday, Claus Mortensen, IDC Asia-Pacific’s director for emerging technology research, mentioned that the major driving forces of such visible trends includes the prevalence of a younger workforce in the region, where there is wide acceptance of social media and gadgets – and not forgetting cultural norms such as relationship-focused business dealings. All nations showed similar trends, with a dramatic shift in priorities as most organisations are turning to integrating enterprise social technologies to gain competitive advantage, placing them above well above investments in core networks, cloud computing and business intelligence.

Shaping Good Corporate Netizens

According to the survey ^[1], which is embedded below as an infographic, the top enterprise social tools (which might also be used internally, not just with customers) according to preference are instant messaging, emailing, and company social networks. They’re used for tasks such as internal training and learning management, internal collaboration, and internal knowledge sharing.

One interesting trend to note is that, based on current statistics, countries such as Singapore and Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) are seen to be less proactive to the adoption of such social tools. For instance, 47.1 percent of organisations in the ASEAN region (excluding Singapore) are currently using or planning to integrate enterprise social tools into their organisations, but Singapore and ANZ have only 25 percent each respectively, which is almost half the amount of ASEAN’s figures. However, within the next six months, 25 percent of organisations in both Singapore and ANZ respectively have expressed interest in adopting social tools or services, with ASEAN only having 3.9 percent with plans.

Though there’s broad acceptance of the benefits of implementing enterprise social in the organisation, certain challenges still prevail. Claus Mortensen explains:

Security, compliance, governance and lack of control are cited as the most important inhibitors to implement enterprise social but it is not viable for companies to resist adoption as end-users may turn to internet-based, consumer grade, and potentially less secure options.

He added that the main concern of the implementation should be considered more of a change management issue, rather than the costs incurred or security risks – which is more prevalent in traditional and rigid organisations. It is essential for them to educate their own employees on how to become good IT citizens and also use this as an opportunity to trust and engage their employees. Here’s the infographic:

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

The findings of the Enterprise Social Survey were the results of interviewing 352 decision makers and influencers from medium and large organisations across three regions in Asia/Pacific, classified as ANZ (Australia and New Zealand), ASEAN (Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand), and Korea.↩

Travelogy Partners with TripFlick to Launch ComeSingapore

Emily Goh — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:00:26 +0000

It has been recently announced that two Singapore-based startups, Travelogy and TripFlick, have partnered to create a useful tourist mobile app named ComeSingapore. The mobile app is currently available for Android, and is targeted at travellers before and during their visit to Singapore, encompassing features such as trip planning and a travel guide.

ComeSingapore is powered by TripFlick’s semantic recommendation platform, which helps to generate intelligent travel itineraries that take into account the operating hours and distances of the various attractions, as well as the location of users. By filling in preferences and trip details such as trip duration, accommodation, trip pace, and purpose, users will receive personalized itinerary recommendations of attractions and restaurants in addition to receiving information on the mapped route. This clever summary includes things like the cost of commuting, and reviews of the attractions to help you decide whether to go or not.

The partnership kicked off when founders of the respective companies met during a local startup event and agreed on the collaboration before their drinks ran out. Winnie Tan, the founder of Travelogy, mentioned that when both parties started talking, they were initially a little guarded as it was not clear whether they were competitors. However, both founders hit it off well and realized there could be a lot of synergy between the two products. Winnie adds:

Too often do startups promise to do something together at networking events without making things happen. We decided to overlook the ‘what-is-in-it-for-us’ and just focused on creating something that will be useful to our users.

ComeSingapore App is currently available for free on Google Play.

11 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 13:30:54 +0000

Another week has gone by and here’s a compilation of the startups that Tech in Asia has covered. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us at editors@techinasia.com. Alternatively, you can submit tips here and/or your startup here. Enjoy!

1. Daylight Studios | Singapore

Daylight Studios is a startup based in Singapore that focuses on developing mobile social games. They have published their first game, Reign of Heroes, on social gaming platform Mig33 on December 2011 and it was very well received.

2. Vromtu | Indonesia

Vromtu is a mobile app that offers information on shuttle bus services in Jakarta and Bandung, including routes, departure schedules, contact numbers, and addresses. While other mobile app developers focus on creating apps on iOS or Android, Vromtu chose to build theirs on Windows Phone (WP).

