Top 5 Reasons why Grab Easy Uber Hailo Taxi bookings are picking up in Singapore

Online Cab Aggregators around the World - Top 30 Players from Valoriser Consultants

Take a look at the above slideshare for the top 30 online cab aggregators around the world according to Valoriser Consultants, online mobile taxi booking apps have taken the world by storm by solving a basic demand and supply problem between passengers and taxis. Indeed, of late, since late last year (2013), regional and global 3rd party taxi booking mobile O2O apps (GrabTaxi, EasyTaxi, UberTaxi and soon Hailo) have been jostling amongst the incumbent taxi providers' booking services (e.g. ComfortDelgro, SMRT) and been the rage in the Singapore taxi booking scene. It's not that taxi booking through phone calls to the call centres of the incumbent taxi service providers or via their respective apps have not been available. It's just that the supply, availability and fulfilment of booking jobs have not met with the growing demand.

Here are my view of the 5 reasons why Grab Easy Uber Hailo Taxis are trending in the busy and sleepless Singapore city.

1. Singapore is a regional hub in Southeast Asia

• Growing of people including PMETs who need to get quickly from point A to point B
• Singapore is among the top 3 cities in the world with the least hours of sleep (not really something to be proud of ... but really lots of things are going on around here and constantly in minds of people living here)

2. Viable Market with an active daily 1,000,000 taxi riderships base

• Anecdotally about 15% are through bookings today.
• Singapore consumers are used to mobile commerce - more than 15% of ecommerce (think Groupon like daily deals) are purchased via the mobile smartphones with credit card payment.

3. Inconvenient payment - non-acceptance of Visa credit cards

• With the option of paying taxi fares via Visa credit card on ComfortDelgro and TransCab taxis being withdrawn in July 2013 after these two largest taxi operators refused to waive an administrative fee imposed on passengers, so entered EasyTaxi and UberTaxi with the consumer proposition offering frictionless payment.

4. Underserved taxi booking

• Current taxi service providers (ComfortDelgro, SMRT and so on) have been unable to fulfill all their daily incoming bookings and demand due to a number of reasons - changing shift windows, varying strategies, convenience and maximising yield, costs etc.

5. Disgruntled supply base about 30,000 taxis and more than 40,000 drivers

• A growing number of taxi drivers here are exploring alternatives, i.e. more than 1 3rd party taxi booking app these days - disintermediation and choice.
• Taxi drivers are looking for easy non-fuss solutions which benefit their livelihood - bigger app screens, intuitive user experience, quicker acknowledgment of bookings, convenient payment and acknowledgement receipts, choice of solutions and so on.
• Just hop into a taxi and start a conversation with your friendly taxi driver, and you will learn lots!

So, here are my top 5 reasons why Grab Easy Uber Hailo (virtual fleet) Taxis are picking up in Singapore. The market is really heating up in the taxi booking scene - first with GrabTaxi and EasyTaxi earlier this year and now with UberTaxi since June '14 and Hailo soon to join in the fray. To add, there is also a fifth local player, MoobiTaxi who works with ComfortDelgro and SMRT taxis.

• What will the future hold for taxi booking market space?
• Will we see another taxi service provider to increase the current 30,000 physical taxi fleet?
• Will another international player like GetTaxi enter the Singapore market?

Let's look forward to better user experiences for both the taxi drivers and taxi passengers which I am sure we will see lots more innovation in this daily consumer lifestyle habit.

Can you connect with the above reasons from your experiences in Singapore on the taxi booking scene? Love to hear from you ...


Nelson Wee

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5 ways to enjoy World Cup 2014 in Singapore | Nelson Wee | Singapore

The #WorldCup2014 is well underway, and drawing a fanatical following as viewership numbers show. No surprises there - I wrote previously on 3 reasons why the World Cup is a social magic magnet.

In this post, I would like to bring to you 5 Ways to enjoy World Cup 2014 in Singapore.

(1) 5 Places for World Cup Screening

Are you in the look out for excellent views and bustling atmosphere to revel in the last stages of the World Cup 2014? Fret no more ... 

Go on to read more on where to go: http://pickatsg.tumblr.com/post/88561517176/5-places-for-worldcup-screening

(2) 5 Foods from #WorldCup Hot Favourites
While you are basking in the World Cup revelry, why not explore the rich variety of tastes in the cuisines from the countries of the World Cup hot favourite teams? (disclaimer: this post was done earlier and one of the countries is already out - alas!) 

