Starting with Indonesia, the integration will see public transportation options available on the app with Trip Planner feature

Grab announced today that it officially operates mass market transportation services with public transit integration onto its app in Southeast Asia, starting with Jabodetabek area in Indonesia since three weeks ago. Grab offers first-mile-last-mile trips through a new Trip Planner (“Rute” in Indonesian) feature.

Grab also connects GrabBike and GrabCar to its first-mile-last-mile trips to and from public transit stations or bus stops in order to complement the public transportation options.

The Trip Planner feature will continue rolling out in other Southeast Asian cities in the coming weeks, along with its bus travel marketplace.

Leveraging its partnership with cities, public transit agencies and private companies, the new public transit and bus offerings cater to mass market consumers and provide access to transportation services that are affordable enough for everyday use. The two new features will offer mass transit options that are up to 70 per cent cheaper than private-hire car-hailing services.

“Today, in Jakarta for example, more than 70 per cent of daily trips are taken on motorcycles and private cars rather than public transportation when commuting to and from city centres. These trends underpin the massive congestion problems plaguing the city. Our long term vision is to make people ’s everyday commute so reliable and seamless that they eventually choose to leave their vehicles at home. Mass transit – via buses, shuttles or high-quality public transport – is the only way to achieve this without adding cars to the roads,” said Ngiam Xinwei, Head of Marketplace and Shared Mobility of Grab.

Also Read: Student housing startup Oxfordcaps secures US$8.15M led by Times Internet

Trip Planner feature enables users to plan their journey with accurate public transportation information and end-to-end directions within the Grab app. Grab also seized the new MRT Jakarta launch momentum to introduce this feature and collaborated with MRT Jakarta to integrate its public transit information into the Grab app.

Grab said it will also provide shelters for pick-ups and drop-offs near the stations to better serve users’ first-mile-last-mile needs and ensure the safety of driver-partners and passengers.

“Through the integration of real-time transit schedules on the Grab platform, we believe that we can increase our ridership by tapping into the wide user base of Grab. More people will have better visibility, predictability, and reliability of when the next train will arrive and plan in advance,” said William Sabandar, President Director, MRT Jakarta.

Besides the new MRT lines, the Grab app will also display live public transit schedules from commuter rail, Airport Rail Link, Transjakarta public bus services, as well as more than 50 fixed schedules of public buses across Jabodetabek.

Simply by entering a current location and destination via Trip Planner, commuters are able to view available public transit routes nearby that will get them to their destination, along with real-time departure and arrival times for some of the public transport services. They will also receive walking directions or recommendations of first-mile-last-mile transportation options such as GrabBike or GrabCar to and from public transit that they can book right away.

Furthermore, not only public transit partners will get increased ridership, access to Grab’s network of ride-sharing services, and journey planning, they will also get to understand how commuters use public transportation services in-app and identify any gaps in existing public services that need to be plugged to improve accessibility for all.

As for “Bus” feature, Grab will pilot the marketplace over the next few months across key Southeast Asian cities. Grab will allow users to pre-book a seat at a price point lower than ride-hailing services, on a route provided by Grab’s bus partners, eliminating queuing and bridge the transit gap for people living in underserved areas where getting to and from city centres remains a hassle.

Also Read: Government-backed blockchain accelerator Tribe adds BMW, Intel, Nielsen as partners

Bus operators will be able to efficiently manage and operate their bus fleet by getting full visibility of user demand information in advance. They can better allocate their available supply, and unlock new opportunities to serve unmet transportation demand.

“Ultimately, the mass mobility ecosystem we want to build is one that allows anyone to plan their trip end-to-end, book, buy electronic tickets, and pay for their entire journey across all modes of transportation, public or private, through one integrated payment system, while reaping the benefits of GrabRewards loyalty programme simply by going about their daily commute,” Ngiam added.
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Image Credit: Grab

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We’re more connected than ever, but also as disconnected

Recently, a prolific developer by the name of _unwriter released the world’s first native Bitcoin web browser, Bottle. It provides a hint of what’s to come if we choose to rethink how we build applications on a new type of data plumbing system.

On the landing page, _unwriter responds to the question “Why a standalone browser instead of building as an extension for existing browsers, or waiting for mainstream browser support?” with the below statement:

“Many things we take for granted in the old “web browsing” experience — including the security model — no longer apply in the new world of Bitcoin. The thing is, Bitcoin is NOT “the next web”. In many ways, it’s completely opposite of what the WWW is, which is why Bitcoin is so powerful.

