Coming up with a new idea with huge potential is only half the battle. Equally important is finding one that fits you.

I try to explain that even the most innovative idea will fail if it is not a good fit for you at this time, so the question I ask is “why you now?” rather than “why this solution now?”

The right person can make any idea a business success, and the wrong one will always struggle. Hence are you the Right Person to Pursue Your Business Idea?

The reality is that I can’t judge any idea in your context, because I don’t know your passions, knowledge base, and experiences. If you show me a written business plan, I can assess it from a technical perspective, but that doesn’t tell me if you are the right person to create the business.

Thus, I can only recommend some context for you to make your own idea and business decisions:

1. Play to your passions and personal interests

Pick an arena that gets your creative juices flowing, rather than one that everyone says is the next big thing. If your goals in life revolve around social change or the environment, aim in that direction for your startup, rather than maximising revenue and profit. If you are not motivated you won’t succeed!

Also Read: The 9 critical stages of building a business

Entrepreneur Tony Hsieh, who founded Zappos, was passionate in his belief that he could “deliver happiness” to customers, before making a profit, through innovative moves like surprising 80 per cent of customers with free overnight shipping. He succeeded well in both.

2. Trust your background and intellectual strengths

The most successful entrepreneurs focus on solving a problem that they personally have experienced and are convinced they fully understand. The same applies to deal with the business elements, such as marketing, business operations, and finances. You may need a partner on this one.

Bill Gates learned to appreciate the power of computers at a very young age but was frustrated that available models were large and hard to programme. He helped to invent Microsoft Basic and Windows, snagged Steve Ballmer for marketing, and Microsoft changed the world.

3. Consider your access to resources for startup efforts

Take a realistic view of your ability to assemble the necessary funding and attract the right people.
Your strengths in physics and electronics may be excellent, but most of us could never attract the funding required for a new microchip process. Maybe you need to start with a smaller idea.

4. Assess the time and effort you are willing to commit

Most startup ideas will fail if you approach them like a hobby that you can work on occasion and on weekends.
It’s hard to win when other entrepreneurs are known to work hundred-hour weeks, and perhaps don’t have a family to balance. Your time is a critical limited resource.

5. Measure the depth of your relationships with key people

Most successful startups have deep relationships with experts who can mentor and support them or provide access to critical resources and funding.

There is no entitlement in this business. You need to enjoy building the new relationships you need and nurturing the ones you have to succeed.

Also Read: TruTrip looks to cash in on the massive business travel market as the world emerges out of the crisis

6. Check your interest in learning how to fill the gaps

No matter how experienced and knowledgeable you are, every startup is a new learning process. If you don’t enjoy learning, stick to ideas and businesses that are “cookie-cutter” versions of what you already know. Your success depends on enjoying the journey as well as the destination.

7. Test your ability to communicate value to others

Some of the highest potential ideas and businesses require a massive educational and sales effort, which may not be your forte or interest.

Very few ideas these days have such obvious value that “if we build it, they will come.” Most startups require leading a team of people and engaging customers.

So before you make those cold calls to me or any other constituency for an assessment of the viability of your next great idea, my advice is to take a hard look at your own drivers and resources, per the items listed here.

I’m convinced that there are more than enough startup ideas around, such that you can pick one to match your profile, and we all win with your success.

So are you the right person to pursue your business idea?

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The article was first published on nfinitiv.

Image Credit: Dylan Gillis on Unsplash

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Coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the global economy. Be it established businesses or startups, this outbreak has negatively impacted every area of the market. South Asian economy is no exception. Apart from this pandemic, South Asian startups have to fight one more battle that is the cash burn.

The formerly thriving South Asian startups sector is coming down to a halt. With economic activities paralysed, the majority of the tech and non-tech startups are looking forward to ways to cut costs. They are laying off employees as well as slicing wages and payrolls of those who are still working.

Their goal is to stay afloat by cutting off marketing costs and halting business expansion until the global market gets back to normal.

Market conditions before COVID-19 outbreak

South Asian digital startups expected in 2020 to be a promising year for unprecedented growth. That’s because, for the past couple of years, the technological sector of South Asia has been continually booming. From virtual wallets to online grocery shopping, the number of customers for digital services and financial technology had been rising with every passing day.

However, what they hadn’t expected was the worldwide coronavirus pandemic will impact everything from households to economies. The outbreak forced them into retreat. The measures that were taken to prevent coronavirus infections from spiralling out of control ground the society to halt.

As a result, consumerism had to take a back seat. This caused a massive decline in the growth rate of South Asian startups. As the pandemic intensified, the majority of the startup had to take strict measures to stay afloat.

They had to lay off the majority of the part-time employees, halt efforts of marketing your business in coronavirus and delay their plans for overseas expansion.

Also Read: 5 survival strategies for startups in a post-COVID-19 world

According to FOMO’s co-founder Zack Yang, this move enabled the company to reduce around 10 to 20 per cent of the total cost. He further added it has to be done since the capital market is far from positive these days. The situation of the global economy is getting worse as the pandemic prevails.

