Tik Tok is not as sticky as it seems, but more important, Bytedance isn’t going all-in

Let us begin this article with an anecdote. A quick survey of the young employees at e27, my teenage cousin, and my friend’s kid all resulted in the same word when asked about Tik Tok.

“It’s so cringe-worthy.”

This is true, but it is also part of the charm of the app. It is a place to enjoy watching people making fools of themselves and being rewarded for giving up their ‘cool’. As everyone eventually figures out at some point in their mid-20s, being cool is a gigantic waste of time and energy. In life, it is far better to be Phil Dunphy than Michael Bluth.

The earnest sweetness has helped the company cross 500 million users. It has clearly become the next ‘best bet’ social media startup to dethrone Facebook — and, more importantly, its incredibly valuable Instagram property.

Instagram is twice the size of Tik Tok (it claims over one billion monthly active users), but 500 million people on Tik Tok is enough to strike fear into the heart of Zuckerberg.

Plus, it has the much desired demographics. Two-thirds of the platform is used by people under the age of 30; it may be the most successful Chinese startup in the US and it is seeing huge growth in India. So, theoretically, it could control huge user numbers from the world’s three biggest countries by population.

Also Read: Warung Pintar CEO: How my grandmother inspired our vision for Indonesian mom-and-pop shops

Tik Tok grew by over 400 per cent between 2017 and 2018 and is now a mainstream app. The question is, will this explosion continue? Or, are we approaching the ceiling whereby user growth will flatten a la Snapchat and Twitter?

Unfortunately (there, my rooting interests have been revealed), I think we are reaching the ceiling. Tik Tok does not represent a true threat to Instagram and the reason is fairly simple:

The product is not conducive for content creation and Bytedance will not go all-in on challenging Facebook.

Creating content

Instagram attracts so many users thanks largely to the dramatic increase in smartphone camera quality. For most people, it is very easy to grab a picture in 30 seconds, throw it through some filters or third party apps and publish a photo of reasonable quality.

Instagram Stories is even easier. Just lift up the camera, pretend life is awesome, ad a poll or gif and voila! You are now Instafamous.

Tik Tok is an entirely different beast.

While it has the same ‘pretty people’ advantage as any social network, Tik Tok also has a significantly higher barrier to entry for content creators. Currently, my feed includes teenagers jumping off their balcony onto a beanbag chair, acrobats doing front-flips over their cars, and a time lapse of a fantastic piece of artwork.

This videos are all fantastic, but they require A LOT of effort. Not minutes, but hours. If we include transitions, music, editing, costumes, make-up, dancing, and trends, the platform becomes intimidating for new users.

It is fun to scroll through these videos for a half-hour every now and then, but it eventually becomes repetitive and loses its stickiness after awhile.

Statistically, only 29 per cent of users open the app once per month. A data point that backs up the eye test.

Instagram works because, after the inevitability of getting bored with the lives of others, the next step is to bore others with your life. Then, visiting the app is more about checking up on how the latest post performed.

Tik Tok has similar qualities, but again, it takes at least an hour to create a video that has any chance of getting traction. More likely, it becomes a half-day project. That is a lot of effort to put into a few likes.

Then, to circle back around, there is the cringe-worthiness of it all. It is pleasant to watch someone pretend they can get a boyfriend by turning on the faucet and then flicking their bathroom lights on and off. It is an entirely different proposition to convince the average person to do this themselves.

Fly in the ointment

Recently, in the US, something has happened that does significant damage to this argument. It is called “Old Town Road”, a song by Lil Nas X that has absolutely exploded and will certainly be the most hated song in the country by the end of 2019.

It also was made popular almost entirely through Tik Tok, a platfrom Lil Nas X told The Verge he was quite familiar with.

Lil Nas X uploaded the song for free on Tik Tok, so technically he gets zero dollars out of the song’s virality. However, the song became so popular it began to leak beyond Tik Tok, where it eventually gained the attention of mainstream channels and is now, easily, the most popular song in America.

Is this the future of Tik Tok? Is it the next YouTube? Which is more of a platform that creates stars rather than one where already-stars connect with fans.

Maybe Tik Tok is the place where nobodies can launch America’s ‘Hit of the Summer’.

Also Read: [Updated] Carousell raises US$56 million at valuation of US$550 million

Tik Tok seems to think so, as the South China Morning Post reported today, the company is working to launch a Spotify-type of service. While this is a more logical step than its Lark product (which I will discuss below), it points to a major issue for Tik Tok’s ability to compete with Instagram:

Bytedance does not appear to want to go all-in.

Focus, focus, focus

Bytedance is using its newfound success as an opportunity to expand into all sorts of verticals, and in doing so risks becoming a Master of None.

