What separates successful blockchain projects from those that bite the dust after a short while?

There’s not a single doubt about the flexibility and security brought about by blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT).

It has been tagged as the next big thing that will transform the world. Some say DLT will do to the world what the internet did many years back. 

Blockchain has gained massive acceptance globally. Reports from blockchain research group Diar showed that blockchain startups raised over US$3 billion through VC investments in 2018.

However, while the technology has experienced growth in leaps and bounds, over the past years, we have witnessed thousands of blockchain projects fail woefully with millions of dollars gone down the drain.

Therefore, it’s worth asking: What separates successful blockchain projects from those that bite the dust after just a short while?

Challenges within the blockchain community

According to reports from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), over 80,000 (92 per cent) blockchain projects launched over the years, have already failed with an average lifespan of 1.22 years.

Also Read: 5 companies set to drive blockchain adoption in Asia

Organisations and projects have sprung up, showed promising concepts and excellent whitepapers. They raised hopes for a better (and profitable) future, yet failed to withstand the test of time. 

The majority of these projects fail at the proof-of-concept stage, while some never even make it to that point — they are just dead-on-arrival. Only a few blockchain projects get to actual execution and scale.

This is enough to cause any to pause and truly reflect asking: What could be the problem? These failures might not be surprising, as many of these projects were not able to find what it takes to succeed and scale truly.

It would be interesting to highlight some of the factors that have led to the success and sustainability of blockchain platforms that are still going strong to date.

This will help other blockchain startups in establishing a solid ground for upcoming projects.

Enterprise partnerships help in achieving scale

While blockchain has its outstanding capacities, it should be understood that the technology is not the universal solution to all business woes.

In many cases, blockchain can serve strongly as a complementing technology with the capacity to enhance business operations, and not necessarily to disrupt them entirely. 

Some disruptive projects can be described as solutions that are looking for problems. If you try to disrupt an entire industry too much, chances are you will get little cooperation with potential partners.

We can highlight success stories among blockchain startups that have partnered with existing enterprises to improve service delivery and enhance the way they do business.

Take the e-commerce supply chain, for example. E-Commerce companies are more widely-known for the front-facing part of their business, which involves online transactions, fulfilment and delivery. But for consumers, little is known about what happens behind the scenes.

This is what a partnership between Walmart China, VeChain, and PwC are addressing through DLT. The Walmart China Blockchain Traceability Platform (WCBTP) will keep track of products like packaged fresh meat, rice, and vegetables through the supply chain. This aims to enhance accountability across 23 product lines, which will be expanded to 100 by year-end.

With this platform, Chinese consumers can get detailed information about products by scanning a code on their smartphones, including location reports, source, and real-time tracking.

It is quite essential to conduct due diligence on areas that truly require blockchain and meet the need there. E-commerce and supply chain management are good examples of traditional businesses now being complemented by distributed ledger tech.

Projects like VeChain, which recently marked its one-year anniversary, have shown how relevant targeting and application of blockchain solutions can result in sustainable projects that scale faster.

Tapping the right target market helps in sustainability

The blockchain craze has gotten every entrepreneur jumping on the bandwagon mostly motivated by the fear-of-missing-out.

These projects end up with no form of originality or real idea concept but are just a bunch of copy-paste materials and concepts with no depth. Many have poorly-designed or plagiarised whitepapers. 

Also Read: 5 reasons tokenisation makes blockchain tech more impactful in real-world scenarios

Leveraging blockchain solutions should go beyond just jumping on the bandwagon and an opportunity to make money. Project founders must conduct adequate research and due diligence in understanding the needs of whatever target market and exploring means to satisfy them effectively.

This will help in developing concepts that have depth and which can withstand the test of time and can truly scale. 

To again highlight the complex business of supply chain and logistics, a good example here would be the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA) formed by UPS and FedEx to facilitate transparency in supply chain and provide a platform for adequate record-keeping of information leveraging blockchain technology.

Case in point: The trucking industry is in itself a US$4.6 trillion industry as of 2018, and businesses are scrambling to define the industry’s future amidst a general slowdown. In logistics, automation, security, and transparency are key considerations in meeting customer expectations — both in the consumer-facing and B2B aspect.

With blockchain implementation, rich data, internet-of-things, and real-time updating can make logistics more efficient and secure. The BiTA aims to establish a common standard of implementation of blockchain and Distributed Ledger Tech to ensure everyone can gain from the benefits.

Technical know-how is necessary to scale

The bandwagon approach has turned everyone into a blockchain expert. However, the problem with some projects is the lack of technological know-how on the part of the project’s management.

While the vision is there, the technical personnel do not have the capability or means to execute a project that could go to scale. Here we go back to the challenge of using blockchain as being the “universal solution” that can solve all business challenges. Well, sometimes it’s not.

To illustrate, for those who look to build a powerful blockchain to scale for a global audience. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has spoken on the need to focus on the three fundamental properties of distributed networks, decentralisation, security, and scale. 

Many projects can achieve two of these — decentralisation and security — but rarely do blockchain projects successfully address the issue of scale. Even Bitcoin itself has been bogged down by scalability issues, due to the limited block size in its initial implementation.

The Bitcoin creators’ intent is unclear at this point, but there is an ongoing debate as to whether this limitation has resulted in a scalability issue with the platform.

To mitigate this challenge, blockchain experts should be able to design their platforms with such future-proofing in mind in the first place.

