Consumer tech startups at DEMO Asia 2012 — It’s a jungle out there

The slate of consumer technology startups at DEMO Asia 2012 is almost “jungle” like, hailing from different industries.

The industries covered include  sexy trends such as video and social, to hardware that have less online hype.  There were also medical, education, and even environmental startups.

This is in contrast to the convergence towards two main trends (gamification and loyalty apps) among social media startups.

The quality of the startups occupy extreme ends of the spectrum too. Below, we go through each category to give you a run-down of how innovative they are.

Video

Is Business.me a video platform that will be lost in the crowd?

“Videos are going to take over the world,” said Danny Wilson, founder & CEO of Pixelmetrix, at another session. Three startups in this category could play a big role in that revolution: Business.me, CuteChat from Pixtelz and Ctrlworks.

Business.me aims to be THE place to share and discover videos about business. Simply log in with your Linkedin account, and Business.me’s recommendation engine will curate a personalised list of videos for you. The team believes that producers of business video are currently stuck on using consumer-focused online video platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.

However, I am unsure of the prospects of creating a video platform just for enterprises and professionals. There are already TV/video channels with recommendation engines. Some good examples are Peel and Denso, although these other apps are not exclusively focused on business-related videos.

One possible way for Business.me to stand out in the crowd of video platforms is if it moves away from the business model adopted by Youtube — offering free videos and earning through advertisements. Having paid-exclusive videos could be one potential revenue model that seems viable.

CuteChat on the other hand, takes on Apple with its webcam software that allows seamless changing of backgrounds. In the demonstration, Pixtelz co-founder Boon Leng conducted a video chat with his friend Jeremy, who was able to “teleport” from Singapore’s Changi Airport, to a hawker center, to other places in the country.

It’s certainly useful for giving your boss (or wife) the impression that you’re slogging away. Just upload a backdrop of your office.

However, Michelle Guthrie, JAPAC Director of Strategic Business Developement of Google, questioned if CuteChat is able to run smoothly via mobile devices.