Choosing the right tool will help you increase the performance of your application

The need for digital platforms to handle transactions is at its peak. Here comes the solution with blockchain development technology.

With blockchain, business entities are able to achieve their full potential by operating with freedom. Thus, the need for blockchain developer tools also increase.

There are many blockchain development tools that help developers to design a good website or application. The question is what features are you looking for as a blockchain developer.

Choosing the right technology stack helps to operate efficiently by allowing to use all features to their full potential.

This will allow any developer to design, develop and build a good website, blockchain app, digital wallet or application.

This article discusses the top 8 web development tools that will help blockchain developers to choose the best technology stack.

Better the web development tool used, better the performance of the application

Being a blockchain developer, hopefully, the following features of the following web development tools will interest you to meet your requirements of expanding your technology stack.

Mist

This is the topmost leading web development tool preferred by many blockchain developers.  This is because, this tool has the ability to store, handle transactions and also implement smart contracts.

Smart contracts are digital verification and handling performance of a contract. Storing data and information is one of the hurdles faced by all developers.

This is because most of the situation developers end up developing the stack in such a way that, it is efficient but does not have sufficient storage to handle the load.

Also Read: All you need to know about blockchains smart contracts

If the storage is sufficient then the transaction is slower or interrupted due to bad network connectivity.

With mist, this problem is eliminated as it is able to handle the load and still provide a good performance and developing interface.

Solc

This particular web development tool is one of the most convenient tools that can be used for adding more value to the technology stack by blockchain developers. This is because of it also one of the tools that provide the fastest way to install computers with solidity.

Solidity is a statically written programming language for improving smart contract handling. This programming language is used for code writing in Ethereum.

The best feature in using this web development tool is that it does not rely on any other node from an external source.

Blockchain testnet

When you want to create a new decentralized application or a web application or add tools to your technology stack, it is easier to have a system that works as similar to the real blockchain.

This will help you evaluate the obstacles and limitations or constraints that you might face while developing or adding value to your stack growth. These constraints and limitations include bug fixing, maintenance, testing, computability issues, etc.

Having a duplicate system of a real system allows you as a developer to explore all the features and come up with better improvements without harming the real system.

GanacheCLI

It is a web development tool that is fast and easy to customize for the needs and to meet the requirement of adding improved technology to the stack.

It was previously called as Testrpc. With the installation of one single system, this tool allows you to handle operation and call for functions to the blockchain system without any obstacles obstructing the operation.

Using this tool, it is easier to recycle, reset a limited number of Ether too.

Tierion

Every system should have a feature to verify all the processes and transactions that take place. This web development tool allows you to verify the data stored or transacted.
This is done by verifying the data from the database again the transactions that took place in the blockchain system. Tierion adds value to the technology stack by giving access to different types of application programming interface (API). This API allows in application features of the stack to connect with other application offering better performance.

Ether Scripter

This web development tool is used by high coding blockchain developers. It has a complicated interface but has the functionality to be used if the developer has knowledge of coding for contracts.

Given the fact that smart contracts are a trend today, having knowledge of coding for smart contracts is important. The interface is easier to use as a simple drag and drop is sufficient to club different features together. Currently, this tool can be used only by the programming language called serpent.

BaaS

Blockchain as a service is one of the most highly used web development tools that support the growth of a technology stack. This is because it provides performance with much cheaper and secure networking platform. It supports different kinds of chains like Storj, Eris, etc.

This tool works pretty similar to software as a service (SaaS), where the features of the tool is used for improving the service provided by the stack. This tool is useful to all developers who are looking into the long-term development for blockchain platform as well for updating the technology stack.

Coinbase’s API

Due to the integrating features that are offered by this application programming interface, developers get accessibility and the ability to connect different applications together.

This as a reason this tool is used extensively by all developers mostly. The system of this API offers data building opportunity as it can gather data and interrelate them. The tool also provides an efficient software development kit.

Embark

This development tool allows the developer to seamlessly develop and launch an application that uses html5 without a server and also uses technologies that operate on a decentralized platform.

Also Read: The future of social investing and it is not about blockchain

Any changes made or any modification made in the agreed contract will immediately be updated and changed or modified in the application too. This reduces the workload of the developer and also provides a comfortable user interface to the user.

Journey as a blockchain developer

All of the above tools have their own supportive features that help the blockchain developers to grow their technology stack. They will help you as a developer to identify, scrutinize data and features to optimally choose the best tool that increases the performance of your application.

Choosing the right tool will help you achieve your goal effectively.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

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Building a company can sometimes feel like a really long slog — and that’s okay

Recently, I chanced upon an article on TechCrunch that explored the nitty-gritty details of the fundraising process. The writer, Danny Crichton, wrote about how the process of fundraising is often more intricate and chaotic than what is perceived through the lens of tech media.

Funding rounds often take place in tranches and can take the form of multiple financing structures —  angel investments, grants, convertible notes, etcetera — and are participated by multiple parties. These rounds can take up to months or even years to complete before they are sent to the process; and then, in a few days, get amalgamated into the ceaseless stream of funding announcements — becoming another footnote in the tech news cycle.

e27, like most tech media, fuel and feed the public’s appetite for good (and bad) tidings of the tech industry. More often than not, when a company raises a funding round, we only hear about it when their communications team issues a press release about it.

Usually, it will contain a couple of ‘feel-good, pat-on-the-back’ press statements about how the founders are pleased to have accomplished this milestone and how the investors are optimistic about taking the company to the next level. And then some statistics about the company’s growth status and a few words about how they will use the newly-raised investment.