A balance in overcoming business and technical challenges

Before embarking on a blockchain project, it is essential to consider the market, the technology, and the ecosystem, which can make or break your platform.

Ask yourself if it is viable, scalable, and usable. Conduct adequate research, find or build knowledge and technical know-how, and partner with the right people.

Also Read: AI and blockchain: new tech frontier or simply incompatible?

Distributed ledger technology will transform the way we do business, but for that to happen, we will need products and platforms that will stand the test of time.

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In addition to Cambodia, we also have updates from China’s self-driving vehicle ambition, ShopKirana, and the Indonesian central bank

Cambodia launches state-backed e-commerce platform – Khmer Times

Cambodia Post E-Solutions PLC, a venture of Cambodia Post, has worked with Chinese firm ZVS Investment and local tech company Paxxa Mobile Solutions to launch state-backed online marketplace Tinh Tinh E-commerce, Khmer Times reported.

Named after the Khmer word for “buy, buy,” the platform is available in Khmer, English, and Chinese. It also offers a “comprehensive and integrated” set of services, which also included a logistics and intermediary agency service.

The platform was established with an initial capital of US$1.5 million, according to Cambodia Post director-general Ork Bora.

Cambodia Post E-Solutions PLC chairman Meas Sopheary also stated that the platform is the country’s only certified online marketplace.

China dedicates a mountain highway to test self-driving cars – SCMP

As part of its effort to compete with the US in autonomous driving technology, China has dedicated a mountain highway in eastern Shandong province for testing of connected, self-driving vehicles, South China Morning Post wrote.

The testing is the result of a partnership between Qilu Transportation Development Group with Huawei Technologies and China Mobile.

The equipment that is being tested on the highway included road sensors, laser and microwave radars, panoramic video surveillance, as well as weather monitoring and traffic signs monitoring.

Also Read: Cambodia’s Meal Temple expands into Bhutan with an investment in DrukRide

Indian B2B platform ShopKirana raises US$10M – Deal Street Asia

Indian B2B e-commerce platform ShopKirana raised US$10 million in Series B funding round from Info Edge, Incubate Fund, Akatsuki AET Fund, NPTK Emerging Asia Fund and Better Capital, Deal Street Asia reported.

Founded in 2015 by Tanutejas Saraswat, Sumit Ghorawat, and Deepak Dhanotiya, Shopkirana develops a platform for stakeholders in grocery and FMCG supply chain to run orders, delivery, payments, and other related services.

The company will use the funding to expand its presence across major tier-two cities in India.

Indonesia launches standardised QR code – DailySocial

Indonesia’s central bank has formally introduced a standardised QR code (QRIS) as part of its goal to simplify QR code-based payments in the country, DailySocial reported.

The QRIS will support different types of digital payments, from e-wallet to mobile banking.

It will operate using the “merchant present mode”, which requires merchants to present the QR code to be scanned by customers.

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Image Credit: Christian Holzinger on Unsplash

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Under the new moniker, the company said it will carry multiple wellness products such as Ride, Rave, Reflect, and The POD

RIDE, the Indonesian wellness startup that is known for its indoor cycling programme, announced its new name R Fitness after raising IDR17.7 billion (US$1.25 million) pre-Series A funding round by Intudo Ventures, Agaeti Ventures, and SMDV, according to a DailySocial report.

The decision to rebrand, the company said, is a strategic one as it seeks to fulfil the mission to make wellness accessible for everyone.

Under R Fitness, there will be several wellness products launched, such as Ride (nightclub-style indoor cycling fitness programme), Rave (cardio exercise programme), Reflect (mental health programme), and The POD (microgym facility access provider).

“We’ve been in operation since four and a half years ago when boutique fitness movement is still a new concept to grasp. The market has matured now and many investors start to notice this industry,” said CEO & Co-Founder RIDE Jakarta Gita Sjahrir.

Also Read: Fitness studio RIDE Jakarta raises US$500K in seed funding to launch digital platform

This is the second time the independent venture capital Intudo Ventures invests in R Fitness, after participating in the seed funding round of the company back in February 2018. Recently, the VC closes its US$50 million second fund targeted at Indonesian startups.

Agaeti Ventures is the VC firm based in Indonesia that focusses on pre-Series A and Series A funding. Back in March 2019, Agaeti Ventures participated in the US$7.6 million fundraisings of Indonesian logistic tech Kargo led by Sequoia Capital India.

SMDV is tech-focused venture capital that claims that it is on a mission to “change the landscape in Indonesia and the region by providing venture investments, strategic network, and mentorship”. With East Ventures and Yahoo! Japan, SMDV has launched new VC firm EV Growth that focusses on Series B funding and has raised US$150M for startups in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia

SMDV often participated in funding led by East Ventures, like the recent investment in grab-n-go coffee chain Fore Coffee in January.

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Image Credit: Samantha Gades on Unsplash

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When the sharing economy emerged, it was seen as one of the means to reverse employment problems around the world

When the “sharing economy” emerged ten years ago, its promise of providing income to anyone who’s willing to share his or her resources, captured the imagination of investors and consumers alike. It can be an extra space in one’s car, as popularised by Uber, or a spare room at home, as led by Airbnb.

The proponents of the sharing economy believed that many had a surplus of one valuable commodity that could be used by others for some profit.

