Reefknot looks to invest in Series A- and B-stage startups in AI/deeptech, digital logistics, and trade finance

Reefknot Investments, a joint venture between Temasek Holdings and Kuehne + Nagel International (a Swiss transport and logistics company), has announced a US$50 million global fund, based in Singapore.

Headed by Managing Director Marc Dragon, Reefknot will seek opportunities in domains at the forefront of the supply chain and logistics industry, including Artificial Intelligence/deeptech, digital logistics, and trade finance. It looks to support the growth of Series A- and Series B-stage startups.

The first fund looks to invest in six to eight high-growth startups, globally.

Reefknot claims its portfolio companies will be able to leverage the business insights of Temasek, and the logistics and supply chain expertise of Kuehne + Nagel.

Also Read: 5 reasons to be bullish on logistics tech in Asia

“Driven by the combination of explosive global technology developments and growth especially in the emerging economies in Asia Pacific, companies across global value chains are increasingly re-evaluating business models as well as investing in technology to optimise capture of demand as well as improve cost and operational efficiencies. Reefknot is committed to shaping this development not just by investing in high-potential startups, but also creating a community of industry experts to support and sustain this growth,” said Dragon.

A Gartner report forecasts that at least 50 per cent of large global companies will be using AI, advanced analytics and IoT in supply chain operations by 2023. This alludes to growing investments in transformational technologies that will be critical to the competitiveness and success of organisations in the dynamic supply chain and logistics space.

Temasek and Kuehne + Nagel had earlier announced that they will accelerate the development of innovative businesses in the supply chain and logistics industry through a focused and long-term oriented investment strategy.

A blueprint for this vision includes the establishment of a Think Tank, which aims to synergise new business models and technologies. It will act as a launchpad for startups seeking to positively create value and impact for the supply chain and logistics industry.

Also Read: 5 reasons to be bullish on logistics tech in Asia

Reefknot is working leading venture ecosystem partners, including EDBI, SGInnovate, Atlantic Bridge, Vertex Ventures, PSA unBoXed, Unilever Foundry and NUS Enterprise.

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Rever plans to open 30 additional large experience centres within the next 18 months and expand into Hanoi and other coastal cities

GEC-KIP Technology and Innovation Fund (GEC-KIP Fund), a S$120 million (US$87M) venture fund launched last year by Singapore-based Golden Equator Capital and Korea Investment Partners, has invested US$2.3 million in Vietnam’s proptech platform, Rever.

The investment will help the Ho Chi Minh City-based startup to deepen its presence in the home country, where over 200,000 real estate transactions take place each year.

The proptech company plans to open 30 additional large experience centres within the next 18 months to better serve its clients and start expanding beyond Ho Chi Minh City into key markets such as Hanoi and other coastal cities, it said in a press statement.

The fund-raise will also further enable Rever’s continuous efforts in building on its technology, valuation engine, recruitment drive, and operations to improve customer experience and operational excellence.

This marks GEC-KIP Fund’s second investment into a proptech company in the region. In September 2018, it led a S$4 million (US$2.9 million) round in Singapore’s Ohmyhome.

Also Read: Temasek teams up with Swiss firm to launch a US$50M logistics fund in Singapore

Founded in 2016 by Manh Phan, former Marketing Director of Zalo, Vietnam’s #1 messaging and social platform, Rever has nearly 7,000 agencies and more than 100,000 hobbyist agents.

Rever works with real estate agents to provide tailored services to clients both for living and for investment, from the discovery process to the purchase. The company claims to have generated over US$1.5 million in revenues in 2018 and expects to triple it in 2019, having done almost 1,000 transactions year-to-date.

Minh Phan, Co-founder and CFO of Rever, said: “Real estate markets globally are seeing major shifts from the traditional way of transacting to more tech-enabled ways. Technology has enabled agents to serve more clients and more efficiently, helping buyers make the property selection and purchase process safer and helping sellers make the valuation and asset transfer process more expedient. With our investors’ support and network, we are well-poised for a more accelerated growth this year and become the market leader in Vietnam.”