This month, the company launched Lark, a Slack-like productivity tool. As mentioned above, it appears a Spotify service in on the way.

It is attacking an entirely different user, and in doing so will need to shift resources away from Tik Tok.

Imagine if Slack decided to launch a social media platform? They would be pilloried by investors, the media, and their users. For some reason, Bytedance has largely avoided criticisms for its decision to launch Lark.

The company has found itself in a position to compete with the global giants Facebook, Snap Inc., and Twitter. Now it wants simultaneously build a product to compete with Google, Slack, and Apple?

At this point, Bytedance should just launch a food delivery service like the rest of the tech ecosystem.

As more and more stories come out asking if Tik Tok will replace Instagram, remind yourself that it will not. Here are the simple reasons.

1. Tik Tok is not sticky – only 29 per cent of users open the app once per month
2. Tik Tok is hard for newbies to build a following
3. Bytedance has not gone all in on Tik-Tok

Tik Tok may very well replace Snapchat, but Instagram? No way.

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Singapore-based VC PSA unboXed signs an agreement with Israeli company theDOCK Innovation Hub, seeking to benefit port, maritime, and supply chain sector

Singapore-based VC arm of PSA International, PSA unboXed, has entered into an agreement with Israel-based startup theDOCK Innovation Hub, global ports, shipping, and maritime logistics hub, that will see both parties leveraging technologies to benefit the port, maritime, and supply chain sector.

The agreement notes that theDOCK will facilitate for PSA unboXed in scouting, screening, and investing in promising startups that focus on providing solutions addressing specific challenges cited by PSA.

The partnership itself will be marked with a first-ever maritime tech Hackathon in Israel, dedicated to a list of challenges which reflect the digital transformation needs in the port and shipping sector.

The call for applications for the Hackathon will be published in the coming weeks and the event itself will take place in June 2019.

“We are excited by the prospects of engaging creative ideation and solution providers to tackle the transformation of this sector. The specific interest will cover areas such as ports and its adjacent spaces including maritime, logistics, supply chain, and all that is associated with containerized cargo flow,” said Nir Gartzman, Co-Founder and COO at theDOCK.

Also Read: Space sustainability company Astroscale receives US$30M funding, expands to US

theDOCK connects creative startups with worldwide maritime corporations by matching its technology solutions with the challenges and needs of its corporate partners.

“We believe that this strategic partnership with theDOCK will help PSA benefit from Israel’s innovation ecosystem, and improve the dynamism of the industry as we strive to become the go-to partner in the startup ecosystem for ideation, co-creation, and validation of technology and solutions for the port, maritime, and supply chain spaces,” said Elton Fong, Vice President of PSA unboXed.

Aside from PSA unboXed, theDOCK’s partners include Wartsila, Lloyd’s Register, Kirby Corporation, DSV, Maersk, Cargotec, and others.
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Decentralising the agricultural value chain is China’s much-needed step

In stats once released by the FAO, over 60 per cent of the world’s population remains dependent on agriculture for survival. The importance of the global agriculture sector cannot be emphasised enough.

The industry’s value chain running from the producers (farmers) to consumers, make up for one of the largest industries globally for employment and transaction. With over 500 million agricultural producers, a global population that’s closing in on nine billion and global transactions totalling over US$300 trillion, there’s a lot the market has to offer and potentials that could boost the market.

Considering the world’s population is one that will constantly experience growth and with the level of dependence on agriculture, it is quite important to explore several ways that could enhance the sector whilst providing support to farmers.

The state of the industry

Highlighting the importance of the producers (individual, group or business that grows, processes or packs organic or conventional products) in the agriculture value chain is something that cannot be overlooked.

As hinted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), for each US$1 spent by consumers in the agricultural value chain, farmers only receive less than nine cents.

This is largely because the sector is filled with a myriad of middlemen — intermediaries who mostly have the dominating power in the industry.

Also Read: PSA unboXed partners with Israeli startup theDOCK to support maritime logistics tech

A huge portion of the profits go to these intermediaries with far less reaching the actual producers. A typical chain of distribution between the farmers and consumers consists of wholesalers, brokers, distributors, retailers, importers, exporters, sales representatives, and brands, many of whom take excessive profits on top of their operating costs.

These intermediaries wield a controlling power in the industry, creating a barrier around finance, marketing and communication, hence creating a huge gap between the actual producers and consumers.

Consumers are made to pay high prices for agricultural products with no transparent knowledge as to where the products are actually coming from. Producers, on the other hand, earn way less returns than should be obtainable.

In addition, the intermediaries provide no means of transparency to the farmers as to the distribution of products and the actual returns earned. Producers in other words only get what’s available to them.

