6 Key Takeaways from Startup Asia 2013

I visited the Startup Asia 2013 event (organised by TechInAsia) recently in Singapore, which ran from the evening of 3 April (pre-event) to the night of 5 April (after-event dinner). Chock-full of market data from the neighbouring markets, marketplace of big ideas from startups, valuable lessons and advice from successful entrepreneurs, luminary quips (albeit at times with wry humour), it was a jam-packed startup event spread over 3 storeys of panel discussions, interviews, demo booths, startup pitches and countless networking opportunities. Bringing together VCs, incubators, social media marketeers, entrepreneurs, startups and more from all over the region in Southeast Asia and beyond, while everyone recognised that Southeast Asia is evolving to be a hotbed for mobile internet innovation, this wave is not coming without its hosts of challenges like payment, logistics, ecosystem support.

Here are the 6 key takeaways I put together from my experiences in the Startup Asia event 2013.

1. Develop Vertical Communities to build Commerce opportunities

• Lots of Buttons from Hong Kong, won the $10,000 first prize during the startup pitch competition at the Startup Asia event - "Lots of Butttons is a Hong Kong ecommerce that sells craft materials at 50% of retail price. #startupAsia via @xescx"
• Puddding which through its relevant social discovery platform for ladies looking to buy jeans online through recommendations from other similar sized ladies, offers sizing insurance.
• Windphony is a global self-publishing platform which allows composers, of varying professional levels to submit and market their own music (scores) works.
• The trend in the growing number of vertical communities into commerce has been highlighted during the SparxUp Indonesia 2012 event.

2. Enriching Your Communication Experience

• It is little wonder that with social being an essential layer to bring about engagement, community and commerce, the Social Messaging market is hotting up globally and especially now in Southeast Asia.
• In the business to business (B2B) space, Chatwork seeks to simplify business communications amongst employees.
• In the business to consumer (B2C) space - Hoozin tries to bring the real-world experience in face to face group chat conversations into its "round-table user interface".
• Watch out for the evolution of the Social Messaging market in 2013. 

3. Consolidating and Sharing Media Quickly

• Caught in today's hyper-connected mobile world, consumers are constantly being inundated with an avalanche of media, information and tasks to be completed. Startups are constantly sprouting up with solutions to address these perennial pains.
• In the Business to Business or B2B space, mmixr looks to offer professionals a cloud-based solution to better manage, edit and share their rich media presentation materials.
• In the Business to Consumer or B2C space, yet another photo app, Seconds comes forth with a pitch on their 1-2-3 quick to shoot and share to private albums, whilst PixBento is differentiating with their offer to bridge photo sharing amongst buddies by allowing photos to be pooled and shared across the smartphones and PCs of specific buddies.

4. B2B and B2C Loyalty is trending

• From 2012 and into 2013, an increasing number of business to consumer (B2C) loyalty program players who cater to retailer consumer loyalty benefits, and business to employee (B2E) loyalty program players who cater to corporate staff benefits are entering and developing these markets in Southeast Asia.
• Retailers and enterprises alike have been or will be looking into the trend of loyalty programs for their customers (business to consumer, B2C) or for their employees (business to employee or B2E).
• Some examples of B2C loyalty program players include Malaysia based Pofers.com and Gimmie.
• Examples of B2E loyalty program players include Singapore-based Pyrks.com and Malaysia-based PerkPool. And by the way, there is another player in Singapore, Patontheback.org which was not at the event.

5. Utility tools over Cloud as a service to drive SME productivity

• In view of the service labour crunch in Singapore, Kwix is looking to help restaurants relieve their labour shortage in waiting staff by allowing customers to order from their smartphones at their tables, instead of having to wait for the restaurant staff to attend to them.
• Ticktok looks at alleviating the frustrations of consumers who are waiting in line for their table by getting real-time notifications to them when their tables are ready. Restaurant owners are able to better manage their yield in seat allocation and not lose frustrated customers.

6. "Keep the fire in your belly"

• With every new business that one ventures into, there will never be any certainty in the product development, take up and performance. The important thing is that entrepreneurs need to stay bright-eyed in their outlook.
• Chua Kee Lock, Group President and CEO of Vertex Venture Holdings, offered the following golden gems:
• "Are you trying to win, or not to lose?"
• "An entrepreneur needs to be arrogant, but also willing to listen."
• Last but not least, Loo Cheng Chuan from Local L!fe, SingTel Digital Life Group rounded up his presentation about the 9 shocking truths about Silicon Valley with the following quip "Keep the fire in your belly".