3. DangerMaps | China

DangerMaps is a not-for-profit venture that was created by volunteers as a public service. The site helps to track health hazards across China, and allows users to search for an address to see the potential dangers mapped out around it.

4. Pomotodo | China

China’s Pomotodo is a web task management tool based on the Pomodoro Technique that helps users to focus on their tasks and improve work efficiency.

5. Kirim.co.id | Indonesia

Kirim offers a broad range of delivery services to help individuals and businesses, particularly in Jakarta and its surrounding areas. They provide 24/7 courier services, a public API for e-commerce players and also a unique service called, ‘Personal Assistant’.

6. Miidooo | China

China-based Miidooo is an online photo journal platform that allows parents to keep track of their little ones starting from the day they were born. It also features a state ranking of top baby albums and occasional themed activities for users to participate in.

7. TaskAmigo | Singapore

Based in Singapore and founded early this year, TaskAmigo is a platform for people to post and find short-term tasks such as making a delivery, queueing for concert tickets, or data entry.

8. Blood Donors Network | Philippines

Blood Donors Network is a non-profit initiative to create a database of regular blood donors in Asia. People can register as part of a community of donors and on the recipients side, they can get to post the geo-specific blood type request to the network, and also share it to Facebook and Twitter.

9. Boxyroom | Singapore

Recently soft launched in October 2011, Singapore-based Boxyroom is a long-term property rental platform that offers safer transactions between landlords and tenants worldwide.

TreeCrunch is a B2B Hong Kong-based startup that offers customized data mining, organization, and presentation solutions to businesses.

11. Homerent | Japan

Homerent is a self-funded startup that helps you find a place to stay in Japan. Though Airbnb might seem to be a huge competitor, Homerent gets home -field advantage – due to the unique Japanese culture, which can often make it difficult for foreign business to thrive.

That’s all for this week, folks! (See last week’s list here.) For our full coverage of the hottest and most innovative startups in the region, you can click here or subscribe to our Asia startups RSS feed. For tips and news, sent us a note via editors[at]techinasia.com

Boxyroom: A Safer Option for Long-Term Property Rentals

Emily Goh — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:30:43 +0000

When talking about renting overseas apartments, services such as Airbnb, TravelMob and 9Flats might be the first to pop into your minds. But those sites are usually for short-term vacation stays. For longer-term rentals you’ll have to look elsewhere – as well as think carefully about trust and security.

One such site is Boxyroom. It’s a startup based in Singapore that had its soft launch in October 2012. The idea behind the startup all began when the founder’s personal friend responded to a property listing on Craigslist in Paris and was cheated of 1,200 Euros (US$1530) when the fake landlord ran off with his money. In a bid to prevent such scams, founders Ang Pheng Huat and Loh Lin Lin felt the need to create a safer online platform for landlords and tenants to transact.

Boxyroom shows several similarities in concept and layout to Airbnb-like sites, centering on property listings complete with ratings and reviews, available amenities, messaging functions, and local map views. The main difference is that Boxyroom serves for long-term property leasing. It also strives to be a safer platform for transactions as they require tenants to fill up compulsory pre-tenancy application forms for landlords’ screening. The site also safeguards the security deposit (equivalent to one month’s rent) till the tenants have moved into the property. For each successful transaction, it will take a one-time 10 percent cut from the deposit paid by the tenant and the remaining 90 percent will be transferred to the landlord after the tenant has moved in.

Currently, after a month of its launch, Boxyroom claims to have about 200 members and 20 property listings in their database. They aim to target the global market with a focus on certain cities and countries with a high concentration of foreign students and expatriates, such as New York, London, Hong Kong, Melbourne, and Singapore.

Competitor-wise, Pheng Huat named several long-term accommodation sharing websites such as Easyroomate.com and ShareAccommodation.com, but he explained that the risks of fraud still prevail on those sites as landlords and tenants are able to communicate and transact directly without proper protection procedures in place.

At the moment, Boxyroom is self-sustaining but has plans to seek external funding in order to expand aggressively into the key markets and to set up a customer service team to provide around-the-clock multilingual support.

Record Your Child’s Precious Moments with Miidooo

Emily Goh — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 01:00:04 +0000

China-based Miidooo is an online photo journal platform that allows parents to keep track of their little ones starting from the day they were born. The underlying idea behind Miidooo was to ensure parents are able to capture the essence of every special moment with their child.

