Singapore’s world-first face scan plan sparks privacy fears; From next year, millions of people living here will be able to access government agencies, banking services and other amenities with a quick face scan; Singapore is frequently accused of targeting government critics and taking a hard line on dissent, and activists are concerned about how the face scanning tech will be used. AFP

Singapore’s Nanofilm to raise up to US$375M in largest local IPO in years; Nanofilm would be the first local tech unicorn to list in the city-state; If successful, it would be the largest listing on the SGX; Nanofilm makes coating materials for smartphones, TVs and smartwatches among others. Reuters

How SEA’s states are tightening the screws on tech giants; Based on publicly available info and insights from industry experts, Big Tech can expect enhanced oversight from SEA regulators in the areas of data, content, tax and merger control; The effects of this greater scrutiny will be felt not just by Big Tech but by startups and investors as well. TechInAsia

Rethinking Telkom Group’s plan to invest in gojek; The state-owned telco’s investment will likely focus on the opportunity for the two companies to collaborate — gojek will gain benefits from Telkomsel’s 172M customers and vice versa; However, Telkom does not have a very bright history with managing digital businesses — several of its innovation had sunk with the latest being Blanja. e27

Singapore’s e-sports platform EVOS raises US$12M Series B; Investors include Korea Investment Partners, Mirae Asset, Woowa Brothers, Insignia; To date, EVOS claims to have worked with more than 150 brands and 400 gaming influencers, who earn US$30K-US$60K a month via the platform. e27

Thai point exchange platform ChomCHOB raises Series A from InVent; ChomCHOB is an app that collects points from credit/debit cards; Users have the option to convert all of their credit/debit card points into ChomChob reward points, which allows them to purchase different kinds of products and services. It claims to have over 500K merchants and claims to have about 2M user downloads. e27

TechCrunch founder’s VC firm Arrington XRP Capital leads US$3.7M in Persistence; The Singapore’s blockchain startup, founded by an ex-Golden Gate employee, is focussing on powering institutional DeFi/OpFi adoption; Persistence tokenises real-world assets and puts them on the blockchain and these assets can then be used by companies as collateral for acquiring loans. e27

Singapore e-motorcycle startup ION Mobility secures US$3.3M; Investors incude Monk’s Hill, 500 Durians; It plans to launch its first EV in 2021 in Indonesia, one of the biggest motorbike markets globally, with 2019 motorcycle sales at 6.38M units; ION is also set to expand its team and operations across Singapore, Jakarta and Shenzhen. e27

Thailand’s e-commerce fulfilment startup MyCloudFulfillment (MCF) raises US$2M funding; Backers are ECG-Research, Gobi, NVest, SCB 10X; MCF claims it recently passed milestones of over 100K SKUs in storage, 50K of maximum daily orders, US$16M worth of transactions during H1, 2020. e27

Indonesia’s Social Bella expands its beauty e-commerce biz into Vietnam; The expansion is through its e-commerce unit Sociolla; This comes shortly after it raised US$58M Series E from Temasek, Pavilion Capital, Jungle Ventures; Social Bella is estimated to serve around 30 million users in 2020. e27

Tencent is reportedly setting up its first Singapore office at JustCo; The WeChat owner will have almost 200 seats at JustCo’s co-working space in OCBC Centre East at Raffles Place; The deal paves the way for Tencent to make Singapore its beachhead for a push into SEA. The Straits Times

Vietnam’s mobile commerce is set to open up avenues for startups; The country ranks third in SEA in terms of the total sessions on shopping apps (Android), accounting for a whopping 19.5% of the region’s market share; Vietnam ranks only behind Indonesia and Thailand, missing the second place by only 0.2 billion sessions. e27

Here’s how to foster a culture of creativity within your company to attract creators; COVID-19 has only accelerated the importance of creativity in the workplace; Organisations are realising that creativity plays a role not only in successful marketing, communications, and R&D but also in maintaining a productive and engaged workforce during these unprecedented times. The Next Web

Are your influence skills ready for remote work?; Studies show it is difficult to influence people through digital interactions; One study, for example, looked at changes of opinion in response to differing info; When contrasting info was revealed in a f2f discussion, 38% of participants changed their mind; Conversely, only 10% did so when the info was revealed through an online discussion forum. e27

AI park will help Malaysia take the lead in digital future; Last year, G3 Global partnered China’s SenseTime Group and China Harbour Engineering to set up Malaysia’s first AI park, with a total investment of more than US$1B over the next 5 years; AI technology is expected to contribute some US$115B to Malaysia’s GDP by 2030. The Star

Are digital assets and blockchain poised to become mainstream in Singapore?; With government blockchain project ‘Project Ubin’ moving closer to commercialisation, Temasek’s involvement in Facebook’s Libra, Opencerts managing the digital certificates of 2020 local graduates and more businesses accepting Bitcoin as a way to transact, local businesses are feeling positive about the industry’s prospects going forward. Tech Coffee House

PoC to prototype to MVP: Software development 101 for early-stage tech startups; The purpose of PoC is to test a concept, product, or process basically to validate your assumptions as well as those of your potential customers; The prototype enables you to actually see how the product will operate in real life. It is the physical embodiment of the ideal concept. e27

