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

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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

Doorway to the Mobile Internet opens in Southeast Asia, a high growth market in the making

I was writing in my previous post about the "5 Key App Insights from AppsXchange Asia 2010 Event in Singapore" where I was highlighting the evolution of the Asia mobile apps ecosystem.  As I look back over the 10 years, I can't help but feeling amazed on the changes in the consumption habits of the Southeast Asia (SEA - comprise markets like Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore etc) consumers for the Internet, for apps and contents, for checking out and into nearby events - all these, happening on their mobile handsets.  With market competitive dynamics at play, consumers here are increasingly able to get hold of mobile handsets with mobile internet access with supporting data plans.  QWERTY (full keyboard) mobile handsets incidentally are hot not only with working professionals but also with the youths, and these are getting lower in price in the markets here.

Profile the SEA's consumers being largely prepaid customers without data plans, cost-conscious and using their mobile handsets to make a call or sms and you would be very surprised to learn (source, dated 30-OCT-2010: http://www.checkfacebook.com/) that Indonesia with 29.8M Facebook users is the #2 largest Facebook community globally, with the Philippines with 17.9M Facebook users, also in the top 10 at #6! 

Consumers in SEA today are getting on their mobile handsets:
1. Faster Mobile Internet speeds to browse the Internet with the deployment of 3G
The sprouting of more and more Internet Cafes and WiFi hotspots, particularly in the tier 1 cities, are catering to the voracious Internet access to the youths, is also a key enabler to mobile internet access and content downloads.

2. Transitioning from sms, to email and social networking interactions
Whilst sms will not yet go away in the forseeable future, mobile email has grown increasingly popular as PC penetration is low in the developing markets.  SEA consumers are also using the mobile internet to reach out in social networks - Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter (btw, Indonesia is in the top 10 of Twitter users globally too!) are the 3 most popular social networks in SEA (source: http://www.alexa.com/).

3. Colorful and interactive apps and contents
From the days of yore when black and white tones, graphics and games were the in-thing, these days we see that downloads of customization contents like themes, wallpapers, ring tones (also subscribing to ring-back tones) and games are the drawing power for digital content, app stores in SEA.

There are undoubtedly challenges to account for, such as a number of SEA's dominant markets, e.g. Indonesia, Indochina, Thailand, Philippines, are dominated by prepaid customers who shop around for bargains.  However, if you like me, are reading "The Developing World" by Fredrik Haren, you will discover that consumers from developing markets, like in SEA countries, engage more with the Internet and hence social networks, leveraging this global platform to the fullest, voicing their views in blog posts, personal updates, doing research and checking in on the latest events in-country and globally.

Watch out for the rising wave of the Mobile Internet sweeping through Southeast Asia.  What have your Internet experiences been in the Southeast Asia markets?  I will be writing more posts in the future regarding related topics for the SEA countries.

Later,
Nelson Wee
connect with me in Twitter @NelsonWee

More Related Reading References:
1. ANALYSIS - Southeast Asia telcos shine, tap mobile data for growth
2. Mobile Phones in South-East Asia - Talk is Cheap
3. Data Services to Drive Growth As Southeast Asia's Mobile Market Nears Saturation
4. Twitter Facts and Figures, 13 MAY 2010
5. Indonesia is The top Twitter users penetration in the world
6. [Updated 19-OCT] Facebook releases Messenger for BlackBerry

3 Trends in Social Media & Web 3.0 (PART 1)

Do you remember Ask Jeeves?  Valet, concierge services, whether offline, online or a hybrid of both click and mortar have been a facination of mine - how we as man constantly strive to get the automation of semantic understanding going, to enable our every whim and fancy more easily achievable with today's or tomorrow's hardware and software platforms. 

As an on-going observation, I put together my thoughts on what I see as the 3 trends on-going in today's social media, web 3.0 - how we are moving into the futuristic age of the Semantic Web (we are getting closer) and what we could look forward or look out for.



(1) Doing all your computing in the cloud

Google and Facebook are positioning themselves as your life's dashboard.  You do not need to have powerful computers or all the applications in your PC or mobile phone to perform tasks.  Cloud computing that's the buzz word and that's where a number of organisations are moving towards. 

Before Google Buzz came along, I was reading about a Singaporean company called Social Wok (have a look at the screenshot I link from SocialWok) who at last year's TechCrunch50 conference, made a big splash by winning the award for best demopit startup and launching its enterprise-friendly, FriendFeed-like layer for Google Apps - launching a social network wrapped around the very unsocial Google Apps.  In 22-JAN ’10: SocialWok launched a gadget to allow users access all the features of Socialwok without leaving Gmail. With the new gadget, Socialwok’s interface will appear within Gmail’s main canvas. Users can view, post and comment on updates; access feeds, files and Google Docs and search for posts, people, feeds, and files. Hmm, thought: a potential candidate for Google Acquisition?  Then along came #googlebuzz (just go search for Google Buzz or #googlebuzz in Twitter).

Then you have Facebook, where you can broadcast your life's moments, email, chat, upload and share photos, play social games like farming with friends and there are lots more apps which you could access from Facebook or apps you could link to Facebook available in the various Apps Stores.

More later as I talk about the other 2 trends
(2) My life needs to be served by a click (& quickly - thanks!)

(3) Privacy is but a window away

Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee