3 activities that will boost your energy levels and help you maintain productivity throughout the day

Though millions of youngsters aspire to be on their own, entrepreneurship is not for everyone. It becomes fruitful only for those who have the urge to set their own path and leave a trail.

They should be ready for long hours of work with an unflinching commitment to establish a business, hire and handle people, consistently provide value to the customer, manage operations, set up efficient logistics system, handle payments, constantly battle competition and do all these tasks simultaneously without losing focus and eventually, ensure that they drive the business profitably.

Also Read: How to stop working late and increase productivity: do your most exhausting task first

It is evident that the founders of startups need endless energy to accomplish these daunting tasks on a daily basis, but here are some tips to help you out in your journey.

Invest in your health

A healthy body is a true sign of success. Successful entrepreneurs understand that investing in health is non-negotiable as it is a pre-requisite for business success.

When the horse is sick, how can the wagon move? For those who are not health-conscious, they may have to pay through their nose to sustain their health and energy levels.

Take time to do some basic exercises to maintain your fitness. Few minutes of meditation in the morning helps you organise your thoughts and go to work with a clear mind. Exercises and meditation help you to replenish and refuel your body and protect you from burning out.

Build a routine

Sticking to a routine is not about doing mundane things the same way. It is about hitting the office on time every morning and prioritising the day’s work and carrying out tasks appropriate to your energy levels.

Keep the mornings for tackling toughest projects and scheduling time for revenue generation activities, tracking progress etc.. Few hours need to be allocated in the evening for meetings and pep talk.

It is not easy to stick to a specific routine on all days and things can go crazy when you get really busy.

However, smart entrepreneurs are known for their ability to create time for various activities to remain most productive.

Sticking to a routine has long-term benefits and can add tremendous value to the enterprise.

Quality family time

There is no end to an entrepreneur’s work time, particularly during the inception stage of the business. However, it is not really worth compromising your precious time with your family.

Spending quality time with your kids can be truly liberating and give you the needed break from the hectic day. It is also a way to disengage yourself and allow you to slow down a bit.

Also Read: Focus on productivity, not efficiency

Have some real fun with your kids which can be a means of developing and strengthening your ability to think creatively and find simple solutions for pressing business problems.

Doing the above three things can help you emerge as a creative thinker, leader, innovator and successful entrepreneur.

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Image Credit: Isaac Smith

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The many innovative things that whiteboard animation can do for your brand, which will give you a considerable edge over your peers

If you are an aspiring or established marketer who has been paying attention to the news and trends of the last five years, rest assured that you would have certainly heard enough about whiteboard animation.

Far from the initial stages of merely doing the rounds in general marketing discussions, enough people have started testing it out to good effect.

For all those who have seen the sheer magic that whiteboard animation has the potential of weaving, finding innovative ways to use it is certainly a no-brainer in every sense of the word.

The best part of it is that a series of seemingly complicated ideas are broken down into various segments to make the overall picture a lot more digestible. Whether it is used in an online shared whiteboard or any other kind of whiteboard, videos are the way forward.

However, for all those who think that it is mainly about educational content, it is a lot more than that. Here are the top five ways to use whiteboard animation:-

A title sequence to a TV show: There is no better way to summarise all the previous seasons into one compelling title sequence.

This is pretty much the best way, to sum up, several years of complicated characters, storylines and plots in a couple of minutes to all the new fans out there.

A YouTube homepage: Now, this idea is gaining a great deal of traction for many services out there. Any new visitors on your page would want to know everything about the page in the shortest possible time.

Hence, a whiteboard animation video is the best way to go about that, and if made well, many new viewers will feel right at home.

A commercial spot: For the most part, a commercial spot is about food items. Here, the video should ideally focus on the quality of the food as well as the nutritional aspect of the ingredients.

Also Read: 3 ways to to instantly establish trust during your investor presentation

Plus, there should be a continuous sense of action with all of the dynamic visuals and smooth transitions. The perfect way to make mundane points more interesting for viewers on the whole.

The aspect of a music video: This is a great way to make a tongue-in-cheek video with plenty of satire to entertain the audience along with a good piece of music.

For this to work well, a unique perspective on things as well as a quirky personality would be ideal since viewers will love it, as well as absorb the musical side of the video.

An animation book promo: Most people are aware of the fact that the hardest part of writing a book is selling it. This is where a well-explained whiteboard animation video comes in to save the day. If it is made well with plenty of explanations regarding the book, what it is about, the way in which it is relevant to today and so on.

Here’s the most surprising aspect that most people still haven’t realised to this day – the aspect of whiteboard animation has been around for a good decade, and the most common uses have been talks and education.

This certainly comes as no surprise as online education content has exploded into the mainstream in a big way, plus there is also the fact that it has become familiar to most people out there.

Also Read: 5 ways you can improve your TED talk presentation

Interestingly, it has also grown into a diverse style with many services doing a substantial amount of research about using them in unique and refreshing ways.

The aspect of TED-style talks is also a great example since it is perfect for a voiceover and takes most of the attention of the speaker to the real topic which is being discussed.

These are some things whiteboard animation can do for you, which will give you an advantage over your peers.

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Key elements you should be focusing on to ensure your digital marketing strategy is optimised for Hong Kong

 

Hong Kong is a very unique place to market a website. With influences from both Chinese and Western cultures, websites need to be set up and marketed in a specific way to ensure they target the right customers in their industry sector.

Does your website need Chinese and English Language in Hong Kong?

Well, it all depends on your target market really…

What you need to remember about consumers and web users in Hong Kong is that they use websites and search in different ways. This is dependent on what industry your products target and also what consumer segments and demographics you are targeting in Hong Kong, as there are many.

The first step is to make sure you have your market research nailed because this will help you understand who you should be setting your website up for.