Rever operates in both the primary and secondary real estate markets, allowing it to have a healthy revenue model and a 360-degrees view of the domestic real estate market. The company works with established real estate developers in Vietnam such as Keppel Land and Khang Dien and has helped support the sales of recently launched high-profile projects such as Empire City and Diamond Island.

Daren Tan, Managing Partner for Venture Investments at Golden Equator Capital, said, “We are bullish on tech-based next-generation service platforms that help bring efficiencies to traditional service industries, yet having offline touchpoints for better customer service and gaining trust. Existing case studies such as the decacorn Lianjia in China show that this hybrid offline-and-online proptech model can succeed in a very fragmented market like Vietnam. Alongside existing investors, we will provide Rever with the support to become the leading digital hybrid agency in Vietnam that offers an efficient and transparent experience to home buyers and sellers.”

Synclare Kim, Executive Director at Korea Investment Partners, will be joining Rever’s Board of Directors.

“The diverse background of the founding team at Rever and their extensive experience at some of the country’s largest tech players such as VNG and Grab, gives us confidence that the management is well-positioned to continue ramping up growth rapidly. We are looking forward to an exciting journey ahead with the team,” Kim said.

Rever’s investors for the previous rounds included Le Hong Minh, Founder and Chairman of VNG, Vietnam’s only unicorn; Phan Minh Tam, Founder and Chairman of 24h Group, the country’s leading news portal; and investment management firm VinaCapital Ventures.

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Oyo says this deal will help Oyo to be more accurate with pricing, leading to higher efficiencies and yield for its real estate owners

Oyo Hotels & Homes, a leading budget hotels aggregator in Asia, has acquired Danamica, a Copenhagen-based data science company, specialied in dynamic pricing.

While the transaction details remain undisclosed, a TechCrunch report has pegged the amount at US$10 million.  

This acquisition is in line with Oyo’s plans to grow its global vacation rentals business through strategic investments in technology products, processes, and people. 

Earlier in August, Oyo committed to investing €300M (US$328M) in the vacation homes business in Europe, with a particular focus on strengthening the relationship with homeowners and enabling them with the resources, including technology investments, required to deliver chic hospitality experiences. 

With the acquisition of Danamica, Oyo will be able to drive top-line growth by leveraging dynamic pricing across all its brands — Oyo Home, Belvilla and DanCenter. Additionally, Oyo and its real estate partners will benefit using data sciences for improved yield. 

Also Read: Disrupting venture capital in Southeast Asia and the competition around it

Maninder Gulati, Global Head, Oyo Vacation and Urban Homes, and Chief Strategy Officer, Oyo Hotels & Homes, said: “This will help us to be more accurate with pricing, leading to higher efficiencies and yield for its real estate owners and value for money for our millions of global guests.”

“Data sciences across pricing, AI, and Imaging Sciences have been a cornerstone of Oyo’s proprietary revenue enhancement technology. It is also a huge missing piece in the way traditional vacation rentals industry is run. We are glad to have found Danamica, which has built expertise in these areas,” he added.

Danamica is a Machine Learning and business intelligence company specialising in pricing time-expiring inventory such as rental of vacation homes. Its technology makes it possible to dynamically set optimal prices for vacation home stays as supply/demand changes – to the benefit of both guests and owners. 

With the implementation of ML-enabled pricing and revenue management, Oyo’s customers will be able to book a vacation home at the best price.

Headquartered in Noida, Oyo has a significant presence in Southeast Asia. It entered the region in 2016 with Malaysia and has grown its presence to over 125 cities across Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The company said it aims to add 2 million rooms under management in Southeast Asia by 2025. 

Recently, Oyo announced its plan to expand its presence in 100 cities in Indonesia by the end of this year. As part of this, the company also committed US$100 million over the next five years.

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In addition to ZAO, we also have updates from Eden Farm, Facebook, and Indonesia’s BRI

New viral Chinese face-swapping app raises security concern – Reuters

ZAO, a new viral Chinese app that enables users to swap faces with celebrities or any other person in a video clip, secures millions of downloads over the weekend as it raises security concerns, Reuters wrote.

The app was produced by NYSE-listed live streaming service Momo Inc.

ZAO was uploaded to China’s iOS App Store on Friday and became the most-downloaded free app in China’s iOS App Store as of September 1, according to App Annie.