This led nine-to-five job holders and office workers into thinking about the untapped income that they can access if they share a bit of their asset, which in most cases would be their property and time.

For the most part, consumers were the biggest winners, as costs to hail a ride for a trip across the city dropped, and less expensive accommodation for a vacation became more widely available.

Also Read: Will Asia’s booming digital economy lead to an inevitable rise in cybercrime?

The promise of convenience, of having access to services in a click on an app was a big win to customers. Both Uber and Airbnb became global brands in less than three years after they were launched. By 2025, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) estimates the industry will churn US$335 billion in revenue. 

But as investors plunked more money into on-demand service startups and asset-sharing platforms, the industry was pressured to turn profitable.

To turn green, startups were forced to cut the income share of affiliates. Eventually, the industry’s most prominent players became contractors of independent workers, and its affiliates started to demand more accountability. 

In the world over, there’s been numerous worker strikes against on-demand service platforms as their affiliates and partners clamour for a higher share of income for their services. I

n the US, Uber drivers, had consistently gone on strike, most recently in May, just before the company went public. In 2015, a worker under on-demand cleaning service Handy, sued the startup after it reportedly paid her only US$14 for 30 hours of work. 

Somehow, despite being at the frontline of their company’s services, workers have become the last priority in the sharing economy. Even the World Bank suggests it’s now time for investors to funnel their cash in startups with resilient business models and the ones that provide “upside to everyone that’s involved in their growth over time.” 

Fortunately, based on my research, there are still a handful of startups, from the Asia Pacific to the US, that employs business models that prioritize both the consumers’ and their partners’ well-being, that startups may take lessons from. 

Transparent business terms to affiliates

In Australia, the leading cleaning booking service in the country called Urban You made its terms for affiliates the most straightforward and transparent in the industry.

On its website, it already bares that it offers AUS$25 for every hour of service to a cleaner, about 30 per cent more than the national minimum wage average in the country, which is at AUS$17. Partners are also motivated, as they get to keep about 75 per cent of the total fee charged by the company for every hour of service from customers. 

This isn’t to say that the only way for the sharing economy work is to ensure partners get the lion’s share in business charges.

From all the leading cleaning booking service providers in the country, Urban You is also the most upfront in its offer to provide work insurance for affiliates, for a minimal fee of AUS$8 a week. That’s a perk that isn’t offered by most, if not, at all by platform companies. 

In the US, car-sharing Turo is showing “ride-hailing” can still be a business for those who just merely want to make a profit out of their idle resources.

Instead of making car owners drive other strangers around the city, Turo allows them to have their vehicles rented by others either by the hour or by the day. Its biggest advantage over other services is the fleet of cars in its platform.

One can rent the latest Tesla, a Jeep, even a Porsche Macan, to name a few for over US$250 for a week. Meanwhile, the owners get the chance to pay not just their monthly car dues, but to save for another one, even for their dream cars. 

These startups show that the sharing economy may still be inclusive for partners and that there are business models that platform owners can employ to create a truly beneficial and economical proposition for those who wish to participate in the industry. 

It’s what my startup, Mober, an on-demand delivery service platform, wants to achieve with our newest program, “Driverpreneur.” Filipinos have always been madiskarte, a Filipino term for being resourceful and industrious. And if given an opportunity, they can be successful in business and in life. 

Also Read: 5G is the technology that will upset the economy as we know it

With the program, drivers will have the chance to own the service vehicles they use for the platform, under a creative “rent-to-own” scheme. A minimal fee that they pay to the company daily goes towards owning the vans.

Outside of that, drivers take home all their profits from the day’s delivery services and bring the vehicle home too. Mober even takes care of the vehicle’s maintenance so drivers aren’t hounded by fear of their cars breaking down and setting them back in terms of large repair costs and precious, precious time.

The program aims to go back to the roots of ride-sharing: providing income opportunities to those who are willing to share resources that they own, all the while being empowered as entrepreneurs and bosses of their own. 

Back to the roots of an inclusive sharing economy 

With an industry bound to reach more than US$300 billion in revenues by 2025, now is the time for startup players in the sharing economy to reassess their business models for sustainability. I believe Philippine startups can do their share in this effort, and I hope Mober’s “Driverpreneur” program can encourage others that an inclusive business model for partners is still possible. 

Also Read: 5 ways the on-demand economy has disrupted the way we study and learn

The World Bank even said it could help end poverty in developing countries. It may be time for the startups in the sharing economy to go back to its roots, embody the ideals they once fought for, beginning with more highly valued partners. 

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Image Credit: Vlad Busuioc

 

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A layman’s guide to utilising AMP for your website

 

AMP stands for “Accelerated Mobile Page,” an innovation that was developed specifically for viewing web pages on mobile devices. AMPs were first introduced by Google in 2016 and provoked much buzz.

They removed tracking codes and third-party ads, shifting attention to the most important elements of website functionality, Thanks to AMPs, Google’s experts have given us easy, fast, and user-friendly mobile web pages.

The progress of AMPs

Initially, after the technology’s announcement, AMPs were mainly utilized by writers who were supplying relevant, real-time materials with a short life cycle, and wanted their articles to be indexed in Google News.  

Later, the application of AMPs was extended beyond news publishing, and websites with various purposes and subject areas were creating their own AMPs, marked with a special icon in organic search results.

This icon notified web users that they would be able to view a certain page very quickly, and it would upload as fast or faster than a desktop page. 