Transportation is another major sector that has been greatly impacted by the outbreak of coronavirus. The majority of the exporters have warned their customers to expect a delay in the delivery of goods because it is hard to find containers amid lockdown. The majority of these containers are stuck at ports making it hard for small businesses to make or receive shipments.

Why are startups losing investments?

 

Coronavirus pandemic has caused investors to reconsider funding in young startups. It has caused them to become more selective in where to invest. They are rather focused on conserving cash during the most uncertain of the times.

This is making it harder for startups to raise funds to keep their young businesses afloat. As a consequence, they have to layoff employees and pause their marketing efforts to conserve as much cash as they could.

While investors were already cautious about where to spend, the global pandemic made it even harder for small businesses to raise funds. As the capital market and the global economy fell, so did the South Asian startups.

GV Ravishankar, managing director at Sequoia Capital India, warned startups just as the pandemic hit, to expect very little funding during the next couple of months. He suggested them to cut their spending as “quickly and deeply” as possible.

Startup financing is expected to decline

Startup financing has fallen 22 per cent within the first quarter of 2020, said a Financial Times report. The global slowdown in startup investment has caused several young businesses and startups to close down. According to data shared by market intelligence platform CB Insights, various compounding economic factors have led to the acute decline in startup investment.

Also Read: gojek-backer Samsung Ventures invests in Indonesian proptech startup Travelio, to focus more in Southeast Asian startups

One of the most prominent of these factors is the economic uncertainty caused by the prevalence of coronavirus. When compared to 2019, the overall startup funding is expected to decline by 16 per cent. In 2020, the startup sector is going raise only US$77 billion as compared to US$92 billion in 2019 and down close to 12 per cent in comparison to US$87 billion in Q1 2019.

South Asian startups have been experiencing the detrimental effects of the Coronavirus pandemic for over five months now. A big number of small businesses have crippled in a matter of months. In India alone, a survey of 35,000 startups has revealed, over 71 per cent are experiencing a massive decline in the demand for goods and services.

On the other hand, 48 per cent of these businesses are facing disruption in supply as well as an increase in its cost. This disruption in supply and its cost has caused even more instability and uncertainty within the small business entrepreneurs community.

How South Asian startups are dealing with the impact

Surveys have revealed that the majority of the South Asian businesses will try to reduce the cost associated with workspace and operations. The majority of the employees will be asked to work from home. This will not only prevent the spread of the virus but also curb the cost of maintaining workspace and electricity bills.

Around 30 per cent of the respondents are willing to manage their expenses by cutting off on advertising or marketing costs, office rentals, and other operations. Around 37 per cent of these businesses haven’t experienced a significant impact of coronavirus pandemic, so they won’t be taking any such action.

The cost of business operations to be cut include:

• Discretionary expenses
• Reduction or exiting non-essential supplier project
• Reduction in the employee costs

Since the demand has gone low, it is a wise move to cut down on the supply that might not be needed. Various customers are also postponing their deliveries. This means startups don’t need to meet their demands right away. They can wait to purchase the new stock once things go back or close to normal.

Also Read: Top 5 promising media tech startups to look out for in 2020

How can the government help small businesses

There are various measures governments can take to curb the impact of coronavirus pandemic on small businesses and startups. One of these measures could be concessional working capital loans for startups, medium, and small businesses.

These loans should be granted based on one to three months’ average turnover of 2019. This loan can also be determined by the extent of disruption a business has faced in its demand and supply.

The government should also extend the period of payment to up to three months for:

• Utility
• GST
• Other statutory payments

The extension in the payment should not be impacted by the credit history of the business.

Why tech startups will thrive in the new normal

We are faced with an unprecedented global crisis. Even the most established corporations have taken a hit as Coronavirus infections spiral out of control. They have been incorporating smarter techniques to embrace the new normal. That’s what startups need to do as well. It’s time for them to rewrite their workspace culture and come out even stronger. Following are the way startups in South Asia can thrive in the new normal:

• Sought after exceptional tech talent:

For South Asian startups to grow and scale, it is important to hire employees with a bold vision and a strong grasp on the latest technology. These two factors serve as the key enablers for disruptive innovation. Start-ups need to keep pace with ever-rising users’ expectations.

With the advent of technology, competition in the market is getting tougher. Today, buggy UX means the loss of a massive number of potential customers. Therefore, startups need to replace their existing team with tech-savvy talent who is familiar with the latest tech stack and skills.

• Expand your market with offshoring: 

As a South Asian startup, you must have desired to grow your tech capabilities along with expanding your business. Don’t worry, you can kill two birds with one stone without having to go out of your pocket. You can build an offshore team within the region you want to expand your business to. This will not only help you to gain the initial exposure you need but will also help you break through the new market without having to spend a lot of time on research.

• Switch to remote working:

Lockdown imposed by the government across South Asia has made us learn that it is possible to run an office-less business. Coupons and promo codes turn out to be the best marketing strategy amid the lockdown. The majority of the investors are taking out their investment or reconsidering investing in South Asian startups. During these hard times, there is no better way to cut the cost of running your business other than going remote.

• Create a sense of balance:

To thrive in the uncertain times, we are faced with today, startups need to come up with ways to balance growth, cost, and quality that too at the same time.

