3 Key Themes from Sparxup 2012 in Jakarta

I visited Indonesia recently for the Sparxup 2012 event in Jakarta. There was a hackathon in day 1, followed by presentations and panels in the next 2 days. As always, it was refreshing to engage and listen in to ideas from the market - most of the presenters and the booth participants were from Indonesia though there were representations from Japan and Singapore as well.

Amidst the vibrant energies and furious presentations, I came back with the following 3 common themes from Sparxup 2012.

1. Community can thrive in local tribes with common passions

In my previous posts, I had discussed about how apps continue to act as outposts for communities of common passions. Apps like DishPal for food lovers sharing recipes in virtual potluck parties, and StyleTag for street fashion trend spotting target specific vertical communities and the specific mobile routines in their communities like sharing, enhancing and achievement oriented engagements. (declaration: DishPal and StyleTag are apps from SK planet, where I am now at)

In Sparxup 2012, communities and the development of which, in the local Indonesia market context, were very much represented by the respective passionate founders.

DapurMasak featured a social network dedicated in making the cooking experience fun, both in the bid to preserve the traditional recipes of Indonesia as well as to develop and enrich further the recipes. "Recu" represented the "like" in this local food community.  DapurMasak community members further continue to share and enrich their recipes through "cooking" accomplishments on the social network. Read more here on the gamification elements (cook points and badges) and monetization models (brand sponsorships in cooking challenges) in DapurMasak.

Another community, trackpacking.com focused on user generated content for backpackers. Groups in this dedicated backpackers' community were identified as "tribes". The use of "track-in" for a specific track submitted to this community, were highlighted by community members who have tried the specific track - hence the validations by this niche social network on the contributors of backpacking tracks. And by the way, this community was developed by one man, Kurniawan - simply amazing, what passion can drive!

2. Location holds context to everyday life's discovery

In my previous post, I looked at the opportunities in location-based mobile offerings. And these are increasingly being mashed into various social contexts. In Sparxup, the mobile routines around location, like sharing location information, writing, reviewing and keeping digital memories and planning were highlighted by a number of startups.

Memories associated to each moment in your travels are precious - this is the premise developers of a travel diary/travelogger app focused their energies around their offerings. This travel diary app from StoreQ, targeting bloggers, help log the travel diary entries with the help of Bing Maps and Evernote, as private notes in defined notebooks and are shareable to blogs, Facebook and Twitter public networks.

Another local travel in Indonesia, called Baroo, took care of trip planning app for holidays in Indonesia. Incidentally, this is where Baroo is located in Indonesia - yup the app was named after this place.

In terms of a different take and a wow user experience, I found Harpoen refreshing. Harpoen is all about making places social by enabling users to tagging and leaving your marks or "harps" at specific places you would like to leave your memory trails via digital messages. You could read more about Harpoen here (WSJ article) and over here (Techinasia article).

3. E-commerce is growing in developing markets

With more than 240 million people living in Indonesia, a growing middle class family with 20 million IDR monthly income to target, while shopping malls are sprouting up in a number of new places, persistent traffic jams and huge geography of Indonesia open up opportunities for e-commerce.

Fashion goods, clothing feature prominently on the agenda of e-commerce players in Indonesia as this forms the top category of goods purchased via e-commerce currently there, according to a report by DailySocial. Whilst largely driven by users surfing from PCs and at home, this has not dampened the momentum in players going to market with their offerings.

Small startups like shoppingmagz who position themselves to be the first digital shop and lifestyle magazine in Indonesia, are standing tall against other new but more established e-commerce players like blibli.com.

Blibli.com prides themselves in their quality of service and capability in delivering on their mantra of "anytime, anywhere shopping". Blibli.com aims to enable their time-poor consumers to lead less stressful lives by providing relevant lifestyle recommendations through their digital merchandising and deliver the products with easy click to buy payment options. The end to end level of service carries on to the convenient logistics fulfilment options and call centre customer service.

Seeing the energies and passion from all the presentations, panel discussions and booth visits in Sparxup 2012, these simply reaffirm my previous posts where I was writing about how:

• internet growth of southeast asia through mobile
• the evolution from print to digital of retail circulars
• how are eshopping trends shaping the market

are all leading to continual development and engagement in local or vertical communities, social conversations and the entry into commerce - these I alluded in my previous post on "3 Phase Strategy in Digital Commerce".