That’s why it’s more beneficial to start from scratch instead of forking an existing full-fledged browser built for the existing WWW, with many legacy features that can constrain future directions. We can create a new user interaction model optimised for the new Bitcoin world order.”

Bitcoin

What’s occurring right now in the BSV (Bitcoin SV) ecosystem is a flurry of developments that require a different type of thinking.

You can’t solve problems using the same thinking that caused them.

This is what made Bitcoin so “revolutionary” back in the day, because it got people thinking differently about the world.

Unfortunately, if you’ve been paying close attention to what’s happened over the last decade, the Bitcoin most people know (BTC) has been subverted (via the promise of Lightning Network as a scaling solution) to something that is no different to what we already have. In my opinion, this has been Bitcoin’s biggest setback.

Fortunately, Bitcoin had a way of preserving itself through what was known as forks. As a result, two key hard forks took place over the last couple years, which resulted in Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV).

Whenever an attempt to alter the Bitcoin protocol as of v0.1 occurs, that new chain is considered the fork (regardless of the ticker, e.g. BTC/BCH/BSV). This is why there’s been so much contention around “who is the true Bitcoin?”

Social networks

Bitcoin was built around the concept of Small World Networks (SWN) and is known to be an incomplete graph:

Like nature, or reality itself, it is neither perfect (Regular, High L, High C) nor completely random (Low L, Low C). If looked at through the lens of a security expert, it is not completely secure — but secure enough with the economic incentives used to combat some of the potential attack vectors.

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. are also based around this concept of SWNs.

Another way of understanding SWNs is through the concept of 6 Degrees of Separation. You may be familiar with the term from the 1993 movie of the same name, or even witnessed it unknowingly when looking at first, second, or third degree contacts on LinkedIn.

Also Read: How Nurul Hussain’s Codette Project helps Muslim women get into tech and be successful

Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are at most six social connections away from each other. As a result, a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.

It was originally set out by Frigyes Karinthy in 1929 and popularised in an eponymous 1990 play written by John Guare. It is sometimes generalised as the average social distance since it seems logarithmic in comparison to the size of the population.

As mentioned, LinkedIn will show you up to third-degree connections. I have rarely (if ever) met anyone outside of first or second-degree connections. And, since the maximum is six, LinkedIn shows just how small our world feels, and this is important if you want to understand why companies like Facebook are now shifting their mission statement towards more meaningful connections over sheer numbers.

Sense of community

According to the American Psychology Association, a “sense of community” is the feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that their needs will be met through their commitment to be together.

This sense of community is an important factor in determining trust levels within a group. The higher the trust, the higher the sense of connectedness and camaraderie.

However, it is important to note that connectedness does not mean connection.

Back to talking about Facebook, after it shifted their mission statement, organic business page visibility was greatly reduced (unless paid via ads) and the algorithm was shifted to display actual friends and family posts and increase focus on smaller, tighter-knit Facebook Groups.

In the beginning stages of the social network era, we saw an explosion of open platforms. Now, we’re starting to see a contraction whereby individuals are preferring smaller messenger groups and/or more intimate viewing experiences (e.g. Snapchat/Instagram Stories).

This is echoed by Dr Craig S. Wright:

“It is not open platforms people seek but rather closed personal groups and communication with people in a way that allows them to build trust over time. People need to be able to decide what they will consider public, private, or even somewhere in between. Importantly, such a system would include a means to attribute information to a source and stop the widespread misinformation campaigns that have been occurring.”

If you’ve lived long enough in this world, you will know that over time it’s far better to have a small, close group of friends than it is to have many acquaintances that you have no real deep relationships with.

Communities, or that “sense of community”, comes from high trust, strong bonds, and deep relationships with fewer people.

Why? Because it’s harder to go deep with more people — there just isn’t enough of you, or your time, to create authentic relationships both ways through volume. But, you can leverage the “small world effect” to achieve that sense of community.

Drake sums up this dilemma well in his song Fear:

“Yeah, and plus things are just surreal at home
People think I’ve changed just cause my appeal has grown
And now security follow me everywhere,
So I’m never actually am alone, I just always feel alone”

More connected than ever, but also disconnected. The same applies to the world of Bitcoin.

The network stays decentralised enough through a minimum number of “hops” (or degrees of separation) between nodes. This makes it so that not every single individual in the world needs to be a “node” (a computer or CPU used to check, validate or mine Bitcoin). Only a few need to be, so that the rest of the network can feel free to transact safely.