Whilst the Startup Asia 2013 event in Singapore was a great platform and meeting of minds for the startup community in the region and beyond, it would only serve as a precursor for more exciting things to come for the business ideas and performances of many of the bright minds I have had seen and had conversations with.

In closing, to all startups and entrepreneurs out there, Keep on going ... Don't lost hope. You never know what tomorrow will bring.

Reading references:

1. Tech and cultural trends from Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia
2. Innovation from the East: takeaways from Startup Asia 2013
3. #startupasia Twitter conversations (chockful of information here! 
4. Startup Management: Tips for Prioritizing and Scaling (with Chua Kee Lock)
5. 9 shocking truths about Silicon Valley - Lessons from 100 Startup Founders
6. Newly added, Startup Asia 2013 as an infographic

6 Reasons WHY Feature Phones need some loving too (Building reach for digital content via feature phones)

"Think about feature phones, they need some loving too ... " I heard this over presentations by Digi and AIS in the 2010 AppXchange Asia event. Granted 3 years have elapsed since the event and all the spotlight these days are given to impressive numbers of smartphones and tablets replacing feature phone users, there are strong reasons for us to think about feature phones and why they need some loving.

(1) Market for feature phones still overwhelm smartphones today

• According to Mary Meeker's Internet Trends 3 Dec 2012 report, whilst there were 1 billion smartphone users globally, that pales in comparison to the 5 billion total mobile phone users worldwide - that's still 4 billion feature phone users worldwide today!
• In emerging markets like Southeast Asia, where the Internet is largely and increasingly experienced via mobile, smartphone penetration is less than 25% on average. 
• Indonesia with its population of 250 million, more than 150 million unique subscribers, has only about 10% smartphone penetration - so, go figure~

(2) Innovation in Mobile Internet Services had existed with feature phones, way before smartphones

• Remember Japan's I-Mode which was a huge success case study in the late 90s to early 2000s?
• In South Korea, even with feature phones then, there were a number of successful case studies and innovation with the likes of mobile loyalty point system OKCashBag, mobile gift voucher system Gifticon from SK Telecom (now SK planet runs this; disclosure: I am now at SK planet).
• It is the developer ecosystems and digital content value chain partners which have been driving the mobile internet service innovation in the era before smartphones, with feature phones (albeit smart as they were already then).

(3) My First Internet, My First Email in emerging markets happened with Nokia (Ovi) feature phones

• Nokia Ovi services which was launched 28 August 2008 (disclosure: I was managing the Nokia Ovi services for Southeast Asia then), provided a number of emerging markets globally with their first Internet, and first email experience.
• A suite of mobile internet services - contents and calendars sync, photo and video sharing, files sync across PC and mobile, maps and navigation, mobile music, mobile social gaming and mobile apps downloads (sound familiar?) were made available already in those earlier years, to users of Nokia feature and Symbian phones (in those days, the N-series (with Maps, Mobile TV services etc), E-series (Push email, mobile device management and PIM sync services) as well as the iconic Nokia Communicator were the smartphones).
• Nokia Life Tools, a sms-based information subscription service for the emerging markets (China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria etc), with more than 95 million users to date, has provided agricultural, educational, healthcare and entertainment service offerings to Nokia feature phone users.

(4) eBooks are thriving and growing with feature phones

• In China, people have already been reading ebooks on their mobile phones and now increasingly on low-cost tablets (more than 75% feature phones - Mary Meeker's Dec 2012 Internet Trends report) with a market size of about $90 million (PwC data). Anecdotally, this figure could well be worth more than $300 million, given China consumers subscribe to ebook stories on sms and mms packages on their mobile - given more than 75% are feature phone users - Mary Meeker's Dec 2012 Internet Trends report).

(5) Social chat messaging is also gaining support and growing via feature phones

• Nimbuzz who has 120 million users today, largely in India and Middle East, is expanding into Singapore, Indonesia and other Southeast Asia markets with its social chat supporting feature phones and smartphones, through partnerships with mobile operators.
• NHN Japan is partnering with Nokia to push their Naver Line social chat service to the next 200 million in 2013, via Nokia's best selling Asha feature phones line-up.