What are your observations on the common themes in apps, social and commerce in Indonesia or Southeast Asia in general?

Let's connect to discuss further.

Talk soon~
Nelson Wee
profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonwee
twitter: @nelsonwee

3 Phase Strategy in Digital Commerce

It's been quite some time since my last post on "5 Pillars in the Internet Content Business", where I was discussing the areas to look at from content to advertising, access/browsing, payment, and fulfillment/monitoring. I have been busy but I am back with a couple of ideas brewing in my head.

3 Phase Strategy in Digital Commerce from Nelson Wee

Lately, I have been deliberating on what are the phases in which the various players in the markets are putting into play as they go-to-market in digital commerce. I came up with the following 3 phases which I would like to share and discuss with you - all comments most welcome to refine this further :-)

(1) Apps (& Content)

• Today we are seeing apps and content ecosystems and symbiotic cross-platform partnerships being put together to address the needs, routines and opportunities of the consumers' Digital Life.
• The battle of the ecosystems is growing more rampant - Apple, Google are leading but Amazon, Microsoft are coming up with wave after wave of new hardware, content business models design and collaborations.
• Why? Cos I figure Apps (& Content) provide excellent outposts in the marketplace for the businesses, in listening and understanding the consumers on how they engage with the apps and contents on their screens - smartphones, tablets, PCs or even your humble feature phones.
• Content consumption is going mobile and across different screens and businesses need to experiment and learn from the changing habits of the on-the-go consumers.

(2) Social

• Today, we are also witness to the battle of the social networks - Facebook, Twitter, and recently and Google+ giving the former 2 a good run.
• Consumer fatigue in the above "traditional" social networks amongst especially the millennials are leading to exits from social networks like Facebook to micro-blogs like Tumblr and more rapid and engaging conversations through instant messaging.
• And so, instant messaging is also turning social.  And there are many players in the market - the popular WhatsApp, Naver Line, KakaoTalk, SK planet TicToc fast mobile messenger and more.
• Tremendous opportunities abound to engage communities from apps drawn to the social messaging platforms, with a relevant content marketing calendar.

(3) Commerce

• What we have been hearing like a broken record these days "Commerce is getting social"
• Indeed by understanding the conversations taking place in social networks, microblogs, group boards etc, businesses would be able to discern patterns and profiles of consumer behaviours.
• Not only will these consumer analytics help in the commerce of digital products but rather, end to end, with consumers buying time these days (ease of purchase key), businesses could look to explore differentiated offers via transmedia connecting people to a new world of entertainment (digital and physical merchandise).

Definitely non-prescriptive in the approach of how the above 3 phases "Apps-Social-Commerce" need to be deployed by businesses. It all boils down to sitting down and understanding the markets businesses would like to play in digital commerce and pursuing the relevant game-planning.

What do you think about the above 3 phases in digital commerce? What have your strategies been for your businesses and markets you play in?

Talk soon,
Nelson Wee
Catch me on Twitter @nelsonwee
Look me up on LinkedIn

5 Pillars in the Digital Content Internet Business

Over the last decade and more in the digital content business since the year 2000, consumers have been spoilt for choice when it came to personalising their mobile devices or drawing entertainment from their personal devices during downtime.  From black and white (ring) tones, graphics (remember those black and white operator logos, wallpapers, MMS greetings) and simple mobile games, digital content has evolved to streaming music, colorful and dynamically updated themes, and mobile (soon social) games, videos and much much more.

To be successful in this dynamic digital content business, there are 5 key critical success factors or pillars which I see should be looked at carefully and reviewed continuously for businesses, who venture into digital content sales and marketing, to be able to capture traction and sustainable consumer life-time value.

Digital content value chain analysis

View more presentations from Nelson Wee

(1) Quality Content

• Transmedia content, or essentially telling your story content across multiple platforms with different perspectives and possibilities, appears to be trending lately.
• People are being connected to a new world of entertainment.
• Not only are indie writers producing their own eBooks (and owning the rights to), are converting their content to other ensuing digital contents like eBooks, movies, books and movies are also being produced from games today.
• Read more on transmedia storytelling here from wikipedia
• With the myraid of opportunities in content development innovation, think about your audience and the markets they are in.
• Consider what content will drive immediate traffic vis a vis what content could bring you sustainable consumer lifetime value.