Vietnamese tech firms export more 5G devices to the world; VinSmart has agreed to ship about 2M of its Vsmart 5G smartphones to the US this year; VinSmart has partnered with Qualcomm to launch 13 smartphones both in Vietnam as well as in Spain, Russia, and Myanmar; This July, it launched its first 5G-enabled smartphones, the VinSmart Aris series. Vietnam News

Vietnam’s vision and goals for a digital nation; As per a report, Vietnam’s digital economy was valued at US$12B in 2019; Over the past 5 years, its e-commerce market grew by over 25% per year and its digital economy is forecast to contribute 5% to its GDP and is expected to reach US$43B by 2025. Open Gov

‘Online-first’ habit boosts e-payments, cross-border trade, says PayPal; Shoppers in SEA are likely to remain cautious even after the pandemic is contained and are also inclined to lean on contactless means for their needs, PayPal Senior Director and Head of Sales (SEA) Rajkishore Agrawal said. ABS-CBN News

B2B distributors look at a digital future beyond COVID-19; The pandemic has permanently shifted more business buyer behaviour online and accelerated the growth of B2B e-commerce; COVID-19 also is accelerating the rate at which B2B organizations of all sizes will purchase online in 2021. Digital Commerce 360

Leaders advance digital investments to future-proof from disruptions; A survey says despite ongoing economic pressures, only 22% of the 100 local business leaders surveyed said that they plan to reduce their digital transformation budgets, whilst 1 in 3 kept their budgets unchanged; Amongst industries, the banking sector was most likely to be in-sourcing its digital initiatives, with 61% indicating so. Singapore Business Review

Open banking is a bigger disruption force to incumbents then digital banks, says DBS; Open banking will allow consumers to aggregate their banking, insurance and investment info across banks and financial institutions on a single platform, allowing for easier comparability and higher level of competitiveness in the banking industry. Fintech News

How Indonesia is developing Sharia fintech; Sharia FinTech platforms continue to provide common services like crowdfunding and P2P lending, with some differences: borrowers share investment profits and losses with their lenders; money is only invested in Halal projects; and investors are encouraged to help low-income groups. Gov Insider

Indonesia’s Ministry of Industry launches Startup4industry 2020; The overarching theme of Startup4industry 2020 is ‘Indonesia Is Confident in Domestic Technology’; Utilising modern tech, the initiative has two main aims: positive social impact on citizens and mitigating the impact of the pandemic in the industrial sector. Open Gov

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Image Credit: Unsplash

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It’s no secret that the outbreak of COVID-19 and the start of Singapore’s “stay-at-home” order caused many residents to change the way they operate, by replacing in-person activities with virtual ones. As a result, many e-commerce websites have seen an increase in customers, as more Singaporeans switch to online shopping.

While brick-and-mortar stores have their benefits, online shopping comes with its own perks of cheaper prices due to lower operational costs and overhead. However, do all e-commerce sites provide the same great deals to their customers?

To find out, we explored how four of Singapore’s largest e-commerce platforms compare on price across 73 everyday products.

We collected the best selling products across different categories that were available on the top four e-commerce platforms in Singapore. The products included in this study were limited to items that were mutually available on all four sites.

We then refined our list of data so that each product shared the same quantity, weight, and/or model number to ensure that the data was being accurately compared. This process left us with 73 products spanning over seven different shopping categories.

Once the data was collected and sorted, we analysed who had the cheapest prices based on item and overall product category.

Key Findings

Also Read: Flash Express secures US$200M Series D to expand its e-commerce logistics service in SEA

Smaller contenders seem to be the cost leaders

While Shopee and Lazada are the most popular e-commerce sites in Singapore, we found that they don’t actually offer the cheapest prices. Instead, our data suggests that the less prominent e-commerce sites, Qoo10 and new entrant Amazon, provide some of the best deals to customers.

Overall, Qoo10 had the cheapest prices on average out of all the e-commerce platforms we analysed, with 35 out of the 73 items being the cheapest. Prices were typically 10.97 per cent cheaper than average.

Amazon was the second cheapest platform, with 30 items that averaged 4.55 per cent cheaper than average. In contrast, Singapore’s most popular e-commerce site, Lazada, was 15.97 per cent more expensive on average for the categories we analysed.

Different platforms dominate different categories

While Qoo10 is generally the cheapest e-commerce site, there are still instances where you can find cheaper products on other platforms.

For instance, while Qoo10 was the price leader in the electronics, health, games and puzzles and literature category, with prices ranging from 14.23 to 28.42 per cent below average, Amazon specifically controlled the household and food & drink categories, with prices 10.14 to 11.08 per cent below average.

Also Read: 5-step strategy for agri e-commerce startups to engage customers

Price comparison of popular items

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Reports about Indonesian state-owned telco Telkom Group becoming an investor in tech giant gojek continues to circulate. According to an investigation by Tempo, Telkomsel –Telkom Group-backed mobile operator– is set to invest IDR2.2 trillion (US$150 million) and the process is close to being finalised. DailySocial has attempted to reach out to Telkomsel to confirm the news but has not received any response by the time this article was published. Even with the information openness on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI), Telkom is yet to provide commentary regarding the report.