Go on to read more on where to go: http://pickatsg.tumblr.com/post/88655742821/5-foods-from-worldcup-hot-favourites

(3) 5 Popular #WorldCup Cuisines
In Singapore, the following cuisines in this post are pretty popular. You probably can't go wrong in Singapore who is ranked #2 in Asia in terms of spending in dining out!

Go on to read more on where to go: http://www.pickat.com.sg/5-popular-worldcup-cuisines/

(4) 5 Yum Cha Places While Your Other Half Is Watching #Worldcup
If you are not really into the World Cup, hey not to worry too. Here's a post offering 5 places in Singapore to choose from to have yum cha with your friends while your other half is engrossed into the World Cup.

Go on to read more on where to go: http://pickatsg.tumblr.com/post/89945815266/5-yum-cha-places-while-your-other-half-is-watching

(5) 5 Places Where Chefs from #WorldCup Countries Eat

If you have ever wondered where do chefs like to eat, well here's a post which brings you 5 places where chefs hailing from countries participating in the World Cup like to eat at in Singapore - a culinary paradise in Southeast Asia~

Go on to read more on where to go: http://www.pickat.com.sg/5-places-where-chefs-from-worldcup-countries-eat/

Well there you go, a quick listing of 5 ways (of 5 places each *wink*) on how you could enjoy the world cup in Singapore. A disclaimer here as well - I currently work in SK planet and my team has been working on bringing PickatSG food recommendations and O2O (online to offline commerce)  coupons app to the market. All the food places above have been curated and recommended by the PickatSG team. 

If you like to read more about PickatSG food app and how location-based services and online to offline commerce could impact our daily habits, here are 4 more posts to learn more:
(1) Welcome to a brand new PickatSG

(2) Get Great Deals with PickatSG’s Coupons!

(3) How can location-based social networks impact #dailyhabits and drive O2O commerce?

(4) How has location-based services (LBS) evolved into the #dailyhabits of consumers and business models for businesses?

Hope you have enjoyed this post and I (we) certainly hope to hear from you!


Talk soon~
Nelson Wee
Profile: Nelson Wee, Singapore
Blog: http://myovi.blogspot.com
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.com/nelsonwee 
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/nelsonwee
Twitter: @nelsonwee
PickatSG Food O2O App: http://www.facebook.com/pickatsg

Photo credit: Digo_Souza / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)

I am Caesar - Playful, Inquisitive, Fearless | Nelson Wee Blog Post | Singapore

I am Caesar - Playful, Inquisitive and Fearless.

Journeying to Singapore all the way from Taiwan on 9 May 2013, I found home 21 August 2013 finally with my current family of 4, which includes my pal and brother, Max (who is a King Charles Cavalier).

With a swagger in my walk, I am proud of my brindle coat - as you can see matches the sofa in the living room I simply love to climb up and lounge in.

(1) Why be playful?

Aw, come on. Life can be boring if seen in one lens. I love to play with the blue ball in the house, taunting my pal, Max with a crazy dance (ball in my mouth). He falls for it all the time. 

I see it during my walks around my neighbourhood that humans look ever so stressed. Why should this happen? 

Be playful, laugh it away by being silly - that's my mantra!

(2) Be inquisitive, aren't you?

There are many areas to explore in the house. Little nooks in between furniture I squeeze myself into. 

You should have seen the look on Max's face when I emerged out of the nook butt first. Just awakened from his nap, he must have mistaken my butt for something else!

Anyways, be inquisitive, do stuff, cos you never know what you can find or experience in life!

(3) Show no fear, why not?

I am proud to be known to be a gladiator - at least that's what my family fondly labels me. Being a French Bulldog, I may be small in size but never never show fear.

Darned those dogs in the neighbourhood which come barking at me when I go for walks. Fine they may be taller and bigger - just let me at them (I try in vain to pull my owner towards these aggressors).

Show no fear. It helps in my motivation in life, and I am sure this would help you too.

I am Caesar - playful, inquisitive, fearless. These values help me in my life. Why not have a go and tell me how it goes in your life?