Now, that’s not me being cynical about tech coverage. Good news is better than no news; in fact, more funding news means that investors are still bullish about the landscape and that will lift the spirits of many hardworking entrepreneurs.

What we don’t often hear, as the aforementioned TechCrunch article correctly points out, is the founders’ arduous and sometimes treacherous path towards hitting their funding goal. Behind the carefully-worded press releases, there is a story that needs to be told: a story of human perseverance.

Convey the good, the bad, and the ugly side of the business

If the near-demise of Honestbee has taught me anything, it is that we as journalists need to be bolder and more assiduous in digging out the full story; we need to hold our ears close to the ground and listen for the distant rumblings that are not so apparent to the eye.

We believe that the media, as cliche as it may sound, plays an important role as gatekeepers (the explosive exposé on Theranos by the Wall Street Journal is a great example). A credible media platform should have the tenacity and fortitude to hold the ecosystem accountable and call out bad actors, even in the face of legal threats.

But besides tackling the shady elements of the tech industry, the media should also not shy away from approaching founders with more incisive, hard-hitting questions — questions that will uncover the honest inner workings of tech companies. 95 per cent of startups fail — yes — but a good chunk of the 5 per cent that made it went through hell and back to get to where they are.

So it goes without saying that there are a lot of unglamorous elements founders have to tackle when building their startups. For many reasons, they may not feel inclined or comfortable to reveal them, but with the right line of questioning (and establishing of trust) I’m sure they can be persuaded.

Also Read: Answer these 5 questions before you scale up your tech startup

It behooves the media to present the whole picture of the startup journey — warts and all — to the audience. And founders should be forthcoming about their struggles.

If you think about it, a great story is one where the protagonist is relatable; one who has vulnerabilities and setbacks to overcome (haven’t you ever wondered why most Superman films often get a lukewarm response?).

And the statistics don’t lie, a quick check on our Google Analytics page shows such stories are a hit with our audience. Behind the success of a startup valued in the hundreds of millions are sleepless nights, moments of self-doubts and existential angst; there’s no sugarcoating it — the startup life is tough — and we should describe it as such if we are want to be honest to our readers.

These stories go a long way than just being news announcements, and they become evergreen reading material that readers will always find relevant.

At e27, as much we can, we like to conduct detailed interviews with founders every time they raise round to find out what went behind the scenes — as we did with Carro‘s latest funding round. But we can do better.

And we could definitely use your help.

Guest writing for us

We run a pretty lean team here, so, unfortunately, we may not have the bandwidth to do a deep dive into every founding story.

But you, the entrepreneur or stakeholder of the ecosystem, maybe you have always wanted a platform to share the struggles you faced on the road to success. Or maybe, you had to shut down your company and there are learnings that you believe will be valuable to our readers.

Well, e27 is the right platform for you then. They are no ‘wrong’ thoughts — we welcome them all, even if it is incendiary or controversial (of course, within reasonable boundaries).

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If you feel that you would like to pay it forward by sharing your story, feel free to submit your musings here or email us at writers@e27.co to discuss your ideas.

You can also join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

I look forward to hearing from you.

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Talking about fintech ecosystem in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is that one country with a great varieties of fintech services available 

You sure have heard about Go-Pay, Modalku, Dana, Doku, the omnipresent OVO, or Kredivo. In the last two years, all of these names have made news for raising funding or foraying into new partnerships, and even one of them is being owned by one of the country’s top unicorn.

Scraping the surface and taking a deeper look into the fintech ecosystem in the country, we learn that not only there are a great number of fintech companies operating under the media radar, but there is also a great variety of solutions being offered to the archipelago.

We’ve filtered some of the names we can find, and here are the 10 honorable mentions of fintechs that have the potential to be the next big thing.

DanaLaut

Starting with the less obvious: DanaLaut. DanaLaut directly addresses the pain points of the maritime country, which is access to equity for cultivating the sea resources.

DanaLaut offers a platform where users, either loaner or borrowers, can help facilitate sea resource-related business.

Through its scoring system for risk management as well as an updated portfolio for progress and funding allocation, DanaLaut ensures the safety and transparency of doing a transaction on its platform. Borrowers won’t be charged for interest and loaner can be involved in a transaction with attractive profit sharing.

Dana Bijak

Dana Bijak offers simpler options to apply for loans, in which the applicants can choose the number of loans and the duration they wish to have and how much they will have to pay back.

Dana Bijak translates into “wise funding” in Indonesian. It uses Artificial Intelligence to process the application and show the results within 24 hours. Once approved, the credit will be transferred into the applicant’s bank account within 48 hours.

Also Read: What makes investments in fintech and alternative lending in SEA promising?

Apart from simplicity, speed and safety are also on the cards for Dana Bijak. As long as the applicants are 21+ years old and earn at least US$114 as its main requirements, then the applicants should be able to access the credit with no hiccups.

Dana Bijak’s platform also provides education through financial courses on how to manage credit to have a healthier interest loan and a point system for good credit behaviour.

In January 2018, e27 reported that Dana Bijak made it to second batch of Plug and Play Indonesia Accelerator programme along with the other 12 startups from multiple sectors.

Disitu

Disitu brands itself as a credit marketplace. Through its financial institution-integrated platform, credit companies can advertise their financial products offering to consumers. Consumers, on the other hand, can see and compare the available financial products before choosing one.

The integration, the company said, allows it to show the actual prices of each financial product featured in a real-time process. The products include unsecured loans, equity loans, and others.

It also offers a preview of how much borrowers must pay for the credit they apply for, to make sure they don’t borrow more than they can pay. With citizen ID card as a warranty for the loan applied, the credit can be processed instantly.