Rumours of the investment have begun circulating since 2018. By the time, the amount of the investment was said to double the reported number today at US$400 million, but this proposal was rejected by then minister of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs). It is said that the current minister gives the investment a green light as he has also been aiming for digital transformation among state-owned enterprises.

This corporate move is worth our attention as there is a great amount of public fund being at stake –Telkomsel is owned by two companies, Telkom (65 per cent) and Singtel Mobile (35 per cent).

High risks

In Indonesia, conglomerate groups that have taken part in gojek’s investment rounds are Astra and Djarum (through Blibli). With its decacorn status, gojek will continue to attract the attention of global investors. But as a startup with an emphasis on growth, the strategy that the company is implementing involves pumping its valuation in order to dominate the market.

In various opportunities, before the pandemic, gojek has revealed plans to execute corporate profit-making strategy through GoFood and GoPay. In 2019, GoFood is said to have made a revenue of US$2 billion, 50 million monthly transactions, and 2.5 growth. Meanwhile, GoPay contributed US$6.3 billion although the growth rate was not mentioned.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: gojek acquires WePay; Carousell close to becoming unicorn; Patamar launches US$50M fund for SEA’s female founders

But these numbers do not guarantee that investing in gojek will generate profit for its investors. A highly dynamic market may contribute to various factors that can threaten the business.

First, there is still gojek’s greatest competitor –Grab. Both companies hold the decacorn status and are reaching out to the same target audience, with a similar product offering.

gojek also owns many business units that are operating independently: GoPay and GoPlay. In the Indonesian digital payments landscape, according to various reports, GoPay is competing with OVO, Dana, and even ShopeePay. Meanwhile, GoPlay has to compete directly with Netflix, iflix, Viu, and many more.

Second, there is the challenge of the never-ending validation process. gojek may have secured millions of users but they have to continue on making adjustments.

The company even had to shut down all the services under its GoLife business unit and laid off 430 employees. The pandemic has radically affected user behaviour, forcing startup founders to reconsider their business strategy.

When considering these two challenges, Telkom Group’s investment in gojek will likely focus on the opportunity for the two companies to collaborate. gojek will gain benefits from Telkomsel’s 172 million customers –which also includes merchants– and vice versa.

It is not easy to guess on the kind of collaboration that can happen between the two companies, as their core business differs greatly. The difference also lies in their business culture. Some of their business units are also competing directly.

Also Read: Ecosystem Roundup: Bangkok Bank picks 1% stake in gojek; Grab in talks with AIA, Prudential for US$300-500M funding; Vietnam’s Do Ventures launches US$50M fund

By June, gojek’s valuation is predicted to reach IDR184 trillion (US$12.5 billion). If Telkomsel walks in with a US$150 million investment, there is a great possibility that they will own no more than one per cent. With this percentage, it is certainly unrealistic to expect great returns in the short run, especially since gojek’s IPO plan remains unclear.

Telkom in the Indonesian startup ecosystem

Telkom does not have a very bright history with managing digital businesses; several of its innovation had sunk with the latest being Blanja. As the result of its collaboration with eBay, Blanja failed to compete in the local market.

But the company remains eager to compete. Their latest move included the appointment of Bukalapak Co-Founder Fajrin Rasyid as its new Director of Digital Business.

The state regulation on SOEs (UU No. 19 2003) stated that the goal of an SOE is to contribute to the national economy by making profits. Considering the end goal, it is crucial for corporations to put profits first.

Telkom and Telkomsel have more luck in the startup investment sector through MDI Ventures and TMI. They have made a rather glorious achievement with five exits through M&A and IPO last year, according to DailySocial reports. It was the highest among local VC firms in that time frame.

Telkom has recently launched a US$500 million fund to invest in startups. MDI is managing a total of IDR 11.6 trillion (US$760 million) while Telkomsel’s TMI manages US$40 million.

Let us see how this potential collaboration with gojek is going to end up for Telkom Group.

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The article was written in Bahasa Indonesia by Randi Eka Yonida for DailySocial. English translation and editing by e27.

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According to iPrice Group and App Annie’s data for Android phone users, the total number of sessions on online shopping applications in Vietnam reached 12.7 billion in Q2, the highest ever and up 43 per cent compared to the Q1 2020.

This amazing growth rate is also higher than that of most other countries in the region.

Their data also shows that shopping activity in all of Southeast Asia (SEA) increased by 39 per cent quarter-over-quarter. In Singapore, it increased by 25 per cent while Indonesia is increased by 34 per cent.

In terms of specific numbers, Vietnam also ranks third in SEA in terms of the total sessions on shopping applications (Android phone), accounting for a whopping 19.5 per cent of the region’s market share. Vietnam ranks only behind Indonesia and Thailand, missing the second place by only 0.2 billion sessions.

This major development is not a big surprise for anyone who has been following Vietnamese e-commerce closely.

As with many of the e-commerce startups in SEA, online retailers in Vietnam have achieved phenomenal growth in recent years. According to the e-conomy Southeast Asia report 2019 by Google, Temasek, and Bain, the internet economy of Vietnam has reached a value of US$12 billion in 2019, with an annual growth rate of 38 per cent since 2015 and is expected to surge to US$43 billion by 2025.

Adsota’s 2019 report also put Vietnam among the top 15 countries in the world with the biggest number of smartphone users. With an adoption rate of 44.9 per cent, even higher than Indonesia’s 31.1 per cent, Vietnam is truly a mobile-first country and online shopping is not an exception.