Its user agreement stated that consumers who upload their images to ZAO agree to surrender the intellectual property rights to their face, and permit ZAO to use their images for marketing purposes.

“We thoroughly understand the anxiety people have toward privacy concerns,” the company said.

“We have received the questions you have sent us. We will correct the areas we have not considered and require some time.”

Momo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Indonesian agritech startup Eden Farm raises US$1.7M seed funding round – Dealstreet Asia

Indonesian agritech startup Eden Farm has raised a US$1.7 million seed funding round led by Global Founders Capital, Dealstreet Asia reported.

The startup has previously raised an investment from Silicon Valley-based accelerator Y Combinator.

Founded in 2017, the West Jakarta-based startup works with local farmers to deliver fresh vegetables produces to restaurants in Indonesia.

Also Read: Chinese apps to let you grow, trade and eat your own sheep

Indonesia’s BRI to acquire a fintech startup – Tempo

Following the appointment of its new managing director Sunarso, Indonesian state-owned bank Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) is considering to expand its fintech offerings, particularly in the micro lending segment, Tempo wrote.

However, the company is still considering how to best provide these services: Through its subsidiary, by acquiring a new company, or by collaborating with a potential partner.

“We aim to go ‘smaller and shorter’ [in terms of the loan we provide]. This is why BRI needs to have its own fintech business unit, in addition to having the capacity and capability of a fintech company,” Sunarso said.

Facebook might also hide its Like counter feature – TechCrunch

Social media giant Facebook might soon start hiding the Like counter feature on its News Feed posts, following the implementation of similar mechanism on Instagram, TechCrunch reported.

The prototype of the feature was first spotted by reverse engineering master Jane Manchun Wong on the platform’s Android app.

Facebook itself has confirmed that it is considering testing removal of Like counts, though the testing is not live yet.

The company also declined to share results from the Instagram Like count hiding tests, its exact motives, and any schedule for starting testing.

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Image Credit: Shahadat Shemul on Unsplash

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The second instalment of TechLaw.Fest will happen on September 5-6 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Singapore

TechLaw.Fest, a two-day conference highlighting the law industry and its trends, will come back this year for its second edition from September 5-6 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Singapore.

This year, TechLaw.Fest will mainly focus on the state of Asia legal innovation, in particular, on issues surrounding data such as responsible data use, its access and control, security and 5G, and the role of data in commerce.

In its official statement, it is said that the event will be opened by Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam. The opening keynote will be from Sir Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the World Wide Web (WWW).

TechLaw.Fest is organised by the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL), Singapore’s Ministry of Law and MP Singapore. It is expected to attract a crowd of 1,500 international delegates and visitors, including industry leaders, entrepreneurs, technologists, lawyers, and policymakers from about 18 countries.

There will be 60 speakers in a series of panel discussions and seminars covering Law of Technology such as Blockchain & Smart Contracts, and AI & Robotics. Participating law firms and legal departments will also share practical steps to transform old ways of doing, encourage new ways of thinking, and implement new ways of the legal industry.

Also Read: Singaporean law firm Rajah & Tann acquires AI-powered startup LegalComet

Moreover, the event will also present Tech Talks on data visualisation, legal design, venture capital for legal tech, and innovation in legal education featuring 40 partners, exhibitors, and startups. Names such as DXC Technology (USA), Thomson Reuters (USA), Luminance (UK), Pravoved (Russia), Sorbonne-Assas International Law School (France), and Clifford Chance (Singapore), are all confirmed participants.

“Digital innovation is helping law firms and in-house law departments become more efficient, relevant and client-centric, especially for the lawtech scene in Asia,” said William Deckelman, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, DXC Technology.

Some highlights for the event is the experiential space at TechLaw.Fest called The SAL Lounge. It will host networking sessions alongside tech demos and interactive tech consultations.

One of these demos will debut LawNetPLUS, a portal that will integrate the legal industry’s services, including those offered by SAL.

“We expect LawNetPLUS to become the platform … to bring together technology and services for the entire profession, so it will increase accessibility to the ever-expanding pool of services targeting the legal community,” said Serene Wee, Chief Executive of SAL.