GandengTangan

GandengTangan is short-term online funding with affordable and safe equity, aims to connect micro-businesses with investors that want to invest in businesses with social impact.

GandengTangan, which is Indonesian for “holding hands”, filters the micro-businesses that seek to receive funding from as little as US$3.55. Then, when the process is done and the investors have been paired up with the micro-businesses, the investors will get its investment back periodically in instalments until it’s paid back in full.

In April 2017, e27 reported that GandengTangan has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from angel investor Mariko Asmara Yoshihara, Chairman of JAC Recruitment Indonesia.

Rupi

A payment gateway application for easier transactions, Rupi facilitates electricity token, phone credit and internet data purchase, game voucher, and travel tickets purchase, as well as the electricity bill, water bill, government insurance bill, and multi finance payment in one app in real-time.

What differentiates it from other e-payment app is that it guarantees the most affordable price for all payment needs with lifetime cashback and it facilitates cash, real-time, top-up, in the nearest top-up centre. It also allows all Rupi’s users to transfer their balances to each other into their Rupi’s account, directly or using in-app QR code.

Mapan

Using the social gathering concept known as “arisan” in Indonesia, Mapan allows users to get together and collectively purchase quality and affordable items.

Mapan’s get-together is meant to help users to easily access goods in guaranteed quality. Using what is called a collective economic strength, the more members users manage to gather, the more affordable the price of the items become.

Also Read: [Updated] Here are the top-funded fintech startups of Singapore in 2019

By becoming a group leader in a collective online gathering on Mapan, an individual can also gain extra income via commission from the value total of purchased goods by each of the groups.

The startup has been acquired by ride-hailing unicorn Go-Jek in 2017.

SPOTS

SPOTS stated its mission as “facilitating entrepreneurs in Indonesia to be able to run their business better and easier”.

Its POS system also provides a variety of features to help any kind of business operation. It seeks to tackle challenges such as managing online and offline orders, the limitation in accessing cashless payment, and keeping transaction records for entrepreneurs with next to no resources.

Propertree

Propertree singles out itself to focus on property investment in Indonesia. It seeks to create inclusivity in property investment.

It does so by facilitating the digitalisation of equity-heavy property investment into becoming a more affordable investment.

By signing up, investors can immediately deposit money and choose from an array of projects available on its platform. The projects are residential, long term property that offers a maximum return, construction projects with a shorter, more competitive return, rent project that allows for collective ownership to get a double return from the leasing fee per month and future asset selling price, or flip project that allows a normal price return.

Julo

Julo says that it seeks to revolutionise access to financial products through its digital data-based lending method. It also allows an in-app risk assessment to process consumers’ credit applications to determine loan eligibility.

Julo was founded in 2016 and has since expanded from Jakarta to other cities in Indonesia.
In May 2018, Julo raised US$5 million in a Series A funding round led by Skystar Capital and East Ventures. Gobi Partners, Convergence Ventures, Provident Capital, Central Capital Ventura, Heyokha Brothers, and other investors also participated in the funding round.

DokterDana

DokterDana is the Indonesian for “financial doctor”, focusses on providing information and updates in the financial industry in the country. It also facilitates loan search and matches on its app.

DokterDana said that from the service side, it seeks to help borrowers finding the most suitable and accurate loan service while also help banks and finance companies to find reliable customers. Using its matching service, DokterDana becomes a fully authorised platform for borrowers to get the most suitable option from a pool of credit services.

Also Read: Fintech and banks: collaboration or competition?

Although the road is still long and untrodden for these companies to catch up with the big names, all of them keep on growing at an optimistic pace with its solutions. The next time we hear about them could be the time they get more funding to go even bigger than they are already now.

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Image Credit: Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

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Key startup mistakes to avoid as an entrepreneur, that businesses usually make

When it comes to starting a business, there’s no given guide to success. Hence, many mistakes can be made by the entrepreneurs as each implement their own strategy.

Many businesses start every year with great enthusiasm and flair, but most of them fail without many reasons. There are some common mistakes many entrepreneurs make, which negatively impact their business. While some setbacks are inevitable, you can still avoid some pitfalls of starting a new business that is common to mos

There are many tips and guides for starting a startup, but in this article, we will discuss some key startup mistakes to avoid for entrepreneurs.  Making the right move, in the beginning, would help you avoid headaches later.

1. Avoiding new technology

In the tech-savvy world, we live in, ignoring technology can be a sin. While it may be great that you’re trying to run your business using a spreadsheet, in the real world, a disaster is always waiting to happen. Although investing in the latest technologies may feel like an expense your business can work without, however, you’re harming it more if you don’t.

Businesses today need a more sophisticated approach where owners can make informed decisions that are critical to success based on real-time reports. Technology is one of the reasons starting a business has become more accessible and more practical than ever.

Also Read: Startup failure should not be a stigma, says Vijay Ratnaparkhe, President and MD of Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions

Entrepreneurs, who ignore the potential that technology can bring to their business, stand a greater possibility of failure.

There are many technologies such as cloud computing which are developed for small businesses. Being cost-effective and scalable, it can offer numerous opportunities to the businesses.

2. Doing it all alone

“Individuals don’t build great companies, teams do.” – Mark Suster

One of the most common small business mistakes that the entrepreneurs can avoid is carrying all the burden on their shoulders.

As an entrepreneur, you may be willing to learn how to be a ‘jack of all trades’. However, that’s not how it works. Even the most hard-working entrepreneur would need assistance to get that killer idea off the ground.

Everyone has their own preferences. You may prefer to work alone, or you love to work in a group. But, at some point, you will eventually need someone to work for you. You can’t handle everything on your own. Building a company is hard work, and it usually takes more than a single individual to build a successful business.