Also Read: 3 trends that will drive Vietnam’s e-commerce sector in 2019

E-commerce spreading to mobile applications has been predicted for a long time. By the end of 2019, major e-commerce startups in the country have all started to apply their own new features aiming at mobile users: Tiki has TikiLive, Shopee has Shopee Feed, Sendo has SenLive, etcetera.

Majority of these features encourage users to interact more and stay longer with the shopping apps through entertaining activities such as video games, livestreaming, or flash sales, some of which might not even look like something you would expect from a shopping app.

Last year, for 11.11 campaign, Lazada Vietnam live streamed an entire concert on their app. This year, Sendo experimented with streaming online classes for students who had to stay at home for social distancing.

The sudden arrival of COVID-19 in early 2020 became of definitive turning point for Vietnam’s e-commerce to accelerate the process. With more people staying at home, and with the increasing demand for online entertainment, Q2 became the ideal condition for e-commerce startups to apply the features they have been testing.

And as data now shows, these efforts have been bringing in great successes.

Notably, at the same time, the total number of visits to the top 50 e-commerce websites in Vietnam decreased slightly by one per cent compared to Q1, according to SimilarWeb’s data.

In that context, the competition, unfortunately, seems to be overwhelmed by foreign businesses. According to iPrice Group and App Annie, the top 10 most used online shopping apps in Vietnam in Q2 were Shopee, Lazada, Tiki and Sendo, followed by a series of foreign apps.

Thegioididong is the only domestic app apart from Tiki and Sendo in the top 10.

Also Read: How Vietnam’s e-commerce firm Tiki manages to keep employee churn rate healthy

There are then certainly big opportunities for local startups to move in and truly take advantage of this jump in mobile shopping usage.

One such player is VinShop by Vietnam’s conglomerate Vingroup who launched their mobile app right this October. Aiming at traditional mom-and-pop retail stores, VinShop wants to connect manufacturers and shops through their app with a B2B2C model.

Expect to see more exciting movements from the m-commerce scene in Vietnam in the near future.

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For majority of organisations in Asia Pacific, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transition to remote work by at least five years. But remote work should not come as a surprise.

Organisations’ growing preferences for remote work have been building for several years due to enhanced broadband connectivity, competition for global talent, and workers’ changing inclinations. By some accounts, 61 per cent of the global workforce is now remote. And, while it is unclear whether and by how much this number may change in the next few years, it is clear that remote work is here to stay in a significant capacity.

What does this mean for you and your influence skills? Modern organisations feature flatter hierarchies, matrix structures, and cross-functional workflows, with great degrees of involvement from external stakeholders, such as alliance partners, suppliers, investors, and even rivals.

To succeed in these environments, you cannot rely on your formal authority alone, that is, the influence that stems from your job rank. Instead, to successfully engage stakeholders over whom you do not have direct authority—colleagues from other functions, business units, or from outside your organisation—you need to rely on informal influence and persuasion and on building and leveraging relationships with others.

So, how good are you at getting work done without relying on formal authority and instead using informal influence and persuasion?

To lead effectively using informal influence and persuasion has always been challenging. The transition to remote work has made it even more challenging than it already was.

Studies have shown it is more difficult to influence people through digital interactions. One study, for example, looked at changes of opinion in response to differing information.

When contrasting information was revealed in a face-to-face discussion, 38 per cent of participants changed their mind. Conversely, only 10 per cent did so when the information was revealed through an online discussion forum.

Compared to face-to-face interplay, computer-mediated interaction reduces the degree of social presence—acoustic, visual, and physical proximity—with the people you are trying to influence. Reduced social presence makes it more difficult for you to influence others.

Also read: Why remote working is the future for startups 

Consider these three characteristics of digitally mediated interactions that make influence more difficult.

Asynchronous communication

In some digital channels, interactions do not occur at the same time. For example, with emails and texts, exchanges are not immediate. This reduces the fluidity of interaction and opportunities to clarify ambiguities. Such ambiguities could, in turn, lead to wrong attributions (Why is he not responding to my email? Did I say something he did not like?)

Reduced social image

It takes longer to build your social image, especially with people you do not know. Who is this person? Where does she come from? What’s her background? What’s her interest in this project? Can I trust her?

Limited use of non verbals

Non verbals are inevitably harder to leverage in an online environment. Even in video calls, during which we largely remain seated, we are often limited in the use of body poses. The influence benefits of movement and proximity are not available.

What can we do about it? When considering the nuances of digitally mediated influence, think about the following practical tips:

Favour rich channels for influence

A video call gives you more opportunities for influence than a phone call. You can use non verbals such as gestures and facial expressions, and you can respond to the non verbals of your audience. And a phone call is better than an email. It is synchronous, and you get information on paralinguistic cues (tone, pace, intonation). It is particularly important to use rich digital channels when influencing those you do not know well.

Favour lean channels to protect yourself from unwanted influence

Flip the logic for protecting yourself from unwanted influence and use leaner channels to buffer yourself. For example, if someone insists on a video call, ask them to outline the situation and the request in an advance email. It is more difficult to say no to a request on a video or a phone call than in an email. Even if the video call is inevitable, asking for the advance email gives you a chance to preface your position with a preliminary email response.