Because, at the end of the day, despite how rational we think we are, the majority of humans are driven by emotions.

Tying it all together

So what does this all mean for the future of social media?

If we think of Bitcoin, not just as cash or a “store of value, but a system, we can start to rethink many of the applications we currently have in the world with new eyes.

Example #1: social media

We are seeing an increase in the abuse of automation in the form of bots, anonymous trolls, and cyber-bullying.

Imagine a world where you may need to pay (in the form of micro-transactions) in order to comment, post, or reply. Mind you, this is already taking place on various sites such as Yours.org and Steem.it.

If someone really wanted to post negative things, en masse, it may cost them an arm and a leg to do so. Now, some will, of course, be willing to pay this, but then what?

Well, if data/transactions are being sent via Bitcoin (as the underlying plumbing system), all things get traced back to its source. It makes it very easy to track down if absolutely needed.

This starts to shift people towards more honest behaviour, as it brings in accountability.

Example #2: identity

With personal keys, Bitcoin removes the need for things like usernames, passwords, 2FA, etc.

You hold your keys. Other providers then need to request access to your data from which you could potentially be paid for directly, and in real-time, versus how it’s currently set up, whereby you give your data over freely and then lose out on any money made by third-parties selling your data.

Also Read: Student housing startup Oxfordcaps secures US$8.15M led by Times Internet

Example #3: copyright

Whenever something like an image, video, audio file, etc. gets copied, the piece of data’s original source (currently contained via OP_RETURN within a Bitcoin transaction) can be traced back and attributed correctly to the source owner and their original transaction ID.

It is immutable.

Another useful example may come in the form of global, federated search. A fellow community management expert, Rachel Happe, shares:

“With Bitcoin underpinning everything, this becomes a reality, as all data becomes traceable/interlinked, while privacy still remains intact and secure (just not anonymous). We cry out for federated search, but also seek privacy. Bitcoin (as a system) is that near-perfect middle ground.”

Now, we haven’t even covered how communities have formed around Bitcoin (as an idea) itself, but if we wish to truly innovate, we must discard all that we think we know.

We must start from scratch, but with lessons learned from the past. Is Bitcoin (as a system) still worth keeping an eye on, in terms of reshaping our global financial/social infrastructure?

Let’s see.

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Image Credits: antonioguillem

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There’s no denying that IoT is ushering in a safer future for everyone

The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) is known for changing the way we conduct businesses with one another, but little attention is being paid to the abundance of ways it is revolutionizing modern safety and public health.

As we become ever more interconnected, our ability to predict public health crises and avoid common fatalities is becoming better and better.

Here’s how the IoT can increase safety, and how some companies and government officials are already working hand in hand to harness the power of technology in the pursuit of saving lives.

Our roads are becoming safer

First and foremost, the IoT promises to reinvent modern roadways and make cars much safer.

Most people think about autonomous cars when they consider the future of transportation, and it’s indeed true that self-driving vehicles will be a major part of tomorrow’s cities.

Also Read: Ride-hailing behemoth Grab now serves mass public transportation in Southeast Asia

What few people realise is the way autonomous vehicles interact with their local environments to mitigate traffic fatalities and save countless pedestrian lives.

Given that the pedestrian fatality rate is increasing alarmingly in many regions, the need for interconnected vehicles that communicate in order to avoid collisions is more important than ever.

In the future, your distracting smartphone may communicate with the car or truck barreling down a sensory-laden road towards you, and divert the vehicle just in time to avoid a deadly collision.

The interconnected cities of the future are often imagined as surveillance nightmares, but although it’s true that privacy concerns will be around for years to come, one positive consequence is avoiding car accidents by a longshot.

The IoT is also reshaping city experiences as a whole, making things more pleasant for pedestrians and everyday citizens trying to go about their business.

Modern city planning is finding itself supercharged thanks to the introduction of intelligent planning software. For instance, reshaping our public work and enabling us to free up congested areas that have long suffered from traffic.

More efficient public transit schemes are in the work, and data analysis will also be conducted on the local climate to determine which areas of the city have more breathable air and fresher water.

The creation of a “smart environment” that can detect pollution at the speed of light is one of the most impressive ways that the IoT has done. This has increased the safety and longevity of the planet amidst climate change.

However, this is only the start and the true capabilities of the IoT are only just being discovered.

AI assistants are becoming home guards

The IoT is most notably taking shape in the living rooms across America, where smart AI assistants like Amazon’s Alexa have nestled into the role of household objects.