Also Read: These 9 famous startup failures have a lesson for you

Whether you outsource administrative tasks or seek the advice of a mentor, entrepreneurs need to get help while building their business. Trying to handle everything on your own would mean that you are spending too much time on tasks which aren’t much effective in your business growth.

Delegating work effectively can be one of the best ways for entrepreneurs to free up their time for activities which need their unique expertise, and, in the process, build a team for the success of their business.

3. Not enough stability to pursue a strategy

One of the good things about entrepreneurs is their willingness to follow plans. To get their plans to work successfully, they would give their best, but as soon as they face an issue, some would hesitate to go ahead with the plan, while others would start looking for a different approach.

Every business works on a planned strategy. While different entrepreneurs may follow a different approach, it’s important to stick to a selected strategy. Changing business strategy in the early days of your business could lead to confusion. So, instead of resolving the issue, you will be left with dangling among different paths with no end in sight.

Adopting new methods too soon can hamper your business growth as you need to start learning about it before implementing. You need to give your existing strategy some time or put some more effort, and you may get the desired results.

4. Not understanding the market

When it comes to an understanding of the market, having a “know-it-all” attitude can be a big mistake. You might have the best idea and can’t wait to launch it. But you can’t ignore market research. It’s essential to conduct market research to understand if at all there is a market for the product or service.

Most entrepreneurs understand their industry intimately and have the required skills. However, what is critical to their business success or failure is the answer to the question: Will people pay for the service or product we’re offering?

So, whether it’s about targeting the wrong audience or underestimating the costs, failure to understand the market can be detrimental to your business. Keep abreast of the market and strategise accordingly.

5. Ignoring data

Some entrepreneurs are too eager to get their idea implemented and spend too less time in evaluating the needs of their potential consumers. You must analyse the data before starting the small business, know the current trends, use the data to create key performance indicators, and plan for the future of the business.

For modern entrepreneurs, data is critical. Magical thinking doesn’t work in the business. You actually need data to validate that your idea is real.

Also Read: What I learned from my first mobile app failure

Successful businesses think beyond single transactions and plan for long-term goals. Data helps you find things such as who your customers are, things they like, and their behaviour. However, ensure that you’re using the right tools to uncover the data.

Final words

These were the five common small business mistakes to avoid, which may cause their business to fail. Technically, yes. But this also means that they’re also five ways to learn. With some research and strategic moves, you can see your business running successfully.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit: Ian Espinosa

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As a natural melting pot, the city is perfect for  coworking agreements, which are usually defined by sharing rather than keeping to yourself

Co-working arrangements are quickly becoming popular across the world, but few urban areas have embraced co-working as eagerly as Kuala Lumpur, which is fast becoming recognised as one of the global hubs of the practice.

Kuala Lumpur recently became Asia’s fastest-growing city for co-working, with the amazingly affordable rent and competitive marketplace offered by the city proving too tantalizing for most businesses to pass upon.

Here’s why Kuala Lumpur is Asia’s fastest-growing city for co-working, and why we can expect shared offices spaces to remain commonplace there well into the future.

New construction is bountiful

One of the primary reasons that Kuala Lumpur has proven to be one of the finest co-working locations in the world is that the city is filled with new construction projects.

New offices are bountiful wherever you look, with local and foreign construction firms alike raking in huge sums of money by cashing in on ever-growing demand for new business locations and apartments.

As a direct result of Kuala Lumpur’s thriving construction sector, rent prices have been slowly but surely getting lower across the city.

As a matter of fact, one report indicates that rent recently fell by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter precisely because of the supply of new construction projects.

Office space in Kuala Lumpur is incredibly affordable when compared with some other business hubs in Asia, such as neighbouring Singapore.

Given that most startups and more than a few established companies are always looking to cut down on the costs of doing business, having competitive rent prices as well as a solid infrastructure ensures Kuala Lumpur will always be a popular choice for international businesses and investors.

Also Read: Why Asia should be the next destination for your event

It’s not just cheap rent that makes it an attractive spot for co-working providers, either, but also the stability of the city. KL is the backbone of the country and is the economic and commercial centre reinforces it as the business hub of Malaysia.

Many co-working providers would opt for stability over a setting up in a cheaper SE Asian City, and Kuala Lumpur has done an excellent job to ensure that its rent and occupancy levels remain relatively stable.

In recent years an oversupply of office buildings in the Klang Valley had led to uncertainty in the real estate sector.

This created the need to diversify the market and increase the prevalence of shared space throughout the City to offer more affordable and flexible office solutions to smaller businesses and new start-ups. Well-equipped co-working spaces in Kuala Lumpur were available for relatively cheap rates, creating more buoyancy in the market when it was needed most.

It’s also becoming clearer that co-working arrangements don’t have to sacrifice comfort or prestige in exchange for lower rent prices.

Popular listicles featuring some of the hottest co-working arrangements in Kuala Lumpur have been going viral recently, for instance, demonstrating that the city remains cutting edge despite its relative affordability.

This ensures that foreigners looking for a new office destination are being exposed to positive press before finalizing their decision to settle down in Kuala Lumpur, and locals themselves are also given plenty of encouragement to stay where their roots are rather than soliciting office space elsewhere.

Kuala Lumpur is embracing collaboration

Another surefire reason that Kuala Lumpur is becoming such a thriving hub of co-working is that it’s embracing collaboration, a fundamental feature of the co-working economy that’s only going to become more important as time goes on.

Co-working is about more than saving money; countless businesses decide to share their office with other companies or independent workers not because it’s cheaper, but rather because doing so permits them to house their workers in creative environments populated by a diverse myriad of professionals from all walks of life.