Expand the number of channels used

To influence others on issues that encompass complex messaging, expand the number of channels you use to communicate. For example, conduct a video call on the issue and follow up with an email. Studies show that influence that activates multiple senses (e.g., both hearing and reading) reduces information overload among those you are trying to influence and produces better results.

Enhance relational closeness

When using digital communications do not focus just on your message at hand. Ask people about their day, the team, the weather, or the performance of their favourite football team. Get to know them on a personal level. For example, experienced executives often hop on conference calls early or stay behind to catch up with teammates.

Also read: The future of remote work is happening now, here’s how

Check-in with people not only when you need something from them. Keep in mind that people vary greatly in the degree of closeness they experience while working through digital channels, and yet closeness fundamentally shapes how well people respond to your message.

Allow more time

When you’re trying to influence, your audience builds a mental model of you: Are you credible? Trustworthy? What are your intentions? Proving these qualities to others is essential for influence and yet they take longer to form in digitally mediated communication. Be patient and allow yourself more time to get people on board.

Leverage reduced majority pressure

Certain forms of computer-mediated communication (e.g., online chat rooms) put people at ease, allowing them to express their opinions more readily. In video-based communication, some platforms (e.g., Zoom) allow you to seamlessly and easily poll people privately, which can further reduce the effects of majority pressure.

Leverage private communication in group meetings

On most platforms, you can send private messages to others during a meeting. The goal here is not to be sneaky. Instead, private chats can enable your team to regroup during a client negotiation, entice participation, or ask a question without interrupting the speaker.

For example, try hosting 150 employees on a call and asking for feedback on a new initiative. In this case, crickets is likely your best outcome. If you privately text one of the people on the call, however, you can ask for direct feedback: “Cindy, the team would really appreciate hearing from you on this issue.”

If you would like to learn about enhancing your influence and persuasion skills, consider the new online course on “Maximizing Your Influence and Persuasion” offered by the Ross School of Business.

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Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing contributions from the community. Become a thought leader in the community and share your opinions or ideas and earn a byline by submitting a post.

Join our e27 Telegram group, or like the e27 Facebook page

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Before the product, there is an idea. As a passionate entrepreneur, it is easy for you to get ahead of yourself in your belief that your idea will be the “next big thing”. But do not let emotions blind your judgment and immediately commit everything you have (career, house, family) on the get-go. 

This is why bringing your idea through the stages of Proof of Concept (POC), Prototyping, and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a necessity. By following the process through these three stages, you can conservatively commit your limited resources in the most efficient way, to bring the idea and product to market.

Disclaimer: If the characteristics above don’t apply to you, the general concepts are still applicable, but specifics may differ.

Proof of Concept (PoC)

You may have your idea on the back of a napkin, but that does not mean you can go straight to hiring a developer and get things started. Instead, you should always start with a PoC.

The purpose of PoC is to test a concept, product, or process; basically to validate your assumptions as well as those of your potential customers. It ignores all UI/UX issues while focusing on proving the potential use-cases and operational feasibility.

In fact, the PoC does not have to be about a software product or something technical. It could be as simple as observing the execution of your ideas by using simple tools such as pen-and-paper forms, spreadsheets, or following a checklist of tasks, formulae, and processes while making sure that it solves the problem you have identified, or improves the efficiency of processes you are trying to optimise.

Prototyping

Once you have validated your idea through your PoC, you may want to embark on the prototyping process.

The prototype enables you to actually see how the product will operate in real life. It is the physical embodiment of the ideal concept. 

A prototype in software development has two different stages:

User Interface/User Experience (UI/UX) Prototype

A UI/UX Prototype shows how your inputs are collected and how your outputs are presented in the product you are building. As a result, startups will have to work closely with stakeholders to develop a UI/UX that is useful and usable.

Often, a prototype of this stage consists of static paper sketches or digital drawings or web pages that are interactive and clickable.

Working prototype  

Once the UI/UX is done, a working prototype might be developed and tested with a small group of potential stakeholders to ensure that the prototype function just like how they wanted. The defining point of the working prototype over a UI/UX prototype is that it works on real data. It may also reflect a more accurate UI/UX.

Depending on the scale of the product, a working prototype may not be required. It is advisable to build a working prototype if your product depends on a lot of inputs with different processing paths. 

For example, your PoC was a fairly complicated spreadsheet, or your checklist of tasks and processes spans many pages, to ensure that you can replicate your PoC realistically.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

An MVP is a product with a minimum number of essential features and remains viable. This is your version 1 release where features should be selected based on the feedback of the PoC/Prototype users instead of assumptions.

Also read: Things to consider before you build a profitable SaaS MVP

It is a common misconception that the MVP is the same as a Prototype. However, an MVP is actually shipped to the early adopters. Beyond the initial release, your MVP is further developed through an iterative process based on your early users’ reviews to identify pain points and eliminate them.

As an MVP is considered the very first version of your product, a preliminary business/monetisation plan should be available before this stage to help you use some rudimentary form of cost/benefit ratio to decide on the core features to develop.