(6) Cloud will enable "smart" feature phones

• biNu is Your Smartphone in the Cloud cloud-based software platform that delivers popular internet services and digital content fast and with low bandwidth for an efficient mobile experience to both feature and smartphones. It is backed by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt's TomorrowVentures.
• In fact, through biNu, romance publisher Harlequin (refer to first demo video below) and Worldreader (refer to second video below) will be offering eBooks through cloud-based eBook reader apps on feature phones who are now made "smart" by the biNu efficient cloud-based service platform. 

Well, 2 more areas to look out at for feature phones are in mobile social gaming with Migg33 (huge in Indonesia, South Africa etc) and mobile advertising (Buzzcity).

Are you convinced yet on the why feature phones today still need some loving attention if businesses are looking to grow and expand their mobile internet business globally?


Let's engage,
Nelson Wee
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonwee
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.com/nelsonwee
Twitter: @nelsonwee

Photo credit: vernieman / Foter.com / CC BY

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

Why are there huge opportunities in Connecting People through Mobile Social Messaging?

Closing off 2012 soon - how time flies in today's increasingly mobile and social world!
Mary Meeker recent year end presentation of 2012 internet trends at Stanford offered further insights on the insurmountable momentum our world is going mobile and how we are always-on in connecting with one another via social networks.

3 key points struck home ...

1. Emerging markets are driving the 8% year on year growth of internet users from 2008 to 2012.
2. Indonesia (#3), Philippines (#7) and Vietnam (#15) rank amongst the top 15 globally in terms of internet user adds.
3. In Q4'12, Indonesia (#8), Philippines (#17), Thailand (#19), Malaysia (#21) rank amongst the top 30 globally in terms of smartphone subscribers.

Globally, we have also witnessed the growing trend of consumers all around consuming content (news, photos and videos etc) online and increasingly on mobile. Sharing the content they consume from the social networks, online portals and discussion forums is becoming a reflex action due to our need to share and connect (and what better now with mobile technology facilitating the the content sharing).

The "Mobile messaging trends" presentation from CapGemini consulting (see below attached) provide further evidence on how our mobile consumers are transiting from SMS to Facebook chat and Whatsapp instant messaging  applications (IM apps).

Mobile messaging trends capgemini consulting from Patrick Steemers

In Southeast Asia, the market is growing to become a hotbed for mobile social communicator services (read below on the Southeast Asia market landscape). While today largely driven by WhatsApp and mobile Facebook chat users, the market is attracting a number of other players like KakaoTalk, WeChat, Naver Line etc.

Southeast Asia Mobile Internet Market Landscape - a Nelson Wee view from Nelson Wee

With the growing demand in connecting with people in today's on-the-go economy, more and more, we  will continue to see innovation in new players with fresh and quicker ways to discover and share your favourite media contents in your mobile chats with friends. I leave you now with a new mobile social messenger TicTocPlus from SK planet (now available for iOS and Android smartphones - disclosure: I am currently at SK planet Southeast Asia). Have fun and do feel free to offer your open feedback~



Talk soon~
@nelsonwee
read more about my profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonwee

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

How can Apps help build up your Social Currency?

In my last post "3 Phase Strategy in Digital Commerce", I brought up the potential ways in which:

1. Apps could act as outposts to consumers and build up communities.
2. Social messaging platforms and content marketing could engage with your consumers.
3. Commerce in general is bringing in the social engagement and recommendations to the online and mobile space as consumers are increasingly on-the-go and expect value from differentiated offers.

Wikipedia definition of social currency for your business states that it constitutes the entirety of actual and potential resources which could arise from the presence of your business in social networks and communities - digital or offline.

So how do mobile apps come into the picture in helping to build up social currency for your business? Growth in on-the-go consumers and mobile content consumption are changing the ways in which consumers are putting their attention and mindshare on business and marketing news. In southeast asia markets, whilst largely feature phone driven, smartphone growth are fast outstripping the growth of feature phones in the recent 2 years with the availability of low cost affordable smartphones. Internet access via low cost tablets and wifi enabled cafes are also helping the fuel internet access and content sharing. Have a look at my initial take on the Southeast Asia mobile and internet market (I will be updating this in another post) and you would see the potential reach of apps in Southeast Asia markets. Should you look into getting a piece of this channel? Yes. Is it worth your while? YES!

