The moment Sean Parker suggested Mark Zuckerberg drop “The” in “The Facebook” was the moment that changed the world as we know it. For the better or for the worse is still up for debate though.

With over two billion users, the social media platform has permeated today’s society in heights unforeseen.

Today, the way we make friends, communicate, promote ourselves and our brands, entertain and be entertained, are all influenced by Facebook and other social media platforms.

It is undeniable impact on people also begs to question if its influence on society is good or bad. Many experts have studied its negative effects, but social media founders and practitioners always find a way to defend their cause. Until now.

Earlier this month, former Facebook Vice President for User Growth, Chamath Palihapitiya, spoke against the platform, noting its harmful effects on the society around the world.

The executive spoke to a crowd at the Stanford Graduate School of Business wherein he shared his “tremendous guilt” for what he helped establish with the Palo Alto company. The exec is the second former employee of the platform who has spoken about the negative effects Facebook and social media has on society.

Palihapitiya admits creating “tools that are ripping apart” society

“We have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. That is truly where we are,” the 41-year-old venture capitalist told the audience during a talk on November 10, 2017.

Palihapitiya joined Facebook in 2007. At that time, the company was still in its early-yet-booming stages, having been launched in 2004. What started as a platform exclusive to Harvard students, created by Mark Zuckerberg in his dormitory room, soon exploded into a country-wide phenomenon. Before everyone knew it, people from all over the world were getting hooked.

When he joined the company, the former VP admitted that there wasn’t really much thought put into the long-term negative effects of the platform. As they built the network, they made themselves believe that no negative consequences will come out of what now seems as the exploitation of consumer psychology.

“I think in the back, deep, deep recesses of our minds, we kind of knew something bad could happen,” he revealed.

Also read: Watch out, these startup social media marketing strategies are bullshit

While social media, as a whole, has helped bridge people from thousands of miles away, Palihapitiya admits that it has taught the community to be impatient. Driven by likes and hearts, people now turn to social media for instant gratification, “eroding the core foundations of how people behave.”

“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth.”

The Golden State Warriors owner did praise Facebook for the overwhelming good it does for the world, but the damaging effects have pushed him to stop using the tool. And he encourages people to take a “hard break” from Facebook and other social media platforms as well.

Sean Parker, a “conscientious objector” of social media

Even before Palihapitiya made his claims, Sean Parker already made his thoughts about social networking known. The infamous former Facebook president attended an Axios event in Philadelphia earlier in November where he acknowledged the “unintended consequences” of the platform he helped grow.

“It literally changes your relationship with society, with each other … It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways.”

Parker noted that Facebook is “a social-validation feedback loop,” and exploits a vulnerability in people’s psychology. He likens social media to having a dopamine hit whenever someone gets a like or comment. Much like other substances, once the high subsides, users want to take another hit to feel elated and elevated again.

“God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains,” Parker, who is now founder and chair of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, said.

Facebook admits mental health adverse effects

Defending itself from all the negative claims about its platform, Facebook responded to its former VP clarifying that things have been different since Palihapitiya left the company. A spokesperson for the company told The Verge that when the former exec was with FB, they were solely focused on “building new social media experiences” and establishing the brand across the world. However, over the years, as the platform grew, “we have realized how our responsibilities have grown too.”

“We take our role very seriously and we are working hard to improve. We’ve done a lot of work and research with outside experts and academics to understand the effects of our service on well-being, and we’re using it to inform our product development,” the spokesperson explained.

Also read: We are in the ‘Black Mirror’, living in a world where social media is taking us on a nosedive

A recent journal published by the social media giant, however, confirmed that depending on the use of their platform, Facebook could indeed affect mental health negatively. “Passively consuming” information — like reading posts on the newsfeed — without interacting with other Facebook users could lead to depression and lower self-esteem.

A UC San Diego and Yale study revealed that people who simply browsed through their feeds — liking posts and clicking on links — are more inclined to have negative social comparison than those who post on their walls often.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has also released a similar study wherein it confirmed that social media use may lead to “Facebook Depression” among adolescents. The term coined by the researchers pertains to the depression that preteens and teens develop when they spend time on the platform.

“Acceptance by and contact with peers is an important element of adolescent life. The intensity of the online world is thought to be a factor that may trigger depression in some adolescents,” the journal noted. It added that “Facebook Depression” may lead to substance abuse and self-destructive behaviour.

To address such issues, Facebook has been taking steps to make its ecosystem a safe one. It has been employing the help of social psychologists, sociologists, and social scientists to establish an environment where the network contributes in a positive way. So far, it has added the “On This Day” feature which shows memories with friends and encourages user interaction. It has also positioned itself as a venue for goodwill and humanitarian work through fundraisers for disaster relief.

CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg says the company wants “the time people spend on Facebook to encourage meaningful social interactions.” Moreover, the company promised users that they are willing to reduce their profitability to “make sure the right investments are made.”

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Indonesia-based edtech platform Zenius reportedly has raised US$20 million (IDR283 billion) from Northstar Group, DailySocial has learned.

Zenius was co-founded by its CEO Sabda PS dan Jerome Polin, and it’s said that PS will become the company’s chairman following the funding. The CEO declined to comment on the matter.

Zenius claimed to be one of the first initiators of edtech startup in the country.

Moving classroom online has been in trend for the past couple of years, with the country seeing names like Zenius’ competition Ruangguru aggressively accelerates its growth and in-country expansion with it being valued at US$7,100, according to DailySocail’s Startup Report 2018.

Recently, Ruangguru has added another segment like Ruangkerja, aimed at employees to have access to Skill Academy, facilitating extracurricular skills improvement for career people.

Also Read: Reaching out: These startups are educating Indonesia’s underprivileged

According to data summoned from Crunchbase, this could be the first funding outside internal fundraising that Zenius has raised.

Zenius was established in 2007 as an online course service targeting all education levels, from elementary school to senior high with public university test prep.

The cost to subscribe to its online course starts from US$12 to US$46 per month. Zenius is said to already have a library of 80,000 educational videos.

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Photo by AD Studio on Unsplash

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The Asia-Pacific region is one of the fastest-growing places when it comes to fintech. Multiple startups focused on fintech have sprouted across the area, with China, Singapore, and Japan leading the way.

Fintech has disrupted the financial sector across the world, bringing much-needed innovation and change, and the Philippines looks to be a part of these changes.

 The Fintech landscape of the Philippines

Multiple startups and fintech incubators have opened up in the country, with many focusing on payment systems and alternative finance while blockchain, cryptocurrencies and other financial services not far behind.

Government response towards the changing landscape that is fintech has been positive. In recent years, the Philippine government has enacted policies that are targeted at achieving greater financial inclusion while pushing for growth and innovation in the world of financial services.

The country’s central financial regulator even hopes to raise the adoption of digital payments systems by 20 per cent by the year 2020.

The government has also signified that it is ready to collaborate with other fintech leaders, signing an agreement with the Monetary Authority of Singapore aimed at fostering fintech cooperation. Regulatory safeguards have also been set to help address money laundering concerns and protect consumers.

Also Read: How fintech is making credit more accessible for Southeast Asian SMEs

Investors both global and locals have started to take notice as well. In 2017, saw a USD$11.2 million in investments for new fintech firms which has steadily increased, reaching USD$96.6 Million in 2018.

Investors like Indonesian startup titan Go-Jek, Singaporean firm Grab and Hong Kong’s Oriente have made their presence known in the Philippine’s fintech sector while China’s corporate juggernauts Alibaba and Tencent have flexed their investment muscles, with the latter raising over $175 million in a funding round for the Philippine telecom’s fintech arm, Voyager.

Challenges in the Fintech sector

 It’s not all rainbows and sunshine, however. While other countries have made inroads with fintech startups, The Philippines is still lagging badly behind. In 2018, startups in the country only received around USD$50 million in venture capital funding, an abysmally low amount considering investments in the region totaled $3.6 billion that year.

The country has little access to venture capital, aside from angel investors

Funding isn’t the only challenge fintech startups face in the country. Firms face an alarming lack of talent in the country as well. Startups have reported difficulty in hiring and retaining fintech talent in the country. This appears to be a common challenge across the region, as fintech startups in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have also experienced the same difficulty.

Also Read: How fintech is making credit more accessible for Southeast Asian SMEs

The lack of infrastructure has also slowed down the fintech sector in the Philippines. Low internet penetration, abysmally bad internet connectivity speeds are also compounded by a variety of factors including geographical concerns, government inaction, corporate monopolies and most tellingly, corruption, have all conspired to leave the country with one of the worst internet services in the Asia-Pacific region.

 Looking to the future: the role of global partners

 Right now, we are seeing a remarkable growth in the Philippine fintech sector. Increased access to wireless internet via 3G and 4G networks is breaking the barriers caused by infrastructural bottlenecks, while the entry of a third major telco player has altered the balance of power in the current Philippine telecoms sector.

As quoted from Atty. Edsel Tupaz, Partner of Gorriceta Africa Cauton & Saavedra Law Firm and a known advocate of fintech in the Philippines, “The government continues to support the local fintech scene with increasingly liberal policies, including testing the waters with regulatory sandboxes. These factors have attracted international Venture Capital firms, boosting access to capital that startups need. Because of these developments, the Philippines is becoming a friendlier ecosystem for businesses and capital supportive of fintech initiatives.”