As the innovative and collaborative payoff from co-working arrangements becomes more understood, we can expect more companies in and around Kuala Lumpur to hop on the bandwagon and embrace a shared office.

It should also go without saying that Kuala Lumpur is one of the more technologically advanced cities in its region, ensuring that co-working providers, usually a tech-savvy bunch, cluster up there instead of elsewhere.

Also Read: Echelon is heading to Kuala Lumpur this October!

Many co-working providers attract tenants by offering high-quality digital services like high-speed internet for office users, so remaining a thriving hub of tech investment will be important if Kuala Lumpur wants to continue exploiting the growing trend of co-working.

Finally, as a natural melting pot, the city is a perfect fit for the culture of co-working agreements, which are usually open and defined by sharing rather than reclusively keeping to yourself.

Co-working arrangements are effectively the opposite of an office cubicle – rather than pushing workers into narrow silos of isolation, they ensure everyone in the office is familiar and comfortable with one another.

It’s only natural, then, that such arrangements should become popular in a city like Kuala Lumpur, which is familiar with mixing and melting diverse groups of people into one cohesive body.

Co-working is becoming incredibly popular around the world, yet Kuala Lumpur consistently stands out as a globally-recognised leader of co-working across Asia.

The city can derive substantial economic benefits from its reputation if it continues to prove attractive to co-working providers.

We can expect more companies based in Kuala Lumpur to embrace co-working sooner rather than later.

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

Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

Image Credit:  Sadie Teper

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Siam Commercial Bank Pcl plans to provide payments and lending to increase revenues from digital banking

Siam Commercial Bank Pcl (SCB) announced that it has partnered with e-commerce and game developer Sea Ltd’s Thai operations. SCB is looking to expand its footprints into digital payments and lending service, as reported by Reuters.

Apiphan Charoenanusorn, SCB’s President, said that the lending services aimed at small businesses on Singapore-based Sea’s platforms. It will integrate Sea’s AirPay to SCB’s apps, allowing customers to pay bills directly via the app.

SCB has stated that it is a part of their strategy to secure partnerships and expand its digital capabilities, including payments and lending.

Another part of that strategy also reflected in an undisclosed amount of the investment that SCB made in Indonesian ride-hailing startup gojek’s Thai unit, Get. The next in line after the investment will be planning to expand financial services to drivers on the app.

Thai banks reportedly have been pressured by falling fee income following a waiver on digital transaction fees since last year, which explains the decision behind the partnership with Sea Group.

Also Read: Sea Group trying to raise US$1.5 billion likely aimed at Shopee

Due to lower fee income, SCB’s non-interest revenue dropped by 9.7 per cent in the first half of 2019.

On the contrary, Sea, which owns e-commerce platform Shopee and operates in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, has seen its revenue more than tripled in the April-June period. It just secured US$1.5 billion this year to expand its e-commerce business.

Back in April 2019, Sea Group shared with e27 that it plans on expanding its gaming arm Garena into the live streaming ecosystem.
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Picture Credit: Sea Group

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The best approach for the future of blockchain will be to build on the use cases in which it has already shown potential

The death of the hype around blockchain might be the best thing that has ever happened to the technology.

Now that companies are no longer using the term to gain some short-lived media hype, we might be able to think rationally about what blockchain can actually be useful for, and what it can’t.

First, though, it’s worth remembering just how much hype surrounded blockchain last year. A recent survey of advertising executives by MediaPost found “blockchain” to be the most overrated word of 2018. For those of us involved with the technology, that’s hardly a surprise. 

The survey, in fact, puts numbers behind the hype.

It suggests that advertisers knew that many companies abused the word “blockchain” just to get free media hype. In January, management-consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found that the vast majority of blockchain pilots and proofs of concept were still stuck in “pioneering mode” or were being shut down.

That’s far from being a negative outcome for blockchain, though. Perhaps we can now start to look at the technology more rationally. That’s what we’ll do now.

The opportunities

It can often seem like blockchain is a solution in search of a problem to solve. Though the technology has been mentioned in relation to almost every IT system and social problem out there, in order to discern the immediate future of the technology it’s worth remembering why it is valuable.

Blockchain’s primary value is creating trust. Through tokenization and encryption, systems that were previously regarded as vulnerable to hacking or abuse can be made trustworthy. It does this by making transactions open and transparent.

From that starting point, there are two primary ways in which blockchain might make an immediate impact:

1. The first is in financial services and fintech. It’s no coincidence that blockchain’s first (and to date only) major use case was in cryptocurrency. Expanding and developing cryptosystems to cover crypto microtransactions and real-world assets would seem like an easy win for blockchain tech, and it’s likely that the proof-of-concept trials undertaken by several major banks in recent years will soon come to fruition.

Also Read: Blockchain have the potential to transform dubious relationships in the music industry

2. Secondly, blockchain could help with e-governance. Estonia is already using the technology to replace outdated identification systems (like the Social Security system) with more secure solutions. Not only will this make public records more secure, but it will also allow greater transparency.

The challenges

All this said, there are still some major challenges facing blockchain as a technology.

These are likely the cause of the reduced hype in the past year: many companies started researching the technology in 2018, only to conclude that it is not yet useful for them.

Cointelegraph, for instance, has reported on a recent survey by Globant that found while 61 per cent of organizations has started researching blockchain, only 28 per cent chose a provider to help them deploy the technology.

There are several challenges facing blockchain, at least some of which will have to be overcome before the tech goes mainstream:

First, the way that existing institutions move from legacy systems to new, blockchain-based solutions is not yet clear.