According to Keith Agoada, agriculture industry entrepreneur and co-founder of Producers Token, “the disparity between what consumers pay for the produce and what actually trickles down to farmers is staggering.”

Also, the majority of local farmers, experience payment delays or discounted payment from the intermediaries which sometimes result in disputes that end up affecting the farmers’ returns negatively. Farmers then try to explore alternatives locally to ensure stable profit and enhance the development and expansion of their farms.

Producers are thus, demanding better prices, faster payments, greater consistency, access to capital and more transparency up the supply chain. Consumers, on the other hand, demand greater access to fair-priced organic products with transparency to the source of production.

“The archaic business model employed throughout the agriculture industry is not only unsustainable, but also rife with antiquated bureaucracy, limiting producers’ earning potential and creating a monopoly — favourable only to the largest growers,” says Keith.

A decentralised solution: A case study of Producer’s Market

Clearly, the agriculture value chain needs some sort of facilitation to enhance and make things much better than they are currently. A solid framework needs to be adopted that will give farmers equal unrestricted chances, access to a larger market and a complete disintermediation to remove all existing barriers.

Blockchain technology appears to be the perfect fit that stands up to the challenge for the agriculture industry. Since the advent of blockchain and its distributed ledger framework that provides for transparency and disintermediation, several companies have leveraged the technology for various purposes in different sectors.

Keith also believes the same can be done for the agriculture sector by harnessing the potentials of blockchain in disrupting the agriculture value chain hence, Producers Market.

In the Chinese agricultural sector, there are over 300 million farmers, and Producers Market is thus implementing an ecosystem of digital technology solutions to achieve greater profitability and security for existing and future generations of Chinese farmers.

By leveraging blockchain technology, the company creates a new system of validation of farming practices, the origin of outputs, and legitimacy of the certifications accompanying the outputs. This is accomplished with a decentralised validation mechanism.

In other words, the creation of ‘blocks’ in a chain of logistics that is uploaded to the cloud using a smartphone device at each step of the value chain from harvest to the packing facility, processing facility, to the distributor (domestically and internationally) and finally to the retailer/food service provider.

This information is then made available to the consumer by accessing a QR code on the packaging or restaurant menu. The distributed ledger open accounting system can provide a validation of transactions as to the farming inputs purchased and used on the agriculture operations.

Also Read: Why Tik Tok is not a real competitor to Instagram

The new transparent value chain model leverages incentives and rewards to align the demands and concerns of end-consumers with the production operations of the farmer. The Producers Market marketplace app allows for on-boarded and vetted farming groups to profile their operations, connect more directly to the buyers that service consumer markets, and share with consumers via social media.

This efficient method of supply chain connectivity enables farmers to achieve a higher price for their outputs by going further up the vertical value chain, with the value of output being determined by the buyer and end-consumer and the determination of quality based upon validated data sets.

The current system is exploitative to many farmers who have to rely on ‘spot pricing’. The current spot buying system leads to an incredible waste of outputs. Also, there is uncertainty for producers who put months and years of hard work into creating a product, as to whether there will be a buyer for the output and the price worth of the outputs.

The digital technology solutions of Producers Market are designed and engineered to bring about a system of ‘contracts’ in which farmer outputs will have buyer commitments and formalised digital contracts in place prior to harvest.

Farmers’ confidence in the digital contract model for direct buying partnerships with domestic and international buyers encourage farmers to focus more resources and energy on expanding production and improving practices to meet consumer demands which also helps solve future food shortage concerns facing China and the world at large.

It is ready to usher in a new era of farmer empowerment in China that will connect the food safety and quality desires of consumers to transition the agriculture sector into a value chain built on transparency, confidence, trust, and proper stewardship.

Producers in the industry deserve the best of returns on products they distribute. Consumers, on the other hand, deserve the fairest of prices with an adequate transparent framework to confidently tell the origins of organic products.

Blockchain technology appears to be the tech to bridge this gap with every party involved gaining mutual benefits. It’s a new dawn for the agriculture sector as blockchain gives farmers a new wave of hope of better returns and fairness in the game.

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ZhongAn Tech Global Limited (Scale Innovation in Digital Insurance (“ZA Tech”) is the business entity for overseas technological exports formed by China’s first internet-based insurer, ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co.

Singapore-based NTUC Income (“Income”) has announced the partnership it forges with China’s ZA Tech Global Limited to speed up digital innovation and product launches in Singapore.

As part of the collaboration, Income will utilise ZhongAn’s deep technological know-how, experience, and knowledge to deliver a pipeline of digital insurance products tailored for modern lifestyle needs with its ecosystem partners. ZhongAn’s key technology asset “Digital Insurance Core System” will be the main tool to support Income in improving agility and cost-efficiency to introduce more personalised products to customers.