Also Read: Download these free legal templates for SEA tech startups

Thomson Reuters, the official partner of the event, will host TR Ignite, a pitching competition that seeks to give a platform to early-stage startups in Asia Pacific’s legal and regulatory space.

This competition will give 10 startups a chance to secure up to US$250,000 in funding and offer a place on GLIDE, SAL’s legaltech accelerator.

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Incentivising on climate change can assure people to behave much more efficiently

No one is taking climate change seriously. Seriously.  No one.

Take the Amazon rainforest fires, for example. The fires have been burning for months now, but has only come into the light in the past week after it has been doubling with more than 9,500 infernos.

The lungs of the earth are burning to ashes and the government is really not doing much about it.

But, why does the government do nothing about it?

The answer is simple. The government lacks the incentive to protect it.

The president, in the past, has, in turn, supported the clearing of Amazon to further the prospects of agriculture and mining in the region.

While recently the government has banned burning for 60 days, The National Space Research Institute (INPE) has published a data showing a continued outbreak of 3,859 –out of which 2,000 are within the Amazon.

Climate change is one of the biggest issues that the world is facing, and we are already facing serious consequences of it. Forget the media talking about a broken world in the future for the next generation; the world is already breaking.

The Alps are warming, ice caps are melting, cold cities are growing warmer, new diseases are emerging … yet not much is being done about it.

Leaders of any institution have great power. They have influence over their businesses, employees and sometimes even consumers. If climate change is taken seriously by these leaders, it can make a significant difference.

Here are some ways businesses can incentivise employees to be more aware of climate change and not make the same mistake as President Jair Bolsonaro.

Invest in an electrical mode of transport for employees or offer loans

If you’re a big company, investing in purchasing a fleet of electronic cars which can be used to pick up and drop off employees can be helpful. Or, alternatively, you could also offer special loans for employees to purchase electronic cars.

Electronic cars are nowadays readily available and have also recently entered some of the low GDP countries.

These cars are not only perfect for the environment compared to normal cars which increase the levels of carbon dioxide with their emissions. They are also cheaper to run and maintain.

Start catering plant-based food for employees

According to research by Harvard, greenhouse gas emissions from livestock is 50 per cent greater than transport. This is why cutting down on meat is one of the key solutions to protect the environment. It is also why investors are also looking to invest in companies that are working to develop meat alternatives.

Some companies may think that this is ridiculous, as a healthy, plant-based food tends to be more expensive. But it is definitely a myth and there are plenty of healthy and tasty plant-based options that are cheap and easy to make.

For example, a good old peanut butter sandwich with bananas can be filling and tasty at the same time.

There are hundreds of options from foodies and Instagrammers who can help build the perfect healthy catering option recipes for your employees. This way, you keep your employees healthy, and at the same time save the planet.

Phase out the use of plastics

India will be banning plastics completely as announced on October 2. 

This sets a great example, not only for countries but also for businesses. Try to phase out the use of plastics as much as possible.

A lot of companies are using reusable shopping bags, a much more eco-friendly option.

Don’t just incentivise employees, incentivise customers too

Offer special discounts for customers who reuse their shopping bags.

I once had a friend who started collecting glass soda bottles from all his friends, in return for a good amount of money. He didn’t really know much about climate change, but it was definitely a good incentive.

In conclusion, these are only some ways businesses can make a difference for the benefit of the environment and themselves.

Sometimes people are not aware of the issues that surround them around climate change and for that matter, the only way to motivate is to incentivise, incentivise, incentivise.

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Image Credit: The Washington Post

 

 

 

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Chatbots are taking over the place of real personnel’s, hence reducing the expenses of a company

You must have come across the pop-up box that opens when you visit some specific websites online. Generally, the first question that it asks you is, “How may I help you?”.

Those pop-up menus are specially designed bots to assist you throughout your queries regarding any product or service on that particular website. 

Whether you open the website in the morning or the middle of the night, these chatbots are always there to assist you as well as solve your issues. 

Furthermore, it asks you to drop your contact details like email id and phone number to reach you through a customer support executive at a good time.

Today, these chatbots are taking over the place of real personnel’s, hence reducing the expenses of a company. 