This stage in the development of the country’s fintech sector is when global partners, such as GBCI Ventures, become critical. Global partners bring not just much-needed capital to startups, but insight on fintech trends worldwide and experience in transforming a concept into reality.

GBCI Ventures does all that and more. Aside from bringing a veritable venture capital war chest to the tune of USD$100 million, the firm also helps startups hit the ground running by providing business-critical processes that every fintech startup needs.

GBCI Ventures can also leverage their own pool of talents to help startups with developing fintech applications in the Philippines. Their focus on investments that will become critical in the fintech sector, as well as smart cities, will become crucial, especially as the country begins to develop the human capital that will become critical in the coming fintech renaissance.

As the Philippine fintech scene grows, it will need a partner that brings not only much-needed capital but the know-how and drive to innovate. GBCI Ventures and other global players can be that partner that helps bring on a digital transformation.

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Douglas Gan is a serial technopreneur, investor, venture builder and a thought leader in smart city solution using blockchain technology. He currently serves as the co-founder and CEO of GBCI Ventures, a US$100M Smart City Investment Fund as well as BCB Blockchain, a technology protocol focused on the development of smart cities.

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I get it-you’re excited about your startup and you can’t wait to get it off the ground. But there are a lot of mistakes you’re making that can land you into legal trouble. And guess what? The continuity of your business depends on whether or not you’re in compliance with the law.

If you are serious about building a startup that won’t fail, then you are in luck. In this article, I am going to walk you through the most common legal mistakes startups make so that you can spot them on time and avoid them.

Mistake #1: Thinking that working with a lawyer in the early stages of the business is unnecessary

Yes, so much is said about law and lawyers that you may feel a bit intimidated by their presence or maybe even apprehensive. But as a startup, one of the grave mistakes you can make is to not have a lawyer you can consult from the initial stages of your business.

So, hire a lawyer who will be there for you when you want to take any decision that will affect your business and ensure that your rights and interests are protected.

Mistake #2: Failing to register the name of the business

So you’ve got a pretty swanky name that you love the ring of. And maybe you’ve told your friends, family and future prospects the name of your business. Or maybe you went further to design and print business cards and even launched a website. Then the bomb drops:  you find out that an older business is using the name that you wanted to use.

Also Read:  Developing your brand voice on social media: 5 mistakes to avoid

It’s literally heartbreaking when you see someone else using your world-class business name. But the only way to ensure that such a thing doesn’t happen is to register your business name. Sadly, some people still see their business as a hobby, so they go the longest time without registering their business name.

When you initiate the process of registering the name of the business, one of the processes you’ll encounter is a name check. At this stage, you’ll be able to know if the name you want to use for your business exists or not. If it does, then you will have to use an alternate name for your business. However, if it doesn’t, then you will be allowed to proceed with the business name registration process.

Mistake #3: Overlooking the need to have a non-disclosure agreement

For the purpose of getting advice, engaging the services of professionals or hiring people, you will have to share some information about your startup. However, sharing this information could put your startup at risk of having its ideas stolen or leaked to people who aren’t meant to hear such information. Yes, these things happen in real life.

In such a case having a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that the person you want to share business information with can sign will ensure that such information remains confidential. In the event the person breaks this agreement and shares such information, you will have the cause to sue them for breaking such agreement.

Mistake #4: Not doing anything to protect your intellectual property

If your startup has created a unique technology or product and you’ve done nothing to protect it from being stolen by someone else, then you’re making a fatal mistake. And you guessed it – the need to protect the startup’s intellectual property rights eludes some startups.

When it comes to protecting the intellectual property rights of your business these are some of the protective measures you should take:

1. Patents – protects your invention and prevents others from reproducing, using or selling the same invention.

2. Trademarks – protects the distinguishing symbol or name that your business is identified with. Good examples of trademarks are the words “Coca-Cola” or the tick symbol of Nike.

3. Copyright – protects the original creative work like videos, music, art or books. This right gives you exclusive rights to lawfully make copies of your work or sequels of it.

Mistake #5: Keeping yourself vulnerable without a standard contract

A lot of startups have fallen in situations where clients hire their services only for their clients to fail to pay on time or have a disagreement on your rates and how the project was meant to be like. More often than not, it can get pretty messy.

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

With a standard legal contract, both you and your clients will be clear on the terms of engagement.

Such a contract will ensure everyone knows what their rights and obligations are to each other and cancel any doubt as to what is expected from the outcome of the contract. It’ll give you the needed protection when it comes to delivering your services to the client.

Time to turn a new leaf

This article might have put you on the spot in some areas, but I promise it’s for your own good. Now that you know that you should register your business and protect your intellectual property and your business interest and of course, the most important of them all: hire a lawyer. Its time to makes some changes.