Compared to other baby-journal apps and services around, Miidooo does not offer features like growth charts or medical and food journals. It is simply an interactive social platform where proud parents archive memorable images of their children. After browsing the site for quite a bit, the platform feels more like a showcase or a runway than its stated purpose as a personal album.

From the homepage, users are greeted by a sea of adorable smiling faces and a list of the top favourite baby albums. Navigation is straightforward and signing up for an account was almost effortless and costs nothing. Users are also able to register using their Chinese social network accounts such as Weibo, QQ, RenRen or Douban.

Each album is referred to as a Mi Dou, and users get to customize its title and cover as well as its privacy settings. One really sweet touch in Miidooo is that parents are also able to leave a message for their future child on their album, should the child be viewing their own childhood online pictorial in the future. Currently, there are no restrictions to the number of photos uploaded and the album can incorporate both images and quotes. The album is displayed in a wide horizontal scroll format, instead of the usual Facebook or Instagram grid style, so Miidooo’s layout is more visually appealing.

An album view of Miidooo

Other interesting features of Miidoo include having a city categorization where users are able to view the top ten baby albums from various cities in China, and a community where the site administrators of Miidoo will organized themed activities for parents to participate in (an example is the upcoming ‘I have a date with snow’ event where parents can create an album of their child along with the theme). Users are able to vote for their favourite albums, and even have their child win a chance to be part of a magazine pictorial shoot.

Miidooo occasional themed activities

For those who are not parents, browsing the site just to look at the adorable pictures can brighten up one’s day! Miidooo is only accessible via web browsers currently and it’s not clear whether there are plans to offer the services on mobile platforms. It would be an even better option for parents to be able to capture and upload their precious moments instantly on Miidooo while on-the-go, rather than to delay the uploading process.

Your 25 Minutes Start NOW: Complete Your Tasks with Pomotodo

Emily Goh — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 01:30:52 +0000

Lately, with many task-management tools and apps readily available in the market, it is definitely a tough task to stand out as a must-have getting-things-done (GTD) app. Though some may be jam-packed with many supposedly exciting features, it all means nothing if the app or site is a hassle to use. It’s at times like these when we just want to look for simplicity in an app that promptly delivers what it promises.

The name and concept behind Pomotodo is derived from the Pomodoro Technique, a time management method developed in the late 1980s which aims to help individuals increase efficiency by managing tasks in 25-minute intervals ¹. This startup was founded by a duo from Hunan province, China, and officially launched its service this year.

Founder Sun Liang shared that Pomotodo was actually meant for internal use for his team, and the main motivation behind its creation was to present a simple yet effective means for them to focus and complete their tasks at hand. It was then developed some more and released to the public. He also mentioned that there are indeed numerous competitors around in the market, and we have found similar Pomodoro-inspired tools such as My Little Pomodoro and Pomodoro Plus HD on iTunes, but the startup developers are unfazed. He notes Pomotodo is straightforward, simple, and comes at no cost at all.

The main interface might look a bit too minimalist, but it really serves its main purpose as a task productivity tool. New users will be brought through a quick tutorial, though it would be great if they could also explain the Pomodoro technique or how the ‘Tomato Timer’ worked. I was initially puzzled as to why it was strictly preset at 25 minutes, prior to understanding what the Pomodoro Technique is about. Compared to other similar services, the advantage of Pomotodo is that it tracks work progress, and also provides a handy tool for users to note down their to-dos.

While performing the task during the stipulated 25 minutes, users can choose to play the ‘timer ticking’ sound via the settings menu if it helps to create a greater sense of urgency in order to feel more motivated to finish the task faster. However, it might not be music to the ears of some users, so thankfully the timer ticking is optional. After your 25 minutes is up, users are entitled to a five-minute break (also referred to as the completion of ‘one Tomato’) before continuing with the next 25-minute segment.

Currently, Pomotodo is only available in Chinese and accessible via web browsers. For English readers who are keen to try out Pomotodo, fret not as the team is planning for an English release in the near future, along with development for Chrome web browser extension and mobile app versions for both iOS and Android platforms.

Head over here to give Pomotodo a shot, and see if it does help to improve your work efficiency today.