More than 100k business houses are using Chatbots to deliver a response to customers instantly. And at approx. 80 per cent of customers are satisfied and have improved their perceptions for the businesses after chatting them online.

No doubt, every start-up or a traditional business owner’s priority after the production of products is to sell them and generate revenue to survive in this competitive world. 

So, why not use those techniques that are specifically designed to help your business and that too, without delays? 

Also Read: 10 Instagram tools to supercharge your brand awareness

You might have a top-notch customer support team; however, the consumer taste and preferences are changing drastically. 

Today’s customers want ever-ready best services beforehand and when they are getting these facilities elsewhere, why will they come to you?

Think! in this competitive world of online trade, there is a need to have the latest bots like chatbots for your business. 

Following are the attributes that will let you know how to use these chatbots effectively and efficiently:

Keep the service available for 24*7 hours

There is no use of making the Chatbot service available in the morning hours only. More than 50% of individuals surf the internet during late-night hours, and then it is the perfect time to keep this service available. 

This helps you to grab more customer base. Even when I was surfing the internet to purchase a laptop for myself, I bought that online after getting assisted on the chatbot of a reputed company’s website. 

The conversations facilitated with artificial intelligence having neuro-linguistic programming can perform better when the humans (customer support) are out of reach.

Hypostatize the chatbot experience 

There is a subtle line difference between customer satisfaction and customer frustration when they are talking to a machine. Though the technology has taken over the world through the coding and decoding of formulas. 

However, artificial intelligence is a non-living thing, and in an artificial state of mind cannot equalise itself to human brains and thereby becomes crucial that the technology is used correctly. 

Also Read:  How do I create a memorable promotional brand or product video?

The reason being, the chatbots are programmed in a certain way that the responses they give are pre-defined as per the set keywords to the customer’s queries, so it becomes imperative to ensure that the answers are personalized as much as they are possible.

 

Design to create a healthy first impression

Yes, the first impression is the last impression, and we all know that. Not many small and medium enterprises are using chatbots yet. It can become your plus point to use it. 

The customer knocking at your door may visit your website for the first time. What do you expect from him or her? To buy your products or heir your services in the first go?

You must be! And for that, you must make it more appealing for the first time users. The teacher gives an “excellent” remark to a student only when the homework is done correctly.

 

Use a lively and cheerful design

No one likes boring and default designs with no colourful or bright designs. Chat-bots effectively streamline you’re your ability to service customers and increase the revenue. 

Providing customers with normal quick responses, answering basing queries is one thing, and proving them a pleasant environment on chatbots is another level of thinking. 

Some of the best companies have added colourful designs to their chatbots to make it more interesting for their users to interact with the bots. So this feature can also help attract an excellent customer base.

Some people are opting for mobile apps for this purpose. For that purpose, they need to find out – How To Make An App? Instead of that, Chatbots can be your one-time solution.

 

Use them to work as a sales apprentice

Many successful brands are already using chatbots to take orders and offer the customers much other sales-related stuff. 

For instance, when you visit any restaurant app that uses a chatbot, you must have seen the pop-up assistant shows you similar results of the food menu based on your current as well as past search history. 

This is the technique that can fetch you a better customer base as well as regular sales.

Use Them to Conduct Dynamic Surveys

The traditional methods of surveying the customers are out-dated now. The customers today are no more excited about filling those long survey forms to give their feedback. 

They avoid and ignore such type of surveys, but the modern way the chatbots are designed to conduct investigations is really different and quite interesting where the chatbots give you a question with some multiple choice answers. 

Also Read: The A, B, and C of startup branding

You have to click one of your choices, and then another question comes up quickly without you waiting for much time.

The exciting thing is that there are already many companies specialising in chatbots for surveys. Amongst others, these surveys allow the companies to develop bot-powered studies and seamlessly deploying them to social media platforms.

Conclusion

These are some of the ways you can use chatbots for your website, Whatsapp, and other applications where you have made your company services available to reach the customers.

Also, be very sure of not relying wholly on these bots as mentioned earlier these are the artificial intelligence designed with predetermined keywords, so they should be kept for limited interaction which is sure of taking place correctly.