Also Read: Why I chose to intern in the tech startups ecosystem

Medical science has been integrating the latest technological trends such as robotics to stop coronavirus. However, it’s not just the medical field that had been impacted by the outbreak of coronavirus. Established businesses to startups, every sector of the market has been influenced as the pandemic prevailed.

The South Asian startup market is no exception. This pandemic has caused various start-ups to lose sales or even close down. However, with a little help from the government and working smartly, these startups can continue to thrive during the pandemic.

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Most governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the pandemic, leaving 1.5 billion students in 188 countries out of their classrooms. The world has not seen this level of disruption of education since World War II.

There are various edutech companies providing a wide range of learning tools for primary, secondary and pre-university students across the continent and everyone will agree that the time is ripe for these startups to grow whether it is in brand awareness or user base.

Never before have schools and colleges so urgently needed digital tools and services to facilitate remote learning —and been less able to afford them. After a financing lull in March, investors poured money into edutech, catapulting several startups past the US$1 billion valuation mark.

For instance, Udemy raised US$50 million in February pushing valuation to US$2 billion, ApplyBoard raised US$71 million in May, Quizlet closed a US$30 million round in May crossing US$1 billion valuation mark.

Also Read: How the Coronavirus is teaching edutech startups a much-needed lesson

Barclays estimates that spending on technology by educators will increase 12 per cent a year and is still just three per cent of a US$6 trillion global market. However, the large scale adoption of the edutech offerings still remains a challenge because of the following reasons:

• Only 59 per cent of the world has internet access
• Only 49 per cent of the household globally has access to the PCs
• Governments are prioritising health care sector over the education sector 
• Schools struggle with capital technical resources in the absence of government support
• Lack of trained staff to conduct online classes

Hence, investors have deliberately focused on entities that market tools and services directly to consumers (DTC) and not to the institutions. Three DTC edutech sectors that gained most investments were online tutoring, digital aides and apps, and edutainment.

Online tutoring companies in the US, China, and India have attracted huge traction and interest from the investors.  For example, Chegg outperformed forecasts by hitting US$132 million in revenue and 30 per cent rise in the stock price in Q1 2020. Byju, India’s second highest valued startup raised US$100 million Mary Meeker’s Bond Capital. Countries such as Australia, Korea, and Saudi Arabia have seen a surge in edutech startups supported by large rounds of funding in Q1 2020.

Interest and investment in tools and services designed for direct use of the students and parents are on the rise. Digital aides and apps such as Google Classroom, Seesaw, and Classdojo have seen a sharp rise since the remote learning started. Sites such as Khan Academy have seen 2.5 to three times increase in the traffic, with users spending twice the amount they did before the pandemic.

Users are turning to learn as a source of entertainment and a way to gain additional skill sets. Some of the popular edutainment business in this space has added several users and attracted millions in investment.

Also Read: These Indonesian edutech startups are helping students cope and thrive during the COVID-19 crisis

Example: MasterClass, which recruits celebrities to share expertise in non-credit-bearing online classes has registered 10 folds growth in revenue and raised US$100 million in funding. Similarly, Duolingo reported a 101 per cent increase in the user base since March.

The outlook in the DTC edutech space certainly looks promising. However, investors foraying in this space should also be mindful of the ongoing risks such as regulation, funding cycles, and competition. Ultimately, the best companies, investors, and impactors in this space will be those who put the users at the centre.

Finding ways to reduce costs, deliver quality pedagogy, and demonstrate impactful outcomes will determine the long-term winners as the edutech market grows and matures.

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According to CrunchBase, there are about 11,288 SaaS-based startups in the world. That’s the level of competition we are talking about. Companies are always on the lookout for ways to keep them ahead of their competitions.

One thing successful startups have found out is that while most of the factors might not be within their control, the internal factors such as cost and resources are definitely within their control. Proper financial planning and optimised execution are the building blocks to any long term business’s success.

Having experience of co-founding and running three companies, with one in London and the two in India, the last 25 years have given me key insights into how to make the most with the resources you get.

I have tried, tested, failed, tried again, and succeeded in implementing measures and goals to optimise resources. One thing that I have learned over the years is that you don’t win in business (especially startups) if you waste money.

What we are going to address here is not just about being frugal but also about being sustainable. You cannot build a business by being a cheapskate, right? What worked for us was finding the right talent (or rather a sustainable talent with low turnover) and developing deep knowledge about the problem we are solving. The key here is to develop a low yet evolving footprint.

Also Read: A Beginner’s Guide: Should I buy a SaaS for my startup?

Frugality in work and office space

The section that I would like to discuss is how we optimised the costs in our daily-tools and operations. I believe this is where we saved a major chunk of our resources. We were very open and candid with our employees about our ethic of frugality in everything that we do in the company. We tried to be sustainable in almost everything that was under control, from creating a coworking space, work from home facility to using the right tools to minimising the travel expenses. To dive you a little deeper and get into the details, I’ve broken down the list into these areas.