(2) Targeted Advertising (Promotions)

• Think about who and where your audience for your digital content would be.
• And there are an increasing number of channels available today, be it the mobile, EDMs, social media, (cloud-based) digital billboards, which you would need to analyse for the most effective targeted engagement channel(s) to your intended customers.
• But hey do not lose sight on the effectiveness of that little thing called the SMS marketing - it's loads more effective for immediate and targeted response in the emerging markets like Indonesia.
• In South East Asia, Youtube is top of mind.  An example of interactive video engagement is the SingTel TGIS video program series.

• And hey consider this thing called "Gladvertising" where outdoor adverts are tailored according to the emotions detected from the consumers - spooky or innovative push marketing?
• And then there're also promotions which are going more socially contextual in nature like the music moodbox Facebook marketing tool from StarHub (video below) 

(3) Great Experience in Access (Browsing)

• While smartphones are flying off the shelves from many stores and into the hands of the media hungry consumers all around the world, thnk about the 50% to 60% feature phone base in a number of markets like in the South East Asia (that's about 360 million phones - phew!).
• Feature phone users need some loving too. 35% of the top 20 performing phones in the AIS App Store were feature phones.

(4) Convenience in Payment

• Besides the hygiene credit card for OTT content business, think about cash on delivery, bank transfers, and other mobile wallets for the likes of the consumers in the emerging markets.

(5) Flexible Delivery and Reporting

• Along the buy process, look into add-on bundles (think how airlines are handling the consumers' online buy process with ancillary product suggestions).
• Profile your consumers and offer targeted recommendations along your engagement.
• Think about how you could get your customers involved, participate in your business and always think win win in terms of privileges for your customers.

Throughout the consumer journey, always bear in mind that quality, experience, convenience, participation and privilege are key drivers which would garner the WOW from your customer and lead to both sustainable engagement with your customer as well as increasing ancillary revenues in future interactions.

Do you have any experiences to share on your digital content business? 

Looking forward to hear from you.

talk more soon,
Nelson Wee
Linkedin Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonwee
Twitter: @nelsonwee

Introducing Edtech Market Opportunities in Education Enrichment

Recently, I had put together the following introduction deck in slideshare on "Edtech Market Opportunities in Education Enrichment".  Edtech appears to be a buzz word these days and also identified as a hot market trend to look out for in 2012.

Edtech market opportunities in Education Enrichment

View more presentations from Nelson Wee

With the pervasiveness in broadband and the next generation of broadband (capable of delivering speeds of up to 1 Gbps) roll out, the learning communities of students, teachers, parents and out of school educators will have in their hands (devices) capable of rich interactions via video, voice, images, text, sharing notes and more.  There will be many more opportunities in not only face to face in-school programs but also online and real-time out of school e-learning sessions and mentorships.

In my presentation deck above, I attempt to:

1. introduce the market trends of how digital publishing, learning and edtech are converging into the education enrichment of students today.
2. put a number on the potential market size in education enrichment - case in Singapore
3. discuss a framework on the education enrichment commerce ecosystem - case in Singapore

I will be writing another post soon to further elaborate on the above topic on edtech and the education enrichment market opportunities.  I look forward to engage with you and hear your views on education enrichment and how edtech could help the pathways of today's new generation of students.


Talk soon,
Nelson Wee
also contactable via @nelsonwee
Photo credit: adam.blake88 / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

From Print to Digital: Evolution of Retail Circulars

I read recently from a Nielsen market report that in the US, the ongoing consumer love affair with the retail store circular is transforming from print to digital.

Every day across America, a shopper walks into a store, grabs a cart and reaches out for the store circular to find out what’s on sale. Now however, a new generation of digital savvy consumers are viewing their circulars (or brochures, vouchers, deals) online or via a mobile browser or app.

From my observations, there are 3 trends happening even here in the Singapore retail shopping landscape.