In return, Income’s position in Singapore will give ZhongAn an edge to do a test and eventually scale digitally to expedite the digitalisation of insurance industry both in the country and regionally.

The collaboration with ZATech is part of Income’s digital transformation strategy to drive greater innovation and speed to market. The DTO was set up in 2016 to hot-house digitalisation and innovation at Income.

“ZhongAn’s tech capability enhances Income’s agility when developing insurance offerings to meet customers’ changing needs. We can now test-bed digital innovation via ZhongAn’s technology platform without causing potential operational burden to the business and this allows us to pivot away from products that get less traction with customers and scale those that resonate better with speed,” said Peter Tay, Income’s Chief Operating Officer.

Also Read: PSA unboXed partners with Israeli startup theDOCK to support maritime logistics tech

Tay added that the partnership is expected to enable Income reaching a segment of customers, who are typically less receptive to traditional insurance offerings and distribution channels.

The strategic partnership itself will start off by introducing a lifestyle insurance product tailored to the tourism sector in Singapore by the second quarter of 2019. The product aims to protect both residents and tourists in Singapore against contingent events when they visit specific tourist attractions.

The new product will leverage ZhongAn’s cloud-based insurtech solution, which will enable Income to process millions of insurance policies every day and create new, efficient, and cost-saving offerings.
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Lizuna’s ambition is to prevent account takeover fraud and provide safer online transactions

Already stoked for Echelon? Grab tickets here! Starter tickets are only 10 bucks.

TOP100 in Seoul, Korea was a resounding success! The competition was fierce and a new startup, Lizuna, was crowned as the Judges Choice winner.

Lizuna will get to enjoy the following treats in e27’s Echelon Asia Summit 2019:

• A free exhibition booth space in the TOP100 Zone at Echelon
• A pitching slot on the TOP100 stage on day one of Echelon
• Intimate investor meetings and inclusion to Corporate business matching
• Five starter tickets to Echelon Asia Summit
• Access to the TOP100 Tour in Singapore

Now, here’s more on the winning startup: Lizuna

Not too long ago, in 2016, a staggering amount — US$7 billion — was lost to e-commerce fraud in the US alone. And the bad news is that this figure is only expected to quadruple by 2020.

What makes matters worse are the lacklustre fraud solutions of today. They are expensive, confusing and have a lot of friction for users.

That’s where Lizuna comes in. It serves to help e-commerce businesses detect and prevent fraudulent orders via Beacon, its product that it launched back in April 2018.

Beacon is decked out with sophisticated technology that combines elements of Big Data and SMS to deliver false information detection, curation of mobile data points and fine-tuning. Its unique machine learning technology also continues to adapt and evolve, assisting merchants with better efficiency and accuracy.

So far, Beacon’s success in preventing account takeover fraud is above 90 per cent and it has managed to amass 130 merchants and more than 20,000 transactions. In fact, just two months back, it managed to score an Orange Fab partnership.

Founded by Jason Sio, the company plans to continue tapping on the US$300 billion US e-commerce market and give merchants the power to asses each transaction more carefully with raw data.

Congratulations Lizuna, and here’s to a safer, fraud-less future!

Also Read: This Echelon Asia Summit 2019 tickets giveaway will make you feel nostalgic

Six other startups managed to qualify for a discounted booth at Echelon. Here they are:

• WeavAir
• ILLIO
• IDEACONCERT Co. Ltd
• Toy’s Myth
• Unidocs Inc
• Fastpong

They will get to enjoy the same sweet-deals as listed above, should they join us at Echelon’s TOP100 stage.

That’s all for now, keep a look out for other Echelon news!

Also Read: Our TOP100 Taiwan champion says let’s bring chatbots to real estate!

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

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Singapore has done well in international indices on smart cities and digital government

Last November, the Republic scored another accolade, winning the Smart City 2018 award, at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.

A key pillar of Singapore’s Smart Nation vision is the public sector’s digital transformation. The Digital Government Blueprint (DGB) – released in June 2018 — sets out an ambitious goal of transforming Singapore’s public sector into one that is both “digital to the core” and “serves with heart”.

The DGB — with a list of 14 targets to be achieved by 2023 — challenges our government agencies to provide easy-to-use, seamless, secure and relevant digital services to citizens and businesses, and to build a digitally-enabled workplace with a digitally- confident workforce for the public sector.

“Digital to the core” means going beyond producing glossy new websites or shiny new apps. It is about re-thinking and re-engineering the way the government serves citizens. It is not about turning existing paper forms into online web forms, but asking whether that form is even necessary in the first place.