Honesty hour: Are you guilty of making any of the legal mistakes we mentioned?

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India considers censoring Netflix, Amazon Prime Video – Reuters

A senior government official in India said that the government is considering to censor contents on streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, Reuters reported.

The move was encouraged by recent court cases and complaints filed to the police that alleged some content on these platforms to be “obscene” or insult religious sentiment.

Public content on television and film are moderated by certification bodies in India but the existing law does not allow censorship on online streaming platforms.

In January, concerns about this possible censorship had led Netflix and local competitor Hotstar to sign a self-regulation code. Amazon did not sign up this code as the company deemed the existing regulations to be “adequate.”

WeWork loses CMO Robin Daniels – Bloomberg

WeWork CMO Robin Daniels is leaving the company, becoming the fifth C-level executive to step down in the last few weeks, Bloomberg reported.

Citing two people familiar with the matter, the report also highlighted how WeWork is “likely” to run out of money as soon as “next month”, following its failed IPO attempt in September. The company is said to be considering a debt package led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and a US$5 billion rescue plan from its largest shareholder SoftBank Group Corp.

It is also expected to lay off “thousands” of employees this month.

A WeWork spokesperson has declined to comment.

Also Read: Netflix is a marriage counseling session new parents never expect

Historic all-female spacewalk at ISS scheduled on Friday – The Jakarta Post

US astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir are set to conduct the first ever all-female spacewalk on Friday to replace the power source on the International Space Station (ISS), The Jakarta Post reported.

The mission followed the one cancelled in March due to one astronaut’s ill-fitting suit which led to her replacement by a male colleague.

It will be broadcast in its entirety from 6:30 AM EDT (10:30 GMT) on National Aeronautics and Space Association (NASA) Television and website.

Mark Zuckerberg criticises TikTok’s censorship of protesters – SCMP

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday criticised rival social media giant TikTok for its censorship of political content, even in markets such as the US, South China Morning Post reported.

The CEO also stated that social media platforms such as Facebook’s Whatsapp were used by protesters and activists due to its encryption and privacy protection.

TikTok denied China censors its content by stressing that it is “not influenced by any foreign government.”

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Struggling grocery delivery startup honestbee today announced the appointment of Varian Lim as Chief Operating Officer among other new changes in its management team.

Lim was previously honestbee’s Chief of Staff and has been with the firm since its early days in 2015. In his new role, Lim will be responsible for all of the company’s Singapore and regional day-to-day operations.

He will be executing on the company’s short and long-term vision and goals, implementing better business practices and securing the functionality of honestbee business to drive sustainable growth.

Also Read: ‘RedDoorz, OYO use too many short-sighted tactics to artificially pump vanity metrics’: ZEN Rooms CEO Nathan Boublil

Other senior appointments include Zhen Rong Chua as VP, Regional Growth; Kenneth Forbes as VP, Habitat; YT Lim as VP, Finance; Sharon Ong as General Counsel (Interim); and Anthony Ung as VP, Corporate Strategy.

According to a press statement, the new management team will guide honestbee through its next stage of growth. These appointments are effective on 1 October 2019.

The new appointments come amidst the cash-strapped company’s efforts to spring back to life, following several key senior executive changes and shutdown/scaling down of operations in a few markets in Southeast Asia. In May this year, its Co-founder and CEO Joel Sng was fired. This was followed by temporarily suspending a part of its operations in the Philippines and then Malaysia.

As per a news report in September, honestbee owes 217 employees a total of almost US$1 million in unpaid salary.

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Zilingo, the online fashion retail startup headquartered in Singapore, launches a women-empowering initiative called SheWorkz, seeking to give women at home a chance to monetise their free time and space in their homes to start a business by providing them vocational training, financing, and business development opportunities.

SheWorkz wants to bring women back to the workforce, on their own terms, and pave the way toward greater financial independence without the constraints of a traditional workplace.

In its official statement, Zilingo shares that in South and Southeast Asia, women contribute a meagre 31 per cent to the workforce and they contribute even less, 24 per cent to the GDP. Meanwhile, a McKinsey Global Institute report found that advancing women’s equality in the workplace could add US$12 trillion to the global GDP by 2025,

SheWorkz has a four-step program:

1. Identifying women to participate in a 20-day vocational training course funded 100 percent by Zilingo to build critical skills such as batik making, pattern design, sewing, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Participants are then grouped according to skill-level and geography into ‘micro-factories’.
2. Connecting micro-factories are to the global market through Zilingo’s network where they have the opportunity to receive apparel orders from brands.
3. Zilingo to provide access to microfinance through verified lines of credit from partners.
4. Allowing flexible working hours to balance work and family by enabling women to work from home.