If you like cute animals, you may like to view the following Pinterest pinboard at http://www.pinterest.com/nelsonwee/cute-friends-from-nature/ 

Till the next time,

signing off from Singapore,

Nelson Wee (proud to have Caesar in my family)

more about me:

Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonwee

Twitter conversations: @nelsonwee

Slideshare materials: http://www.slideshare.net/nelsonwee

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Max and his 3 life principles | Nelson Wee | Singapore

My family welcomed a new addition to our family about 2 weeks ago. Say hello to Max - a cute four month old King Charles Cavalier. Whilst re-adjusting our lives to Max, I just took stock on how Max with his little actions and ways, highlighted the following Max's 3 life principles, which I find could be applied to our daily lives and habits ... ;-)

(1) Explore always the unknown (and keep testing the boundaries)

• Max like all cute dogs never gives up exploring and sniff out new objects or places around our house to play or rather nibble at - like the poor rug in my living room.
• And Max never ceases trying in testing our boundaries on getting at what he wants.
• Such curious and indomitable spirit is definitely applicable to all things in life - family, love, friendships, business and more.

(2) Go for the low-hanging fruit

• One thing about Max is that he is a pretty intelligent fella.
• Knowing he will get a treat if he poohs in the toilet, he actually positioned himself near the toilet the other day after his meal. Just so that he could immediately pooh (puppies I understand can't quite control their bowels at this young age) in the right place and get his treat!
• Clearly defining and understanding how and where to play in life for clearing away the big rocks and getting to even small immediate rewards, can be motivating and get you to bigger things in life.

(3) Position yourself and prime your audience

• In his cute and intelligent way, Max has sniffed out a way on how to get his belly scratched. Every time he sees us approaching him or when he goes close to us, he will lay himself on the floor, flip over his belly, place his four paws in a begging position and look into our eyes.
• To this, I salute Max for being able to position himself well, engaging and priming his audience, evoking desired emotions and getting to the desired actions.
• Max is a storyteller and a storydoer indeed!

Our lives have been transformed by Max since he arrived. And we are looking forward to many good years with this cute and intelligent fella.

More posts to come, I promise after this. One more thing, if you like this post, you may like to view my pinterest pinboard "Cute Friends from Nature" - hope you enjoy this.

Nelson Wee

For my slideshare presentations

For twitter conversations: @nelsonwee

How has the ecosystem evolved with the daily habits of mobile Internet users?

How has the ecosystem evolved with the daily habits of mobile Internet users? The journey from the PC Internet to the current age of the Smart device Internet is charting an exciting path on how the market ecosystem is evolving with the daily habits of mobile Internet users of today ... 

In the last 20 years, we have witnessed 4 Phases in the Journey to the Mobile Internet. From the age of the "PC Internet" to the "Feature Phone Internet", "Smartphone Internet" and now the "Smart device Internet".  We have also seen how users of the Internet have evolved in their daily habits of information and content consumption - this is evident as we review the market development in the five pillars in the digital content Internet business. 

How has the evolution been in the ecosystem during the 4 phases in our journey to the mobile Internet?

(1) Content has grown richer in variety and depth

• From black and white to colour and having depth in colour in graphics (remember days of black and white operator logos, picture messages in Nokia feature phones)
• From mono tone ring tones to polymorphic ring tones to MP3s and today's streaming and high-def music services
• From simple flash and java games to today's rich app store games and multi-player social games
• and the list goes on ... video, TV, 3D, augmented reality characters and so on ... consumers are spoilt for choice

(2) Advertising has evolved across multiple screen sizes, devices, content and purpose

• Ads are no longer restricted to the TV (broadcast, content and ads in DVDs) and PCs (with multimedia cards allowing for TV, video playing, radio listening).
• Ads are now also seen in various apps (e.g. chat, youtube); and apps are now in Smart TVs.
• Ads are evolving as content for the brands - attempt from brands to engage audiences.

(3) Access to Internet and content is widely availed to a global audience

• Content is now availed through TVs, radio, PCs, laptops, feature phones, smartphones, tablets, phablets, wearables, and so on in all manner of smart mobile devices - one of the trends in recent years and into 2013 ... 
• Feature phones are also getting smarter and driving mobile Internet access and innovative content consumption, especially in the emerging markets where mobile phones outnumber PCs.

(4) Payment for content (and now products) and the players in the ecosystem are fast evolving to cater to consumers' lifestyles and daily habits

• No longer restricted to just credit cards and PayPal,
• Operator mobile billing via sms, money online payment methods like bank transfers, scratch cards, COD (cash-on-delivery) are offering alternative payment modes for not only digital contents but potentially also for physical products and merchandise.