Chinese users will notice the fun name it has in that language, which translates literally as ‘Tomato Potato’.↩

12 Startups in Asia That Caught Our Eye

Emily Goh — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 05:30:28 +0000

Another week has gone by and here’s a compilation of the startups that we’ve covered. For tips and stories suggestions, feel free to email us at editors@techinasia.com. Alternatively, you can submit tips here and/or your startup here. Enjoy!

1. I Want to See a Dentist | China

I Want to See a Dentist, as its name suggests, is a dental appointment booking website that is based in China. Presently, this online service is only available in Shenzhen and users are able to quickly and freely book dental appointments with virtually any dentist in the city.

2. iTajPlus | India

iTajPlus app, aimed at travelers visiting India, was created by a group of Indian and expat backpacker types who want to provide a hi-tech way for people to explore the historic treasure that is the Taj Mahal at Agra.

3. DroidJuice | India

Here’s a new interesting way to keep track of the battery life of your Android phone – and even on other people’s phones.

4. Language Cloud | Japan

Based in Tokyo, Language Cloud lets users manage classes online. It includes features like announcements, assignments, and flashcards in a very friendly interface for students and teachers.

5. ChopChop | Malaysia

Malaysia-based startup ChopChop allows users to engage in cashless transactions and keep track of their rewards on-the-go without the hassle of holding all those loyalty-cards stuffed inside their wallet.

6. 9Rasa.com | India

Indian flash sales site 99Labels has expanded this month with the launch of 9Rasa.com, which is a more conventional e-commerce site that specializes in traditional-style clothes, jewelry, and home decorations.

7. RumahSegar.com | Indonesia

Thinking of cooking at home, but you haven’t any fresh products or ingredients? RumahSegar is a new e-commerce site that takes care of your needs, letting you order all you need from home.

8. Nana | Japan

Previously available only in Japan, Nana has now officially launched a global version of its iPhone app. This app lets users to sing, play songs, and collaborate with other users on the Nana platform.

9. LifeCrumbs | Taiwan

The Taipei-based startup is a new social journal allowing users to share memorable moments in their everyday lives.

10. Hornet | China

The startup reckons that Hornet’s success in China as a flirty hook-up app is partly societal, as “gay culture is understated and a private affair” in mainland China.

11. Darisini | Indonesia

As a sort of weekend/side project, a co-founder told us it took two months to build the location-based app from scratch.

12. TradeHero | Singapore

TradeHero is a mobile app that allows users to trade virtual money based on real-world stock market data. But this isn’t just another simulated stock market game; click and read on. It’s epic.

That’s all for this week, folks. (See last week’s list here). For our full coverage of the hottest and most innovative startups in the region, you can click here or subscribe to our Asia startups RSS feed. For tips and news, sent us a note via editors[at]techinasia.com – thanks!

MOGi Mobile Wallet Combines Cashless Payments and E-Coupons

Emily Goh — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 03:00:51 +0000

Smartphone users can now bid goodbye to having a thick wallet crammed with cards, vouchers, and cash. Singapore-based Mobile Media Creations (nicknamed M2C) has launched a new product, MOGi Mobile Wallet, which allows users to pay for goods and services using their phone and to store things like discount vouchers and loyalty cards in one convenient, virtual space.

The M2C CEO Rashad Budeiri explains:

There is a stark absence of mobile payment applications available in Singapore. Together with a 72 percent smartphone penetration in the local market – with 68 percent being iOS and Android users – MOGi serves as the perfect tool for partnering merchants to engage with and deliver their latest offerings to the consumers.

Compared to other loyalty-card mobile apps in the region (such as Perx or Squiryl), MOGi sets itself apart by allowing users to engage in cashless transactions with MOGi partner merchants. Users can pay for their goods or services by purchasing the merchant’s vouchers or prepaid cards via credit card or Paypal ahead of time, and store them in their virtual mobile wallet. There is no worrying about insufficient cash in your wallet, or misplacing paper vouchers. Consumers nowadays might also face the problem of forgetting the expiry dates of their vouchers, and so the MOGi app is able to tackle the issue by sending out notifications to alert users before any of their coupons expire.

Furthermore, by purchasing prepaid cards with the listed merchants, users can receive instant rebates and discounts. Payment transactions are made by scanning of a QR code at the merchant’s MOGi terminal. If you have mobile internet connection issues, however, it might not work.