Also Read: Non-profit organisation Supply Chain Asia to launch tech accelerator program

The rise of Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa isn’t just good from a commercial standpoint, these devices can do so much more than help you order milk or play your favourite tunes.

In the future, AI assistants will be used as home security devices, alerting authorities whenever something goes wrong and enabling you to harness the power of data to make your home an ‘impenetrable fortress’.

Security companies have already moved heaven and earth to announce huge partnerships with Google and other home assistant manufacturers in an effort to make people feel safer than ever.

Home assistants becoming the future of home security is just another way the IoT is going to increase safety enjoyed in the 21st century.

Make no mistake, the IoT is upending every aspect of our lives from business to security to who knows what.

While some might continue to doubt the interconnectedness movement, the growth of sensory technology in our everyday lives is clearly a positive development that should be welcomed from the viewpoint of public health.

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Image Credits: gargantiopa

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As the VC firm nears its 10th anniversary, East Ventures Partner Melisa Irene looked back into some of the most important milestones it has made

Entering the first decade since its launch in Indonesia, East Ventures Partner Melisa Irene sits down with e27 to discuss the most important milestones that the venture capital (VC) firm has made, especially in the past one year.

The firm was founded in 2010 with the goal to help propel Indonesia forward through the use of technology, and in 2018, it has seen what Irene described as “the accumulation” of all the things they have worked for.

“… We believe that we should begin by building the ecosystem as a supporting infrastructure. When we have managed to successfully build an infrastructure, we are going to enable other businesses to be built upon this existing infrastructure. That way we can make greater impact,” she explains.

Irene gives an example of Tokopedia which started out as an online marketplace that enables small- and medium-sized businesses to build an online presence, supported by features such as cashless payment, which is currently being provided by OVO.

In addition to building an ecosystem, East Ventures had also proven that it is able to grow a business “very fast” by solving “invisible problems” as done by their portfolio company Warung Pintar (a New Retail platform that works with street stalls or warung) and Fore (an on-demand coffee service).

In less than 1.5 years, Warung Pintar has worked with more than 1,000 warungs while Fore has operated 30 outlets in just six months.

Also Read: Ladies, tell us about your startup and win 5 FREE Echelon Asia Summit 2019 tickets!

“We also want to prove our recent learning that the time it takes for founders to innovate is getting shorter and shorter,” Irene says.

The firm was the investor behind some of the leading tech startups in Indonesia, including unicorns Tokopedia and Traveloka.

It has also seen exits such as the acquisition of O2O e-commerce platform Kudo by Southeast Asian ride-hailing giant Grab in 2017.

What’s trending in Indonesia?

For the future, East Ventures wants to continue on working to realise its vision to help Indonesia; it also aims to continue on seizing new opportunities in the market.

Some of the most exciting themes in the market currently include O2O (online-to-offline and vice versa) and New Retail.

“There will be more online-only services acquiring their customers through offline means; it has started to make sense as online means have begun to get too costly,” Irene points out.

Also Read: Ladies, share this article and win tickets to Echelon Asia Summit 2019!

Irene also believes that certain aspects of logistics industry has called for new innovation.

“Players will go beyond last-mile delivery; they will also touch the distribution process as a whole, including from its back-end,” she explains.

Businesses will also continue on building upon the existing infrastructure, which Irene sees as a great news as companies “can now focus on their creativity in innovating a certain industry.”

“For example, with Fore, we don’t build our own e-commerce platform. We also don’t build our own fleet or marketing agency. We simply innovate how people consume coffee by utilising the existing ecosystem, using services such as Moka POS or Go-Food,” she further elaborates.

“From the perspective of big data, this can also be really attractive … It is able to provide feedback to business players on which industry to enter. In the end, we will have a clearer mapping of our whole ecosystem and it will enable us to make progress faster,” she adds.

Also Read: How Nurul Hussain’s Codette Project helps Muslim women get into tech and be successful

Another exciting change that is set to happen in 2019 is that many light-asset companies are going to make a move to become more heavy-asset. While a greater prospect for IPO is never guaranteed, Irene sees that these changes will open more opportunities for exit through IPO.

“We need to consider timing, but the door is opened more widely,” she closes.

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Don’t miss Melisa Irene at Echelon Asia Summit 2019! Get your tickets at US$10 here.

Image Credit: East Ventures

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80 per cent of Singaporeans use the internet every day, and the online market is growing steadily

According to Statista.com, by 2021, e-commerce shares in retail sales worldwide would have reached a staggering 17.5 per cent, growing from 10.2 per cent in 2017.