Also Read: How technology can make the HR department more productive

Over time, as more people shifted to mobile phones, AMPs completely overshadowed desktop-oriented pages, and Google’s team decided to tailor their ranking algorithm to this technology.

New solutions began to be approved based on how they looked on smartphone screens. This revolution, known as “mobile-first” indexing, turned the online space upside down and forced entrepreneurs to revise their web presence. 

Desktop versions of websites ceased to be the primary promotional platforms and quickly turned into addons for mobile versions.

This change was inevitable since modern web users often search for information and solve important issues on the go. Tech-savvy Millennials and other avid users often work, play, and even sleep with gadgets in their hands. The use of tablets and smartphones has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. 

Any entrepreneur who wants to reach their target audience and hit high sales should think mobile-first and place information about their brand on accelerated mobile pages. Below, we provide some weighty reasons to utilize AMPs. 

Why is utilising AMPs important?

Immediately after the transition to mobile-first indexing, the use of AMPs seemed optional to many uninformed entrepreneurs. They believed it would be possible to continue doing business without gadget-optimized content. But this was a fatal mistake.

Even though there are no obvious SEO benefits, the use of AMPs can change the way potential clients perceive your brand. People are impatient today, and they quickly become irritated with slow loading speeds.

They will not hesitate to discard your pages due to long page loading times. In today’s dynamic world of rapid changes, multitasking, and universal informatization, no one has time to wait, so it is crucial to satisfy their needs as quickly as possible. 

You want your company’s web image to be associated with convenience and responsiveness rather than delays and awkwardness, so it is up to you to make sure potential customers enjoy great user experience.

Also Read: Leveraging technology to transform the way we feel, travel, and eat

Speed up your website, create a user-friendly layout and high-quality content, and watch your online platform rise to the top in search rankings. 

Without making these transformations, it will be impossible to remain competitive in today’s overcrowded market. A positive first impression plays a critical role in building strong and lasting relationships with clients, ensuring their satisfaction and loyalty.

If people visit your website and find it awkward to navigate, they will quickly abandon your site and shift to your competitors, never to return. 

AMPs provide an easy, natural, and affordable solution for improving your website’s user experience. Do not limit the potential power of your brand.

The largest online platforms like Facebook and others have adopted AMPs because they understand that users want to access their sites on any and all devices. If you want to become an online leader, you would be wise to learn from the best. 

AMP technology will continue to evolve

Google’s representatives admit that their current AMP strategy has not yet reached its ideal state, and they continue to expand its functionality and eliminate flaws.

This active work is a clear indication that AMPs are not a temporary trend that will fade away over the coming years. AMPs are the future of the Internet, so it is in your best interest to utilize this technology as early as possible and track all innovations made by Google. 

Many entrepreneurs are reluctant to change their marketing strategies and embrace AMPs. They fear they will face multiple risks in replacing desktop-focused websites that have successfully brought in profits in the past.

Lack of experience often leads to faulty AMP development and improper syncing with existing non-AMP pages. It is quite understandable that businesses have concerns about ruining their previously efficient web presence and losing their high positions in search rankings. 

However, if you fail to act, your site will go down in rankings anyway. It is just a matter of time. So you can take a risk and win, or wait until you have no choice.

The benefits AMPs will far outweigh potential losses. Business owners who welcome innovations, think outside the box, and are willing to let go of obsolete approaches can expect their brands to occupy leadership positions.

There is no other way to stay competitive. Google sets its rules and we have to respect them if we want to get ahead. 

One more popular trend is the creation of special mobile applications for improving business processes. Of course, it may be challenging to transform your standard workflow and get rid of old habits.

Also Read: Trends and predictions for the 11.11 and 12.12 digital commerce sales periods in Malaysia

But more and more companies revolutionize their web platforms. Keep up with the times and leverage the latest technologies in order not to let competitors overshadow you. Best of luck!

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While organisations recognise the potential of data, many struggle to turn data into actionable insights that provide value

According to a recent Alteryx-commissioned IDC Info brief, The State of Data Science and Analytics, there are approximately 14 million data workers in the Asia Pacific and they spend 80 per cent of the workweek on data-related activities.

Yet, 45 per cent of this time is wasted each week because data professionals are bogged down by the sheer scale, complexity and diversity of their organisations’ data.

Also Read: Women are starting to get in on the cybersecurity action, but more can be done

A huge problem revolves around the way many organisations have siloed data departments away from the rest of the organisation, limiting the way data can be used.

It is an antiquated thought model and one that needs to be changed in the age of Big Data as organizations continue to generate what seems to be untapped goldmines of data sources across industries and internal functions.

So how can organisations bust down the old siloes around building an analytic culture? How can they finally realise the potential of data analytics to achieve higher ROI?

These are questions that many organisations are grappling with as they think about either establishing a data science team or empowering existing team members to become data scientists.

 Empowering business analysts to be citizen data scientists

To start, organisations need to empower data professionals on their team, regardless of technical acumen, to become more data literate and to improve their analytic knowledge.

In a workforce that is becoming increasingly data-centric, there is not enough expertise to keep pace with the explosive demand for data scientists.

Data scientists come at a premium, are difficult to retain and are few and far between, making it challenging for enterprises to build out this technical capability.

Furthermore, organisations need to recognise that not every data-related job requires a data scientist with advanced qualifications.