1. Consumers are checking their mobile for deals, product info (I wrote about this in my last post about e-commerce trends in Singapore).
2. Consumers are used to buying deals online or via mobile (mobile is nascent, covering 4% of total e-commerce market in Singapore).
3. Personalised offers beyond SMS, EDMs are coming to the fore with location-based targeted offers, QR code call-to-action.

Indeed, the future-state will be a shift to personalised tailor-made offers that will match the shoppers' interests and purchase patterns.

Another interesting insight from the Neilsen report described that almost half of the American category shoppers rely on circulars to draft their shopping lists (think mobile shopping list apps here). As in Singapore where 84% of consumers search on their mobile for product info, a large part (three-quarters) of American buyers make purchase decisions (think mobile research here) before setting foot in the store.

It is critical that players in the retail shopping ecosystem relook the consumer journey, and start to collaborate and play a part in working with forward-looking retailers to experiment with multiple digital pathways (mobile, tablet, laptop, PC, TV, retail, OOH displays etc) that will enrich and enhance their retail circular experience, by integrating video, interactive elements and smart features that would serve up information based on loyalty or location.

What are your views about retail offers and consumer behavior in e-commerce in your market?

Look forward to hear from you.

Nelson Wee
connect with me on Twitter @nelsonwee

10 Key Takeways from the Ancillary Revenue World Asia 2011 Conference in Singapore

I attended and presented recently at the Ancillary Revenue World Asia 2011 conference in Singapore.  It was an excellent 2 days where I valued meeting up and learning from a number of key management illuminaries from the airlines, hotel, travel, banking and insurance industries.


Here are 10 takeaways I put together from the conference.

1. "Treating People Right" - Tune Hotel's Mark Lankester believes in focusing on the customer's core needs, debundle the rest like insurance, transport and even air-con which could be offered as an upsell when required.
2. Mobile commerce will go Social and Local (with location-based services) and audience management of your consumers through search will go from PC-WEB to Mobile-WEB to TV-WEB (XBox-Kinect), says Manish Ladha, Microsoft.
3. Apps can expand ancillary channels to your business by driving new different ways in content consumption, and also offering new debundling and repackaging opportunities to your products - says well me, Nelson Wee, SingTel
4. Move from segments to customer-centric approach in targeting your customers - says Steve Pinchuk, Melco Crown Entertainment
5. Embed cross-selling opportunities before, during and post the booking process - best practices from Amit Saberwal, Makemytrip.com
6. Grow your partnership from a marketing partnership (value driven) to an ancillary partnership (revenue driven) - Wong Soon-Hwa, Hertz International
7. Best route to ancillary revenues is not to aim directly at revenue but at customer experience and value (case study on grabbing in-destination share of wallet through ancillaries) - says Aseem Sadana, Isango!
8. Using opt-out to good effect in booking process can give outstanding customer take-up in your ancillary services - Lim Kim Hai, Regional Express
9. Manage effective revenue management by balancing between your core and ancillary products, creating value for your customer and never over-bundle (instead review and fine-tune your current bundles) - Doug Hesley, The Four Seasons Hotel & Resorts
10. Generate revenue from cross-selling across multiple products through a centralized marketing organization, who looks to solving a need of your customer with a simple to sell, buy and service product, and follow up incremental value through life stage mapping - says Basker Rangachari, Standard Chartered

Well ok, I cannot resist providing a bonus takeaway from a good buddy of mine, Miguel Bernas, SingTel who was among the panelists during the "Social Media: Dwindling Potential" discussion.
11. Social Media could potentially replace the ice-cream parlour or the Saturday night poker game where you gather with your buddies and engage on stuff which happened over the recent week.  Perhaps brands could offer a corner of the ice-cream parlour and partake in the engagement and conversations of their customers.

Here is also my presentation deck for your viewing.  Most welcome your views!

How the use of apps can successfully expand ancillary channels & viability

View more presentations from Nelson Wee

Til later,
Nelson Wee
engage me here or in Twitter @nelsonwee

6 Players in the Location-Based Services Ecosystem

My last post on location-based services set the scene on the reasons why location-based services are picking up with the the growth in on-the-go consumers who are more freely sharing information socially, and with more location context.  With mobile phone-based location-based apps driving  business recommendation services through integration with the social media internet, multi-channel merchants that sell online and via physical stores have, in many cases, have been very effective in using these services to boost both real-world and digital traffic.