(5) Fulfilment, the last mile in terms of delivery of products and content and personalised bundled offers is being invested 

• Besides Amazon who leads the pack in this area, China's Alibaba and local ecommerce players like Redmart are investing in owning logistics fulfilment to ensure continual customer satisfaction and retention.

How are digital content players working to shape daily habits of mobile Internet users?

• News is sticky - look at Yahoo, local news sites like Malaysia's Malaysiakini.com, Indonesia's Detik.com and you will see them feature in the top 20 Alexa rankings for the local markets. And as for apps for news ... new ways to read news online are constantly evolving in their offers.

• Communication - mobile instant messaging (social chat), private chat, mobile Internet call (Skype), or good ol' email, is a hotly contested space in the market today, globally and especially more so in Asia.

• During Echelon June 2013 Asia startups event in Singapore, a number of players I met with are focusing on apps which cater to the following daily habits of users - take a look at the slideshare showcase below.

Echelon June 2013 Singapore - showcase of mobile apps and startups to daily habits of mobile Internet users by Nelson Wee from Nelson Wee

Consumers are growing spoilt for choice for content, products and mobile devices and appliances from where they can consume content and buy products from. With more choice fighting for a growing yet at the same limited attention span of the consumers, lots of innovation and change in the ecosystem will be taking place in this current age of "smart device Internet" and future ages to come - this indeed spells out for more exciting moments to come to see how the daily habits of the mobile Internet users will continue to evolve.

For your reference, please see below for the rest of the presentation deck which I presented my "Journey into the Mobile of the Internet" recently on 19 June 2013 at Salesforce.com Biz Academy (I would like to thank Sultan Semlali for this wonderful opportunity). Appreciate your comments.

Journey into the mobile of the Internet - Nelson Wee Salesforce.com Biz Academy Presentation 19 june 2013 from Nelson Wee

I look forward to continue with my conversations with you.

Talk soon~
Nelson Wee
Profile: Nelson Wee, Singapore
Blog: http://myovi.blogspot.com
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.com/nelsonwee 
Twitter: @nelsonwee

What are the Daily Habits in Online and Mobile Internet Users?

With help from the rapid proliferation of mobile devices, mobile data connectivity with affordable data plans from mobile network operators and wifi services and innovations from the apps and contents ecosystems, the online and mobile Internet today has been shaping how consumers are consuming apps, services and contents and converting into daily habits.

Here is an analysis on how the daily habits of online and mobile users with respect to the different categories of apps, services and contents, served up and consumed on their feature phones, smartphones, tablets, PCs etc, are being segmented. The 4 types of segmentation are characterised against the frequency of usage vis-a-vis retention over time (source: analysis of Flurry blog analysis and AC Nielsen consumer studies on apps and second screen).

Daily Habits of Mobile Internet Users (Analysis May 2013) from Nelson Wee

(1) In the upper right hand corner Quadrant I "High Engagement and Value" segment, communication (email, social instant messaging)  and news come up tops being habitually consumed by consumers intensively and to which consumers grow loyal and stick to over time. With a power base of stable, growing audiences, advertising revenue or subscription charging are business models being pursued.

(2) In the upper left hand corner Quadrant II "High Engagement and Churn" segment,  social networking, social games, streaming music etc serve as high traffic drivers with consumption often contained within short bursts. To stem churn, acquisition and retention have to be constantly reinforced via for example, in-app item purchases, gamification.

(3) In the lower left hand corner Quadrant III "One-off premium use" segment, contents for education, health and fitness or medical tend to lead to one-off consumption and so warrant a premium charge. Entertainment and personalisation also fall under this categorisation where the situational context could lead to the users needing to buy a piece of music, standalone game or a theme to personalise their mobile devices.

(4) In the final Quadrant IV "Scheduled use but high value" segment, here we see habits for travel, navigation, utilities etc, as they are highly valued by the users when the situational context demands it, like for that schedule business trip or social holiday.

The focus on daily habits of mobile and online users were highlighted by Yahoo's Marissa Mayer when she laid out her vision in transforming Yahoo and bringing the cool of the Internet portal back into its stable. Real life momentum in developing on the daily habits of mobile and online users are in evidence today. 