A press release from a recent TD Bank survey noted that 90 per cent of treasury and finance professionals believe blockchain and distributed ledger technology will positively affect the payments industry, but that only 14 per cent said their organizations had training strategies for blockchain. Managing this change is going to be the biggest challenge for blockchain in the coming years.

Secondly, there remains a perception problem with blockchain.

Also Read:

The public still associates the technology with a shadowy underworld of (at best) crypto entrepreneurs, and (at worst) hackers. This perception is not helped by the continued reports of hacking in the crypto space, from the rise of crypto mining malware to the spike in cryptojacking. Given this bad press, it’s no wonder that large, established companies are unwilling to be associated with the tech.

Finally, there remains a huge problem with scalability.

This is the most-noted technical problem with blockchain, but we are still no closer to a solution. Blockchains can still take many seconds to process even the most basic transactions, and so scaling them up into national databases is not yet feasible. 

The future is two-speed

Responding to these opportunities and challenges can be difficult for businesses, but the falling away of the hype around blockchain allows us all an opportunity to stop and think. 

As others have noted, it is important to refrain from hyping it as-yet unproven new applications for the technology.

By showing where and how blockchain can actually help companies solve existing problems, the technology can be built into and around legacy systems.

Secondly, it will be important for companies to take a cautiously enthusiastic approach to blockchain.

One of the primary limitations on the technology at the moment is that staff lack the knowledge to work with it, understand it, or see its potential. But then, the same could be said of many new technologies.

What is therefore required is that companies put in place training schemes that will allow them to take advantage of blockchain, as and when it becomes useful for their business.

Also Read: A blockchain perspective: the irony of financial inclusion

Alongside these training schemes, companies will need to invest in the basic building blocks that will allow them to deploy blockchain. This means increasing their cloud storage and security capability, and ensuring that the systems they are already working with are highly scalable.

As with any new technology, it’s difficult to predict the future of blockchain with any degree of certainty. What is clear, though, is that it has not lived up to the hype. Or, at least, not yet.

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Email marketing when exercised correctly can increase your ROI at least by 15 per cent

With a lot of innovations such as videos, bots, interactive chat sessions, and artificial intelligence, the evolution of email marketing may look like a century-old technique. Do people still have the time to check their emails?

An average professional person in 2019, receives about 121 emails a day. Most of your prospects out there still use email as a means of professional communication.

Not every prospect of yours can be targeted with videos, what if the company they work for does not allow video streaming? The same way, what if your prospect does not want to give away information to a bot? But, every prospect out there has an email address. 

Here is an interesting fact curated by expanded ramblings, on an average of about 269B emails are sent in a day calculating to about 149,513 mails each minute.

So, is email marketing dead? The answer is no.

Email Marketing is the best strategy you need to implement to get a high return on investment for your business.

Quoting smart insights, “E-mail marketing is the evergreen channel and one among the top 3 most effective channels driving website visits leads and sales.”

Here are ways to generate a high ROI using e-mail marketing?

Identify your goals

Each campaign that you run might have a different goal and therefore might need a different set of audience. Finding your goal is a crucial step. Because everything that you do post this will round around your goal. If you do not choose this right, chances are high that the entire campaign might falter. 

Your campaign goal can be anything ranging from prospecting to improving brand awareness to educating customers/prospects on new features. Sometimes. It could even be a short survey on why prospects’ aren’t converting. This might help you and your sales team understand their mistakes and work for the betterment of the company. 

No matter what the campaign is about, you need to operate in a single version of the truth. Your entire team should be clear on what they are working towards.

Also Read: Want to bring in more business? These 7 tools will help you write the perfect email

They should know what metrics they should track and what is more important in the campaign to declare it a success or failure. Most campaigns might have a high open-rate, they need not necessarily have a high click rate. This could be because of two reasons. 

1. They found all the information that they needed on the email itself 

2. They did not find the information worthy enough to follow the trial

You need to build on this goal, again and again, to see what works for you. Although high click rates and open rates may seem like a beautiful metric to track, there is one thing that most marketers miss tracking and that is ROI.

ROI is important for any marketing activity that is carried out. If your campaign does not bring anything back to the company, how good is it? You need to find out which segment here generates ROI for your company.  

Build an email list

The most important thing that you need to focus here is that you need to build a list by getting consent from each and every prospect you are targeting. This means they must give you their email address. With GDPR in place, you also need to exercise this information carefully or you can end up being in great trouble.

Getting targets to submit their email to you is pretty easy. All that you need to do is offer them something in return. Nobody gives away anything for free. A little incentive can go a long way.

Here is how you can get prospects to give their email address to you:

Create a landing page, allow them to download some useful materials (Whitepaper, Tips, Free documents), and in return collect their contact details.

Get them to sign up for your newsletter, this way they also know what is happening in your company all the time.

Offer a free trial of your product.

Also Read: All you need to know about the basics of email marketing

Give away ebooks or white papers that might interest your prospects.

You need to exercise great caution in the phrase that asks for the targets’ email address. Simply mentioning “Click to get updates” or “Be updated on what is happening here” is not going to get your targets’ to give away their information. Make it enticing and interesting enough that they would want to come forward to know what is happening around.

Structure the campaign

You should understand that businesses and prospects receive a lot of emails in a day.

And, if they open your email they should have all the information that they need in it if they decide to take it forward. To do that, structuring plays an important role. 

Here is a sample from Airbnb:

It explains the process of completing your listing in Airbnb.

Your email should have a specific flow that will help your targets in quickly understanding what you are trying to say.

Structuring your content in paragraphs, using the right amount of colour and indent might look like a no brainer, but can go a long way if done correctly.