Frugality in the product-development phase

Although we were being cost-effective with a lot of our choices, we never compromised on the quality of tools for our software developers. They would always get the most advanced and tech-forward computers and equipment. Before you jump to the conclusion that this was a biased (and uneconomic) call, let me tell you how it wasn’t.

As a SaaS company, developing a competitive product was the heart of all our operations. And my top priority was to take long-term, sustainable and smart decisions in product development.

One of the fundamental decisions that we had to make was choosing the cloud server infrastructure. It was a close call between AWS and DigitalOcean and we went with the latter.

One reason was obviously the pricing. And since we had a few but skilled and experienced software developers and I myself was involved heavily, it allowed us to build the website from scratch and gave us the flexibility we wanted.

Another bold technical decision that we took was choosing Scala as the language for programming. Scala is a very sophisticated language and to be honest it is not an obvious language to choose. The reason why I insisted on using this language is that I had over 15 years of experience working in Scala.

Not only did I have trust in it, I knew that I would be able to oversee each and everything going on in the website. And in case of an emergency, I will be able to take things on my own hands and keep the website in check. As entrepreneurs, sometimes it is important to take the route that is comfortable for you or one which you have faith in rather than venturing into unknown territory.

Also Read: 5 things Saleswhale learned about building a global SaaS platform from Southeast Asia

So far these two have been some of the good (and frugal) decisions we have made.

This doesn’t mean we haven’t made any mistakes. We did. Big ones that too.

For any startup that wants to build a mobile application, one of the cheapest and obvious ways is to go for a hybrid platform. We did the same and went for Titanium, which is a hybrid platform. But we started facing a lot of performance issues and it just didn’t suit the product we were building. After one year of struggling we had to move to native development. The app was already live on Titanium and it was a massive struggle to shift the platform. We could do it only because we had a very small number of users at that point in time.

So my advice for upcoming SaaS entrepreneurs would be to spend adequate time in the product development phase. Remember each small and big decision that you make in this stage will stick with you in the long run. In my opinion, the best way to be frugal here is to aim for the long run and go for a sustainable approach. The more you switch platforms in the later stages of your development, the more expenses you will suffer. Having a sustainable approach ensures frugality in the long run.

Efficient use of office space

One of our top priorities was having a good coworking space. Since we were a small team, rigorous collaboration was a must. While deciding on the office space for the Guwahati team, we made sure that a major part of the office space can be utilised as a coworking arena. This is where people across departments would sit together and work.

In fact, for the first five years, I myself preferred sitting in the common area. This helped us in two ways, mainly. Since we were a one-of-its-kind SaaS software operating from India, this working style helped everyone in the team understand each other’s role and contribution towards the common goals. Secondly, it helped us save a lot of money as we didn’t have to spend too much on renting out extra spaces for each team and department.

Also Read: How to choose a coworking space for your startup

It is a no-brainer that managing the operating space effectively can generate additional profits. I’ve mentioned earlier about the common working area which helped us a lot in setting the tone of the workplace. Rearranging and making the most out of the available space smartly can save up quite some bucks. Since we were sacrificing personal luxuries at the top-level, people never complained if we didn’t have state-of-art furniture or matching desks at our office.

Remember at the beginning of the entrepreneurial journey, the focus should be solely on growing (and sustaining) the business. When that happens, having a nicer office will be the least of your worries.

As a perk to make up for the limited desk space, we had a loaded snack station to keep our people happy during work hours. (This is a proven hack and I would definitely recommend it).

We didn’t have such options in India back in the day but you can even rent furniture from places such as Furlenco on a temporary basis. Optimising on your resources for the long term and sustainable development is not easy and definitely be augmented with years of experience behind your back. What wise people do is learn from their mistakes, smart people learn from others’ mistakes.

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As COVID-19 continues to make a negative impact on many different industries and restrict customers’ movement up to an individual level, it has undoubtedly accelerated the pace of adoption of new technologies in various verticals.

One of which is VR. During the pandemic, the technology is gaining more attention among emerging industries such as e-sports and edutech, according to our recent interview with SOSV General Partner William Bao Bean.

In the medical and healthcare sector, as the public is being encouraged to limit visits to hospitals for the most urgent care and procedure, VR is coming to save the day. There are different ways that hospitals are using this technology; while patient consultations seem to be the obvious choice, staff training and anatomy reconstruction operations are also the way to go.

To understand more about the use of VR in healthcare, e27 interviews Silver Wings founder Kapil Chhabra. Silver Wings is a Singapore-based VR company that provides VR solution for a range of industry from automotive to tourism. The product that they offer includes a multi-user hologram table.

In the healthcare sector, Silver Wings is working with clinics in Singapore, such as the FeM Surgery group at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Novena and MacPherson. The project involves the use of VR as a visualisation tool to help patients understand surgery processes better.

Apart from that, Silver Wings also help medical students in their training process through the use of their technology.

Also Read: VCs get behind Disaster Tech in search for innovative life-saving technologies

The following is an edited excerpt of the interview:

Why do you think there has been a newfound interest by investors in the VR industry?

For an investor, it’s all about how scalable a product or solution is. Since VR is quite project-based, a lot of companies don’t have ready-made products that they can sell to the mass.