E-commerce penetrates markets all over the world, and buying online is becoming a common routine. In most countries, you can easily purchase clothes, order food or book tickets with your smartphone.

In this article, we will talk about the dropshipping business model, its features and dropshipping in Singapore.

Dropshipping vs traditional retail

Dropshipping is a form of retail business that became popular with the development of the internet and e-commerce.

In the traditional retail model, an entrepreneur buys products from a wholesaler or manufacturer, stocks them in a warehouse and then resells them to a customer.

Also Read: ClauseMatch commences APAC operations with new Singapore office

Although this scheme is a thousand years old, it has quite distinct drawbacks.

The owner of a store has to keep products in stock which causes additional expenses like renting a warehouse and increase in prices to compensate these expenses.

But the worst part of traditional retail is that you can never accurately predict the demand for your goods.

Since entrepreneurs purchase products beforehand, being unable to sell them means failed investment.

The dropshipping model implies shipping products directly from manufacturer/wholesaler to clients with the retailer serving as a mediator taking care of promotion and customer service.

This results in a number of strategic advantages:

1. The entrepreneur purchases products from the wholesaler/manufacturer only after receiving an order from a customer. It means there’s no need to predict demand fluctuations: if customers lose interest in the given goods, the entrepreneur simply stops ordering them from the wholesaler.

2. Since products are sent directly to customers, there’s no need to rent a warehouse, which saves you money, time and effort.

3. For the same reason, it is possible to do dropshipping business online. An entrepreneur can create a web store using the information and media from the wholesaler, but doesn’t need to have a real stock of goods.

4. Since a potential owner of a dropshipping business doesn’t have to invest in bulk purchase and warehouse, it is possible to start this business with a relatively little budget. As a result, almost anyone can use this model and even try it as an additional source of income without quitting their main job.

However, this model has a number of drawbacks as well:

• It is usually the dropshipping store owners who takes care of clients’ complaints and refunds.
• In this business, errors in shipment and inventory issues are a common problem.
• Since entrepreneurs can’t even see the products they sell, they have no control over their quality. Same goes for quality and speed of delivery.

Still, despite these disadvantages, a lot of people find this model quite profitable.

Why do you need to start dropshipping in Singapore?

Dropshipping requires only a computer and an internet connection, so one can dropship from anywhere in the world.

Also Read: Singaporean fintech Hydra X partners with Chicago-based Seed CX

However, the choice of sale markets depend on many factors like the demand for the products within the given niche, the purchasing power of the population, the frequency of online deals in the given country and the availability of free shipment.

Thus, this is what makes Singapore a good candidate for dropshipping:

• According to Eshopworld.com, by 2021, the number of e-commerce users in Singapore will reach 4.1 million, with each spending online an average of US$1234.
• According to Statista.com, e-commerce user penetration in Singaporean retail equals to 69.6 per cent and by 2023 will reach 73.2 per cent.
• According to Hashmeta.com, 70 per cent of Singaporeans are active social media users, which is an important statistic for e-commerce.
• Due to the high costs of living and high prices, online stores importing goods from ‘cheaper’ countries (mostly from China) can easily compete with local retailers.
• Most online stores (including dropshipping ones) use the English language which is one of the official languages in Singapore.
• While there are big companies using dropshipping business model, individual entrepreneurs can open online dropshipping stores too. It’s become a common practice to order products from popular wholesaler platforms such as Salehoo, Amazon and AliExpress.

About 80 per cent of Singaporeans use the internet every day, and the online market is growing steadily. In fact, the e-commerce industry in Singapore is expected to be worth US$5.4 billion by 2025.

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Plus, Alibaba buys Israeli AR company and Dathena raises funding

Vietnamese social influencer startup raises “seven-digit” Series A — [e27]</h3

Hiip, a startup offering an automated influencer platform to help brands and advertisers connect with social influencers in Vietnam and Thailand, has secured a “7-digit Series A round” led by Thai VC firm Vnet Capital.

Japan Strategic Capital, Tokyo-listed marketing technology company Rentracks and Singapore-based Vulpes Investment Management have also joined the round.

Launched in April 2016, Hiip is an online platform to help connect brands, advertisers directly with the appropriate impact on the first social network in Vietnam and Thailand. Using AI and Big Data technologies, the platform helps brands and advertisers to reach target customers, build brand reputation and increase sales by connecting directly with a network of thousands of influencers to promote products product, service or specific campaigns.