“Serve with heart” is a reminder that even as we pursue digitisation, the public service exists primarily to serve people. That means automating our processes where possible, so we can offer a personal touch. It is about using high-tech to offer high-touch in a way that enriches the interaction between the Government and citizens.

Also Read: Why Tik Tok is not a real competitor to Instagram

To realise the DGB, I believe government agencies need to do three things differently. That is, build our digital services differently, organise ourselves differently, and to live as an organisation differently.

Today, most government ICT systems are designed and built as monolithic systems in silos to meet each agency’s own requirements. They typically have requirements that are carefully scoped out before they are outsourced to a few large vendors.

These legacy systems had helped Singapore to be one of the earliest to computerise its public sector and digitise government services before the millennium. However, such legacy systems limit economies of scale, interoperability and agility in this data-fuelled, digitally-converged age.

To be digital to the core, the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) has built a new digital backbone — the Singapore Government Technology Stack (SGTS) — that allows agencies to build for scale. The SGTS comprises three layers.

At the base is a suite of hosting infrastructure, comprising on-premises and private cloud hosting platforms for classified systems and commercial cloud for restricted systems. As part of the government’s greater move to leverage commercial cloud – first announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in October – new unclassified systems will be required to be hosted on commercial cloud by default.

The second layer is a suite of middleware — common software modules used in app development. For example, the API Exchange or APEX is a centralised gateway to enable applications to talk to one another through application programming interfaces (APIs).

WOGAA (Whole of Government Application Analytics) is an application analytics module for agencies to monitor the performance of their websites and digital services in real-time, conveniently and cost-effectively.

The third layer is a library of commonly-used micro-services that agencies can consume and share easily for interoperability between applications. These micro-services include SingPass, CorpPass and MyInfo.

The SGTS will help government agencies develop digital services that provide citizens with a more seamless, consistent and connected experience; power policymaking with data insights; and speed up design and roll-out of digital applications.

Organising around citizen’s needs

Let me now address the point about organising government agencies differently to design and develop services.

Currently, citizens have to work out which is the right government agency to approach for a specific transaction. This is not citizen-centric when there are more than 90 government agencies and close to 200 government digital services.

To serve citizens with heart, we need to move towards a new “service journey” paradigm, where agencies deliver services not by the conveniences of how they are organised but around the “jobs to be done”.

Take for example the Moments of Life (Families) app. Developed around the needs of a parent with a new-born child, the app seeks to simplify three things that new parents need to do: Register their child’s birth online and apply for baby bonus in a single form; search for and indicate interest in pre-school facilities in their neighbourhood; and finally, view their child’s medical appointments and immunisation records.

Developing the app entailed integrations with more than 20 APIs across a dozen different cross-agency systems. Since it was launched in June 2018, the app has received over 13,000 downloads and hundreds of parents have benefited from streamlined processes.

We have identified more service journeys that will transform how citizens and businesses transact with the government. This new paradigm will see government services for citizens wrapped around their varying needs at particular moments in life.

As the implementing agency of the DGB, GovTech will need to live and operate as a “digital native”.

We now have five capability centres comprising a multi-disciplinary team of more than 400 data scientists, software developers, UX designers, product managers, hardware engineers, infrastructure specialists and cybersecurity specialists.

Also Read: Korea’s TOP100 winner eyes a fraud free future for the e-commerce industry

They work with another 1,200 ICT professionals – who are forward deployed to government agencies – to build and deliver digital services. GovTech now has a full suite of end-to-end digital capabilities and solutions to support our agencies in their digitalisation initiatives.

Within the public service, we will also need to invest in building “soft” capabilities and to promote a culture that is agile, bold and collaborative. Our leaders must embrace the mantra of “think big, start small and act fast”.

Their leadership style cannot be driven by command and control, but must be based on collaboration and trust. This is critical given the fast pace of technology changes, where no one in the organisation can profess to have full knowledge and where “good” may not be well-defined.

We have the vision to be a leading digital government. We are re-engineering our digital infrastructure to build for scale. We are re-organising our government around citizens’ needs. We are starting to live as a digitally native public service.

The next five years will be exciting for the Singapore Government’s digital transformation.

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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 two authors, Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna, have infused The Age of Cryptocurrency with a sense of cautious optimism

They say the best journalists are cautious optimists. Idealists find themselves either unable to see the faults, or they get taken for a ride by their subjects. Cynics, they say, miss stories by being too jaded to the ingenuity and resourcefulness of mankind.

Michael J. Casey and Paul Vigna, the authors of The Age of Cryptocurrency: How Bitcoin and Digital Money are Challenging the Global Economic Order, fall into the camp of cautious optimists.

The book is an exercise in journalism, it is written by two reporters who are clearly on the blockchain wagon but who are not certain the revolution is a foregone conclusion.