Comparison at a glance

	Proof of Concept	Prototype (UI/UX)	Prototype (Working)	Minimum Viable Product
Timeline	Variable   If you have run your concepts by a few potential users and they all/mostly come back negative, then this concept is not viable.    Stop, review, and decide if you need a new concept.	1-2 months for developing UI/UX prototype and obtaining user feedback.	Takes 1-2 months to develop a working prototype	3 to 6 months on average
Resources	Yourself     Optional technical expert (if you want to develop your PoC in an electronic form or to ensure you gather enough technical knowledge)	UI/UX Designer     Your potential users for feedback	UI/UX Designer (To reconcile any technical requirements)     Developer (Nominally 1-2 freelancer/outsourced developer)     Your potential users for feedback	Maximum 3 developers   UI/UX designer    A long-term technical expert, who could be one of the developers.
Takeaway	Have information written down/documented for someone else to carry out the concept.   If everything is still in your head, you probably have not developed the concept sufficiently.	Your UI/UX designer should understand your PoC very well. If not, it means you need to revisit your PoC.     You have a good prototype of the product you want to develop.    You and potential users are fairly happy with how it has turned out.	The developer understands your PoC very well, just like the UI/UX designer.     Real-life data gathered during the PoC phase continues to work/be valid.     Many people confuse this step with developing an MVP. It tends to overlap due to how most people develop their MVP but making it distinct may save you time in the future by not having to test the basics out on a live or production system.	For most start-ups, anything beyond 18 man-months/6 calendar-months just means you are targeting too much in your MVP.   Look at re-prioritizing your feature set and get it down to a maximum combination of 18 man-months AND 6 calendar-months.   Be ready to start selling/marketing your product at the beginning of the last third of development.    Most importantly, this is your production system.

When it comes to assessing the feasibility of your product’s potential, each of these stages is useful on their own. PoC is great for a completely new product and idea while the prototype allows testing product viability in an internal user group. On the other hand, MVP is the best option for improving the product by letting the mass to validate its potential.

Still, It does not mean you must go through all stages sequentially and not skip any stage. A startup may, ideally, go through all the stages according to the software development stages. 

However, depending on the business idea, you might find that it is unnecessary to spread out the resources across all stages of product development. This may sometimes occur when your product is the digitalization of existing processes, where the existing processes form your PoC.

When to go MVP mode

As mentioned before, you might want to choose the MVP approach or go for it after developing a PoC, UI/UX prototype, and finally, a working prototype. 

So let’s take a breather, and consider these questions below before venturing into the MVP stage. 

Do you have an experienced technical expert/advisor onboard? 

It is crucial for ensuring that you have a long term expert or advisor. Ideally, this should be a co-founder or your very first technical hire. 

Funding and monetisation plans? 

When you know what to build, the next question is ‘how?’. In a very early stage start-up, development is your #1 cost factor, and you need to show something to your customers to get their buy-in. As the saying ‘you need to spend money to earn more money’ goes.

Clear business requirements for development? 

Imagine assembling a car without knowing how the individual parts connect. Sounds awful, right?

This goes the same for product development in tech startups. They need to know what they are building and expectations. Being able to document what your product is all about is extremely important. 

Also read: How to launch your MVP faster and smarter

This should be a living document. The good news is that it gets better each passing day. 

The Proof of Concept will help in verifying the feasibility of your idea, and Prototyping helps to refine it even further, while the MVP will be the very first step of your product’s life outside the internal development cycle.

With that in mind, one should consider these stages as a measure of your progress.

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In an effort to open up dialogue on new dimensions of innovation, the National Innovation Agency (NIA) of Thailand launched the Startup Thailand x Innovation Thailand Expo 2020. The project is a complete virtual event that does not only demonstrate Thailand’s strong innovation potential, but also creates a new phenomenon that combines all sectors to take part in the development of the national innovation ecosystem and make it stronger.

The event successfully concluded last September 18, which Dr. Pun-Arj Chairatana, Executive Director of NIA described as “an important synergy of leading Thai startups and innovators that have come together to show the innovation potential of the country in a virtual event.” The initiative also seeks to create changes in the country in order to address issues surrounding different crises occurring around the world.

Also read: TechCrunch founder’s VC firm leads US$3.7M in ex-Golden Gate employee’s blockchain startup Persistence

This year, there was cooperation from 133 partner organisations and 412 agencies to exhibit their innovative works geared towards coping with the crisis across 6 important themes. The event also featured 47 topics as discussed by more than 100 renowned speakers from 29 countries around the world.

Throughout the event, NIA received positive responses from government agencies, private sectors, startups, entrepreneurs, investors, students, and other interested stakeholders. A total of 15,462 people registered to the event, with approximately 19,000 visitors having accessed the website, which is now open for those who want to catch up on all the sessions.

Addressing the future through innovation

With the Startup Thailand x Innovation Thailand 2020, NIA is creating waves in the areas of innovation and technology not just as a means of mitigating the effects of different forms of global crises, but also as a means to holistically improve and empower broad spaces including economy, society, education, and culture.

The project has resulted in a number of successes, including the creation of a vast network of more than 3,000 stakeholders and investors and a total amount of 20,000 million baht from 120 investors ready to be invested across 48 corporations.