Also Read: Why virtually everything relies on cloud technology in 2019

Instead, the key is to empower business analysts sitting in various lines of business, many of whom are currently stuck in spreadsheets, to analyse data more efficiently and drive real, measurable, business results.

Coined by Gartner, the term ‘citizen data scientist’ is defined as a person who creates or generates models that use advanced diagnostic analytics or predictive and prescriptive capabilities, but whose primary job function is outside the field of statistics and analytics.

With the power of a code-free platform behind them, a citizen data scientist (CDS) can be up-levelled to create data and business models with the help of data analytics tools, even if they do not have advanced mathematical expertise or technical skills such as writing custom codes.

It’s not rocket science. Creating and empowering citizen data scientists is a unique opportunity to develop existing talent who know an organisation’s data and understand their business priorities and objectives.

These professionals know the business inside and out and probably have a laundry list of ideas they aren’t empowered to tackle. Imagine then, the power of unleashing their potential and the type of quantifiable business impacts they could realise.

Often, they are eager to learn and develop skills to improve their personal development and contribute to the business, thus, creating a virtuous cycle of improvement.

Providing self-service tools that put humans at the centre of analytic intelligence

As the data and analytics landscape becomes more complex and fragmented, it is more pertinent than ever to democratize access to analytic tools among members of a business who can best create and derive value from the data.

The rise in the use of self-service data analytic tool has become so pronounced that Gartner predicts that by the end of 2019, the analytics output of business users with self-service capabilities will surpass that of professional data scientists.

Going beyond the implementation of self-service capabilities, business analysts and citizen data scientists must be encouraged to ask tough questions and be provided with the necessary training to answer these questions, to ensure the success of a self-service approach.

Today, there are even self-service data analytic platforms that have taken it one step further to put more advanced analytic capabilities into the hands of business experts.

These are people who know their company’s business and data and are in the best position to assess whether a prediction that can impact the business – but do not have technical skills to write codes and deploy predictive models.

To help them advance their skills and harness the advantage of AI, self-service platforms now come with a guided walk-through to build machine learning models in a code-free, drag-and-drop environment.

Data is at the core of digital transformation, and this trend is driving demand for analytics across all business functions of an organisation.

Also Read: The cloud has moved mountains, but always keep an eye out for security

Building this analytic mentality and creating a platform that embraces teamwork and model building will be pivotal in developing the next generation of data workers. One that thrives on making self-service analytics your competitive advantage.

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From mental health awareness to online medical consultation, these ten startups are the healthtech rising stars of the country

Malaysia, as we know it, is a breeding ground of hundreds if not thousands of startups today, supported by its modern, tech-enabled infrastructure and strategic location. Among many tech sectors it boasts, Malaysian healthtech has seen quite a productive year so far, with the latest funding deal was secured by Naluri, the digital therapeutic platform.

According to The Malaysian Health Care System: A Review by David Quek, Malaysia has a “dual-tiered system of healthcare services: a government-led and funded public sector, and a thriving private sector creating a dichotomous yet synergistic public-private model”. However, the report stated, there is no unified system of universal access to healthcare for every citizen.

The heavily subsidised public sector caters to the bulk of the population (about 65 per cent) but is served by just 45 per cent of all registered doctors, with even fewer specialists (25-30 per cent). The private sector also has grown tremendously over the past 25 years.

The report further noted that this two-tiered system has significantly different goals that can be unsustainable in the longer term.

The way forward, it suggested, is to foster closer partnership, collaboration, and sharing of services and personnel with an integrated system of medical information and expertise access. To achieve so, Malaysia’s healthtech startup has to aim for a more cost-effective system and a portable system of reimbursement, exactly what these startups are working on:

BookDoc

BookDoc has a presence in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, where it teamed up with Siloam Hospital to open way to the country, Hong Kong, and Thailand offering a platform that connects patients to healthcare as well as gives incentives through BookDoc Activ, where users can earn rewards and discounts from retail partners and service providers for maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle.

BookDoc’s ecosystem allows users to search and book healthcare professionals anytime and anywhere, and integrates with navigation (Google Map, Waze), transport (Grab, Uber, AirAsia), accommodation (Agoda, Airbnb), and recommended restaurants & attractions (TripAdvisor) for more efficient healthcare appointments.

BookDoc was founded by Dato’ Chevy Beh with the goal of improving the timeliness of diagnosis and helping patients to find appropriate care.

In 2018, the company received funding from Bruneian royalty.

Naluri

Freshly-funded, Naluri took a different approach to conquer chronic disease by focussing on patient’s mental health. It offers a digital therapeutic service that is combined with behavioural science, data science, and digital design.

Naluri, which is founded by a former iFlix Malaysia CEO Azran Osman-Rani, said the healthcare concept it offers is aimed at “building mental resilience needed to achieve goals and overcome life’s challenges that stand in the patient’s way”.

Also Read: Startup in Spotlight: How dengue helped create Malaysia’s BookDoc

Naluri provides self-serve modules/lessons, tracking through connected weighing scale, food journal, and thought journal and peer group support. It also gives users regular feedback and coaching and access to professional health coaches, dieticians, executive coaches, fitness coaches, medical advisors, and pharmacists.

It then presents the users with a machine-learning and Natural Language Processing-based results that predict health outcomes of users and increase the productivity of coaches.