SheWorkz’s inauguration event was attended by guest-of-honour, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Darmin Nasution.

Also Read: Zilingo CEO Ankiti Bose on failures, challenges, handling depression and more

SheWorkz has led to the creation of Indonesia’s first-ever fashion cluster for microcredit financing, termed the “fashion and lifestyle cluster”.

Zilingo, founded in 2015 by Ankiti Bose, CEO, and Co-founder of Zilingo, has been vocal about women empowerment. At Zilingo, women make up more than half of the company’s employees; with close to 50 percent of the C-level executives being female.

“Women are the most underutilized and latent potential Asian economies. They contribute only 24% of GDP in South and Southeast Asia. We kept thinking about this and the opportunity compelled us to act. SheWorkz will be the largest decentralised manufacturing ecosystem in the world. Airbnb taught us that every extra bedroom in your house could be a hotel with some investment and vision. Then why can’t that extra space be a workshop/small manufacturing unit utilising the time women have on their hands-on account of falling out of the workforce,” said Bose​.

In February this year, the company secured US$226 million in Series D round of funding from a host of investors, including Temasek, Sequoia Capital India, Singapore-based Burda Principal Investments, Sofina (Belgium) and EDBI.

Zilingo aims to expand SheWorkz’s reach and upskill over 2,000 women in countries such as India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Cambodia by 2022.
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Malaysian cricket-based sustainable food technology startup Ento announced that it has closed a seed funding round led by Singaporean based Venture Capital firm, Rapzo Capital. Kevin Wu, CEO & Founder of Ento said that the funding will be used for production and regional market expansion.

On its website, Ento states that the company will focus on several key growth areas such as production capacity expansion, new product lines creation, new market access, and automation technology development within its production process.

The end goals, Ento noted, are to reduce cost structure, improve production efficiency, and set up a scalable technology platform.

Wu said: “Over the next 12 months, we aim to have a strong presence both online and offline. Ento has set its sights on target markets within Southeast Asia, especially in Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia.”

According to an article on Vulcan Post, Ento produced about 1,000 packets of crickets per month back in May but has since increased production to about 5,000 packets a month.

Also Read: Vietnam-based cricket protein startup Cricket One secures funding from 500 Startups, Masik Enterprises, bringing sustainable alternative to beef, chicken

Ento also plans to introduce a mass-targeted new product named Cricket Granola Protein Bites. Aside from snacks, Ento has also been supplying some manufacturers with their cricket powders.
With the significant shift in the healthy lifestyle trend that’s here to stay, Ento also managed to educate the public, especially Malaysians, about the benefits of consuming crickets.

After a failed Kickstarter campaign, Wu and the team learned to retreat to focus only on reaching customers within Malaysia and Southeast Asia, Vulcan Post shared.

“We have competitions from countries like Thailand, which is also our targeted expansion spot. But we are the first Malaysian company to go regional with a healthy and sustainable protein,” said Wu.

The company recently added key hires into their team with new COO, Antonnio Hong, ex-Head of Strategy & Corporate Planning of Hong Leong Bank, also advisor Scott Su, the Head of Tech Ventures at Sime Darby Plantation.

“I think the planet needs an alternative and sustainable protein to sustain. The population will hit 10 billion by 2050 and there’s no way we can sustain the amount of food we have for future populations. There are already issues in areas where there are drought and hard-to-farm lands. We believe that switching to insect-based protein is a potential solution to solve our future problems,” Wu quoted saying.

Ento’s funding made the news almost at the same time as Cricket One, a Vietnamese cricket protein startup that secured funding from 500 Startups and Masik Enterprise earlier this week.
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Picture Credit: Ento

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It’s not common for a country in developing regions like Southeast Asia to have full government support for its tech ecosystem, and Malaysia is one of them.

According to Export Gov, Malaysia’s e-commerce sector benefits from the implementation of programs under the National e-commerce Strategic Roadmap’s (NeSR) with the National e-commerce Council (NeCC) on the driver seat.

It comprises of various ministries and agencies with a mission to double Malaysia’s e-commerce growth rate to reach a GDP contribution of US$53 billion by 2020.

With a dynamic economy and ready infrastructure for digital technologies, Malaysia recorded 25 million social media users, 40.24 million mobile subscriptions, and 24 million use social media on their mobile devices per January 2019.

The high numbers directly resulted in Malaysia boasting 16.53 million online shoppers (account for 50 per cent of the population) and 62 per cent of mobile users using their devices to shop online.

Gov further concludes that Malaysian online shoppers are motivated by price advantages, product range, and the availability of reviews. They look for free shipping, convenience, and exclusive deals offered by online stores.