This attitude makes The Age of Cryptocurrency a fantastic read for anyone remotely interested in the development of blockchain. It mostly conquers the history and political context of Bitcoin but also slowly brings the reader along to a foundational understanding of the underlying technology.

For experts, the book is probably ‘below their level’, but it contains so many nuggets that even blockchain startup Founders might find some useful nuggets of history and cultural context.

Also Read: Indonesian game studio SEMISOFT gets seed funding from Discovery Nusantara Capital

What makes The Age of Cryptocurrency a useful book is in large part the result of its release date. Published in 2014, the book hit the shelves after Bitcoin had achieved a certain degree of momentum, but before it exploded into the mainstream in 2017.

The result is the book connects to the original, slightly underground, libertarian-leaning culture that has largely been pushed to the sidelines after cryptocurrencies exploded in the last year.

For the reader, this means they get an advantage of rising above the current media churn, helping them understand the origins of blockchain, and thus see where the road of cryptocurrencies is likely to lead.

One key feature of the book is it is focussed almost entirely on Bitcoin. It touches on other coins like Ripple and Ethereum, but in 2014 these technologies were nascent, so the authors were not entirely sure about the long-term potential of the alt-coins.

For example, when Casey and Vigna analyse the intellectual merits of a centralised vs. a decentralised platform, they briefly discuss the merits of Ripple, but then they quickly move on; and even then, the comparison is made through the lens of Bitcoin.

The Age of Cryptocurrency often spells out cultural, macro-economic and technological hurdles to the ‘great bitcoin financial proliferation’. Then, when they explain why the hurdles are not impenetrable walls, it lands effectively.

Casey and Vigna see the most potential for Bitcoin as an avenue to help the global poor. It is an argument that has been hashed out in many outlets, but they lay out the argument as to why Bitcoin makes it an enticing option for people trying to help the unbanked gain access to the financial system.

Other benefits of Bitcoin include the trillions of dollars it could save within our financial system; which Casey and Vigna brilliantly outline by explaining exactly what happens behind the scenes when somebody buys their morning coffee with a credit card.

Most importantly, the writer’s are clearly believers in the Bitcoin community. For example, one of Bitcoin’s potential pitfalls is the core ideology that decentralisation is better. Yes, it is what the coin is built upon, but there is nothing to suggest it’s actually a correct ethos.

There are a lot of benefits of a centralised financial system — highlighted by the fact that when shit really hits the fan, Bitcoin doesn’t have a regulatory body, and thus no big boss to fix the problem. One of the largest bugs to ever be discovered by the Bitcoin community was essentially fixed by four dudes — two of whom had to do it part-time because they had day jobs.

And yet, because Casey and Vigna believe in the community, they explain why having 10,000 coders constantly tinkering with the product is a far more important trait, and that Bitcoin will have to live with some scary pitfalls but it is better to  to maintain its army of experts.

As written in the book: Yes, Bitcoin has its problems, but it also has 10,000 of the best coders in the world working hard to fix the issues. That is why people should believe.

The issue without a real solution

Towards the end of the book, Casey and Vigna bring up a problem that does not seem have a solution: massive disruption to the labour force. Yes, this has always been the push-pull of technology; carriage operators were pushed out by the automobile, chimney sweeps lost their jobs to centralised heating, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

However, if Bitcoin truly takes off the way its evangelists hope, this isn’t a discussion about robots taking jobs, it is complete reconstruction of money.

Also Read: Meet 4 of our Co-organisers making sure TOP100 is a ‘Wow’ event

The current financial system was largely the invented during the renaissance, and hasn’t changed that much at its foundation. While crypto fans point out very real problems with the system, it’s impossible to argue that it has not been a net-positive for humanity.

If do switch to a decentralised financial system, Bitcoin will be upending 600 years of cultural norms, system evolution and technological development. This level of disruption would be tremendous, and could possible be reminiscent of, well, the Renaissance.

This is not to say any of this is bad, but more to recognise exactly what is being proposed.

So again we run into another example as to why this book is valuable; it presents a huge problem, but does so in a way that does not try to hammer in the last nail of the crypto-coffin.

One final takeaway in one sentence

The greatest potential for cryptocurrencies — at least in the next decade — is not in mass adoption by civilians, but rather as a facilitator for B2B transactions.

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Copyright: yourg / 123RF Stock Photo

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The 13 tech startups were participants in Smart Port Challenge (SPC) 2018

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurial arm of the National University of Singapore (NUS), have announced the chosen startups out of 17 technology startups from Smart Port Challenge (SPC) 2018. The 13 selected startups will each receive S$50,000 (US$37,000) in seed funding from MPA to further test-bed their solutions, support prototype development, and develop the prototype after gathering feedback from the industry.