REMEDi

REMEDi offers its users a paperless, responsive system that connects patients with healthcare professionals and services, from doctor visit to prescription management, and gives access to medical history securely.

Patients can connect to selected records online to review historical and current results securely. This allows patients to have an active say in taking care of their health together with the health professionals that treat the patients.

ClicknCare

ClicknCare was founded based as an initiative of Simple Motion Sdn Bhd to create a healthcare platform for migrants around the world. It aims to make it easy for any migrant in any country to find local doctors that are not restricted by barriers, at a reasonable cost.

ClicknCare was founded by Abu Hasnat Mohammad Sultanur Reza, using a telemedicine approach called ClickTalk, that allows health care professionals to evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients using telecommunications technology. ClickDoc, on the other hand, are a contact pool of registered doctors in Malaysia with Bangla-speaking operator.

Check Up Asia

Check Up Asia recently made news after signing a partnership agreement with Takaful Malaysia to promote a healthy lifestyle, as well as related services and solutions, for the insurance giant’s Employee Benefits (“EB”) customers. Check Up Asia is best known for its product CHECKUP PLUS, that is aimed towards helping individuals subscribe to a healthier lifestyle to manage and control heart disease risk factors.

The programme includes consultation with a doctor of users’ choice, the use of the Ourcheckup Platform and Mobile Apps, and health data collection devices.

DoctorOnCall

DoctorOnCall claimed to be the first and currently the largest online doctor consultation platform in Malaysia. It offers healthcare services via chat, phone, and video calls.

Besides consultation, the company also provides medical second opinion and medicine delivery.

Also Read: HealthMetrics, the first Malaysian startup to join Google Launchpad, raises US$1M from Spiral Ventures, Cradle, RHL Ventures

DoctorOnCall works by connecting patients to registered doctors simply with registering to write symptoms. Then, patients will be able to speak to a doctor online and get needed treatments and answers, all the way until a prescription is ready and medication is being delivered to the patient.

HomeGP

HomeGP is an online platform that connects patients to house call healthcare practitioners such as doctors, nurses, and caregivers.

Patients simply book an appointment with a smartphone or web device. After the booking is confirmed, the selected medical service provider will arrive within an hour to tend in the comfort of the patient’s home.

To date, HomeGP claimed that it has over 300 on-demand healthcare practitioners.

HypoBand

HypoBand is healthtech product that is designed to alert caregivers when the life of a diabetic patient is in danger. If a wearer is having a cold sweat or hypoglycemia, a distress call is made on auto to prevent a hypoglycemic attack, that usually happens when the person with diabetes is asleep and unaware.

The cold sweat detection is done by inbuilt sensors monitoring the patient’s temperature and sweat levels using the HypoBand. A panic button also can be triggered in case of emergency.

According to the World Health Organization, in Malaysia alone, one out of 8 adults has diabetes and 50 per cent of them do not even know that they have diabetes.

The Hypoband itself is integrated with the Android-based app that makes auto calls and sends out pre-written text messages (SMS) to caregivers, doctors, or hospitals during an emergency hypoglycemic attack.

It also has a local alarm mode that can alert nearby caregivers to assist the patient.

PurelyB

PurelyB is a health and wellness platform that offers customised health programmes, curated content, and a platform to connect with a like-minded community.

The company was started in 2015 by duo Raja Jesrina Arshad and Stephanie Looi as a healthy food recipe and directory platform. It has expanded to include an online marketplace that sells healthy lifestyle products in an English and Chinese platform.

HealthMetrics

HealthMetrics acts as a personal assistant to manage employees’ health benefits. It offers transparent healthcare pricing as well as predictive analytics to help companies budget and manage the administrative work under one platform, eliminating the use of Excel or even receipts traces.

With HealthMetrics, all data are converted into analytics for the users to make business decisions.

Also Read: Malaysian healthtech startup Naluri raises US$250K seed funding from 500 Startups, BioMark

HealthMetrics became the first-ever Malaysian startup to join Google Launchpad Accelerator in 2017. The company got a chance to go to Google’s headquarter in Mountain View to take part in intensive mentoring from the Google team and experts from top technology companies and venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. In 2018, it received US$1 million funding from Spiral Ventures, Cradle, and RHL Ventures.

These are the 10 disruptive, emerging healthtech from Malaysia, among other thirty-something healthtech startups that are reported to be operating in the country. With many innovations ahead that covers a multifaceted issue in health, Malaysia is on its way to transforming the fragmented healthcare system not only in the country but potentially in neighbouring Southeast Asia countries as well.

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As businesses expand, optimising SEO in international markets can be different from optimisation in-home markets

Having a well-optimised SEO website is the first step towards success.

If your website ranks high for the most popular keywords within the client base in your home country, your revenue generation will be on a constant upward trajectory.

And now because you have conquered the local market, it would be the best time to expand your business in the international market.

However, there lies a problem. The kind of online domination that has worked for you so well back home doesn’t seem to work in these new markets.

Also Read: 8 SEO tools most used by bloggers and marketers in 2019

Your international target audiences do not seem to relate well with the niche keywords that had brought you huge traffic back home.

Now you are panicking, not knowing what to do. But don’t worry; this article will help you understand what’s wrong with your online marketing strategies and how to navigate around the problem. 

So, what is happening? Well, your global success is stagnating because you probably have not yet found the right combination of multilingual SEO and global localisation.