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Image Credit: everythingpossible

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In addition to Parkable, we also have updates from Team Flash, Sociolla, and Aspire

Australia’s parking app Parkable raises US$2.9M in Series A – Press Release

Australian parking app Parkable announced an NZ$4.6 million (US$2.9 million) Series A funding round led by New Zealander digital services company Spark.

The funding round also included the participation of investors such as Peter Beguely, Rowan Simpson, as well as existing investors and advisory board members Jason Kilgour and David Brain.

The funding will be used to increase Parkable’s leadership in New Zealand’s shared economy parking market, further develop its presence in Australia and China and explore new international markets.

Parkable is a sharing economy platform for car parking that allows companies and individuals to rent out their empty parking bays.

The startup has recently announced a joint venture in China. It has also acquired Brisbane-based parking solutions business Park Genie, which it has subsequently rebranded and integrated onto the Parkable platform.

Parkable is now operating in three Australian cities as well as in Shanghai.

Team Flash raises US$1.5M in seed funding round – e27

Singapore-based esports company Team Flash has secured an S$2,084,000 (US$1.5 million) seed funding round led by country-based family office Octava.

Founded in October 2017 by Terence Ting and Samson Oh, Team Flash is an e-sports franchise that empowers talented athletes to pursue a professional career in competitive gaming. It has invested in talent and infrastructure across Vietnam and Singapore.

The funding will be used mainly for international expansion, further grow its business in Vietnam, recruit e-sports players and content creators across the region, and also to focus on bringing in brand sponsorships and media partners.

The startup also plans to launch a dedicated merchandising arm later this year.

Also Read: Today’s top tech news, July 8: Investments into Australian startups Employment Hero, Jacobi

Beacon VC participated in Aspire’s US$32.5M Series A funding round – e27

Kasikornbank’s Beacon VC announced that it has participated in a US$32.5 million Series A funding round for Singapore-based fintech startup Aspire.

Beacon VC joins a pool of international investors, including Y Combinator, Mass-Mutual Ventures (MMV) Southeast Asia, Insignia Ventures Partners, Hummingbird Ventures, Silicon Valley’s Arc Labs, and Picus Capital.

KBank and Aspire aim to work together to digitise banking to small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and online merchants in Thailand.

Sociolla’s parent company gets US$40M Series D funding round – e27

Social Bella Indonesia, the parent company beauty e-commerce platform Sociolla, has secured US$40 million in Series D round of investment, co-led by EV Growth and Temasek.

New investors such as Singapore-based EDBI, Pavilion Capital, and Jungle Ventures also participated in the funding round.

The startup will use the funding to strengthen its human resources capabilities, with particular attention on technology-related functions.

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Image Credit: Parkable

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Some of the top tried and tested ways of increasing reach in the digital sphere

Being a new start-up in the industry is not easy. Managing budgets and finances, trying to reach deadlines every day and struggling to turn your dream into reality.

The digital age has made it considerably easier, now that almost everyone has access to the internet. Marketing is the core step in building a start-up successfully.

If marketing is done right, your start-up will flourish: it will make a name for itself in the world of new businesses.

Social media marketing 

Social media marketing is a rising trend for promoting products and services through major social media channels.

This type of marketing involves creating and sharing content on social media networks, like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter, to achieve your social media marketing and branding goals.

Every start-up takes the first step by creating business profiles on these social media platforms. In digital marketing, presence on all major social media platforms is the primary step for startups to build brand trust and influence in the target market. 

A sound social media strategy for start-up involves setting goals, researching your audience, studying your competitors and creating content to market your services or products. 

Content marketing 

This brings us to content marketing. Content marketing is a strategic approach to modern digital marketing that is purely focused on creating, publishing, and distributing quality content for a targeted audience online.

Also Read: Modernising your ventures marketing tactics by understanding how to communicate effectively

This strategic approach focuses on building a base of potential clients and customers. 

Search engine optimisation (SEO) 

Search engine optimisation is a methodology involving strategies, techniques and tactics used to increase the number of visitors to a website.

It helps achieve the objective of a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP), including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.

If your website ranks high in search results, then every time your potential customers search for keywords related to your products or services, it leaves them with the impression that you are a reputable company.

SEO is the mandatory part of advanced digital marketing plans for startups. 