Some examples that highlight this are:

1. Websites that promote and sell luxury items in industries like the fashion industry need to have English sections to their website, as consumer search and demand is often in English that ensures brand focus.
2. Sites that target local-focused consumers need to have their websites predominantly in Chinese and additionally focus their website promotion strategy in Chinese. A personal finance website or a blue-collar jobs website are good examples of industries where the local focus is much more important.
3. Websites that target mainly the expat market may only need to be English. If your product is mainly focusing on products more suitable to this demographic, then it may not be worth investing in time and resource in a Chinese section on your website.
4. Websites targeting a certain age or generation may also need to be more focused towards a certain language. For example, an older audience is more likely to be unable to understand English and so may need to have a higher weighting towards a Chinese language site.

There is also the decision on whether to include two versions of written Chinese on your website, which brings us on to the next question…

What version of written Chinese does your website require in Hong Kong?

If you are including a Chinese section on your website or your entire website is in Chinese targeting Hong Kong, then you need to put your website in Traditional Chinese.

Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong and the text used is in Traditional Chinese characters.

If you live in Hong Kong you’ll know this already, but worth bearing this in mind.

This is particularly pertinent If you are creating a multinational, multilingual site that includes Hong Kong, but you do not have a base in Hong Kong.

 

How should you configure multilingual websites in Hong Kong?

We suggest using /zh-hk and /en-hk as a subfolder on your .com or .com.hk website.

If you believe that your website will have a primary language in Hong Kong then you may want to have a no /language-country subfolder for your main language and only use a /language-country subfolder for your secondary domain. e.g.

www.example.com/this-is-the-primary-language-section and www.example.com/en-hk/this-is-the-secondary-language-section

Specify when you are using Traditional (targeting Hong Kong) and Simplified Chinese (targeting China) in your language code, in your subfolder URL structures and in hreflang code (which helps search engines to understand what language page version to show).

 

Chinese (Traditional)

1. 1. • Language code to include in HTML language settings: zh-Hant
      • URL structure to include www.example.com/zh-hant
      • Hreflang code to include <link rel=” alternate” href=”https://www.example.com/” hreflang=”zh-hant” />  along with other website language page variations on the same page

 

Chinese (Simplified)

1. 1. • Language code to include in HTML language settings: zh-Hans
      • URL structure to include www.example.com/zh-hans
      • Hreflang code to include <link rel=” alternate” href=”https://www.example.com/” hreflang=”zh-hans” /> along with other website language page variations on the same page

 

Should you be using Chinese URLs on your website in Hong Kong?

This really depends on what type of website you have and which location you are targeting.

For example:

1. 1. • If you are targeting the Chinese mainland as well as Hong Kong you may want to use Chinese URLs to help to rank in China’s Baidu search engines. Chinese URLs are not necessarily favoured in Baidu but this could help
      • If you have a lot of local content on your blog that targets local phrases and themes, then you may want to use Chinese URLs in your blog posts
      • If you have URLs that include content related to international themes or international brands then it may be better to use English URLs

One good way to decide could be to check out the search volumes in Chinese and English before deciding. Alternatively, you could look to see if both Chinese and English words are used in the keyword search phrases used.

 

How important is mobile in Hong Kong?

Source: http://gs.statcounter.com/platform-market-share/all/hong-kong/#monthly-201804-201809

The majority of websites in Hong Kong should be developed and marketed with a mobile-first approach as more people use mobile than desktop to research and browse the internet. This means making sure your website is mobile optimised by checking it through the Google Mobile-Friendly tool and also testing it on numerous devices. If you have a Google Search Console account set up Google will also send you mobile usability reports via the Google Search Console

 

Desktop still first for conversions

Whilst mobile is the leader for online browsing people often still prefer to convert on a desktop as shown in a recent Google Consumer Survey in the graph shown below as they have more trust in purchasing or filling in forms on desktop. They often do this on the 2nd visit to a website on Desktop.

Source: https://www.consumerbarometer.com/en/graph-builder/?question=S34&filter=country:hong_kong_sar

Although mobile access is clearly important, it is obvious from the above graph that ultimately people choose to make their purchase through a desktop computer.

As previously stated, this may be due to a lack of confidence about completing purchases over a mobile network. Alternatively, people may be more confident to carry out their purchases at home rather than on the move, where they have more time to ensure that all information is correct.

From a digital marketing point of view, it is therefore important to adapt your website to ensure that it is adaptable to all forms of access.

 

App optimisation in Hong Kong

If you have an app and want to promote the app in app stores in Hong Kong then you need to remember that Apple has a much greater market share in Hong Kong than in other parts of Asia, where Android is most popular. So, your app promotion strategy may need to be focused more on the Apple App Store and your iOS app.

Source: http://gs.statcounter.com/vendor-market-share/mobile/hong-kong/#monthly-201801-201809

 

How do you build your brand and promote your website in Hong Kong?

There are a few ways in which you can build your brand and promote your website in Hong Kong. One of the key initial tasks to carry out is to research your niche industry in great depth. This will help you to understand who your potential customer demographic is in Hong Kong and then, in turn, helps you to decide how you should set up your website.

You should also decide whether you are going to be local or more expat focused in your branding or maybe you need to decide whether you need a branding strategy for both demographics?

Next, you need to decide what social media channels you should use to reach your target audience(s). Using Facebook is likely to be more effective if you want to share video and blogs to a local audience for many B2C markets. LinkedIn is still used to a certain extent but more so within the B2B and expat focused markets.

Also read: 5 content marketing trends you need to heed

Finally, a core part of the strategy is the fact that you need to decide what type of content you should promote. Podcasts are not very popular in Hong Kong for example but watching videos is extremely popular as shown in the graph below taken from The Connected Consumer Survey 2017.