Southeast Asia Market Sizing for Internet Commerce from Nelson Wee

In developing the app strategy for your business, you would need to understand that in today's world of on-the-go consumers and pervasive mobile internet access, the market landscape for the consumption of business and marketing information is changing. No longer static in nature, there is a shift of information sharing and communication from static documents in your PCs to browsers and now increasingly via apps in smartphones, tablets, feature phones and more upcoming screens.

Here is a slide on how mobile apps: 

• could be used as experimental outposts to reach your consumers 
• to seed and incubate concept messaging, 
• and build up specific vertical communities for businesses. 

Open declaration here: the apps DishPal, StyleTag and StARCALL are from SK Planet where I currently work in.

Apps build communities from Nelson Wee

By nurturing your communities, engaging your users with the all-important relevant content calendar, you start to be able to mine and garner value for your business from your interactions with your consumers through the profiling of your community users.

Referring back to my previous post on the the 3 phases in Digital Commerce, the social messaging platform when coupled with nurtured communities and consumer profiling from apps, will grow richer with more relevant consumer and business context.

Let's discuss further - in subsequent posts or reach me directly.

I look forward to hear from you.

Nelson Wee
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonwee
Twitter: @nelsonwee
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.com/nelsonwee 

Why the Nokia Communicator was loved in Southeast Asia

In my last post, as I wrote about the doorway to the Internet opening very quickly in Southeast Asia markets, I also remembered how the Nokia Communicator came to the market. 

Why?  Because the Nokia Communicator was one of the very first converged smartphones in the market - a wide screen, comfortably spaced QWERTY keyboard, sms, fax, connectivity to the internet, black and white to color in a solid clamshell build ... from the Nokia 9000 in 1996 to the Nokia E90 in 2007, a new Communicator arrived every 3 years.  And the Nokia Communicator certainly caught the hearts of a number of loyal fans and communities in Southeast Asia.

I remember fondly of being part of the launch of the Nokia 9500 Communicator in Southeast Asia (a touch of nostalgia for fans of the Communicator with the attached Nokia 9500 product video), and particularly the Indonesia go-to-market experience.

During the 2004 launch of the Nokia 9500 Communicator in Indonesia, consumers were lining up since 4am in the morning.  Here is a photo of crowd I took on the day of launch.  A steady flow of people streamed in continuously in long lines, some with babies in hand and a thick wad of cash in the other for the converted smartphone!

3 things which drew the Southeast Asia fans to the Nokia Communicator:
(1) Status
One of the very first converged smartphones in the market, the Nokia Communicator belonged to a league of its own class.  Those who owned a Communicator felt that they had achieved a key milestone in life.  Both the men and the ladies - businessmen, celebrities, I spoke to in Indonesia (and other markets) would attest to that.  Status is a very key driving factor for Southeast Asia (and the larger Asia) consumers.  And the Nokia Communicator grew a strong and loyal following in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

(2) Communication Options
The Nokia Communicator had sms, fax, internet connectivity and email as part of its rich communication options and further complemented by a wide screen and a well-spaced QWERTY keyboard.  Businessmen used the Communicator to keep in touch with their personal and business networks with the flexible communication options.

(3) Productivity
Asian consumers have a very large number of contacts.  I remember talking to many businessmen and government officials in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, who literally owned a filofax of thousands of contacts in their Nokia Communicators!  Just look at the photo I captured below of a consumer (notice the intense look) who was transferring the contacts, sms messages from his previous Nokia Communcator to his new Nokia 9500 Communicator.

Key productivity use cases of the Nokia Communicator:

• Festive sms greetings could be prescheduled to their networks.
• Business agreements conducted and captured over long sms threads.
• Purchase orders could be conveyed over fax.

It's been a rather fascinating journey back in time as I reminisced the birth and passing of one Nokia Communicator to the next.  With great interest and anticipation, I look forward to the arrival of the Nokia E7 smartphone, which just may herald the coming of the next line of modern Communicators into the market after the previous Nokia E90 Communicator in 2007 (of which I was also proud to be part of the go-to-market).

Any thoughts from you on your experiences with the Nokia Communicator?

Til later, more thoughts
Nelson Wee
@nelsonwee

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

5 Key App Insights from AppsXchange Asia 2010 Event in Singapore

The recent AppsXchange Asia event in Singapore on 16-17 June 2010 brought together the entire Apps Eco-system in Asia together -mobile phone manufacturers (Nokia, Samsung), operators (Telenor Group, Digi, Maxis, Singtel, AIS), content developers (mbounce, Zing Mobile, Touch Dimensions etc), mobile ads providers (Buzzcity, Mobile Spinach), platform solutions and payment providers (Oracle, Volantis, Globys, PayPal).