Pay-per-click marketing (Google adwords)

PPC stands for pay-per-click advertisement, a mode of internet marketing, in which advertisers are paid a sum of money each time one of their ads is clicked.

This marketing strategy helps you generate quick revenue and drive targeted traffic by placing main keywords on Google Ads area.

However, pay-per-click marketing works best as a short campaign, usually spanning a few months.

The advertiser should analyse the effectiveness of each campaign and then adjust keywords, placement, and budget allocation to capitalise upon the data from previous campaigns.

Influencer marketing 

The growing trend on social media revolves around influencers. Bloggers, YouTubers and Instagrammers- influencers are sprouting up from all avenues, each with thousands of followers. Ads they post will reach a global audience. 

Also Read: How do you grow your startup? Take some advice from 4 experts in digital marketing

It is a bit affordable as compared to other paid marketing strategies.

This type of marketing uses word-of-mouth as an aspect to help you in building a trusted brand, Customers trust the authenticity, so they get engaged if you are a brand

Web analytics

Web analytics is a must-have tool for digital marketers who collect, analyse, measure and report website data for understanding and optimising web pages.

If you own a business website then connecting with the web analytics tool can give you a broader picture of your website visitors, their devices, time spent on your site, web browser they are using, regional data and search queries related to your business, etc.

 The analysis of Internet data and user information through various means is referred to as Web Analytics. It is employed as a way of fully understanding pertinent trends and rendering Web usage efficacious. 

Digital advertising  

Digital advertising is the promotion of your business on the internet. It is the usage of this unique platform as a basis for promotional work. Think of the websites as billboards, carrying Ads of your business. 

In digital advertising, you can utilise different promotional advertisements strategies and deliver business messages through website and search engine paid adverts, emails, social media channels (paid and organic) banner ads, mobile app ads and affiliate programs and other marketing channels available in the digital media space.

Optimising for voice search

Usability has been significantly advanced in this modern age. More and more people are emerging and making it easier for you to use our phones. Voice search technology is an excellent step for improving user experience.

Digital marketing requires precision and fool-proof strategy. Due to the introduction of the Google Hummingbird update, voice search has become more widely enhanced and intelligent.

The results are much more intricate as the algorithm digs up ‘hidden’ or contextual data from the voice and displays it on the screen. 

Optimising for video search

Nobody likes to see a page full of black and white text, without any visual aids. Pictures and videos make the website seems more attractive to the audience.

Adding videos to the site also makes the start-up achieve a more significant market, growing the business two-fold. Start by renaming the video to the pertinent keywords and add keywords in your video description as well.

Also Read: Meme marketing isn’t a joke its an A-1 strategy, especially in Asia

So, if you already have videos on YouTube or other video search engines then optimise them with relevant description, titles and keywords to get maximum benefit for your new business. Good video optimisation is the backbone of modern digital marketing strategy. 

Chatbots and more content!

People talk to customer service for more details about the product or any queries they might have. It is not possible to hire so many people right at the beginning of a start-up, as funding is low.

The initial investment does not allow the person to pay salaries for employees, so chatbots are the perfect solution. 

Remember a pop-up text message that appears on the corner of a website, asking basic questions like “How was your day?” or specific ones like, “Which section of the magazine do you enjoy reading the most?”.

These chatbots make your site more interactive. However, don’t underestimate the power of content. Your start-up can only flourish when you have quality content. Don’t stress about the number of blogs you post per day; quality is far more critical than quantity.  

Conclusion

Building a successful startup is an uphill battle. You have to fight against fierce competition in the business world of today.

However, by selecting the proven digital marketing strategies, you can stand out from the crowd.

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Image Credit: Campaign Creators

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To what extent has having a social message in dating helped Bumble?

Having a business with a social message can have a great impact on society. As brands influence customer psychology, to have customers associate with your social cause is a massive win not just for the business but for the world. Companies like Lokai, We Wood and Skyline Socks to name a few are built around giving back to the society. But while these companies give back, to what extent are they effective in growing in terms of scalability?

Bumble was launched in 2014 by business mogul Whitney Wolfe Herd following her sexual harassment lawsuit against Justin Mateen, former co-founder of Tinder, whom she had dated on and off. 