• We constantly see Yahoo continuing on its acquisitions of startups which are entrenched in the daily habits of users - on email management (communication) and to do lists (utilities), Summly (news), Tumblr (social networking, user-generated content, communities) etc.
• SK planet has developed an app "Jukebox Hero" which turns your music library into social music jukebox and more in the portfolio addressing a range of consumer habits.
• eShopping trends today show growth in both ecommerce and mobile commerce.
• Retail Showrooming which see consumers doing price comparison research (Deals) whilst in store 
• Retail apps usage are surging 525%
• College students are finding deals on mobile
• What do users want in a location based app - a quora discussion around the emotional and rational drivers on consumer location-based habits

Understanding the daily habits of online and mobile consumers provide great value by helping businesses determine their digital content Internet business go-to-market strategies by reviewing first, which consumer segments, what content categories  and business models, how to evolve product portfolio and so on.

I look forward to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Till the next post, you can find me on:
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonwee
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signing off,
Nelson Wee

Photo credit: Phil Hawksworth / Foter.com / CC BY

4 More Hot Trends to watch for in 2013

In my last post, I talked about the following 4 Hot Trends to watch for in 2013 ... 

(1) Tablets will rule with Smart Tabs, Mass Tabs, Phablets

(2) Content and merchandise everywhere

(3) Apps with niche communities thrive

(4) Communication made richer via mobile social

Here are 4 more trends in 2013 to look out for:
(5) Connecting the last mile to spur innovation

• In a previous post "5 pillars of digital content internet business", the fifth pillar in the digital content value chain is fulfilment - the last mile connection to the consumer in terms of actually delivering the content and the associated analytics behind the transactions.
• However, there are inherent issues in the mobile network congestion in the mobile operators' networks, increasingly in a number of markets like Australia, Singapore etc. With growing consumer dissatisfaction, content and service providers will be faced with huge barriers caused by on-going user experience, consumer adoption of their services, and growing their businesses.
• So, it is not surprising to see offload of mobile data traffic to Wifi from smartphones and tablets. In the US according to Cisco forecast, mobile data traffic offload to Wifi have grown from 21% in 2010 to almost 50% in 2011.
• So, whilst there are challenges in the market forces, it is encouraging to see  Government initiatives to encourage mobile data offload to wifi in the US (policy to encourage innovation) and Malaysia (policy on Wifi coverage in Kuala Lumpur shopping malls).
• Watch out also for innovative startups like yourkarma riding on this wave to better serve the disgruntled and time-starved digital consumer who demand always on-the-go connectivity.  

(6) BYOD + MDM comes to the Living Room

• With the ubiquity of cloud driving the digital life of consumers, BYOD is becoming commonplace everywhere - in schools, in offices.
• Given that multiple device ownership of laptops, tablets, smartphones are becoming commonplace, use of tablets and smartphones for interactive second screen viewing  and SmartTVs coming of age, it would only be a matter of time when we see MDM (Mobile Device Management) bringing end to end device management to the living rooms.
• Mobile device management companies will need to cater not only to the device settings, but soon also with the digital rights of contents to the different screens and context of delivery and consumption.

(7) With SoLoMo, comes LOY

• "Social", "Location" and "Mobile" trends aka SoLoMo, are growing on both sides of the equation from demand (consumers) to supply (market players in ecosystem).
• With growth in SoLoMo, loyalty and retention of these digital consumers are now being looked into by a number of market players like GameMaki (offers fun gamification for retailers), Perx (all-in-one loyalty program in your mobile), Gimmie (enable engagement and loyalty in apps through gamifying rewards).
• In Korea, Gifticon (mobile gift voucher) and OKcashbag (all-in-one smart wallet for loyalty points across many brands and retailers) have been growing from strength to strength for more than 6 years and more than 10 years respectively. (declaration here: I am currently employed in SK planet, heading the Southeast Asia operations)
• Next, what with Google with its indoor maps and upcoming Google Glasses, and Nokia with its indoor maps and City Lens Augmented Reality offerings increasing their respective coverage in indoor maps and contextual recommendations, and Singapore companies like YFind providing accurate indoor location and data collection, we will see a converged focus of SoLoMo with LOYALTY.

(8) Health and happiness of consumers

• Curation is important. In the year ahead, tomorrow's consumers will grow more demanding with the increasing deluge of media and communication coming right at them.
• Careful attention and respect needs to be paid to permission-based data collection and profiling of consumers, taking note and balancing with their privacy needs.
• Also to note, a study suggests that 66% of consumers now expect customer care via social media, aka social care and so businesses will need to take ownership and drive omni-channel marketing into this area to achieve customer happiness.