Taiwan vacation rental startup AsiaYo expands to Singapore and Malaysia — [Press Release]

AsiaYo, a travel startup that recently raised US$7 million from Alibaba Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund and China Development Financial, announced today plans to expand to Singapore and Malaysia. In Southeast Asia, the company already has a presence in Thailand.

The company will launch their service in Singapore and Malaysia during the second quarter of 2019. It also plans to expand to Japan in H2 2019.

AsiaYo is a vacation rental platform based in Taiwan that claims to have over 60,000 listings across Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Thailand.

Alibaba buys Infinity Augmented Reality, an Israel VR company — [TechCrunch]

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has bought Infinity Augmented Reality, an Israeli startup focussed on virtual reality, according to TechCrunch.

Alibaba had led Infinity’s Series C funding round in 2016 and has worked with the company on numerous projects since that time.

The company has built a platform that makes it easier for companies to integrate augmented and virtual reality into their apps. As part of the deal, Infinity’s R&D team will work out of Alibaba’s Israel Machine Laboratory based in Tel Aviv.

Singapore AI data protection startup raises funding — [e27]

Singapore-based Dathena, an AI-based data protection and privacy management platform, has announced the closing of a funding round led by MS&AD Ventures Inc. Participating in the round are existing investors CerraCap Ventures and Demetis.

Dathena said it will use the funding to support the global deployment of new customers. Later this year, the company plans to have another funding round to enable further scaling.

Singtel appoints McKinsey veteran to board — [Press Release]

The Singaporean telco Singtel announced today it has appointed Dominic Barton as an Independent Director of the company Board, effective immediately. The news brings the total number of people on the Singtel board to 12.

Barton has a long history at McKinsey and worked as the Global Managing Partner for nine years. He also is the Chair of the Board for Teck Resources, a Canadian mining company.

“The diversity of his experience will be invaluable as Singtel’s digital transformation takes the Group into businesses and partnerships that cut across multiple industries. I’m delighted to welcome Dominic to the Singtel board,” said Singtel Chairman Simon Israel in a statement.

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Photo by Gian Cescon on Unsplash

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The home maintenance service joins forces with OrangeTee & Tie to let property agents and clients book housekeeping services

Home service platform Helpling announces that it will be integrated into Singaporean OrangeTee & Tie’s property agents app to bring housekeeping services booking to agents and their clients.

With this partnership, Helpling will have access to a network of over 4,200 property agents who are on board to provide on-demand home services in Singapore. OrangeTee & Tie’s agents can now book professional housekeepers to clean the property before presentation through the Helpling platform using the Agent App.

Besides booking cleaners, agents can also refer their clients to Helpling.

Coining the integration as “Services 4.0 technologies”, the app will provide cloud-native applications to accelerate their digital transformation and deliver better customer experience.

“It is important that our agents are provided with a seamless experience of booking home cleaning services for their clients. This strategic partnership with Helpling will help OrangeTee
& Tie agents provide personalised services via our app and it will definitely add value along the whole customer journey,” said Steven Tan, Managing Director of OrangeTee & Tie.

Also Read: In fintech, Asia is giving the West a run for its money: Alex Manson of Standard Chartered’s investment arm

James Lim, Managing Director (Asia-Pacific) of Helpling, said, “Having a clean home at a
house viewing is key to making or breaking a deal. The pairing with OrangeTee & Tie will give new impetus to Helpling’s mission of delivering hotel-grade housekeeping to households islandwide.”

All OrangeTee & Tie agents and their clients will get to enjoy US$20 off their first cleaning as part of the launch.

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Photo by Volha Flaxeco on Unsplash

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The project aims to create a sustainable economic impact by providing minority women with awareness and access to the tech industry

There are quite a few initiatives aimed at empowering women and providing them with various opportunities, globally. But there are not many that are specifically aimed at Muslim women, who are under-represented in many industries.

Can technology help bring in a change?

“Yes,” believes Nurul Jihadah Hussain, Founder of The Codette Project.

Launched in December 2015, The Codette Project is a non-profit ground-up initiative with a mission to get more minority women in Singapore into technology by building an ecosystem of support, skills training and access. The project aims to have a sustainable economic impact through providing minority women with awareness and access to the tech industry.

Ladies, tell us about your startup and win 5 FREE Echelon Asia Summit 2019 tickets!