Back in 2014, to buy a VR headset would cost thousands of dollars, therefore people did not have access to the right content. But not anymore, people can now get VR headsets for a way lesser amount, which is why there is a growing interest.

How are you working with doctors to improve your products?

The best part about this technology is that as soon as any feature is updated, it is received very quickly. So from the product side, improvements are constantly happening. From the sector side, we do our best to enhance the medical process and try to minimise inefficiencies by first creating prototypes as solutions.

For example, before an operation, a doctor needs to talk to a patient about the medical procedures, what medicines they take, etcetera. All this is just a replication of things. Does a doctor really need to do that? Can it be done by a virtual doctor? So it’s really about improving productivity more than anything else.

What can be achieved if VR is more widely adopted in healthcare?

It is definitely a technology that can help the industry in many ways, especially for training. Imagine the kind of pressure that builds up for first-time doctors. And imagine using VR to replicate the whole process.

They can experience the same scenario and then get better used to the pressure of handling the real situation.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Thailand’s fleet intelligence solutions startup DRVR close to raising US$450K funding

How accurately can it replicate something as crucial as a doctor training?

It really depends on company to company how they approach it and how photorealistic their experience is. Generally, anyone who wears a headset can get overwhelmed because of the nature of the visual experience.

I do agree that sometimes the “real” feeling is not there, especially during training. But in terms of learning, it is much more enhanced. Currently, we are all learning through a video, which is some kind of a 3D model –but VR is beyond that. Imagine learning through a medium which is much closer to the real world.

Which countries in your opinion are leading in terms of VR adoption?

The best part about this technology is that as soon as anything is updated, it will be all received very quickly. But if I had to pick I would say that the US is pretty ahead because they are the ones who are researching it. In the Asian side, I would say China is really leading the way.

What do you think can be done to accelerate the pace of adoption in Southeast Asia region? 

There’s an awareness gap. We need to create platforms and events where people can come together and talk about the solutions that they have created. There has to be a better platform where people can easily notice and connected with each other.

Also Read: This infographic shows how VR and blockchain can work together in enhancing wellness through gamified meditation

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Image Credit: Lucrezia Carnelos

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IUIGA opens its first furniture showroom

The Story: Singapore-based omnichannel retailer IUIGA announced the opening of its first furniture showroom at TripleOne Somerset.

The Features: The furniture and furnishings available in the store will be around the range of S$1,000 (US$750) or less. It will also provide complimentary layout design services that include 3D rendering.

The Plan: IUIGA will be opening six more stores by the end of 2020, with more details released closer to the date.

What is IUIGA: Launched in 2017, IUIGA sells products ranging from kitchen products to apparels to electronics. The company has recently raised a US$10 million Series A funding round led by Konimex Technologies, a subsidiary of Indonesian conglomerate Konimex Group.

Also Read: How COVID-19 is changing traditional retail and e-commerce in SEA

Report: SEA-based VC firms lack gender diversity

The Story: In their new Women in VC: The Southeast Asia Edition report, DealStreet Asia revealed that about 76 per cent of VCs with operations in Southeast Asia (SEA) do not have a single female partner. It also stated that for every one female investing partner, there are five male decision-makers in the region.

The Details: The report looked into over 120 SEA-based investment firms in the region, from angel investments, corporate VCs, to accelerators.

Report: Ant Group eyes US$225B valuation in IPO

The Story: Ant Group targets US$225 billion for its dual listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the next few weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. This IPO will likely be one of the largest in the world.

Reports stated that the sales could raise about US$30 billion in total if markets are favourable.

The IPO is expected to happen in October the earliest.

The Impact: According to South China Morning Post, the IPO is expected to give another boost to Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, which has already seen a renaissance of Chinese tech listings after it relaxed rules in the wake of losing China’s biggest tech firms to New York.

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Anisa Menur Maulani also contributed to this article.

Image Credit: IUIGA

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Ricult, a Thailand-based startup providing Artificial Intelligence-powered farming solutions, has raised US$2 million in a pre-Series A round of funding, says a report by Nikkei Asian Review.

The round was co-led by Bualuang Ventures, the venture arm of Bangkok Bank, and Krungsri Finnovate, the VC unit of Bank of Ayudhya.

With this deal, Ricult’s total funding raised in the seed round has touched US$5 million.

The agritech startup plans to use the funding for product development and to widen its presence in the domestic market, as well as expand into neighbouring countries such as Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Founded in 2015 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s alumnus, Ricult combines its “in-depth” expertise in weather analysis with satellite technology to develop a platform to help farmers and agribusinesses manage their farms more effectively.

This helps farmers increase yield from their cultivation, access online markets to sell their agricultural products, and offer a chat line with agriculture experts.

Its mission is not limited only to helping agriculturists, but also to benefit entrepreneurs throughout the agricultural supply chain, including banks.

Banks can consider the information in an approval process for loans to farmers and agricultural businesses, agricultural products insurance, or life insurance businesses. Merchants selling agricultural products can reach agriculturists on the platform through data solutions services.