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

With that being said, Lazada.com.my and Shopee.com.my come in strong with zero per cent commission and free shipping module and zero per cent transaction fees respectively, which instantly put both on top for online shopping choices among Malaysians.

However, when it comes to local e-commerce startups, these 9 names offer Malaysians a different take on online shopping with their better understanding of the market.

GoShop

GoShop sets different precedence for e-commerce in Malaysia by offering premium and trusted products from categories like beauty, health and wellness, home appliances and kitchenware, living, sports and leisure, digital, and many more.

The startup is based in East Malaysia, with Sabah and Sarawak-concentrated customers. CEO Grace Lee said that the startup has a dedicated warehouse established in East Malaysia since December 2017, as reported in The Borneo Post.

Go Shop, established in 2014, is operated by Astro GS Shop Sdn Bhd, a joint venture between Malaysia’s integrated consumer media group, Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (60 per cent) and GS Home Shopping Inc (40 per cent). It describes itself as Malaysia’s 24-hour lifestyle shopping destination where products and services are demonstrated, sold on multiple platforms including TV, Astro Go, online e-commerce, and mobile commerce to offer an anytime-anywhere retail experience.

Go Shop believes that its live product demonstration on TV allows for a three-dimensional experience of their products. “Our customers can relate better with the products and how these products suit their lifestyles,” said Lee

Mudah.com

Mudah.com, which means “easy” in Malay, was founded in 2007 as a buy and sell online platform.

Mudah offers a range of diverse categories – from cars, electronics, properties, jobs, sports, collectibles, toys, books, and computers, amongst many others.

Recently, under the leadership of CEO Gaurav Bhasin, Mudah entered into a partnership with Lendela, a Singapore-based loan comparison company, allowing the latter to offer their services on the Mudah’s platform. According to Fintech News Malaysia, the partnership allows Mudah’s customers to apply for loans directly on Mudah and to bring more transparency and ease-of-use to borrowers while reducing risk and cost for lenders.

Lelong

Lelong has been around since 1998, making it one of the few firsts that spotted the e-commerce potential in Malaysia. It is a C2C platform that allows users to sell and purchase second-hand items.

Founded by Tan and Kwok Wei and headquartered in Selangor, it offers products from gadgets to fashion and accessories in an online auction marketplace approach. Lelong, alongside Lmall.my, is operating under its parent company Interbase Resources, which also manages online marketplace Superbuy.my and e-payment platform Netpay.my.

Just last year, Lelong announced that it has acquired digital marketing agency Mataris Agency for an undisclosed sum.

i-Pmart

Founded in 2001, i-Pmart belongs to the i-Pmart Group of Companies. It focusses mainly on the international market since 2005, selling mobile phones and electronic parts online.

It is the holder of ‘MSC status’ in Malaysia, which makes it a part of the country’s ‘Multimedia Super Corridor’ initiative to promote Malaysia as a regional center for world-class technology businesses.

Also Read: Key challenges and opportunities in Malaysia’s e-commerce scene

i-Pmart was founded by its CEO Mart Tang, and it just recently added bitcoin to the list of accepted payment methods to provide the option for its worldwide shipping to China and US, Coindesk has learned.

i-Pmart is also a big seller of litecoin mining equipment, selling GPU-based rigs both to advanced users to self-assemble with the ‘Savvy Pack’, and a ‘Newbie Pack’ for beginners that includes the option to have i-Pmart assemble, host, and even operate the hardware for them.

Zilzar

With the online halal (permissible, lawful for Muslims) industry on the rise with an estimated US$1.6 trillion worth in 2018 and Malaysia with one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, an e-commerce that ensures this is poised to succeed.

Zilzar was founded by the Malaysian prime minister, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, at the World Islamic Economic Forum. The name means an earthquake in Arabic, as shown in an article by The Guardian.

Zilzar offers a platform for businesses and consumers to sell halal products and services to each other with entrepreneurs as its core market.

Consumers on Zilzar are allowed to trade products from prayer beads and electronic Qurans to hijabs and films. All its sellers and products are verified by certification bodies around the world.
Its chief executive Rushdi Siddiqui said that Zilzar is going after Alibaba’s suppliers.

“Technology is a great equaliser. Aid has not helped Muslims in emerging markets and Zilzar was trying to feed them; now it’s time to teach them to fish,” said Siddiqui.

Halal products should not contain alcohol or pork traces or promote gambling.

FashionValet

Online fashion and beauty retailer FashionValet emerges as a frontrunner when it comes to the local success story.

FashionValet carries over 200 brands and 10,000 products from fashion designers and celebrity brands in Southeast Asia.

The company was founded in 2010 by local celebrity Vivy Yusof and Fadzarudin Shah Anuar, offering a wide range of ready-to-wear garments for women, accessories, and handbags. It works by offering a simplified shopping experience and a customer service team to assist online shoppers.