Source: https://www.consumerbarometer.com/en/graph-builder/?question=V1&filter=country:hong_kong_sar

 

Source: https://www.consumerbarometer.com/en/graph-builder/?question=M7b1&filter=country:hong_kong_sar

As well as the video is a core activity that people engage in on their smartphones, social media also plays a key part in Hong Kong’s online activities, so your social media strategy needs to be as much of a priority as your website strategy. Smart to consider the use of social media in an overall digital marketing strategy.

Another key area stated in the data above is to the use of search engines, so having a clear Search Engine Optimisation strategy and also potentially a paid search strategy (depending on your industry and what demographic you are targeting) is important.

The need for holistic online and offline strategies into the purchase funnel

Source: https://www.consumerbarometer.com/en/graph-builder/?question=S7&filter=country:hong_kong_sar

Data from the Google Consumer Barometer Survey 2014/15  suggests that the majority of people in Hong Kong still make their purchase in a store or outlet. This means that people carry out the research online before going on to make a purchase in person.

Online and on the phone still plays a part in purchasing, so this needs consideration in how best to encourage people to go on and buy a product or service. Perhaps some thought is needed on how to encourage people via a digital strategy to act on their impulse to purchase.

Also Read: Current trends that can render popular e-commerce platforms obsolete

Having an optimised Google MyBusiness account can help provide a link between your online strategies and offline strategies. As it means that when internet users are searching for your brand in Google they will be able to find your store locations easily from where they can purchase products in-store.

There are a number of new features in Google MyBusiness that you can also leverage to gain further visibility online to offline.

 

Your digital marketing strategy for Hong Kong

Ensuring you know what Digital Marketing Nuances are most applicable to your brand and products is the most important thing to start and from there you can decide how to prioritize some or all of the factors mentioned in this post.

 

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Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

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Image Credit: Simon Zhu

This article originally was posted on https://www.taksudigital.com/blog/the-digital-marketing-nuances-of-hong-kong

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Due diligence and research are important, as with any other investment vehicle

Earlier this year SME director Choy Peiyi was sentenced to 10 years in jail for creating fake invoices that allowed her business, Vanguard Project Management, to raise more than S$25 million via the Singapore-based crowdfunding site Capital Springboard. Users of the Capital Springboard platform that invested in Peiyi’s company lost nearly USD$7 million in total.

1. Choose the right crowdfunding platform

If this example worries you about investing in crowdfunding campaigns, you may be reassured to know that not all crowdfunding platforms pose this much risk.

In fact, some platforms have incredibly low default rates, which highlights the need to conduct thorough research of the best platforms before signing up for an account. For example, Funding Societies has the lowest default rate of any platform in Singapore at 1.12 per cent.

In addition to comparing default rate statistics, it is important to compare each platform’s advertised expected returns. This is important for prospective investors because platforms that claim to generate returns that are significantly higher than competitors that offer comparable investment products may be misleading, riskier or even less reputable.

Also Read: This startup took only 38 minutes to achieve its US$720K crowdfunding target

For example, crowdfunding platforms that offer small business loans and small business invoice financing tend to advertise average annualised returns of about 13 per cent to 14 per cent. Therefore, if you saw a platform advertising much higher returns for these types of investments, you would want to examine how the platform could offer such competitive rates before signing up.

2. Carefully analyse each crowdfunding campaign

While it is possible to avoid crowdfunding scams by choosing from the best available platforms, it is also essential to find legitimate campaigns on the platform that you select.

After all, Capital Springboard does have many legitimate deals despite being tied to the Vanguard Project Management fraud.

For this reason, it is important to consider several factors about the SME seeking funds in order to understand the risk associated with each campaign.

Also read: Crowdfunding is changing the world for the better

3. Ability to repay

The first criteria to consider in order to assess the risk of a business defaulting on its loan is the business’s financial capability of repaying the loan.

To the extent that it is possible, prospective investors should always review the SME’s financials. In particular, it is important to examine the amount of debt that the company owes to other lenders, whether its revenue exceeds its costs and if it has a positive net cash flow.

Also Read: Five trends in crowdfunding to watch in 2019

To assess the company’s financial strength, investors can calculate the company’s leverage ratios to understand how much debt it holds and the comparative risk of non-repayment, such as the net debt to EBITDA ratio.

This ratio can be calculated by subtracting the company’s cash from its total debt and dividing the result by its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).

In general, investors should be wary of SMEs with net debt to EBITDA ratios above 4.0.

Similarly, investors can assess the risk of an invoice financing loan by comparing the loan amount to the invoice amount. Typically, the smaller the loan is compared to the invoice, the less risk the investment poses. Additionally, some crowdfunding platforms provide their own analysis that estimates each borrower’s likelihood of repayment, which can be very helpful for less savvy investors.

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4. Financing needs

Another important way to understand the relative risk of each crowdfunding campaign is to examine why each SME seeks to borrow funds. Generally, specific-use loans are less risky from a lender’s perspective.

This is because these loans are going to be used for a specific purpose, which is typically more transparent to the lender. Some examples of specific borrowing purposes for small business loans include working capital, asset purchase and expansion.

5. Borrowing history

Yet another indicator of the likelihood that a business will repay a loan is to look at the business’s borrowing record. This will help you decide if the business has traditionally repaid its lenders on-time.

This factor is very important, even to the crowdfunding platforms. For example, some crowdfunding websites, such as Validus Capital even charge lower interest rates to SMEs that have a strong record of repayment through their platform.

6. Diversify your crowdfunding investment portfolio

Another way to minimise risk is to diversify your portfolio of investments. For example, by diversifying your invested funds among a few crowdfunding campaigns, you will be less likely to incur losses associated with a crowdfunding scam.

Of course, diversification alone will not prevent you from investing in a scam or in an SME that is likely to default on its loan; however, it helps you limit your exposure to risk.

7. Alternatives to crowdfunding

If you are still nervous about crowdfunding scams and would feel more comfortable investing elsewhere, you may be interested in opening an online brokerage account. There are many online brokerages and a variety of advantages and disadvantages to each type.