It mainly focuses on three aspects:

1. Skills-building through workshops, hackathons and classes
2. Story- shaping to reclaim the narrative of minority/Muslim women in tech via traditional and social media outreach
3. Community creation through providing a platform for minority/ Muslim women to come together

“The Codette Project is providing better access and opportunity for minority/Muslim women to get into the tech industry, as well as building an ecosystem around success for minority/Muslim women. We are founded on the belief that minority/Muslim women deserve success and that tech will help them get there,” Nurul, who is also a Fellow in the inaugural Facebook Community Leadership Programme, tells e27.

The Codette Project is aimed not just at underprivileged women, but all minority/Muslim women, no matter their background. Up to 20 per cent of their attendees are non-minority/Muslim women.

The team conducts regular three-hour workshops covering a wide variety of topics, ranging from resume building, coding, data analysis all the way to UX design. Last July, it also ran Singapore’s first women-only hackathon, called Tech for Good, which aimed to create a safe space for women of all backgrounds (regardless of tech experience) to come together and create innovative tech solutions to address various societal issues,” she says.

So far, initiative has helped around 1,000 women, with more than 500 people attending in 2017-2018 alone.

“Muslim women are incredibly motivated, smart and creative. So many more things can be done to provide concrete support, sponsorship and funding for Muslim women that we need to achieve the equality in social and economic capital that we deserve. The Codette Project has created a supportive environment that is focused on collaboration and empowerment to encourage women to achieve the success that they deserve,” Nurul, an MBA from the Singapore Management University, adds.

According to Nurul, one of the key issues that still remains is that there are still too many areas where there isn’t any female representation. For example, on panels, especially tech panels, there are still too many that do not have any women, or even if they do, they only include women of a specific background. “We believe that true diversity means ensuring that everyone has a chance, a voice and a seat at the table,” she observes.

Anastasia Pavlovic, Co-Lead (Events and Partnerships), The Codette Project, says while it’s typically difficult for women to enter the field, it can be incredibly difficult for women of minority/Muslim backgrounds to do the same, given the underrepresentation of minority/Muslim women. “We hope to unlock the potential that minority/Muslim women hold to enter the industry, providing workshops focusing on tech topics, panels to showcase the success stories in the community, as well as encourage more diverse perspectives to improve our world.”

Attiya Ashraf, Research Lead for The Codette Project, believes that empowerment also comes through highlighting the minority/Muslim women who are making their mark in the tech industry — by giving them a platform to share their works and experiences. It is an indication to minority/Muslim women that success does not take the shape of a particular gender or ethnicity, and it is within their reach, she says. “Why I feel very strongly for the movement is because as compared to other industries, tech is something that people can learn relatively independently, which makes the barriers to entry into the industry quite low. The tech industry is therefore a potential way in which minority/Muslim women can attain economic empowerment.”

Asked if the team has plans to take the initiative to South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where Muslim women are facing many challenges?

Also Read: In fintech, Asia is giving the West a run for its money: Alex Manson of Standard Chartered’s investment arm

“There are quite a lot of local programmes for women in South Asia, such as FemProw (Pakistan) and Mumpreneurs India, which I think need to be recognized and supported a lot more, especially as these are ground-up movements with local female leaders. We don’t have any plans at the moment to expand our workshops internationally but even if we did, we wouldn’t enter these countries as competitors. We would want to work as collaborators with our sister organisations, who are working for similar causes. We really believe in empowering women to do what they choose to do rather than telling women what they should do — women get quite enough of that already,” says Nurul.

Although The Codette Project has been backed by Mendaki, National Youth Council, and Facebook, Nurul says the project’s major challenge has always been financial sustainability, as most classes are free and rental costs for event spaces are high in crowded Singapore.

How is your Facebook experience helping you in the project? “There has been a lot of learning from Facebook about how to better build communities as well as how to be a better leader. Being able to connect and learn from community leaders from all around the world has been an incredible experience,” shares Nurul.

“Facebook’s recognition has meant a lot to us, as we kept hearing that we were a niche cause, and there were a lot of doubts locally as to the impact of what we do. Being recognised by Facebook has really opened doors because Facebook was willing to recognise us on a global stage, recognise why the work we do is important, and they’ve given us the support that we need to keep doing it,” Nurul adds, wrapping up the interview.

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(Don’t miss Nurul Jihadah Hussain at Echelon Asia Summit 2019! Get your tickets at US$10 here).

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The program will be called SCA-TAP, aimed at startups focussing on the supply chain and logistics industry

Supply Chain Asia (SCA), a non-profit professional body dedicated for logistics and supply chain industry people, announced the launch of Singapore’s first Tech Accelerator Program or SCA-TAP. SCA said that it looks to spur innovation and create technology-driven solutions to accelerate the industry’s startup ecosystem.