Follow up

Your targets have received the emails, what’s next?

You need to follow up with them constantly to make your campaign a success. You can choose to do this manually but for the ease of tracking it would be better to leverage on an automation tool.

Most email service providers these days give you the option of autoresponders. An autoresponder is nothing but a series of emails, focused on a particular topic, sent to customers in a particular interval. 

These emails are also called as follow up emails, colloquially. The sender, that is you, must prepare the list of customers and emails and feed it into your campaign manager. Then, you need to schedule the emails on a timely basis.

 Here is an example:

Day 1: Send mail #1

Day 3: If there is no reply, try connecting through other means such as Linkedin

Day 4: Send follow-up email for #1

Day 7: Try calling them 

Day 10: Send second follow-up email for #2

Going back, you need to know why you are running this campaign.

No marketer runs one for fun. You need to engage your customers to make sales. Which means the content that you create must add value to them. They should be lured into your content that they would want to try out your solution immediately.

That said, you need to do the trick of slowly transitioning from giving away incentives to actually selling the product. This needs to be subtle and powerful because if done wrong, this is where most prospects drop out. 

It is good to slowly start doing that from your second or third email. Sending Newsletters is a good start. It contains information about your product as well as content that will be useful for them. It is the right package of sending what they need and what you want them to see.  

There is no hard and fast rule on how you do this, Each business has a different requirement. You need to understand this and prepare your pitch accordingly.

Tracking metrics

We have come to the last and most important section of the blog. Return on Investment is the main reason why any company would run a campaign.

Let’s say you spend an average of about US$10 on a campaign, what would be your return on this? Rounds back to the goal of the campaign, but any return would mostly be getting customers to pay. 

To help in understanding this, there is something that you need to know about email analytics – open rate, click rate and unsubscribes. If you are using a campaign manager then the tool would by itself calculate this for you for every campaign sent.

Open rate 

Open rate is ideally the number of prospects who open your email. 

It is calculated using the following formula:

Number of Emails Read / Number of Delivered Emails ×100

If your open rates are low, then it means that something is wrong with the subject line or the time in which the email is sent. You need to look at working on it. 

Click rate

Click rate is nothing but the percentage of recipients who have clicked on one or more links in the email.

It is calculated using the following formula:

(Total clicks ÷ Total number of delivered emails) * 100

Example: 1000 total clicks ÷ 10,000 delivered emails * 100 = 10% click rate

If you have a low click rate then it means that your message has somewhere not reached your audience right. You need to look at reworking on your copy. 

Unsubscribes

This is the list of customers who have opened the email but have chosen to not receive any more emails from you. This could be due to a lot of reasons like the content that you send might not be of value to them, you contact them too frequently that they find you disturbing, they have subscribed to an alternate service, they are unhappy with your product etc.

In addition to these three metrics, there are a few others that would help you calculate the performance of your campaign and increase ROI.

Also Read: How engaged are different devices with emails?

Bounce rate

It is the total number of emails that did not reach the recipient’s inbox. Bounce rate is calculated using the formula:

(Total number of bounced emails ÷ Number of emails sent) * 100

There are 2 types of bounces, hard Bounce and soft bounce.

Soft Bounce is a temporary issue such as server problem, full inbox etc. Hard bounces happen when the email id is non-existent, invalid or closed. You need to remove these addresses from your list.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the most important metric that you need to factor in while calculating your ROI. It is the percentage of email recipients who clicked on a link within an email and completed the desired action.

This action could be anything such as filling out a form or purchasing a product.

Conversion Rate is calculated using the following formula:

(Total number of people who completed the action ÷ Total number of emails delivered) * 100

For example, if your goal is to get people to download an ebook. All the customers who have downloaded it from your email are said to be converted.

Overall ROI

Overall ROI is calculated by dividing the total revenue by the total spend. 

[(Amount made in additional sales made) – (Amount invested in the campaign) ÷ (Amount invested in the campaign)] * 100

Example: (US$1,000 in additional sales – US$100 invested in the campaign / US$100 invested in the campaign) * 100 =  900 per cent return on investment for the campaign

The Bottom Line

As Marketers take ROI seriously for email marketing. As a marketing channel, you should.

If you haven’t set up your SLA when it comes to email marketing, high time you do. 

If you have already, share how email marketing has increased your ROI in the comments section below. 

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Existing industry leaders need to worry about the listed practices that are driving them towards a dead-end

With 1.92 Billion customers buying items online amounting to 13.7 per cent of retail sales worldwide, we can argue E-commerce is here to stay. KPMG revealed “People shop online because they can shop at all hours of the day” and “65 per cent of shoppers compare prices while in a physical store”.

These e-commerce statistics for 2019 are self-explanatory and they are hinting towards an impending e-commerce boom.

While the e-commerce industry is on the rise and it is posing a real threat to the retail sector, some facts suggest people are yet not comfortable with buying online. A Hub Spot study reveals 80 per cent of people will dump companies after just one bad experience, while another study states only 2.86  per cent of e-commerce visits converts.

Online shopping is shaping the landscape of tomorrow, where people can shop privately and explore more options without actually hopping from one store to the other. Like every good thing, e-commerce also comes with its share of pros and cons.

Let’s discuss trends followed by industry leaders that are not going to last long

 

Cashbacks to lure customers: E-commerce platforms are dolling out cashback like never before to acquire and retain customers. Amazon spends 12 per cent of its annual revenue in cashback.

On the other hand, most customers have agreed to pay extra for quality customer experience. In the times, where experience matters the most, spending heavily on cashback and less on customer experience improvement might cost e-commerce players a fortune.