Here are the 5 key app insights gleaned from this 2-day discussion and networking forum around the Go-To-Market programs for Apps and the roles Operators and players could play in.

(1) With APPolution, Application Discovery is a Key Concern

• In an earlier post "3 social News Apps for a Nokia Phone", I wrote referred to the increasing number of apps offered by media publishers in the many apps stores available today.
• Arnie Chaudhari, Vice President, Sales and Business Development, mBounce, highlighted that with APPolution (i.e. app evolution), the applications marketplace is becoming increasingly crowded.
• Praveen Rajan, Head of Mobile Internet, Digi, talked about working with partners from other apps stores to push recommendations of apps via various operator online, mobile and offline channels. One case study he shared was around promoting daily content discovery through SMS subscriptions to Youtube alerts

(2) Traffic and Downloads are going off-deck

• Simon Wong, Sales Consulting Director, Oracle, highlighted that 50% to 80% of apps are now downloaded off-deck (note: Juniper Research)
• Praveen Rajan from Digi also advised that from experience, that operators need to rethink the Operator WAP Portal.  He suggested simplifying the operator wap portal with key promotional messages like attractive data plans, value-added service packages, or contests involving apps.

(3) Operators are trusted brands and offer value in platform enablers and to partner

• In his address on "Developing converged apps for TV, mobile and online", Naveen Wathan, Head of Product Innovations, Product Development and Infotainment, Maxis, saud that the role of the of the network operator is to enable applications across different user interfaces (TV, Mobile, Online) - use the Cloud, develop easy to use APIs for developers & co-market.
• Tanis Kuneepong, Partner VAS Marketing Manager, AIS (Thailand's largest operator) ahso shared about SingTel's regional apps store program, which is scaling up through shared apps sourcing, shared in -apps ads inventory, shared VAS offers across the Singtel group.
• Dr. Calicrates Policroniades, Senior Researcher/Business Developer in Content and Applications, Telenor Group Corporate Development, highlighted that the Telenor group's strategy is to focus on providing platform enablers to apps developers, rather than building their own apps stores.

(4) Operators offer value in consumer insights and marketing

• Praveen, Digi had started the event saying that "Everyone has favourites" (apps for that matter) and there are many opportunities for operators to promote apps, value-added services (VAS) and data plans to their consumers. Think about how to sell VAS the Apps Store way.
• Duanne Edwards, co-founder and Senior Vice President of Product Development, Globys, stated that operators can win the apps race by enabling discovery, profiling their consumers and understanding occasions - i.e. segment apps by occasions of usage, thereby driving downloads for developers through marketing contextually relevant apps to consumers.
• Urvashi Sahay, Director, Mobile Services and Integration, Singtel, reiterated support in providing more transparency to developers from Operators. Singtel for example is committed to sharing consumer insights to developers - what are the opportunities and in which verticals should developers be work on.

(5) Think about Feature Phones - they need some loving too

• Tanis Kuneepong, AIS, shared that out that 7 of the top 20 top performing phones for their AIS Apps Store (launched 8-FEB 2010) were Nokia feature phones.
• Arnie Chaudhuri from mBounce, Urvashi Sahay from Singtel, Dr. Lai Kok Fung from Buzzcity reminded the forum to think about the needs of the emerging markets which were largely proliferated with feature phones rather than smartphones. These consumers are looking for mobile ads with value, apps with sms-based content, utility apps for their feature phones.
• 2 examples of apps stores supporting feature phones are GetJar and the Nokia Ovi Store (which support more than 100 models of feature phones and smartphones today).

As seen by the 5 apps insights from the AppsXchange Asia event,

• In Asia, where there are both developed and emerging markets,
• where there are both smartphones and feature phones co-existing,
• there are different needs of consumers which could be catered to by the apps eco-system players - operators, content developers, mobile phone manufacturers, solution providers etc. 

I am very excited to be part of this dynamic and exhilarating apps growth market here in Asia.  How are your experiences in the apps market space?  Any best practices, case studies or key issues to share?  I look forward to hearing from you.




best regards,
Nelson Wee
or tweet me at @nelsonwee