Also Read: 4 factors to consider before you invest in a crowdfunding platform

We strongly suggest that individuals that are new to investing are careful to choose a platform that fits their preferences for characteristics such as international market access, fees, and minimum investment amounts.

Additionally, novice investors should conduct a significant amount of research into investment strategies before investing any significant amount of money.

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Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

This article was originally published on ValueChampion.

e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

 

 

 

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The eight companies solve different financial problems the country have seen, from a P2P lending service to a convenient e-wallet

According to the data uncovered by Solidiance, an APAC-focused consultancy firm, Vietnam’s fintech market is predicted to reach US$7.8 billion by 2020. It, according to the article released by Vietnam Investment Revies, equals a 77 per cent increase over three years.

Quoting the article, several things factor into the rapid growth of the financial technology sector of the country, such as the existence of regulatory efforts to increase financial inclusion and to reduce cash payments, the rising income and consumption that boosts the e-commerce sector, high Internet and smartphone penetration rates, and a young and tech affluent population.

The article further noted that according to the World Bank, the high level of Internet (52 per cent) and smartphone penetration (72 per cent) make Vietnam one of the fastest adopters of smartphones and Internet (at low cost) in Southeast Asia, and provide the necessary infrastructure for fintech services, even in remote rural areas.

As an answer to the United Nations’ goal of promoting financial inclusion, the Vietnamese government has recognised fintech as one of the key factors enabling the transformation of the financial landscape and, therefore, established the State Bank of Vietnam’s Steering Committee on Financial Technology in 2017 to promote the development of fintech firms in Vietnam.

All the efforts and transformation the country has seen resulted in the successful founding and operation of several fintechs. e27 then gathered these eight names that represent the current rising trend in Vietnam’s fintech ecosystem. They are:

MoMo

MoMo is a service of M Service, providing a digital wallet and a payment app. It brands itself as an over-the-counter (OTC) remittance and payment platform.

e27 voted MoMo as its Startup of the Month back in January 2019, after it raised an undisclosed Series C funding led by Warburg Pincus.

Also Read: [Updated] Here are the top-funded fintech startups of Singapore in 2019

In addition to enabling customers to pay for purchases at various merchants, the MoMo platform also enables users to buy phone credits, send money, and pay bills.

To date, MoMo claimed to serve nearly 10 million users on its e-wallet platform with its transaction volumes has also grown more than three-fold over 2018.

According to a Vietnam Investment Review article, MoMo also made it to the list of the 100 leading global fintech innovators, according to the Fintech100 report by KPMG and H2 Ventures. MoMo has raised US$28 million of funds from Standard Chartered and Goldman Sachs in its 2017’s Series B funding.

Timo

Timo is lauded as Vietnam’s first-ever digital bank with no traditional branches or transaction offices. Timo was launched jointly by Lifestyle Project Management and Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) in March 2015 and officially operated in early 2016 with the launch of the Timo Hangout in Ho Chi Minh City.

Timo Hangouts replaces the traditional branch with tellers with a coffee shop and are used to open accounts or to simply meet up with friends.

Timo’s transactions include money transfers, payments, opening a term deposit, and managing accounts. All can be done remotely, for free, and straightforward, only involve KYC/AML procedures and checks, all through the mobile app.

After setting up an account online, customers will only need to meet a Timo Care Representative in person at a Timo Hangout when initially opening an account.

Finhay

Finhay is a Vietnamese fintech firm that allows customers to invest as little as US$2 in mutual funds in Vietnam upon Finhay’s investment portfolio and related risk assessment recommendation based on the applicants’ information.

Finhay was established in 2017 as a micro-investment platform targeted at millennials.

In January 2019, Finhay announced that it has raised nearly US$1 million from Singapore-based Insignia Venture Partners and other investors.

The funding, the company noted at that time, was used on user growth and looking for talent to join the team.

In its seed round, Finhay received investment funds from Hong Kong and US companies.

OnOnPay

Leveraging on the high prepaid use of mobile top-up and high mobile penetration in Vietnam, OnOnPay was developed in 2015 under the leadership of founder Sỹ Phong Bùi.

OnOnPay’s app lets users top-up via mobile, sends notifications when balances are running low, schedules top-ups in line with big promotion dates, and lets users add funds for several phone numbers at a time.

Also Read: Meet the 10 Indonesian fintech startups you may have never rooted for before

Talking to e27 in 2015, Bui noted that the preference for prepaid stems from the love for promotions. “With fixed plans, users are limited to one SIM card with one telco but with prepaid, users can select whichever telco is offering a promotion at any given time,” Bui said at the time of interview.

With the app, the startup can compile the customer data that allows it to know in real-time the amount of money left in the customer’s account. This way, the startup can timely send proactive notifications that are tied to a promotion.

In just seven-month-long of operation, OnOnPay raised a six-digit round from Captii Ventures in 2015. Shortly after, in 2016, Captii Ventures continued its involvement in the startup by conducting the round that saw the unbanking-targeted fintech a US$800,000 Pre-series A fundraising, led by Gobi MAVCAP’s ASEAN SuperSeed Fund.

Early in 2018, Fenox Venture Capital, a Silicon Valley fund announced its entry into the Vietnamese market with an investment in OnOnPay.

NganLuong

NganLuong is a Vietnam-based online payment gateway that supports both global payment brands as well as local banks in Vietnam.

In April 2018, it announced a partnership between with VeriME, a Singapore-based fintech startup that offers blockchain-powered digital identity verification service (VaaS — Verification as a Service) that ensures that user authentication and verification process are done directly without any third party as a mediator.

With the partnership, NganLuong said it sought to build a more secure economic ecosystem that’s hopefully immune to identity thefts and complying with Local Data Sovereignty.