The firm claims currently it has information of 200,000 Thai farmers and 100,000 global farmers on its platform, with the number of local farmers expected to reach one million and those worldwide to reach four million in the next three years.

Its next plan is to create business models which can scale up and expand into neighbouring countries such as Laos, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

In a recent Techsauce article, Co-founder and CEO Aukrit Unahalekhaka, said in addition to business, Ricult wants to create a platform that can leverage technology to help people in society, especially farmers who are the backbone of Thailand.

“Often, many farmers are still using natural farming where it is impossible to assess productivity or various environmental factors. However, with the detailed and in-depth expertise of Ricult, farmers will be able to assess risks more accurately as it can forecast up to nine months in advance. In addition, data is analysed via satellite images on a single platform that provides product price information and chat service about cultivation with experts which will help develop the country’s agricultural knowledge as a whole,” he added in the interview.

Also Read: Taking a glimpse into agritech startups in Thailand

Previously, Ricult has secured seed funding from angel investors and venture capital companies, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dtac Accelerate, Chanwanich Group, Wavemaker, and 500 TukTuks.

Ricult expects to raise additional funds in 2021.
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When President Trump expressed the new punitive intentions aimed at TikTok, most experts propose that it is not the end of it. The tech war between China and the US has officially steps on the fiercest period in this decade. In which, the global technology industry would suffer the threat of depression.

In August, the US released a new rule that the regulated sector is not allowed to purchase any products from companies, which use telecommunication services of five Chinese technology firms, including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hangzhou and Zhejiang.

Along with a previous series of restriction regulations attacking Chinese technology, it not only broke the relationship between China and the US but adversely affect the global internet sector.

Obviously, both US and China are suffering from detrimental consequences coming from the decline of competitive advantage among leading enterprises. From the China government response, several American companies had lost the market share in this largest market.

Fortunately, there are still some sectors benefiting from this war, indicating an optimistic corner against this dark period on Earth.

US government make it difficult for Huawei, TikTok, and Tencent

The fact is China is the largest internet market, which covers the most advanced mobile network globally. Besides, most US IT enterprises consider China as the target and potential market due to the enormous population and tremendous purchasing power in this country.

On the other hand, the powerful accession of Chinese tech giants to the US also threatens local companies. The dominant advantages of those Chinese firms relate to competitive prices and short product life cycles. Evidently, Huawei, a leading smart devices producer, offer 5G devices at 30 per cent lower in price than both Ericson and Nokia, which is one of the victims in the war of America and China.

Also Read: How can Singapore benefit from the US-China trade war?

Obviously, citing the reason that Chinese companies steal users’ data, the US regulators release restriction policy for those companies with the aim to protect local firms and domestic production. Recently, TikTok and WeChat became a target, suffering a ban on national security grounds.

Parent companies owning those apps, ByteDance and Tencent, have been totally restricted from every deal with America.

That ordinance will take effect this September, which seemingly benefits several US IT firms, especially Microsoft. Significantly, Microsoft will be a potential candidate to take control of all TikTok activities in the US, of which market capitalisation value reached roundly US$50 billion.

In terms of Tencent, it is claimed to be the centre of the Chinese digital economy, which is a dominant technology corporation, serving roundly 1.2 million users globally. Generally, attacking Tencent bring more advantage and challenges compared to ByteDance.

In fact, the total market valuation of Tencent is approximately US$680 billion, making it the second-largest corporation, just under Alibaba. Stopping the growth of Tencent could reduce the spread of Chinese technologies.

According to CNN, due to the restrictions, Tencent would lose its game business to American firms since most game revenue of Tencent came from the US market. Additionally, The White House’s decision might adversely affect the global technology industry. It is due to Tencent is one of the largest investors in this sector, leading to unpredictable disturbance.

China may no longer be the world’s largest factory

Not only Chinese firms suffered losses during the US and China tech war, but Apple and other US companies with factories in China might also be struggling this time. Notably, Apple has spent tons of effort and money to expand its business to China that the tech war could blow away around US$44 billion of its growing motivation.

Once the restriction rule on WeChat takes effect, Apple might need to kick WeChat out of its app store, which means iPhones and iPads could become less attractive to Chinese users.

Also Read: How can Singapore benefit from the US-China trade war?

To prepare for the future, one of the biggest producers of Apple, Foxconn, has started moving its factories out of China, which decided to open new factories in India and Vietnam. Besides, in April 2020, Japan Government invested US$2.2 billion to supports companies moving their factories out of China.

Additionally, many other companies have implemented policies to help their companies not to rely on Chinese productions. As a result, roundly 75 per cent of American firms and 85 per cent of North Asia firms have been shifted out of China.

Taiwan, Japan, and Vietnam are the real winners

Related to the flop of Huawei in the US and the EU, Japanese tech companies could replace the position of Huawei in those markets. According to Nikkei Review, two Japanese brands, NEC and Fujitsu, are allowed to develop their 5G infrastructure in the UK, after the British government ban Huawei in this country.

Until now, the Japanese government committed to investing more US$654 million to 5G companies such as NEC, which expectedly boost the competitive advantages of the Japanese firm in the global tech race.