As it turns out, the then 24-year-old female entrepreneur was not just fired from Tinder for being too young and “female” but also harassed through comments, emails and text messages post-breakup.

This was a bold move for Whitney, who decided to create Bumble, a dating app that allows women to make the first move with male users. 

This addresses the problem of creepy texting and downright dangerous harassment, which are the major reasons why a lot of people have always been sceptical about online dating.

The launch of this app was a powerful social statement globally, where it sent off a strong message about women empowerment, encouraging women to make bolder choices in not just dating, but in business and life!

This also led to a lot of celebrities to come out in support of the app, including popular Kardashian – Jenner mom Kris Jenner, actor, producer and filmmaker Priyanka Chopra; and supermodel and entrepreneur Karlie Kloss, to name a few. 

Everything seemed perfect for the brand, but then why did Tinder still manage to retain itself as the crowd favourite? 

More convenient

If you are one of the millions who have downloaded Tinder, you will notice that it is much easier and quicker to sign up on the platform and get going.

All it asks for is a short bio and your music preferences which are generally synced from your Spotify playlist. 

In comparison, Bumble asks you to answer a series of questions and build a more detailed profile, which can sometimes feel like a matrimonial page. For example, it asks you questions about liking dogs, smoking, drinking etc.

This can be because Bumble widely markets itself as an app for relationships, while Tinder is sometimes seen as an app for hookups (although, it is used for relationships as well).

Sexist

While I am all in for a dating app with an empowering concept, the sexist nature of the app, which only allows women to pick who they want to speak with can potentially carve down the entire niche of the market, making it more attractive to women. Male users can sometimes feel alienated by this system.

Although is a great social message, it may not be very good in terms of acquiring users. 

Tinder, on the other hand, has no such barriers and freely allows male and female users to swipe and make the first move regardless of gender.

Logo

Tinder’s logo is that of a red and white flame which represents passion. While the red flame is perfect for a dating app since it signifies the fieriness of new relationships. This is also more attractive to millennials and college students.

Bumble’s logo is yellow in colour with the image of a beehive signifying a queen bee and the busy nature of people.

 In a statement, Wolfe also said “But then we thought about it. Wait a second — Bumble—like the bee society. There’s a queen bee, the woman is in charge, and it’s a really respectful community. It’s all about the queen bee and everyone working together. It was very serendipitous.”

The yellow colour is more often associated with positivity and joy, which somehow cannot be related to the idea of dating strangers — realistically speaking.

While there are people who have experienced happy endings on dating apps, most of them are usually looking for casual relationships.

In terms of logo and aesthetics, Tinder comes out as the clear winner.

More features

Given the open nature of Tinder, the app has been successful in branching out to many fun and innovative features revolving around dating. For example, Tinder allows you to swipe on people from other countries while Bumble doesn’t.

However, Bumble has managed to create a reputation of safety and trust around it so much that it recently launched the Bumble Bizz platform which allows people to network professionally through the app. 

Only the feature is not in terms of dating.

Power is only there where there are users.

For an app like Bumble to give power to women users where there are lesser users compared to Tinder sounds odd.

One of the best examples to shed more light on this point is Bumble’s recent launch in India. India is one of the world’s most highly populated countries. But it is also a country which is considered unsafe for women.

Bringing in Bumble’s feature would be more than perfect, but just when that happens, Tinder decides to introduce a new feature in India, called “My Move”, which is similar to Bumble’s feature where it lets women make the first move.

On top of that Tinder has confirmed that it would begin to test a new feature that will allow women to choose when to start a conversation, rather than have it as a default setting like Bumble.

Being the current more popular app in India, Tinder has clearly kept up with trends and keeping an eagle eye on competition has proven to be beneficial for the company.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the point is that while Bumble sends off a great message, users care more about the convenience, easiness of the process — and this leads to increased usage and signups as there are more people to swipe on. 

This can be an important lesson for businesses that, it is not just important to have a socially responsible message but also a scalable, user-friendly business model.

And even though Bumble sends out an important message of feminism and women empowerment, Tinder sends off an even greater message – Equality.

The post Why Tinder beats Bumble and the world is still not ready for a feminist dating app appeared first on e27.