The international audience wants the content in your website translated to the language they understand best, and then everything is spiced up by a strong multilingual SEO strategy.

What exactly is multilingual Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

Multilingual SEO is a content optimising strategy where you align your website and its content to the language and structure that search engines can quickly identify with. At the same time helping engines to pick which country or region every language in your website is targeting. 

To leverage the full potential of multilingual SEO, your localisation strategy must be flawless. You must anchor your plans for global success on these two factors.

Also Read: 5 effective tricks to boost your SEO

And because you only get one chance to impress your audience, then you cannot afford to get anything wrong, be it on multilingual SEO or global localisation. 

Bottom line: You only get a fair shot at global success if your web content is cultivating, readable, understandable, easily accessible, optimally targeted, and easily searchable in as many countries, languages, and slangs as possible. 

With over 200 million websites actively competing for a limited number of clients today, you cannot afford to miss out on the visibility that comes with a good SEO ranking. That being said, here are some of the benefits of incorporating your multilingual SEO into your localisation plan:

The two are intertwined

“SEO experts will tell you that it is difficult to tell multilingual SEO and localisation apart. These two are so close that one cannot function without the other. When you think of localising visual content to a certain language, then you are already overlapping to multilingual SEO. When you think of localising code for maintenance, you definitely will have to engage local linguistic experts, which is multilingual SEO.” say SEO experts of Tactica. In a nutshell, multilingual SEO cannot stand on its own without localisation and vice versa.

Direct translations aren’t enough

If your idea of localisation is using a translation tool to translate your content into a foreign language, then you are leaving a lot to fall through the cracks.

One language can have more than five terminologies referring to the same thing, or one word having more than five possible translations. The only way you will take care of that is by using multilingual SEO tactics.

Assemble a reliable translation team and ask them to help you to identify the keywords that resonate most with the culture and slang of each of your target locales. That is the only way you’ll succeed.

Identifying the right search engines for your audience

This goes without saying: Google is the dominant search engine in most developed global economies. But the word we all look for in business is “all” and not “most”. What you need is a team of lingual experts to help you optimise your keywords for not only Google but also other relevant engines. 

Also Read: Why we need to rethink how we measure SEO

Think of a case where you are targeting Chinese consumers with your product. The chances are that you won’t get any business going in the country because only 1 per cent of the Chinese population uses Google to search for products online.

You will have to optimise your keywords for Baidu, the dominating engine in the region with over 70 per cent of all internet users. Localisation alone will not get this done. You will need the help of multilingual SEO to succeed.

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The ineffectiveness of too many how to’s on leadership can be solved by knowing this one trick

I’m simply going to get right into it: a lot of leadership traits are bullshit.

For one, leaders are expected to have many ‘qualities’ and ‘traits’. How many traits should leaders have? Is it 10? 11? Or is it 5?

Fact is, great leaders are an embodiment of many qualities. It is the blend of the qualities that makes each leader unique in every environment. Some leaders may be more cool-headed; others may be great communicators.

Leadership is such a nebulous term which has various definitions based on the organisation that they are in. The culture and values of the organisation are factors that can set the type of leadership they are looking for.

“Siri, what are the traits that leaders should have?”

Asking that gives you at least 350 million results, within the first page and the second page being almost indistinguishable. The only distinction between all the links? It’s about the source.

Does it come for a blog or from a news site? Is it a thesis, or is it a contributing article on Forbes? The similarity between all of them is that they are talking about the same few traits repeatedly: honesty, integrity, communicating skills, to name a few.

While important skills, as a leader, you need to understand that these values are merely extensions from your fundamentals. Let’s not even talk about the theory, like servant-leadership and laissez-faire leadership.

Also Read: 6 leadership techniques for business growth acceleration

As a leader, you need to have laser-focus: what are your fundamentals? The base of your leadership is significant as it is the deciding factor for how your ‘extensions’ will be like and how effective they will be.

In this day and age, leadership is a tricky thing; businesses have to manage a multigenerational workforce and millennials and Gen Z’s pose great management challenges on their own.

Be it at work or on campus, effective leadership is only displayed when a team of people with opposing personalities work together with enthusiasm and passion, without asking for rewards or holding any expectations.

Here’s the key: asking for rewards and holding expectations.

Setting the stage

Ditch those traits on integrity, passion, and respect—we are looking at fundamentals here. Like a content strategy, when you operate without a clear direction, your leadership is bound to have multiple blind spots and flaws which you cannot resolve as quickly as you would like to.

Think of traits as branches from a tree: without the root, you are unable to grow. How can there be so many branches without a single tree trunk?

Also Read: How OKR training for managers can create a more realistic approach to learning

You need to set your ‘stage’: a single, solid value that you abide by like a principle, which you carry with you in every task that you do.

Violating this principle is equivalent to being contradictory to your leadership, and that is something you must avoid.

If you’ve been reading The Human Leader or following my posts, you will know that I am a big believer in empathetic leadership: it is the only leadership style that can bring any business or organisation the best of both worlds in results and engagement. Autocratic styles do not work anymore, and Laissez-Faire is only useful to a certain extent.

You’re in the listening business.

Complete autonomy married with limited management is the style. Instead of focusing on control, you focus on guiding. You adopt the role of a mentor.

However, this article is not about theory; it is about the single value that leaders must adopt to build a fundamental for the growth of their leadership.

And that is gratitude.