Who are the players of location-based services?  I have attempted to put together the location-based services ecosystem in the following value chain for our discussion.

1. Map Data Providers provide:
1. the base layer map data.
2. enriched hyperlocal POI (point of interest) data.
2. Application Software Providers
1. technology partners who build upon the map data providers' base layer map.
2. develop the user interface to work cross-platform, with customized features.
3. Advertising Network Providers
1. provide the connectors to ads in the LBS app.
2. and the field salesforce to sell the ads to brands.
4. Location-Based Content and Services Providers include
1. backend partners who serve out hyperlocal and relevant ads on behalf of merchants in partnered web and mobile sites.
2. front-end eShopping partners who vend free vouchers, paid eCoupons, aggregate deals.
5. Access and Provisioning Providers (Carriers / Operators) provide
1. affordable data plans to consumers and enterprises.
2. promotions in various marketing touch-points (Retail, SMS, MMS, PC internet, EDMs, DMs, Print, TV) to their targeted customer base.
6. Device Providers
1. work with the Carriers / Operators to provide out of box experience through preloading of the location-based services apps.
2. comprise the N-screens of mobile devices across PC, laptops, tablets, smartphones etc.

What are the revenue streams in location-based services?
Through Strategic Analytics, ABI research and various lit search, there are 3 main pillars of revenue streams in location-based services - some more immediately relevant, whilst others like community set to grow in the next 5 years.

1. Utilities
1. more immediate rational driver, referring to search, turn by turn navigation, personal tracking
2. for parents who would like to track their kids
3. for exploring and looking up places of interests and getting there on car or on foot
4. for enterprises for fleet management
2. Commerce
1. location-based eShopping deals
2. restaurant booking
3. mobile advertising
3. Community
1. social media integration leading to crowd-sourced sharing of recommendations
2. peer to peer value exchange
3. enabling more engagement with consumers through gamification

Before ending this post, I will leave you now with
2 real-world examples of how location-based services bring value and innovation to businesses in the ecosystem.

(1) Nokia Thailand Foursquare Campaign
Here is a first in the world campaign when a phone manufacturer (Nokia), a local operator/carrier (DTAC) and local Thai retailers came on board and collaborated to provide brand awareness of Foursquare check-ins with Nokia smartphones, value to DTAC consumers and driving real-world traffic to the retailers.  (Disclosure: I was involved in the working team for this campaign with my Nokia Thailand colleagues during my career at Nokia)

(2) Nokia Gift Vending Machine Social-Location-Mobile (So-Lo-Mo) innovation
A pretty neat program which provided real-world treats to people who checked in.  Delight: you never know what you are going to get!

1. How do the players in location-based services differ in your market?  
2. How do the campaign mechanics from location-based apps in your markets provide value as ancillary channels for businesses?

I look forward to hear from you on your comments to this post, and write more on these topics.

Later soon,
Nelson Wee
engage with me at @nelsonwee

References:
1. Infographic: Location-Based Social Media – Every Move You Make
2. Location Based Services Usage & Perception Survey from Microsoft

Why are there opportunities in location-based services?

According to a location-based media company JiWire, 53% of the "on-the-go" US audience are willing to exchange their location for more relevant content and better information, including mobile deals.  And this "on-the-go" audience, which comprise users of notebooks, tablets and smartphones out of home or workplace is GROWING.

In one of my recent posts, I wrote about how content consumption has gone mobile as mobile is personal and always near.  As we are always on the move, context in whatever we are doing (or could be doing), where ever we may be, becomes important to us amidst today's time-starved world.  With GPS, cell-ID location tracking in mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are increasingly availed in the hands of the consumers of today and tomorrow, and data plans becoming more affordable, it comes with no surprise that there is increasing interest from on-the-go consumers in:

1. checking into locations via mobile for achievements or rewards,
2. searching for information more online via mobile (even while in the shops!),
3. or buying products and services while on the move.

Let's have a look at some key market growth trends in location-based services.