According to UNCTAD, Taiwan could be the biggest winner of the tech war between America and China. Recently, there are only three companies in the world could produce advanced chips, including TSMC from Taiwan, Intel from America, and Samsung from Korea.

Since the US seemingly treats Taiwan as a strategic partner, Intel and TSMC are planning to collaborate that the stock price of TSMC has sharply increased. At that time, TSMC plays a central position that both America and China need it to win in the tech race. Many experts believe that TSMC could bring a powerful advantage to Taiwan this year.

On the other hand, if the tensions between two leader countries escalated unexpectedly, Vietnam could have a chance to sharply raise the export value to the US, especially with sectors of electronic assembly, chip production, and semiconductors.

Also Read: Avoid ugly language of nationalism when talking trade war

In which, Vietnam could take the market share of Chinese firms and attract more FDI in both hardware and software development sectors. For smartphone production, in particular, Vietnam is recently the largest factory of Samsung with a producing volume of over 240 million units annually.

Furthermore, Foxconn also considers opening its factories in Vietnam in the near future to avoid sanctions to China from the American government.

Final words: Tech war between America and China is predicted to continues this year and beyond. Generally, it harms the global technology industry, which inhibits the development of IT advancements.

Fortunately, there might be some areas that could revive from difficulties, which add some colourful light to a murky picture of the technology sector worldwide.

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Beyond the process of product development itself, the success of a product is often determined by how it is marketed towards its target audience.

We have written extensively about the COVID-19 outbreak when there are several noticeable changes in user behaviour. In this situation, startups might find themselves scrambling to adjust their marketing strategy to changes in the market.

In this second edition of our deep-dive series, e27 speaks to Tiger Wang, Head of Marketing at Shopee Singapore, to understand the best practices in building a marketing strategy as implemented in the company.

He explains how Shopee is building its marketing strategy — and how it adapts to the challenges of the time.

Topics covered in this article:

• Marketing Strategy 101: Principles and process
• Marketing Strategy 101: Testing a campaign
• Marketing in time of a pandemic

Marketing Strategy 101

In this part, Wang explains the main principles and process behind a marketing strategy

At Shopee, we pride ourselves in our highly localised marketing approach. We have seven different apps live across our markets, and each market differs significantly in terms of culture, user behaviour and shopping preferences.

When building a marketing strategy, it is important to understand the local consumers’ needs, expectations and nuances to ensure that it is customised for that particular market.

In all our markets, including Singapore, we recruit and support local talent so that we possess in-market expertise to better reach out to our users, helping create meaningful engagements with our consumers.

Additionally, our data science team works closely with the local marketing teams to build shopper models based on various behavioural and demographic data that is available to us.

Some examples include gender, age, brand preferences and preferred shopping features.

We then leverage data-driven insights using our strong data capabilities and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to predict user preferences based on their past purchases. By identifying relationships and patterns in users’ shopping and browsing behaviour, we can curate a more personalised shopping journey for them.

We continuously refine our recommendation engines to offer more customised and relevant shopping suggestions, promotions and push notifications made to fit their needs. Personalisation is critical in the e-commerce of today.

Also Read: Report: Shopee, Lazada compete for top spots in Southeast Asian e-commerce scene

The use of tech is a key factor that businesses need to consider when building their marketing strategy — particularly how to leverage their available resources and data to keep up-to-date on consumer trends and to adapt their strategies accordingly.

In a world of options and distractions, consumers are broadening their horizons and spending less time shopping in only one place. The need to create new ways of engaging consumers and capturing their attention is more important now than ever before.

AI has become an important element in the future of retail, enabling brands to optimise efficiencies and create personalised experiences. It is crucial at a time when brands need to provide more than just transactional experiences for shoppers.

Beauty brands such as L’Oréal use AI-powered digital innovation tools to offer instant, personalised and professional acne analyses without the customer having to visit a physical store, which is essential as more people remain confined at home.

It’s not just big players that should be using technology to implement an effective marketing strategy; SMEs can also leverage online platforms to create unique, memorable, and enjoyable experiences for their customers. This goes a long way towards building consumer loyalty.

Secondly, the need for engagement, entertainment and social interaction in a marketing strategy has never been more compelling as consumers increasingly value shareable experiences.

Therefore, companies need to elevate the customer journey by integrating these elements into marketing in order to cater to an increasingly demanding consumer base.

Tried and tested

Once we understand the principles of building a marketing strategy, it is time to get it tested. How do we know we have done it right? What to do when it fails to reach expectations?

The digital economy is constantly evolving. In order to succeed, we need to continue to keep our ear to the ground and adapt our strategy accordingly.

Nimble marketing is the recipe for success, and it’s crucial for marketing teams to collaborate and adapt campaigns as needed once they are live.

We monitor the performance of each of our marketing campaigns closely and gather relevant insights along the way. This allows us to make necessary adjustments when needed, following changes in local trends and current events.

Also Read: Lazada, Shopee and Zalora are most visited e-commerce sites in Philippines

The definition of success varies with each campaign depending on the objectives involved. We place great emphasis on powering the next wave of e-commerce, and one key pillar is quality consumer engagement; we consistently work to integrate a personalised, engaging, and social element in our shopping experience.