Can’t decide what gifts to get for your friends? MOGi also has social media features that allow users to receive birthday reminders, send or receive messages, and also create their own personal wish lists to share with their friends. Users can also purchase vouchers or prepaid cards for their MOGi friends instantly via the application. However, the wish list items are strictly limited to products and services provided by MOGi merchants.

In the near future, MOGi plans to launch real time payments beyond the current prepaid methods. This will allow users to pay in real time, without having to buy a voucher or top up a prepaid value card in advance. There are also plans to introduce more social features like geo-fencing to allow users to find nearby deals.

Currently MOGi is free for download for iOS and Android. Merchants who wish to integrate MOGi into their business will require a special Point of Sale (POS) tablet that will be offered to merchants at no cost for the time being.

ChopChop: Malaysian Loyalty-Card App to Safekeep your Rewards

Emily Goh — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 12:00:30 +0000

Launched in November 2011, Malaysia-based startup ChopChop is a loyalty card smartphone application that helps users to keep track of their rewards on-the-go, without the hassle of holding all those loyalty-cards stuffed inside your wallet.

According to founder Aaron Hee, the user-base of the mobile app has seen an 800 percent increase since the team started to dedicate full-time efforts to the startup in mid-April. The idea came about after a friend of theirs lost his wallet – including all his reward cards. And so they decided to find a solution for this sort of ‘crisis’ as they noticed many people tend to misplace such cards ¹.

In addition to digitizing physical loyalty reward cards, ChopChop also serves as a social, digital marketing platform for merchants to generate brand awareness and exposure through social media sharing, as well as enabling them to digitize store vouchers and prepaid cards. Merchants can also make use of ChopChop to remind their customers of their unused redemption points. The team stresses customer service, which is one of its distinct features compared to other loyalty apps in the market. Aaron Hee explains:

We are very customer-oriented. We constantly engage our merchants and promptly address problems that they face to ensure they get the best out of our product. Our relationship with our merchants is beyond just business and we are close friends with some as well. The level and sincerity of customer service can be a great competitive advantage that is not easily duplicated. We are Zappos-inspired.

Currently, merchants on ChopChop are all based in Malaysia but plans are underway for expansion into Singapore and Indonesia in the near future. ChopChop claims to have more than 70 merchants partnering with them and are continuously signing up with more to their network. Aaron adds:

We are in the midst of digitizing half of our wallet- and non-cash items like loyalty cards, vouchers, and prepaid cards. Next up: digitizing your cash items, making it easy for our users to manage their entire wallet, all in just one smartphone application.

If you reside in Malaysia, you might want to give ChopChop a try by downloading the free app for iOS, Android, or Blackberry.

Aaron also mentions that prior to the development of ChopChop, the team was in the midst of creating a social payment network which later ran up against regulatory hindrances. The idea was just placed temporarily on hold, while they focused on creating a smartphone app that enables users to store all their reward cards on their mobile device. ↩

WePin App Hopes to Overcome China’s Reluctance to Carpool

Emily Goh — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:15:08 +0000

Carpooling might still be something relatively foreign in China. Issues such as mistrust of strangers or awkwardness among carpoolers can be a problem for many. And that’s what WePin is trying to address.

WePin is a China startup based in Zhejiang which launched in the middle of this year. It aims to address unfamiliarity between potential carpoolers so that sharing cars might become common practice in China. According to a report on QQ Tech, it has already racked up a total of 50,000 app downloads within just one week of its launch.

Like other carpool apps available on the market (such as Wodache), WePin has features that let you search for drivers or passengers to carpool with, including availability details such as their pick up times or drop off points. Users are also able to request personal particulars for verification.

It also includes a unique social feature. Using the dashboard, one is able to view nearby users as well as details like their personal messages, announcements, occupation, and recent activity. The location-based service lets users engage with other individuals in the immediate vicinity with the goal of meeting new people and establishing a more comfortable carpool experience.

Wepin’s mobile interface is sleek and navigation through the various menus is a breeze. Surfing WePin on the web is easy as well, and it includes WePinYou, a platform where users are able to post and share their places of interests in China, as well as travel itineraries for potential road trips.