Location-based Apps and check-in features are garnering interest in mobiles

• According to Pew Internet & American Life Project report (availed via this link) released recently 6-SEP-2011, 5% of all  US cell owners or 12% US smartphone owners use geosocial check-in services like Foursquare or Gowalla.
• With Twitter, Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook "Places", consumers are sharing to show-off their "Fab life"
• Mainstream audience:  amongst 20 to 34 year olds, privacy appears less of a concern.
• Secondary audience: 35 to 44 year olds who have higher spending power.
• Emotional drivers focusing on the mainstream: gamification and social leaderboards are being used to engage consumers on the move.
• Rational drivers largely to the secondary audience: price comparisons through daily deals, location-based promotions.

Group buys through social sharing and mobile coupons and local deals are growing

• Players include Groupon (more than 30M subs globally), are expanding into Asia through acquisitions.  In Singapore, Groupon acquired Beeconomic the #2 deal site in April 2010 and is now #1.
• Local deals and ecosystem players in Singapore like deal.com.sg and Chlkboard are growing mind share and market share with advertisers.

Many players are looking into being your mobile wallet

• Facebook credits for virtual goods now (in social games) - what about physical products in the future?
• Paypal account - to order your takeaways
• Operator (carrier) billing for lower price tiered products - both virtual and physical
• Retail POS like VISA Paywave contactless paymenbt, MasterCard PayPass for tap and go convenience

Singapore shows strong growth in mobile subscribers and value-added services

• In Singapore, IDC forecasts that the number of Singapore mobile subscribers will increase at a 3.9% CAGR to reach 8.3 million by 2014, pushing the penetration rate from 140% in 2009 to 163% by 2014. 
• Much of this growth is expected to come from the take-up of non-voice services, prepaid subscriptions (comes with data) and the proliferation of multi-sim cards (multi-device ownership - tablets, smartphones, mobile broadband).

Location-based services are going mobile and social (Lo-So-Mo).  The ancillary channels to businesses and potential ancillary revenue streams are only emerging at this point.  I will be writing more next on the various players in the location-based services value chain. 

Meanwhile, I would be most interested to hear more on your views on how location-based services are taking off in your market.

Talk soon,
Nelson Wee
Connect with me on Twitter @nelsonwee

References:
1. Definition of location-based service
2. Location Based Services Usage; Perception Survey from Microsoft
3. Nearly 1-in-3 Adults Use Location-Based Services

How are eShopping trends shaping the market?

These days, we see high growth with the usage of the mobile internet in SouthEast Asia. Besides your wallet and your keys, your mobile is probably the third personal item always by your side.  In fact in a global survey conducted by OnDevice Research, it described how Asian consumers, more often than other consumers, would first go to their phones to research or purchase goods and services.  To save time and get things done more efficiently in today's world, your mobile has become an ancillary channel for eShop browsing to help source, service and support your purchase decisions.

In fact, from a PayPal research done Jan-Feb 2011, there were several interesting findings:

1. Singapore online commerce market reached S$1.1 billion in 2010, and will grow to S$4.4 billion in 2015.
2. 1.2 million Singaporean online shoppers (above the age of 18 years old) had an average spend per head of S$1,492 over the past year.
3. 84% of Singaporeans used their mobile device to either research or purchase goods.
4. Mobile eShopping is in its infancy stage comprising 4% of online shopping market.
5. Over 364 thousand Singaporean online shoppers spent S$43 million ($$119/user) on their mobile devices last year, approximately 4% of the online shopping market
6. 40% (~S$420 million) of online purchases were domestic.

Stores in Singapore could well look into putting together a multi-channel approach to in their sales and marketing.  From a merchandising perspective, the I Love Deals in-app survey infographic below show that the 3 top products consumers expressed interest in online deals were clothing, shoes and consumer electronics.

With online and mobile eShopping primed to take off in Asia and Singapore,

• How will sales and marketing change with eCoupons, vouchers?  What are the ancillary revenue opportunities?
• How will apps, the Web, TV impact marketing, promotions and distribution channels for eShopping?  How will these ancillary channels evolve?
• With daily deals fatigue, what are the new models in eShopping?  Is gamification trending as an engagement tactic?  Is yield management a new model to look into?

I look forward to engage into further discussions on the above.

til later,
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

References:
1. The Stats and Facts of Online Shopping in Singapore
2. Mobile commerce on growth path in Asia Pacific
3. PayPal Study Shows Singaporeans Find Value in Shopping on Local Websites