In summary, 2013 will portend new, innovative, challenging and potentially game-changing market plays from the following 8 hot trends.

1. multiple devices and bigger viewing real estates, 
2. to content and merchandise, 
3. to apps offering windows to various/niche social communities, 
4. to richer forms of interactive communication and messaging,
5. to connecting the last mile and help drive consumption,
6. to MDM in the living room,
7. to the focused convergence of SoLoMoLOY,
8. and finally for the market need of businesses today in accounting for the health and happiness of their consumers.

What are your views on these hot trends in 2013? 

Let's do connect.
Nelson Wee
Twitter: @nelsonwee
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonwee
Slideshare materials: http://www.slideshare.com/nelsonwee
Pinterest materials: http://pinterest.com/nelsonwee/

Photo credit: OllieBray / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Here are the reference links for this post for your reference: 

1. Telstra 3G customers complain about network congestion in Melbourne
2. Poor network experiences put Singapore Telcos under pressure
3. Is Cisco stacking the deck with its mobile data numbers?
4. In the US, tech, telecom giants take sides as FCC proposes large public WiFi networks
5. Malaysia government internet and mobile phone access policies 
6. Kuala Lumpur’s municipal government introduced a new policy to require businesses (occupying more than 120sq m floor space) acquiring a food and beverage license to provide free or low cost WiFi service.
7. Location-based services market trends and value chain
8. OKCashbag Case Study
9. Indoor GPS Singapore company, YFind
10. Study suggests that two-thirds of consumers now expect social care

Why is Southeast Asia evolving to be a hotbed for Mobile Internet Innovation?

Welcoming 2013 into Southeast Asia came amidst an increasing energy and momentum in how the mobile social internet market landscape is evolving into a hotbed for innovation. In fact, the Jan 3 2013 NextWeb article laid out further credence to these exciting times for tech start-ups in the melting pot of rich cultures and opportunities abound in this region.

In my last post "4 Hot Trends to watch in 2013", I talked about ... 

1. Tablets will rule with Smart Tabs, Mass Tabs, Phablets
2. Content and merchandise everywhere
3. Apps with niche communities thrive
4. Communication made richer via mobile social

In the Southeast Asia markets, the above market trends are either amplified or growing very quickly. Have a look at the 3 following observations.

(1) Southeast Asia market landscape update highlights the huge addressable base and growth (updated recently - see above for snapshot)

• With a 550 million population, and more than 630 million mobile lines activated.
• More than 120 million smartphone subscribers, and rapidly growing.
• Huge base of highly social consumers at 126 million Facebook users, probably more than 50% accessing from their smartphones or feature phones while on the go.

(2) Daily habits (email, reading news, chat etc) are increasingly embraced here in Southeast Asia markets.

• Marissa Mayer, ex-Googler, current Yahoo CEO, talks about Yahoo's focus on cultivating and innovating upon the daily habits of consumers with Yahoo's assets and experience.
• From the attached chart from the Nielsen "The Evolving Media Habits, Lifestyles and Attitudes of Southeast Asian Consumers" June 2011 report, you can see how these daily habits are in fact already increasingly embraced in the Southeast Asia markets here.

(3) Ecosystem stimuli from crowdfunding platforms, accelerator programs,  market entry consultancies, startup ignition outreach players

• Southeast Asia startup scene has been inundated especially in the recent 12 months with additional varied options of funding (Crowdonomic), support with market entry development (Accelerasia), acceleration camps (JDFI Asia), and startup ignition outreach programs (e27, TechinAsia).

What have your observations been for the Southeast Asia markets for the mobile internet?

Let's engage.

Best regards,
Nelson
Profile: Nelson Wee's LinkedIn Page
Twitter: @nelsonwee
Slideshare (more materials): Nelson Wee's Slideshare
Pinterest materials: http://www.pinterest.com/nelsonwee


More references for your reading:

1. Why Southeast Asia is the World's most exciting region for startups and tech in 2013
2. South East Asia - the most exciting region for startups in 2013
3. Southeast Asia Mobile Internet Market Landscape
4. The Digital Media and Habits Attitudes of Southeast Asian consumers 
5. 4 Hot Trends to Watch in 2013
6. Southeast Asia Market Sizing for Internet Commerce

4 Hot Trends to watch in 2013

Looking back 2012, lots have certainly transpassed.  It was incidentally around the same time last year  when I penned "5 Hot Trends to watch in 2012".  In 2012, cloud, social and mobility drove the feverish growth in the ecosystem from startups, incubators, investors, system integrators, enterprises, brands etc, as well as choice and consumption changes in consumer behaviour. 