Also Read: New to e-commerce? Here are 10 recommended books

Also, half of the enterprises are now diverting their investments towards customer experience innovations, which means any business that is not focusing on CX will turn obsolete.

 

Not compensating sellers well: Instead of focusing on improving seller performance, businesses are focusing on beating their competitors at the number game. All these heavy discounts, free delivery, and free returns are costing sellers a bomb and no, players like Amazon, Flipkart or eBay are not compensating them well.

E-commerce players have made slogans out of “Faster Return and Instant Refund”, “No Question Asked Refund Policy”, which is pushing a lot of small sellers out of business.

With sellers losing money fulfilling “no question asked return policy” and “instant refunds”, they are going to stop selling online. Marketplaces like Amazon manufacture no products, they earn commissions on every product sold on their platform. With increasing losses, sellers are bound to quit and bring the whole eco-system down.

 

Competing only on price-points: A good number of e-commerce players are trying to compete only on price point. These players are not bothered about post sell customer service or overall customer experience. By listing products at cheaper prices, these platforms can drive traffic and sales but they are failing big time to retain customers.

As KPMG study revealed, 86 per cent of customers are willing to pay extra for quality customer experience, it is very clear that price is no more a major decision influencer hence not focusing on other metrics and compete only on price-point is not a lasting strategy.

 

A poor search experience: Product Discovery is the metric that guarantees sales, top-notch customer experience, and re-purchases. By assisting customers to discover products they are actively looking for, e-commerce businesses can cross-sell as well. Improving search results has varied benefits but a good number of players are not worried about it.

Businesses today are relying on social media marketing to drive traffic and then converting those traffic into sell. These E-commerce platforms remain unintroduced to the power of Product Discovery.

Also Read: eCommerce potential in Southeast Asia, through the eyes of Taiwanese

Product Discovery is not only about cross-selling but also about leveraging an incomparable customer experience. When a customer finds a product he or she is looking for faster, they will come back every time they need a product.

 

Not offering personalised experience: PwC and Gartner have made it clear that CX is now a key brand differentiator. By not investing in personalized customer experience, e-commerce players will lose customers to their contemporaries.

All the successful e-commerce players have focused on personalized experience not only to retain customers but to drive referrals and re-purchases as well. Experts say “delivering personalized experience can increase customer referrals by three times”. As found by Hub Spot in a study, “81 per cent of consumers trust their friends over businesses for advice” hence offering personalized experience is more effective than running paid ads.

 

Conclusion

E-commerce is certainly the future of shopping but there’s no guarantee that all contemporary industry leaders will continue to rule. With an array of new enterprises entering the arena, the competition is getting stiff.

Also Read: eCommerce: Revitalising conventional forms of trade in Malaysia

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Join our e27 Telegram group here, or our e27 contributor Facebook page here.

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The subscription fee is US$36 per month for Elf, which weighs less than 13.6kg

US-based startup Scooterson, which has its R&D office in Singapore, has unveiled a new foldable light-weight smart e-scooter, Elf.

The new model — which comes in two variants, Elf and Elf+ — will be available in Singapore from October this year. The user will have the option to either purchase or subscribe to it.

While Elf (UL 2722-certified) is priced at S$799 (US$578), Elf+ costs S$999 (US$723).

The subscription fee is S$49.9 (US$36) per month each for both models. The vehicles weigh less than 30 pounds (13.6kg) each.

“Elf, which stands for Electric, Lite, and Fun, is the world’s smartest kick-scooter designed to have the most required attributes of the daily riders,” claims Scooterson CTO Deepansh Jain.

“Based on our tests, we noticed that almost all riders are comfortable to lift a scooter that weighs between 25 and 30 pounds. Also, the statistics show that riding a scooter more than 20 miles a day is very unlikely,” he added. “We worked on making the frame lighter and adding more cells without crossing the 30-pound limits. Built from light magnesium alloys and automotive-grade aluminium and weighing only 27.5 pounds, Elf is easy to fold and lift into your car trunk.”

The Elf models come equipped with many innovative features: “Smart Ride” helps riders optimise the mileage by suggesting the most efficient riding mode for the already-known roads. On the other hand, “Charging Reminder” reminds the user to put two-wheeler at charging whenever he/she is in a charging-friendly location.

Also Read: This intelligent electric scooter could force Mobike and Ofo to shift gears in Singapore

The “Adaptive Lights” feature in the vehicle can sense the ambient light and switch on and off for better visibility and safety.

The Elf models also boast of a smart battery management feature, which gives 20-plus miles range.

The user can manage all scooter functionalities from the Scooterson app for better performance and battery life to suit the way you ride.

Elf also features ‘anti-shenanigans tech’, which enables the user to know his/her Elf location anytime using the ‘Find My Scooter’ feature on the app. The anti-tampering alarm will send the user a notification to his/her phone each time someone tries any shenanigans with the Elf+.

It also comes in vivid colours and fully programmable mood lights, which will add more visibility and safety while riding in the night.

The Remote Diagnosis feature enables Scooterson’s engineers to detect and conclude the issues faster without further ado, to shorten the service turnaround time.

Elf also stores and process all the telemetry data in the cloud. Based on this data, the app will start giving you suggestions on how to improve your riding style.

Shipping of Elf and Elf+ will be started in September in Europe and North America.

Scooterson was founded in 2016 by Romanian national Mihnea de Vries (CEO) and Jain. In January last year, Scooterson secured US$1.75 million in seed funding from Arsat Industry, a manufacturer of precision metal parts for leading automobile companies in the world.

The company’s first model Rolley, still in Beta, is available only in the US.

 

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