In addition to the seed funding, 12 startups were also given the opportunity to pitch their solutions to venture capitalists at the inaugural Mixer and Pitch Session. The event was held as part of the Singapore Maritime Technology Conference (SMTC) 2019 jointly organised with Enterprise Singapore and NUS Enterprise.

Among the venture capitalists who were at the Mixer & Pitch Session were EV Growth, Futurelabs Ventures, Green Meadows Accelerator, SG Innovate, and TNB Ventures.

“As the maritime industry is characterised by its heavily manual and largely paper-based processes, digitisation is the key to unlocking further innovation such as automation, data analytics, and optimisation. It is precisely due to the inefficiencies of traditional processes that we see massive opportunities ahead,” said Vicknesh Pillay, Managing Partner of venture capitalist TNB Aura Fund.

MPA and NUS Enterprise jointly launched PIER71 last year in hopes to spur digital adoption in the maritime industry. One of the key highlights of PIER71 is the Smart Port Challenge, which brings together maritime corporates and technology startups with expertise in various technology areas, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, Internet of Things, and augmented reality.

Also Read: PSA unboXed partners with Israeli startup theDOCK to support maritime logistics tech

“This encourages the adoption of latest technologies and emerging innovations for a more productive and competitive maritime sector in Singapore,” said Professor Wong Poh Kam, Senior Director, NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, NUS Enterprise.

For the incubation phase and to encourage cross-sharing of services, PIER71 has grouped these startup solutions into clusters of Enabling platforms, Port and Cargo Operations, and Crossed industry/border innovation.

PIER71 has also formed several partnerships to provide these 13 startups with resources. The partners include AdNovum which provides access to security technologies and consultancy service in cybersecurity; Singtel which provides access to its satellite network, Internet of Things (IoT) network and curated data; MarineTraffic which provides access to maritime traffic information; TerraWeather which provides access to weather information; and Panasonic R&D Centre Singapore which provides access to vision and wireless communication technologies.

Also Read: Insurtech NTUC Income joins hand with Chinese insurer ZhongAn for Singapore scaleup

One of the recipients of the seed funding was Claritecs. Marianne Choo, Chief Marketing Officer of Claritecs, said: “Claritecs achieved a Top 3 win with ‘BunkerMaestro’, an algorithm-based platform to rejuvenate bunker scheduling operations, with data-driven insights for increased work efficiencies, scheduling clarity, and fleet optimisation. Now, we will enter the test-bed phase from next month, with five bunker tanker operators who collectively manage one-third of Singapore’s bunker tanker fleet.”
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It is nothing less than a challenge to get your business up and running

Starting your own business is a wonderful feeling, but with it comes great responsibility.

Earning profits is not easy and you need to take help of online channels to solidify your branding, generate leads and an ample number of conversions. This is where digital marketing is so successful.

Here are five super useful digital marketing tips that startups can use to run their business profitably.

1. Publish interactive evergreen content

Evergreen content is a piece of content that always remains relevant. A good example of relevant content is “How do you find the square root of a number?”. A tutorial like this will remain relevant forever.

Also Read: Why Tik Tok is not a real competitor to Instagram

Imagine you are an educational startup and you create a library of useful resources for students having tutorials related to each and every subject or the subject that your business targets. Students can easily register on your site in order to learn more about your company and your chances of conversions are automatically increased.

Only publishing evergreen content won’t give you the maximum returns unless you make it interactive. Interactive content is the one that takes input from the user and changes itself accordingly. This means the content adapts itself automatically according to the needs of the user.

This quiz from Women.com is a great example of interactive content in action.

2. Use SEO to improve your organic visibility

SEO has always remained one of the best channels to improve the organic visibility of your business. The key here is to start early because SEO takes both time and effort to generate results.

Always hire a professional SEO expert who follows the search engine guidelines to optimize and promote your website because an unprofessional person might ruin your chances of ranking high on Google or other search engines.

The Google ranking algorithm is focused on two major factors — content and links as suggested in this SEO guide. The SEO expert will help you to improve the content quality on your site and also help you earn authoritative backlinks.

This way, your business presence will start to improve organically leading to more leads and sales.

3. Educate your customers and avoid overpromotion

You need to plan your marketing strategy according to the behaviours of Gen Z audiences. Gen Z audiences are individuals who are born between 1995 and 2000. They hold around US$44 billion buying power in their hands.

One characteristic feature of Gen Z audience is that they hate promotion. Businesses who over-promote themselves via social media or other digital channels are avoided by Gen Z. Besides, they love businesses who educate them and are able to solve their questions.

Hence, depending on your buying cycle, you need to understand the type of micro-moments that your audiences will go through.