Certain campaigns are aimed at deepening engagement, such as those focused on games and live-streams.

For example, during our recent National Day Sale, we launched a host of localised games, including Shopee Flappy – Siam the ERP edition, Shopee Candy – Mama Shop edition, and Shopee Shake – Satay @ Lau Pat Sat edition..

All of our campaigns are formulated with data-led insights, which ensure they do not undergo trial and error — instead, they cater directly to shopping behaviour patterns.

It is important for marketers to understand that each campaign is a vital learning lesson and is an opportunity to continue fine-tuning the ongoing marketing strategies — don’t define campaigns by fails and successes, but rather use it as a stepping stone to perfecting marketing strategy.

Our signature 9.9 Super Shopping Day has been very successful over a number of years. It was introduced in 2016 to cater to the rapid growth of the e-commerce industry in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.

As an annual shopping event tailored for the region with the largest collection of deals across all product categories, it is now a key date in the year’s online shopping calendar.

Each year, our campaign and hyper-localised approach for each market means we successfully outperform previous year’s 9.9 performance, proving that we continue to bring value to our users, sellers, brands and partners, through a personalised, engaging and social shopping experience.

In 2019, we celebrated our biggest-ever 9.9 Super Shopping Day, with three times the number of orders compared to 2018, and over 113 million deals offered on September 9. At its peak, 187,606 items were sold in a minute.

The success of 9.9 shows that our consumers’ appetite for deals and promotions is strong, especially in Singapore.

Also Read: Report: Shopee, Lazada compete for top spots in Southeast Asian e-commerce scene

Marketing in time of a pandemic

Since the start of the COVID-19, Shopee says that users in Singapore have spent 40 per cent more time in-app per week and the number of Shopee Live streams from brands and sellers have increased 40x. In Singapore, its in-app games were played over 60 million times and 1.6 million plays from February 1 to April 24. 

So how does their marketing strategy differ in times of crisis?

Regardless of external factors, the fast-moving e-commerce landscape regularly conditions us to be flexible and adaptive in our marketing strategies.

This means that during times of crisis, we are well-prepared to shift our strategies to meet users’ needs quickly and efficiently.

There are no one-size-fits-all blueprints or hard-and-fast rules when it comes to marketing during a time of crisis.

Rather, we believe the most important thing is to consider the most pertinent needs and concerns of our audience.

Needless to say, their priorities and habits will change during moments of crises. Brands thus need to be able to see things from their perspective in order to be able to market to them successfully.

For example, as people continue to adhere to social distancing measures, more users are shopping online for a growing number of different product categories.

There is a greater demand for health and personal hygiene products, as well as essential household items. In order to address this increased demand, we have implemented additional support measures wherever necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of our employees, partners, sellers and users.

In all of our markets, we rolled out ‘Shopee from Home’ campaigns, which made it easy for users to search for and purchase the products they want on our platform.

In Singapore, we took additional steps to limit the over-purchasing of essential health items such as masks, thus ensuring sufficient supply for all our users.

We also worked to support our sellers and made sure they are able to cope with the increased online demand through enhanced logistics infrastructure, to further drive seamless shopping experiences during this period.

We are determined to use the Shopee platform to aid the evolving needs of all our users to help them to adapt to the new normal. The pandemic has definitely led us to shift our focus and priorities to address certain key trends and issues.

In Singapore, our recently-concluded Great Shopee Sale campaign focused on empowering local businesses — a huge topic of concern amongst Singaporeans.

As part of the campaign, we featured one seller a day on our ‘#SGUnited Shopee Support Local’ campaign microsite and social media platforms to drive more visibility to their online stores.

Also Read: How Shopee is using data science to take their platform to the next level

We have improved our social features to provide entertainment and engagement during this time of evolving needs:

• Shopee Feed: We have upgraded our in-app social feed to cater to the increased time spent and levels of social interaction on Shopee. Users can share content on what they are listing, buying, and selling with the community without having to leave the Shopee app. Users can follow and receive the latest real-time updates from their friends, as well as sellers and brands more quickly and efficiently than before. Shopee Feed is a key component that addresses the exploratory and social nature of online shopping today.

• Shopee Live Chat: Conversations between sellers and buyers are a crucial part of the social experience on Shopee and we have added new functions in our popular Shopee Live Chat feature to enable more meaningful interactions, based on observed user behaviour.

Being a home-grown company, Shopee has always prided itself in doing its part to help nurture and empower local businesses and SMEs. The strategies for our campaigns and initiatives targeted at local businesses and SMEs are designed to focus on this objective.

The COVID-19 period has been particularly challenging for these groups, and we have scaled up our efforts to help sellers on our platform navigate the current economic environment. We launched the ​Shopee Seller Support Package (SSSP) and the ‘#SGUnited Shopee Support Local’ campaign microsite to increase exposure for local sellers by driving greater traffic to them.

We provide these businesses with much-needed marketing support that helps establish themselves online, further optimise sales, and construct sustainable, long-term e-commerce strategies.

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Image Credit: Shopee

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