Gratitude specifically for the team that you’re leading; without them, there would be no you. It is the same kind of gratitude that you should have for your parents; it is through a blend of unique experiences and personalities that you are able to grow and reach the level where you’re at right now.

When you’re grateful for your team, you understand their significance in the organisation that you’re in. You know that these are the people that you’re working for—not the other way around—and that these are the people who will prop you up in the future. They are your supporters.

When you adopt gratitude, growing the ‘branches’ of that value is extremely easy only because it makes so much sense:

Why would you not respect your team?—you know that they are significant. You know that they are important to you: why would we not respect the things that are important to us?

You’re going to pay a lot more attention to them—when you are grateful, you pay close attention to what they are doing. You know that they are the people who will help you: hence, you are going out of your way to see what you can do for them. Do they need more resources? Does someone need mentorship and guidance?

Honesty will be the only policy—one of the most difficult extensions (considering that we lie every day). Honesty refers to full transparency: the process, your expectations, your objectives and such.

You’re going to be genuine—having a single solid base is the key to being consistent, and that means being authentic. When you are consistent in applying your values, you are going to grow the courage to hold true to your values and principles: sometimes, lost values form one of the biggest causes of downfalls.

Why will you not be supportive and encouraging of your team?—Knowing that your team supports you, your role is to be 10x more supportive and encouraging. Help them hit their goals and provide them with the right resources. Chart their path and assist them in growing.

You will actually start caring for your employees — caring for your team member goes beyond work: it is the conversation during lunchtime and in between breaks that allow you to understand them as a human being, not just as your team member. You know that their success if predicated many different factors, and you want to understand where and how you can best help them.

As a leader, you need to think ‘preventive’. By being grateful and adopting empathy, you’re going to understand your employees better regardless of what kind of personality or life they have.

Also Read:  Filling the leadership gap: Why you cannot delegate responsibility

Before underperformance starts spreading, you aim to keep your team going no matter what situation lies before them with useful, gratitude-centric leadership.

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Even as technology advances at a rapid pace and the possibilities for AI increase, it’s important to remember that the most effective applications of AI will still require a human touch

As artificial intelligence (AI) technology continues to advance and its capabilities expand, we might wonder what the role of humans is going to be as things become increasingly automated. This is particularly true when it comes to creativity, given that the ability to ideate and produce new things is one of the characteristics that distinguish humans from other animals.

Defining ‘Creativity’

We already have many examples that AI can be trained to exhibit creative behaviours. For instance, AI can be used to transfer a particular artistic style to original photographs. Mobile applications like Prisma, which allow artistic style transfer, have become extremely popular. AI can also be used to generate new images or paintings. It was recently reported that a new painting created by an AI program has been sold at auction for astonishing US$432,500!

It’s important to distinguish ‘creative behaviours’ from ‘creativity’ with regard to what AI technology is actually doing. How humans decide what is and isn’t creative is largely subjective. AI cannot be creative, in that it cannot experience something like inspiration, but rather it can learn creative behaviours and mimic the human creative process, via which it can produce an output.

Also read: How to cultivate your team’s creativity by thinking outside the box

AI is widely acknowledged to be good at handling huge data sets, uncovering patterns and relationships in data, optimizing towards a clear objective and making predictions. In the case of the painting mentioned earlier, the data set was 15,000 portraits painted over a period of 600 years. An algorithm was then able to emulate the properties of the paintings and produce something based on what it had learned. Other specific applications of ‘creative AI’ include developing special effects for entertainment; providing customer service through chatbots; and designing new proteins and chemicals in the health and science arenas.

The Role of Human Intelligence

Human intelligence (HI) is better at creating content, such as art or literature, and is better at creative problem-solving, such as identifying an opportunity to start a business. Even though AI has been used to generate art and descriptive text, it can only mimic what already exists. It cannot yet create ‘new’ styles of art, dance or literature. In other words, AI can learn patterns that underlie the creative process. However, for things like starting a business- which are rarely if ever replicated in exactly the same way — HI significantly outperforms AI.

Also read: How artificial intelligence is disrupting education

Because of this, even as AI capabilities advance, humans are still important. Subject matter experts are critical for creating examples for AI to learn from, and we still need to provide the goals for AI to work towards and the parameters within which to do that. Humans are still the final decision makers on what ‘creativity’ looks like.

At Appier, one way we have experimented with AI and creative behaviours is to see if it can design clothing. I recently spoke at an event hosted by SGInnovate, where I spoke on the topic of AI and creativity, and I showed the audience both human designs and AI designs. Several people were certain that the AI designs were created by humans, showing that in this case, there was some alignment on ‘creativity’ from both an AI and HI perspective. As Appier works with many e-commerce clients, identifying ways to expand the capabilities of our AI technology allows us to provide more comprehensive solutions to our customers.

Understanding AI’s capabilities and limitations

For now, even as technology advances at a rapid pace and the possibilities for AI increase, it’s important to remember that the most effective applications of AI will still require a human touch. Bringing AI in the creative process will not diminish the role of humans or replace them, but rather it will enhance the creative process and help people produce greater and more varied content and allow them to explore more options when it comes to creative problem solving.

The most critical role for humans working alongside AI is to be clear about what we want it to achieve. We must clearly understand AI’s role and limitations, and provide it with the assets it needs to best perform, particularly robust and high quality data for it to analyse and learn from.

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This article was first published on e27, on November 26, 2018.

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

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