TheBank.vn

TheBank.vn is a financial comparison app established in 2014. Using the TheBank.vn’s platform, customers can compare and evaluate products such as credit cards, unsecured loans, mortgage loans, savings interest rates, and insurance products.

The company also provides advice, connections, and a package of financial product distribution packages for banks and insurance companies using its technology.

Earlier this year, TheBank.vn announced the completion of its first round of funding from CyberAgent Capital and Ncore. The amount of investment is undisclosed.

Tima

Fintech startup Tima provides a consumer finance marketplace and P2P lending platform for the Vietnam market.

For lenders, Tima uses bank accounts at Nam A Bank to hold and manage the money they are willing to lend. Borrowers use this avenue to pay off their debts.

In October 2018, the company announced that it has raised a US$3 million Series B funding round from private equity fund Belt Road Capital Management (BRCM), pushing the company’s valuation close to US$20 million.

Appota Pay

Appota Pay is a part of Appota Group, a Vietnamese mobile-based platform company. Appota Pay’s services include payment gateway, e-wallet Appota Wallet, e-voucher by Appota Card, and shop hub for online payment assistant tool.

In April 2027, Appota Group announced that it has closed an undisclosed Series C round from Korea Investment Partners and Mirae Asset Venture Investment.

Also Read: How Vietnam is accelerating fintech growth

According to Appota Founder and CEO Do Tuan Anh, the investment put the company’s valuation at “approaching US$50 million”.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) announced the draft on national strategy on the Fourth Industrial Revolution back in August. As quoted in the article on The Star, in it, the country stated that it wants to have at least five billion-dollar tech firms, or unicorns, by 2025 and 10 by 2030.

With the exciting development happens on the ground in Vietnam, these fintechs are poised to grow bigger and dominate Vietnam’s market in the future. Along with not less than 100 fintechs listed in the country, these eight startups are on the radar with steady fundraising and could be the country’s first-ever unicorn.
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Photo by Chinh Le Duc on Unsplash

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Digital tools can provide a great way to promote the company culture by creating informal places online for collaboration, communication, and transparency

With the fast-paced implementation of technology and evolving work expectations, understanding the needs of your employees has never been more critical.

Globally, the work environment is changing rapidly.

With the fast-paced implementation of technology and evolving work expectations, understanding the needs of your employees has never been more critical.

Over the past five years, searches for workplace well-being have doubled, with the growing need to create workspaces driven by purpose.

Deloitte’s Future of Work examines improving culture and employee experience in the top-five transformational tactics for workplaces, alongside building connected teams, personal development, and design-thinking.

So what is the culture in today’s changing environment, and how is it measured?

Frei and Morriss give a great example of what culture is in a practical sense:

“Employees make hundreds of decisions on their own every day, and culture is our guide. Culture tells us what to do when the CEO isn’t in the room, which is, of course, most of the time.”

It goes back to purpose and finding a greater understanding of the “why” of everyday work.

In a team environment, culture often shapes the ways we communicate.

Create shared workspaces

We’ve all heard of flexible and remote working as an option for our team, but what does this look like practically?

PwC says, by 2030, the majority of the world’s workforce is expected to find flexibility, autonomy, and fulfilment in their job. Business leaders can make this a reality by creating spaces online where employees can have full access to resources and channels of communication they’d otherwise have in the office environment.

Also Read: How to deal with the challenges of a distributed team

This goes beyond emails and should be tailored to both the job role and industry. For example, if you are working in a design firm, you need access to a suite of tools, templates, etc. Often these resources need to be cloud-based to allow instant access via a simple security log-in.

Offer anonymous feedback

If you are trying to create a culture of honesty and trust where teams are eager to give each other feedback, you may want to consider encouraging company-wide feedback.

Doing this online is an effective method to streamline the process and offer a safe space for honesty. By incorporating a feedback form into a familiar setting—such as a collaboration tool, email system—you can formalise the process.

Also Read: Why team-building exercises won’t make your staff more productive

Let your employees know that the business is looking to improve continuously. Remaining anonymous can make feedback easier for people, and when the feedback loop is hosted digitally, you remove all barriers to honesty.

Implement democratic decision-making

Historically, decisions are often made from top to bottom, with little input from team members. Online polling tools offer a channel for staff engagement. The key here is to ask questions you want answers to. If you engage your team for the polls and don’t release the outcome, it can have quite the opposite effect creating a hostile and untrustworthy environment.

Also Read: 6 tips for building a successful software development team

Questions don’t need to be to make critical strategic decisions, instead pick topics that will put a smile on your team’s face. Ask for opinions, for instance, on new office spaces, themes for next month’s team workshop, etc.

Incorporating the polling process on an ongoing basis will improve your team’s connection, and in turn, creates a happier and more engaged workforce.

Don’t plan your digital strategy online; instead, take it offline. Challenge leadership to decide how you want your employees to perceive the company. Invite team members to the table. Finalise goals.

Digital tools are used to promote collaboration, engagement, and transparency; ultimately improving employee happiness.

When used effectively, digital tools can create unique moments online and engages each employee directly with the company’s vision.

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After a successful business launch, it’s time to really get to work, for long-term success and sustainability

The biggest challenge these days doesn’t seem to be in starting a new business, but sustaining it against the onslaught of market changes and new competitors that emerge every day.

Yet, as an angel investor, I still see too many new business owners who are convinced that their biggest challenge is to get money to start, and once launched with some initial success, they can relax.

In my other role of business advisor, I see examples often of startups that may have taken success for granted too early. A recent high-profile one, Theranos, the blood-testing company, had no trouble getting customers, but promised more than their technology could deliver, Another, Shyp, an early on-demand delivery platform, blamed their demise on premature scaling.

The keys to sustainable success require you to retain that sense of urgency, focus, and vigilance after the launch that you felt during the development and early funding stages.