In 2016, FashionValet raised Series B round financing from Start Today Co., owner of Japan’s leading online fashion mall ZOZOTOWN.

Hermo

Focussing on selling Korean cosmetics online for Malaysia consumers, Hermo was founded in 2012 by Ian Chua and PS Chong, who is the VP of Merchandise, before adding Ian Mok a year later as its current COO. The company is based in Johor Bahru.

Inspired by the hassle women around them have to go through to pick out beauty products, Hermo was born.

The first funding Hermo raised was a seed and angel financing from Singaporean investment firm Crystal Horse Investments and Malaysian angel investor Tan Swee Yeong. In 2015, it secured a US$2 million Series A round led by Gobi Partners.

Also Read: 6 Singapore-bred e-commerces that tread ahead among fierce competitions

However, in 2017, Gobi Partners announced that it has sold its stake in Hermo to Tokyo-listed istyle inc, a market design company that operates the Japanese cosmetics e-commerce site Cosme.com.

Gobi said it sold its stake because of istyle’s ability to build international companies and its positioning in North Asia, something that Hermo wants to do.

HiShop

Also offering health and beauty products, HiShop is Hermo’s local competition. The company stated on its official site that it guarantees direct sourcing from the official brand distributors.

HiShop works with beauty advisors, seeking to give access to customers’ beauty choices and decisions. It also has built a beauty community that offers privileges such as rewards and exclusive beauty events invite.

Poplook

Another local online fashion startup is Poplook, modest wear-focussed e-commerce. It offers workwear, maternity, plus-size, children wear and, more.

Poplook was founded in 2009 as an online-only fashion label but has since expanded into the brick-and-mortar market with two physical stores in the Klang Valley.

According to Star2, Poplook, which recently showed its collection at the 2019 Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week, believes that what they offer is also a way to embrace the Malaysian culture of helping others and growing together.

Nine local players, multifaceted product categories offered. Although Lazada and Shopee remain monopolising the market, the presence of the local players excites the monotone market.

It’s sure still a long way before the local startups can catch up to be in the same caliber of the international e-commerce players, but the journey to get there is a learning curve on its own for the watching eyes, especially after an ambitious mission for investing more in tech by Malaysia’s Oil and gas company Petronas setting up a US$350 million venture capital fund to invest in technology startups around the world.
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The post Malaysia’s on the fast track with government’s backing, and these 9 local e-commerce startups startups are in for the ride appeared first on e27.

ZEN Rooms, a franchise of economy and mid-range hotels in Southeast Asia, just received a shot in the arm in the form of an investment from Korea’s billion-dollar travel group Yanolja. The Yanolja-ZEN alliance is expected to intensify the competition in the market, which is currently dominated by local player RedDoorz and India-based OYO Rooms. 

According to Nathan Boublil, Co-founder and CEO of ZEN Rooms, these companies don’t pose any threat. “OYO suffers from poor inventory quality and average ratings, and so does RedDoorz,” he says.

In this interview with e27, Boublil talks about the market, competition, and challenges faced by budget hotels companies in Southeast Asia.

Is this an acquisition? After this deal, how much stake does Yanolija hold in ZEN Rooms?

Nathan Boublil: Yanolja is doubling down on its earlier investment by making an additional investment, buying our of early investors’ stakes, and forming a full strategic alliance on technology and distribution with its backers Booking Holdings.

So the transaction is a partial exit with a path for more to come.

The budget hotels segment in Southeast Asia is heating up, with leading players such as OYO and RedDoorz raising massive fundings. Does this indicate the industry has become mature and is ripe for consolidation?

NB: The budget hotel industry is still far from being mature; the penetration of franchised hotels in Southeast Asia (SEA) still remains low at less than 20 per cent (including ZEN Rooms, OYO, Reddoorz and all other legacy hotel chains). Mature markets such as the EU, the US and China have more than 50 per cent of franchised hotels.

Also, SEA is the world’s fastest-growing travel market, so a lot of supply will naturally come onto the market.

RedDoorz is a local player, and OYO is a company with deep pockets. How is the ZEN-Yanolja alliance planning to hold these bulls by their horns?

NB: Both RedDoorz and OYO make crucial mistakes in customer centricity and sustainability. They focus on the number of rooms rather than customer satisfaction and margins. They use too many short-sighted tactics to artificially pump vanity metrics, to the detriment of building a long-term value-adding hospitality brand.

There are no shortcuts in hospitality. A hospitality franchise is not its room count but is the quality of its inventory (guest ratings) and its economics!

Since day one, our focus has been more on inventory quality and customer ratings, more than room count. Room count is not a KPI at ZEN. For two years in a row, ZEN has the highest guest rating on Booking.com of all budget franchises at 8.1. 