As the appointed Startup SG Accelerator under the Startup SG program managed by Enterprise Singapore, SCA will open SCA-TAP for companies less than five years old to test new logistics and supply chain applications.

It will include the test-bedding of innovations for faster, more flexible, and more ecologically-sound logistics and supply chain of the future and showcasing the latest industry innovation in Singapore and Asia.

“SCA-TAP will be a unique platform for the industry here in Singapore and Asia, whereby new solutions and technologies from corporations, startups and even individual professionals can set up their solutions in a controlled operating environment. The vision is to create synergistic networks for new ideas and accelerate their development from prototype to actual implementation,” said Paul Lim, founder and President of SCA.

TAP-partners will be able to expand its network through participation in SCA’s curated events hosted throughout the year.

Also Read: In fintech, Asia is giving the West a run for its money: Alex Manson of Standard Chartered’s investment arm

SCA shared that an upcoming event would be the Innovation Day on May 17, which will be held at the Trade Association Hub to be the platform that will showcase emerging tech solutions that include: Autonomous Robotics, Industrial IoT and Sensors, AI-application systems and use of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality solutions for businesses.

Furthermore, SCA detailed on the plans to provide various avenues to showcase and promote startups who have become a TAP-partner, that would include SCA Community Hub Café as a venue to promote their services on location, and the SCA Forum to showcase their solutions and services, as well as to participate in the Accelerator Pitch to get nominated with a presentation slot at the Accelerator Forum.
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Photo by Mael BALLAND on Unsplash

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You snooze you lose

Social media has evolved from being a trending platform to a must-have for businesses.

Businesses can interact directly with customers, unlike one-sided traditional marketing endeavours.

Here is how the top brands market themselves on social media.

Choosing the right platform

Companies have an array of platforms which they can choose from.

For instance, they have Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. However, the key here is to find out which platform is used most by your target audience.

Top companies identify such platforms in the very beginning and then promote their brand with the right strategies.

Focusing on engagement

Social media is also about engagement! The right kind of content can help you connect with customers and create a positive brand image among them.

Having a social media profile is not the end of it. It is also crucial to keep interacting with customers on a regular basis.

Also Read: This Filipino startup turns your traffic stress into money

Post things that would actually intrigue people and participate in the forums as well as discussions. Like and comment on your customer’s posts and respond to their comments promptly.

It is important to note that social media marketing has a lot of potential in bringing in invaluable clientele. In fact, it is the face of your business.

Make sure you invest in maintaining a strong social media presence which is not only engaging but also shows expertise.

Keeping it simple

Gone are the days when brands had to over-promote their services. Talking only about your products and services is a recipe for disaster.

Successful companies always keep their social media pages focused on customers. Their posts revolve around the needs and pain points of the audience.

Some also follow the one-in-seven rule which means having one promotional post for every six general posts. Trying to sell your products/services aggressively on social platforms can even make people unfollow your page.

It is always a good idea to keep the posts generic and relevant to the industry. You can share the offers and discounts or the latest announcements regarding the products.

Giving away free promotional items is also a great idea.

Resolving issues on social platforms

Social media has become a platform for sharing feedback too.

Some customers might not be happy with your offerings and would end up commenting on your posts. It is highly important to catch any such issue before they escalate.

Engage with the person on your social media page and apologize to them publicly. This shows that your brand really cares about the customer issues and that you are responsible for your products and services.

Also Read: Bangkok TOP100 champion is bringing smiles across Thailand

Things cannot always be perfect and companies might face certain hurdles while serving customers. However, keeping a tab on all your social media platforms will help maintain a positive brand image.

Even if you have excellent quality service, you might end up losing potential customers if you don’t check social media.

Providing value

This is perhaps the most important way by which companies promote their services and products.

Creating something which audiences will find useful is the first step to gaining their trust.

When you share content which is actually meaningful and full of information, you are viewed as an expert by your audience. This attracts the right type of customers who would actually avail the services you have to offer. It is also a great way of retaining current customers.

Big companies and brands focus on creating value which brings customers automatically. Simply promoting the products and talking about your offerings is not helpful.

Thus, you too can build a good community with potential customers through social media.

Just make sure to engage them with meaningful content and share free business promotional items that will introduce them to your brand.

Keep the strategy customer-centric instead of being overly promotional. Interact with customers regularly and always address all their concerns promptly.

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