That starts with initially building a solid business strategy, including a strong support system for scalability, long-term leadership, and adaptability. In my view, this strategy must include the following elements:

1. Define and communicate a purpose and destination

 

Your constituents can’t plot a journey if they aren’t sure where they are going or why. For a successful launch and scalable growth, they need to establish many checkpoints, with metrics to assess their progress and alignment with the vision.

Don’t let that communication fade post-launch.

Also Read: 7 military principles you should apply to your business strategy

2. Build and nurture a team culture of trust and leadership

 

You and your business won’t be able to sustain a position of leadership without everyone on the customer-facing team being willing and able to emulate your lead. That requires trust and respect from all, as well as constant coaching and development to keep them committed to following you.

3. Demand continuous innovation to keep up with change

 

Change is the only constant in a successful business, to keep up with new competitors and new customer demands. Innovation must be applied to your business model, your processes, as well as your product offering. Aim to obsolete your own products with new, before competitors do it.

4. Make sustainability a key design objective for every step

 

You may start with prototype products, but you need rock-solid processes for successful growth and agility. Seek out the best practices in the industry, and improve them for your business. Recognise that every successful journey is long and hard, so don’t cut corners now.

5. Hire the best people and continually upgrade your team

A big mistake often made in the rush to scale is to shortcut the hiring and training processes, to get out there fast, assuming that the team can learn on the job.

Look for team players who can collaborate with others, and make sure everyone has the training and tools to do the job.

Also Read: With this three-pronged system, you can create a sustainable business strategy

6. Seek out strategic partnerships and collaboration

 

When you finally get that funding for scaling, it may be tempting to do everything yourself, to keep control and do it faster.

The problem is that you may not have the experience or connections to jump into new customer segments, manufacturing, and distribution. Capitalise on what already exists.

7. Focus on existing customer retention and repeat business

 

For sustainable growth, don’t forget that, according to data from the field, it is five times as expensive to gain a new customer than retain an existing one, and a returning customer purchases 30 per cent more items and brings in three to seven times more revenue per transaction.

8. Build your brand equity and relationships with customers

 

As a startup, you have no brand recognition, but long-term sustainability requires a powerful brand.

These days, brand equity means relationships with more customers and a more memorable overall experience. Your brand-loyal customer advocates can be your exponential marketing.

9. Never stop hunting for new opportunities and new markets

 

Initial success breeds complacency. While a laser focus is necessary to get your startup off the ground, long-term success requires a broad and ever-changing product line, target audience, and geographic focus. Don’t be a “one-trick pony” that fades into oblivion as time passes.

Also Read: 5 mistakes to avoid when building a business from scratch

Congratulations are definitely appropriate for a successful new business launch, but it’s not the time to relax or take your eye off the ball. A sustainable business, with long-term success, is a different and never-ending challenge, requiring additional strategies as outlined here.

Don’t wait for a business crisis to get started. As many have found out, recoveries are not always possible.

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A previous version of this article first appeared on nfinitiv.

Image Credit: Adrien Olichon on Unsplash

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How ADB Ventures’ Fintech Challenge Vietnam seeks to empower and embolden the country’s Fintech ecosystem

Southeast Asia’s widespread smartphone adoption rates coupled with its massive economic growth has resulted in a mushrooming of tech startups across the region. Southeast Asia’s growth rate is almost double the world’s average of three percent, with countries like Vietnam scoring even more than double (7.1%) the global average according to The World Bank. As such, it comes as no surprise that tech startups are blossoming here and there.

While early startups focused on filling other verticals like ride-hailing and commerce needs such as Grab and Gojek, these have quickly branched out in recent years into the e-wallet space. The move to fintech is a concerted effort by many aspiring startups to fill the gap in access to financial services — as many Southeast Asian people and SMEs remain unbanked, instead choosing to transact through more traditional means.

It is estimated that around half of Southeast Asia’s 650 million people still do not possess a bank account, while around 450 million people do not have access to lending services. Given the differences in regulation and culture across the 10 Southeast Asia countries, fintech startups have looked to smart partnerships with brick-and-mortar banks and other financial institutions to get off the ground.

For Vietnam, inward remittances from its four million-strong diaspora globally have placed Vietnam in the top 10 countries receiving remittances from abroad. Remittances totalled a whopping US$12 billion in 2015 alone. Successful tech startups in Vietnam primarily engage in e-commerce, fintech, and online services, and now the country is home to the third-largest startup ecosystem in Asia, populated by 3,000 startups.

Since 2016, the Law on Technology Transfer has made it easier for local startups to access tech from abroad and the Decree 38-ND-CP provides additional legal protections to startups and provides increased access to state funding.

Fintech Challenge Vietnam categories

With this supportive regulatory backdrop and a thriving ecosystem, the Fintech Challenge Vietnam — spearheaded by ADB Ventures, the ventures arm of the Asian Development Bank — is a unique chance for fintechs to scale quickly in the local market with support from the State Bank of Vietnam and some of the country’s largest financial services providers.

This second edition of the programme calls on startups from around the world to craft solutions to 11 “challenges” Vietnamese financial players face across three categories: Big Data & AI-enabled Analytics, Financial Services Outreach, and Cyber Security.

In the Big Data category, challenges include the balancing of enriching customer data without violating data privacy, leveraging non-traditional credit data to improve credit scoring models, leveraging alternative data for identity verification, and channeling Big Data & AI to craft micro insurance and micro-investment products.

Under Financial Services Outreach, the challenges include encouraging customers to use mobile banking channels and improve customer experience, educating communities with low financial literacy on financial management, developing user-friendly financial products for unbanked or under-banked communities, and making cashless payment solutions convenient to use for consumers and financially attractive for merchants.

The Cyber Security aspect of the programme calls for startups to address challenges such as how to evaluate transactions to enable effective monitoring and detect unusual/abnormal activities, preemptively detect, identify, and predict financial cyber threats and cybercrime. Lastly, this aspect of the programme seeks to leverage technology to develop a secure and traceable exchange of customer information among authorised users.