Also read: Hong Kong to drive business growth and collaboration under the “new normal” by leveraging innovation and technology

Moreover, over 200 startups are able to offer more than 46,000 products and services through an online market interface, opening up employment opportunities of more than 3,300 jobs across over 600 positions, which provide a vital driving force for the country’s economy. Such developments help address changing consumer behaviour in the new normal, creating a collaborative network between private and public sectors across various spaces including professional development and education.

The initiative also helped create new data assets from the use of Data Analytics to predict what will happen in the future, creating innovative business opportunities, and establishing data-driven innovation.

Moving forward with NIA

Dr. Pun-Arj emphasised NIA’s commitment to driving the country’s future through innovation, which is why Startup Thailand x Innovation Thailand 2020 is not just an online event but also a policy-based initiative to promote and support startups and innovative entrepreneurs. The initiative primarily serves as a tool to raise awareness on the concrete use of “Innovation in Times of Crisis”, one in which the “Virtual World” it has created won’t end after the pandemic, but will become a mechanism for continuous innovation and the further development of the innovation ecosystem.

Also read: Ecosystem Roundup: How challenger banks can succeed in SEA; Singapore SMEs digitalise at higher rates than global peers amid crisis

Pun-Arj concluded by highlighting the need for the ecosystem to adjust the innovation paradigm to cope with the different crises that are happening, including COVID-19, environmental degradation, and global economic setbacks — all of which are, in many ways, inextricable with one another. From the online forums in the event, NIA found that the global trends are now pointed at Deep Tech which will play an important role in addressing today’s challenges not only as a defensive strategy, but as a force that actually drives global transformation.

Moving forward, the next step for Startup Thailand x Innovation Thailand 2021 will see a specific focus on ‘DeepTech Rising’. This future instalment of the NIA initiative highlights the important next steps that the world should be taking as we inch closer to a post-pandemic future.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by 
the National Innovation Agency of Thailand.

We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.

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ION Mobility, a smart electric motorbike startup in Singapore, has received US$3.3 million in seed funding from investors, such as Monk’s Hill Ventures, TNB Aura and Village Global.

500 Durians, the Southeast Asian unit of 500 Startups, besides AngelCentral syndicate, kipleX and Seeds Capital, also joined the round.

The funds will be used to launch its electric motorbikes in Southeast Asia, expand market presence and develop its R&D, supply chain and manufacturing capabilities.

Also Read: Grab, Hyundai launches their first electric vehicle service in Indonesia

ION Mobility aims to create an affordable and sustainable mobility for everyone by combining advanced software and hardware technology with human-centred design.

It wants to provide clean alternatives for urban users, so as to alleviate urban air pollution and lead the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) across Southeast Asia, starting with motorbike.

The plan is to convert the 200-plus million motorcycle users in Southeast Asia from petrol to electric to drive a sustainable future.

“There is no proven EV motorbike brand in Southeast Asia with products that can compel motorbike riders to join the inevitable electric revolution,” ION Mobility Co-founder and CEO James Chan said: “We are committed to offering riders across Southeast Asia superior alternatives to their petrol-based motorbikes with our next- generation, smart and connected electric motorbikes that are clean, aspirational and affordable.”

The market opportunity for the motorbike industry in Southeast Asia is expected to hit US$8.53 billion by 2023. ION enters the market focusing on Indonesia, which has one of the biggest motorbike markets globally, with 2019 motorcycle sales at 6.38 million units a year.

Also Read: How electric scooters will revolutionise Southeast Asia’s congested cities

ION plans to launch its first EV motorbike in Indonesia in 2021.

In addition, the company is set to expand its team and operations across Singapore, Jakarta and Shenzhen, develop its in-house research and development capabilities, and build up its supply chain and manufacturing partnerships.

“Southeast Asia has one of the largest and fastest growing number of motorbike users in the world. With a rising middle class and newer generation of riders craving for affordable, cleaner and relatable motorbikes, ION Mobility is poised to combine technical performance, modern design, and mobile connectivity to the masses,” said Kuo-Yi Lim, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Monk’s Hill.

“We at TNB Aura believe that the emergence of a local OEM champion is both necessary and imminent, with Southeast Asia representing 8 per cent of the world population yet 25 per cent of global motorbike demand. We are excited to be supporting strong repeat entrepreneurs James and Joel in bringing a home-grown mainstream EV motorbike offering to the market, starting with Indonesia,” said Charles Wong, Co-founder and Managing Partner of TNB Aura.

ION co-fouders Chan and Joel Chang (COO) have a track record in building and scaling tech companies in Southeast Asia. Prior to ION, Chan was a venture capitalist and entrepreneur at Neoteny Labs, Silicon Straits and Wecash.

Also Read: Vietnam’s e-bike Saigon aims to replace cars for urban transportation

Chang, an automotive industry veteran, co-founded Scorpio Electric and has previously led a BMW dealer group’s establishment and expansion across Asia.

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Image Credit: ION Mobility

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MyCloudFulfillment (MCF), an e-commerce fulfilment company based in Thailand, has announced that it has closed a US$2 million Series A round of financing from local PE firm ECG-Research, Gobi Partners, Bangkok-based NVest Venture, and SCB 10X, a holding company of Siam Commercial Bank.

The investment will help MCF broaden its product development, build data-centric organisation and leverage collected data to help fuel e-commerce growth in the home market.