With 2013, we could see the promise and potential in the following themes:

1. Everything gets smarter, more fun and unstructured.
2. Devices help consumers with recommendations to content and merchandise.
3. Cloud enable content and data transport, storage and backup to different devices everywhere.
4. Consumer loyalty will be driven across multiple experiences.

How would the above factor out in terms of possible trends? Here is part 1 of the view from Nelson Wee :-)

(1) Tablets will rule with Smart Tabs, Mass Tabs, Phablets

• Tablets and its hybrid convertibles phablets (large 5" to 7" screen touchscreen devices) will get smarter, cheaper and made available en-masse.
• In my earlier post "why are there huge opportunities in Connecting People through Mobile Social Messaging", I brought up Mary Meeker's 2012 year end internet trends presentation which pointed out the high internet user adds especially in the emerging markets (i.e. Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam). I also wrote about this in an earlier post "Doorway to the Mobile Internet opens in Southeast Asia, a high growth market in the making".
• Increasingly Asian mobile consumers value larger screens to consume mobile content, in parallel with TV watching.
• In fact, living with the larger screens in with phablets and tablets becomes addictive.
• And one more proof point, iPad mini and Samsung Note tablets have been out of stock in Singapore in the last couple of weeks apparently from the retail stores here I have heard!

(2) Content and merchandise everywhere

• To match the mobility and on-the-go lifestyles of consumers, not only will content need to be availed via multiple screens (feature phones, smartphones, tablets, PCs, Smart TVs etc), physical merchandise will be sold via mobile and bundled with digital content  - this being evident with Amazon.com's foray into the tablet and mobile commerce market.
• Whilst digital rights management (aka DRM) technologies are available today from the likes of companies like Lotaris, the current on-going debate between eBooks and publishers lends caution however to the business issues which need to be resolved along the content value chain.

(3) Apps with niche communities thrive

• In an earlier post "Key themes from Sparxup 2012 in Jakarta", various apps based on niche focused communities (e.g. for backpackers, food recipes) are sprouting up and have the potential to continue to thrive together with the larger social media communities, Facebook.
• Social networks around education and kids via edtech technologies also have an opportunity to grow in particular with the needs of parents and their concerns for their children's future.  Content portals made relevant for kids like WhizTimes are also establishing their foothold to cater to this market.
• Coupled with mobile and social technologies, niche communities can flourish in tandem.

(4) Communication made richer via mobile social

• In my last post "Why are there huge opportunities in Connecting People through Mobile Social Messaging", I highlighted the why and how hot the mobile social messaging market is developing globally, in particular Southeast Asia.
• Additional industry momentum on such Rich Communication Services is also being orchestrated by a global program, marketed as "Joyn", and project led by GSMA, is increasingly deployed to more operators to enable inter-operator instant messaging or chat, video sharing and file transfers.
• Consumers are looking for quick and easy sharing of their media (photos, videos, text etc) with their circles of friends and extended networks, depending on their context.
• Stay tuned to how the various mobile social messaging players evolve their solution platform offerings (e.g. mobile social games, themes, ancillary apps, merchandise) to ensure frequent engagement and viral acquisition.
• Here is Tictocplus - an example of a mobile social messaging platform service for quick and easy sharing of your photos and videos in your chats with your friends (disclosure: Tictocplus is from SK planet, where I am at currently).

Here are my initial take on 4 hot trends I see coming for 2013.

What are your thoughts on 2013 hot trends?

Talk soon,
Nelson Wee
twitter: @nelsonwee
my profile: http://www.linkedin.com/nelsonwee

More reference links for your read:

1. What 5 trends to look out for at CES 2013
2. Most anticipated tech gadgets for 2013
3. 10 Tech Trends to watch for in 2013
4. 10 Marketing Trends to watch for in 2013
5. Arip identifies top 5 trends to watch in 2013
6. 5 predictions for Twitter in 2013
7. Living with a big screen phone