Startups with solutions that serve to improve financial inclusion are also invited to apply by the September 25 deadline. Top fintechs will receive funding for their pilot programmes, as well as an opportunity to build networks with strategic and technology decision-makers at the country’s leading commercial banks.

ADB Ventures’ Role in Fintech Challenge Vietnam

ADB Ventures has already, via its Mekong Business Initiative (MBI), launched nine corporate innovation and accelerator programmes focusing on travel tech, fintech, agritech, smart city solutions, and female entrepreneurs in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

Dominic Mellor, who designed the MBI and now heads ADB Ventures, says the Fintech Challenge Vietnam builds on these previous programmes while staying true to ADB Ventures’ goal to generate a sustainable impact on climate, gender, and inclusive growth.

“Our Impact Labs aggregate demand for technology in specific industry verticals like finance. We identify a handful of large corporate partners and uncover opportunity statements where their bottom-line technology innovation needs intersect with opportunities for sustainable development impact. Then we source startup technologies from all over the world and introduce them as potential solution providers to our corporate partners.

“Similarly, the Fintech Challenge Vietnam is helping banks source fintechs for greater financial inclusion. These fintech solutions help banks reach more customers with an expanded portfolio of financial products and services while giving SMEs, women, remote, and rural populations better access to finance,” Mellor enthused.

ADB Ventures also runs an interrelated SEED programme that makes funding available for pilot partnerships between the corporate partners and startups it has matched up.

“One reality in emerging markets is that corporates are risk-averse. A proof-of-concept trial in combination with a market pilot could be costly and involves risk. Our SEED program provides capital to de-risk the pilot phase, allowing new tech to be deployed and scaled faster,” Mellor explained.

Thriving on partnerships and solutions

For the Fintech Challenge Vietnam, ADB Ventures has aggregated opportunity statements from four leading commercial banks (TP Bank, UOB, Vietcombank, and VietinBank) and telco payments platform Viettel, all in partnership with the Vietnam’s financial regulator, the State Bank of Vietnam. Now, ADB Ventures is looking for fintechs from all over the world to introduce to these corporate partners as potential solution providers.

To help de-risk investments for corporates, ADB Ventures and its investment partner VinaCapital Ventures, have earmarked up to US$500,000 in SEED pilot funding. Another sponsor, Mastercard, will send two winning fintechs to attend and pitch at Mastercard’s customer event at the 2019 Singapore FinTech Festival.

Following the close of applications on September 25, shortlisted fintechs will be announced on September 30. These fintechs will then have the opportunity to pitch at a Demo Day on 7 November in Hanoi, which will then be followed by pilot testing from November 19 to February 20, 2020.

“The Demo Day audience will include representatives of the State Bank of Vietnam, commercial bank and telco executives, investors, and leading accelerators managers. A panel of independent judges will award cash prizes to three growth-stage and three early-stage fintech companies,” Mellor said.

He further explained that the Fintech Challenge Vietnam is looking for fintechs that can help corporate partners ‘do well by doing good.’

“Your application should show not only how your fintech solution promotes financial inclusion, but also how it can add value to our corporate partners’ operations,” he said.

Interested startups can apply here. All application details are available on the official Fintech Challenge Vietnam website.

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Featured photo by Asian Development Bank.

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These five growth hacks will help startups of all sizes attain faster growth without breaking the bank

 

According to CBInsights’ analysis of major startups’ failure, lack of market need and poor marketing is responsible for more than half of all startups fail.

If there is no demand for what your startup offers, it is bound to fail. Worse, even if there is demand, your startup is bound to fail if you’re unable to gain traction.

Growing your startup, however, does not have to require breaking the bank. Below are five cost-effective growth hacks guaranteed to supercharge your startup growth:

1. Leverage the power of viral giveaways

One of the most powerful growth hacks that you can use to rapidly grow your startup is the use of viral giveaways. 

A noticeable case study is that of a freelance writer and programmer Josh Earl. Earl wanted to grow subscribers to his newsletter and decided to use a giveaway.

For his giveaway, he decided to offer a free license to the Sublime Text software (valued at US$70). When people registered for the giveaway, Earl didn’t just stop there, he gave them a “lucky URL” that they can use to invite others to join the giveaway.

Also Read: This startup is introducing Thai cuisine to Chinese market –via mail service

The more people they invited, the higher their chances of winning the giveaway. As a result, participants in Earl’s giveaway automatically became brand ambassadors and had an incentivize to share the lucky URL on Facebook, Twitter, and to their network.

To ensure a successful giveaway, you want to focus on three things:

1. Make sure your giveaway price is relevant to the audience you want to attract.

2. Make sure people are incentivized to promote the giveaway (for example, inviting more people increased an entrant’s chances of winning).

3. Create as much awareness as you can about your giveaway

2. Exploit the power of referrals

Dropbox is one of the most impressive examples of growth hacking ever. Dropbox’s referral marketing system is so powerful that they went from 100,000 users to 4 million users in just 15 months.

That’s a 40 times increase, or a doubling of users every three months. And it’s all thanks to referrals.

What made Dropbox’s referral system so powerful and what can you learn from it?

An amazingly good product. Dropbox’s product was undoubtedly better than that of most of its competitors.

A referral system that gives users an incentivize to actually invite others; most referral programs are designed in such a way that users feel they will lose when they invite others (since these other people will share the same limited resources). Dropbox’s wasn’t.

The Dropbox referral system was clear: up to a limit, you get 500mb extra space for EACH user you refer. Talk about a real incentive!

The process of referring users was made extraordinarily easy; besides providing a custom referral link for all users, Dropbox also made it so that you can share this link with a click by sharing on social media or importing a list of emails.