Also Read: These 7 homegrown e-commerces are on track to put Thailand on global map

MCF provides storage, packing and shipping services with sales channel integration and data analytics for e-commerce firms. Its Order Management analytics helps customers manage orders from multiple channels (online to offline) and make the best decision on promotion campaigns and sales channel optimisation.

In addition, its Inventory Management analytics can help suggest customers what stock keeping units (SKUs) to stock more or stock less and at what level. This helps customers save a lot of opportunity cost from over-stocking or under-stocking their products.

MCF’s Fulfilment Management analytics helps customers keep up with fulfilment movement, which means they can see statistics throughout the process — from receiving order to shipping out the products. This also shows level of profitability of each order, which we can use to help improve customer’s bottom line.

MCF claims that it recently passed milestones of over 100,000 SKUs in storage, over 50,000 of maximum daily orders, and over THB 500 million (US$16 million) worth of transactions during H1, 2020.

Nithi Satchatippavarn, MD and Co-founder of MyCloudFulfillment, said: “Thailand e-commerce market is currently in a sweet spot. Thai people spend almost as much as Indonesians on e-commerce transactions but Thailand is much more under-penetrated. Therefore, there are big opportunities for Thailand e-commerce market to grow further relative to other countries with similar or higher purchasing power.”

The global e-commerce market has been growing significantly. According to Statista, the value of the e-commerce market worldwide is projected to reach THB 75 trillion (US$240 billion) by the end of 2020, reflecting 26 per cent increase from 2019, while the number of e-commerce users is projected to reach 3,468 million users, a 9.6 per cent increase from last year.

Asia is the largest market, accounting for 61.5 per cent of worldwide users with Southeast Asia as the key growth driver. Statista forecast also shows that Southeast Asia will see 44 per cent growth in e-commerce transaction value from 2019.

Looking at the purchasing power in Southeast Asia, the country with the highest potential is Indonesia with average revenue per user of US$219 per user per year, followed by Thailand with average revenue per user of US$215.67 per user per year.

However, Thailand still has significantly lower e-commerce penetration rate relative to Indonesia. Therefore, the local e-commerce market still has large room to grow.

The e-commerce industry has changed significantly due to gradual adoption of Big Data and the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the new future with ‘Data Commerce’.

Also Read: Why e-commerce startups will revolutionise the supply chain in Southeast Asia

Dr. Arak Sutivong, CEO of SCB 10X said: “We have seen strong growth rate in Thailand e-commerce and logistic industries, especially during COVID-19. MyCloudFulfillment offers e-commerce fulfilment services which has potential to become the key solution for sellers who focus on e-commerce market. The company also has potential to grow throughout Southeast Asia and help drive Thai economy further by becoming key leader in fulfilment industry regionally.”

“Besides providing financial support, we also have a plan to develop solutions for Social Commerce together with MyCloudFulfillment to provide best experiences for sellers and end consumers,” he added.

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Image Credit: MyCloudFulfillment

 

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EVOS Esports, an e-sports platform owned and operated by Singapore-based Attention Holdings, has secured US$12 million in a Series B investment round, led by Korea Investment Partners (KIP).

Mirae Asset Ventures, Woowa Brothers, Indogen Capital, existing investor Insignia Ventures Partners, and several family offices across Southeast Asia and Japan, also participated.

The money will primarily be used for building out its tech capabilities, an EVOS spokesperson told e27.

This round comes less than a year after EVOS raised US$4.4 million in Series A funding from Insignia and several angel investors.

Also Read: Who’s driving e-sports and gaming in Southeast Asia: Gamers or fans?

EVOS was founded in 2017 with the aim to facilitate competitive e-sports teams across six major games. It trains and supports 13 teams comprising 62 players across five countries.

E-sports influencers form the pillar of EVOS’s live-streaming and content platforms. According to its Chief Strategic Officer Ang Teng Jen, its top influencers earn around US$30,000 to US$60,000 a month. To date, it claims to have worked with 400 gaming influencers.

To manage its influencers, EVOS provides streaming contracts, brand endorsement deals, and offline event gigs to influencers, as well as managing their social media channels and creating content for them. EVOS’ influencers have a total of over two million followers on their social media platforms with more than 34 million subscribers to their channels.

As of today, EVOS claims to have worked with more than 150 brands, including Lazada, Gareno, and Lenovo. It also partners with e-commerce brands to create e-sports content on the brands’ platforms, such as e-sports game shows and online user tournaments with professional players.

The company claims its revenue from the live-streaming arm has doubled since the start of 2020 and continues to peak month after month, with the its overall revenue surpassing its 2019 numbers despite the pandemic.

EVOS has grown to be the sixth largest e-sports brand globally, it said.

Also Read: What are the key trends in mobile gaming ads in Southeast Asia?

Ivan Yeo, CEO of Attention, said: “Global e-sports revenue is projected to grow at 15 per cent CAGR, with our region showing the highest growth rate at 24 per cent CAGR. As the countries we are operating in are still largely untapped, we intend to maximise this opportunity and are well positioned to launch the region’s first ever e-sports platform.”

Sang-Ho Park, Executive Director of KIP, who will be joining Attention’s Board of Directors, said: “E-sports is currently one of the fastest growing industries and Attention has managed to establish themselves as the most advanced e-sports platform across Asia.”

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