You can try out WePin by downloading the app for iOS or for Android. As I mentioned, it is also accessible via web browsers at wepin.com.cn.

iCard English: Daily Micro Lessons to Perfect Your Spoken English

Emily Goh — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:22:58 +0000

Within a month of its official launch, iCard English has garnered a total of 70,000 users. As its name suggests, this iPhone app is designed to aid Chinese users in the English learning process.

Prior to the launch of iCard English, founder and CEO Yuang Peng was recognised as an English learning expert, and was often asked questions about studying English by followers on his Sina Weibo account, where he now has 280,000 fans. He was asked how they should go about improving their spoken English, what sort of materials are available, and how to motivate themselves to continuously learn and improve. Thus, the idea of iCard English was born.

Yuan Peng shared with us that it took him about a year to plan and design the concept, before launching into the development stage with a team of six in April this year. He saw a proliferation in the mobile app market and decided to tap into it by offering their services through the iOS platform.

On a sleek and futuristic-looking interface, users are able to receive daily mini lessons across different categories such as ‘Phrase of the Day’, ‘Modern Slang’, and ‘American Accent Tips’. Each lesson is kept short and concise, and fits perfectly into a mini card. There is also an audio guide that helps users to correct their pronunciation, and the duration of each is kept to one minute. The app is all free for now, and there’s an optional free registration; by signing up, users are able to unlock more features such as keeping a favourite lesson card collection and tracking their learning progress.

This learning app does not make learning a boring and mundane experience, as they have thoughtfully included relevant and beautiful images. There is also a daily learning footprint menu where users can track words that they have learned, and in chronological order, to facilitate effective revision. It is a pretty useful app for busy Chinese users, and with the iCard English’s micro lessons, users only need to spare a few minutes of their day to practice their spoken English.

iCard English aims to reach one million users within a year of the app launch and has future plans to introduce customized learning cards which can be purchased within the app.

iCard English is currently available free only on the Apple iTunes store.

Tibiji Takes Password-Protected Notes and Tracks Your Finances

Emily Goh — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 12:08:03 +0000

Tibiji is a brand-new service from Beijing-based startup Feike, consisting of an online personal organiser. We have seen several such services before, but most just do notes, such as Evernote’s Yinxiang Biji or Netease’s Youdao Yunbiji. But Tibiji users are able to organize many other aspects of their life into this cloud-based system.

Upon logging into the dashboard, one is able to store important contacts, maintain personal finances, keep track of special dates and birthdays, record notes, and monitor personal favors.

One of the founders of Tibiji tells us via email that its product stands out from other single-function notes app because it not only combines several features into one, but they claim to be the only available platform that provides monitoring of personal favors.

I was intrigued by this latter feature, which allows a user to note their personal ‘receivables’ and ‘payables’ from others (as shown in the image below). But on second thought, are people really so particular about receiving and giving?

This Tibiji service also hopes to go green by encouraging the adoption of a paper-free way of organizing life. It offers a virtual notepad with a customizable link, so users are able write, edit, and share by accessing the link. Concerned about privacy issues? No worries! Each note page can be secured by a personal password so only those who have the password, are able to access it. There is one major disadvantage though – users cannot upload any images or audios into the notepad, so this just serves as a basic note-keeping tool.

Nonetheless, the personal finance management feature is fuss-free, and enables users to have a quick overview of their monthly income and expenditures. Each entry can also be further categorized into things like lifestyle, culture, and necessities. From the dashboard, you can see problem areas and manage your budgets with ease.

It is accessible via your mobile web browser, but there are no mobile app versions, and that’s a little disappointing. Keying in Tibiji’s main web address brought me to a random user’s note page (a security flaw?). It seems like using Tibiji on a desktop web browser provides a more seamless user experience, but defeats the main purpose of being mobile and convenient.

Overall, Tibiji is a simple and straightforward tool which does a pretty cool job in managing personal accounts and contacts. But if you are someone who prefers to make random notes and loves apps, perhaps other cloud note apps might do a better job. Here are a few from China that might be of interest, or you can try something like nvNotes, which is currently on sale in the app store.

TickTok: Save time, Queue Smart

Emily Goh — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 02:40:50 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ticktok is available on the iTunes App store .

In the meantime, do check out their video below.

Tech in Asia » Emily Goh

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