By clearly analyzing the above key traits of the Dropbox referral engine, and designing yours accordingly, you can also design a solid referral system that will drive your startup growth.

3. Tap into the power of push notifications

Do you know that the average click-through rates of push notifications are 7.8 per cent? This is according to Accengage’s study of over 50 billion push notifications sent to 900 million mobile users.

By contrast, the average email click-through rate is about 2.5 per cent according to data from Campaign Monitor.

While email marketing has long been touted as one of the most important inbound marketing strategies, the facts indicate that push notifications deliver more than 3x as many clicks as email marketing.

Push notifications are naturally more effective because they go more directly to users’ computers or mobile devices as opposed to emails in which users have to login first. It’s also impossible to have fake push subscribers since you have to subscribe with an actual device.

Also Read: Times Internet acquires viral content curator app Viral Shots

If you do not have a push notification strategy yet for your startup, it might be a good idea to do so now.

4.Work on your website speed

Do you know how much a one-second delay would cost e-commerce giant Amazon?

According to Amazon’s own internal calculations, that’s US$1.6 billion every year. While that seems massive, many startups suffer similar revenue loss but on a much smaller scale.

Research shows that:

1. 53 per cent of people will abandon a website that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.

2. A one-second delay in a page’s load time can result in up to a 7 per cent decline in conversions.

3. Page speed is a major factor used by Google to determine a site’s search engine rank and AdWords quality score.

While many startups do not see having a fast website as a growth hack, the above statistics show that having a slow website could automatically be costing you about half of your visitors, a good percentage of your conversions, and good organic and ad search rankings.

Actively optimize your startup website to be a lot faster. Target a page load time of fewer than 3 seconds. Start by ensuring you are on the right web host. The analysis shows that your web host can significantly impact website performance. Take things a step further by using a CDN to ensure your website loads fast globally. You can also enable caching, minify CSS, and use file compression to ensure a much faster website.

5. Develop an SEO strategy

Do you know that 93 per cent of online experiences begins with a search engine and that search engines are responsible for 300 per cent more traffic to content sites compared to social media?

While SEO might appear old school, it could be one of your most effective growth hacks if done right.

Here are some SEO tips for you:

Also Read: 8 SEO tools most used by bloggers and marketers in 2019

1. Create key, comprehensive content resources aimed at answering common questions potential users have.

2. If you don’t have a blog, start one and update it regularly. Businesses with blogs generally get more links and consequently enjoy better search engine rankings.

3. Build links. In a lot of cases, your SEO is only as effective as the kind of links you can get. Get high-quality links through outreach, guest posts, content syndication, and media features in your industry.

 

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Technology and design play a big part in sustainability

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that buildings in different geographies consume energy differently.

We all know that everything from sunlight, the wind, ambient temperature, air quality, humidity and time of sunrise/sunset to the topography of a commercial building invariably affect how we use HVAC and Lighting. In other words, the location and environment of your building determine the way your building consumes energy.

And yet, there is a good chance that you have overlooked the importance of geography when planning for energy efficiency.

Has your buildings’ energy efficiency strategy been customised to your building’s location? Does your building automation system integrate the nuances of your building’s geography and the climate and use them to deliver optimal energy efficiency?

Unless your building automation system is ahead of the curve and is predictive and proactive, chances are your answer to these questions is a big ‘No.’

In effect, in the absence of a balanced approach, your building isn’t equipped to actively and passively reduce energy usage while maximising comfort.

How do location and climate fit into the energy savings formula?

Did you know that a 1 per cent increase in temperature leads to a 1.17 per cent hike in energy demand in hot climates? Cooler climates, on the other hand, actually reduce energy consumption as temperature increases.

Trees, landscaping, and hills can provide shade keeping buildings coolers in hot, humid climates while they act as heat insulators in cooler climates.

A building’s heating energy consumption is also directly proportional to wind speed and direction. More the wind, more the heating and cooling load. Shorter days would mean more dependence on artificial illumination, and so on.

In brief, each location needs different measures for lighting, heating, cooling, and ventilation to keep buildings comfortable.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution!

The variations in these climatic and geographic elements from one location to another make a one-solution-fits-all approach to energy management inadequate, leading to energy wastage and increased energy costs.

Also read: Restorative Innovation requires a change in mindset, but can bring about sustainable benefits for present and future generations

To combat these inefficiencies, what you need is an intelligent building automation system that understands the behaviour of your building and its dynamic environment.

It should be capable of culling insights from weather forecasts, learnt behaviour of your building and patterns of climatic changes in your building’s environment. It should combine these insights with a real-time data feed from your building to draw a unique, customised energy efficiency strategy that ensures minimal energy consumption and maximum occupant comfort.

The perfect energy management plan not only incorporates technology that’s sustainable, but it also takes the inevitable environmental elements into account. A state of the art building automation system or energy management system should be able to:

1. Optimise energy efficiency, comfort, and better air quality by knowing when to leverage the benefits of outside air for free cooling.

2. Harness IoT and cloud computing to maximise free cooling by predicting needs via live weather data.

This strategy significantly improves comfort by optimizing diffuser discharge air temperatures and reducing room temperature variations.

3. Democratise temperature control so that every room enjoys precise, efficient, zone-controlled comfort that is automatically adjusted to factors such as the angle of the sun, shade, weather forecasts, etc.

The system would know how to regulate airflow accordingly and ensure you get the temperature you desire without compromising comfort anywhere.

4. Examine the orientation and geographical placement of your building and combine that with the local weather forecasts and sunrise/sunset times to maintain real-time lighting schedules and ensure your system only runs when it needs to.

Geographical & climatic considerations are not only critical for a customised energy management plan but also in the context of energy efficiency across multiple sites in the country/world.

How do you accurately determine Building 1’s energy efficiency vs. Building 2, a similar building in another location? How do you evaluate which one is performing and what corrective measures are required?

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