OYO suffers from poor inventory quality and average ratings and so does RedDoorz, with average rating on Booking.com in the low 7s. 

Of course, this is a very unsustainable model, which cannot last for long. The market ends up catching up with you and investors will, too.

So we are different from OYO and RedDoorz in the following ways:

1. We do not focus on room count but prefer to focus on inventory quality and customer ratings: Unlike Reddoorz and OYO, we pro-actively reject inventory and are as focused as much on customer ratings as other metrics. That is why our avg rating on Booking.com is 8.1 and our last 12 months NPS score is 55. The Reddoorz and OYO inventories are of inferior quality, which is senseless. The ‘raison d’etre’ of a hospitality franchise is to serve customers better than independent hotels. If you have thousands of properties but don’t do a good job serving customers, you are just a bigger lousy thing!
2. Focus on unit economics/margins: the unit economics of OYO and RedDoorz don’t look good presently with a lot of loss-making inventory. Adding more losses doesn’t make earlier losses disappear. As Scott Galloway puts it, “WeWork part Deux”.
3. Much more hands-on: we started leasing and fully operating properties three years ago, now representing 30 per cent of our overall portfolio. We love being hands-on and highly operational and can fully operationalise a property to 8.5 guest rating within four weeks. OYO Southeast Asia doesn’t, and RedDoorz is only just starting lease and operate.

The strategic alliance with Yanolja and its backers Booking Holdings grants ZEN a huge and above all, unique competitive advantages in both hotel technology and sales distribution, which cannot be replicated by any other actor. 

Having Booking Holdings as a de facto investor in ZEN is unique.

We always behave with integrity to our hotel partners. We don’t and never will use shady tactics with our hotel clients.

So just like any healthy hospitality business should, we have never and will never favour vanity metrics like scale/revenue over guest ratings and margins. Our philosophy, values and focus points are different, and we would instead not be associated with either OYO or RedDoorz.

That’s why we are the first to go through a strategic investment last year and now partial exit already to a leading, sustainable player like Yanolja.

Yanolja said it plans to leverage new-age tech such as IoT, AI, AR and VT etc. Can you shed more light on this?

NB: Yanolja is heavily investing in hospitality R&D to build the budget hotel of the future. This is being done by automating more and more functions within hotels (self check-ins, robotics, voice controls, sensors etc.) and improving cost efficiency through smart connections between hotel software and hardware (electric system, etc.). 

ZEN and Yanolja are planning to introduce these new technologies into ZEN’s locations starting Q1 2020, enhancing customer experience and optimising operating costs, thus allowing value-for-money improvements.

Yanolja also recently acquired eZee, the #2 hotel PMS provider globally and #1 in Southeast Asia. ZEN, eZee and Yanolja teams are currently working hand in hand to build the hotel operating system of the future. Yanolja is announcing the global launch of its new hotel automation solution at the ITB Asia conference this week.

What are the current trends in the budget hotels space?

NB: Hotel franchising in the region will keep growing for the next decade, following the US and China paths. Budget hotel space in SEA has long been a sub-performing industry due to its high level of fragmentation and lack of training and efficiency.

Travellers become more demanding to the quality of essential services, while online reviews play a significant role in customer choice. Hotel owners struggle to compete for demand with ever-growing operating costs. In the last four years, ZEN has been working hard on solving these pain points through franchising, bringing transparency and efficiency to the market.

Does the overall slowdown in the real-estate space affect this industry?

NB: No, as no matter what, SEA remains a fast-growing travel market and is far from reaching its potential. The growing middle class and economy airlines across the developing markets of the region fuel the exponential domestic and regional demand for short-term accommodation. The fundamentals of economy tourism in SEA are strong irrespective of the economic climate.

Franchising is a good option for real-estate asset owners as it allows to turn a property into a working business and generate stable returns coming from this growing travel industry.

What are the major challenges facing the budget hotels space in SEA?

NB: Improve itself to cope with fast-growing demand: hygiene, safety, value for money. 

Adapt their offer to new sources of tourists: Chinese, Europeans, Southeast Asians etc.

Sustainable growth of hotels supply: with the lack of regulation, what tends to happen is uncontrolled overinvestment in trendy destinations, resulting in oversupply of hotels in the long term: Bali, Phuket and many other destinations in Thailand have suffered from this already. 

Once a gold mine, Bali has now become a nightmare for many of the 10,000 hotel owners there, experiencing average occupancy below 50 per cent throughout the year and struggling to make ends meet.

The post ‘RedDoorz, OYO use too many short-sighted tactics to artificially pump vanity metrics’: ZEN Rooms CEO Nathan Boublil appeared first on e27.