And, once identified, you need to create content that effectively answers each and every question that the user might put up. Mercato does a great job in creating question-based content starting with “How”. In their blog, they post blogs based on question-based searches in order to increase their chances of ranking higher on Google for question-based searches and also to help the user during their micro-moments.

This way, your business would be able to answer the queries of the users and gradually people will start loving your business.

4. Use the help of nano influencers

Influencers are people who have a loyal following. Social media influencers are celebrities or stars who have millions of followers and companies pay them to promote their services on their social media profiles.

Similarly, nano influencers are normal people like us who have just thousands of followers in their social profiles but the impact remains the same. You can tie up with nano influencers and ask them to promote your brand.

Here is a list of 55 influencer marketing platforms to help you find your ideal influencer.

A word-of-mouth recommendation is the best recommendation your business can have. Imagine your business receiving recommendations from a number of nano influencers and people starting to visit your website to inquire about your products or services. It won’t cost you a fortune to tie up with nano influencers because as a startup, you might be having a limited budget.

Influencers can have a huge impact on your business and it can help you improve your branding and conversion efforts.

5. Run contests and giveaways

Freebies, contests, and giveaways have always been one of the best ways to attract the attention of your target audiences. Before running a contest, always plan your goals and what you wish to achieve from the contest.

Also Read: Bridging the gap between Chinese farmers and consumers, with blockchain

Identify KPIs that are easily measurable like the number of people who will sign up for the contest.

The goal of the contest could be to generating traffic to your website or increasing the number of email subscribers.

It is best to define your target market, demographics, geographic location and social media usage of customers because segmentation always helps to deliver the maximum results.

Over to you

Digital marketing is essential for each and every company whether it’s a new business or one that is been in the business for long. You simply can’t avoid it. The sooner you start, the better it is for your business.

Now that you have learned about the various tricks to run your digital marketing campaign, it’s time to get started! Use the above five tips to improve your online presence and generate more leads.

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Contrary to popular belief, blockchain isn’t a total gone case

Blockchain technology made its public debut more than a decade back in 2008 when Satoshi Nakamoto published a famous white paper named Bitcoin: A Peer To Peer Electronic Cash System.

The paper termed bitcoin as a “peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” that could potentially replace the traditional currency and lay the foundation of decentralised payments globally.

Things changed dramatically over the next ten years (from 2008 to 2018), including a rapid surge in bitcoin’s value that once touched US$20000 and evolution of many other cryptocurrencies that gained instant popularity among masses.

Today, blockchain may not be as accessible as many experts claimed a couple of years back, but that doesn’t mean it’s a gone case.

The year 2019 has just begun, and it’s expected to bring many reforms that will shape up the future of blockchain industry and take it newer heights.

In this post, I’ve shortlisted some of these blockchain trends that we can expect in 2019.

Introduction of smart contracts

The concept of smart contracts have been in existence for decades, but couldn’t be realised due to many technical hurdles. Now that blockchain technology has gained the necessary momentum, we can finally expect to see smart contracts replacing paper-based contracts soon.

Also Read: Insurtech NTUC Income joins hand with Chinese insurer ZhongAn for Singapore scaleup

Smart contracts are blockchain-based computer protocols intended to help you exchange property, money, shares or anything else in a conflict-free and transparent way without requiring the services of a middleman. These contracts, similar to traditional paper-contracts, come with a set of rules that both the parties must accept to accomplish any transaction.

According to the blockchain expert Lisa Cheng, CEO of EtherParty, the error-free processing and fully secured decentralised nature of smart contracts make them a perfect fit for banking, real estate, healthcare, and government departments.

In 2019, we might witness these industries switching over to smart contracts to add an extra layer of transparency and efficacy to their routine tasks.

The increased number of timestamping-use

Blockchain, unlike the cloud and hardware-based storage system, has a tamper-resistant design that’s almost next to impossible to hack into. This feature makes it a perfect solution to store critical information related to government contracts, business financials, healthcare data, etc. at a particular time.

As the popularity of the blockchain technology grows in 2019, more and more businesses will use it to timestamp their records safely.

Secure enclave will become common

Along with securing digital records and payments, blockchain can also be used to secure hardware.

This year, we are likely to witness many useful blockchain solutions for secure computing, such as hardware-based acceleration of cryptographic techniques and trusted hardware that provides a fully secure execution environment popularly known as a secure enclave.

Also Read: A consolidation of digital marketing tricks for startups

It facilitates users by isolating critical data and code from other programs running on the same computer, ensuring that no security breach ever takes place on business and personal computers regardless of how many third-party programs you run simultaneously.

These are top blockchain trends that are expected to create a buzz this year. Do you think there is any other trend that should be on this list? Let me know your views in the comments section below.

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