unConference 2009, Singapore
Posted: May 20th, 2009 | Author: Bernie Chew | Filed under: Conference, Singapore | Tags: Conference, Singapore, unconference 2009 | Comments
unConference 2009 Logo
I usually sleep in on Saturdays, but on May 16th, I had a date with startups.
It was the unConference 2009, held at the Matrix at Biopolis, Singapore. The turnout was pretty good – I would say more than 300. So it started out with a keynote by Scott Rafer, who was the CEO of myBlogLog.com, which was sold to Yahoo!, and now CEO at Lookery. He touched on how startups should be “Late” and “Boring” – sounds weird at first, but after the keynote I found truth in what he said. There are certain areas on the web that are tedious and mundane, aka boring, like aggregation, directory listings, and statistics, but these are the services that the critical mass needs, and if you are able to provide such a service, then you can find a way to monetize it and make money. Good. Also check out Scott Rafer’s 2007 blog post on GigaOm mentioning just that and more. Interesting stuff.
I gained some insights into the challenges facing Asian startups from the panel of speakers that followed – Benjamin Joffe, Dr Gang Lu, Dr Lai Kok Fung, Wong Hoong Ann, and of course, Scott Rafer. Dr Gang Lu, who is from China, provided and overview on the different ways companies in China are implementing their web ideas. Wong Hoong Ann, Founder of HungryGoWhere.com, my favorite speaker of the lot, gave a down-to-earth view on the challenges that he faced when starting his food review website, commenting on how his knees hurt because of the “countless begging” that he has to go through sometimes to get the job done. In response to a question from the audience, he also shared the experience he had with Google, when the mighty search engine took his site and filed it under 495 (whatever that means) and that caused his site to vanish from Google searches altogether. Since Google searches accounted for 50% of his site visitors, he had to comply with whatever Google wanted him to do. So this brought up a good advice from the panel – do not base your business model solely on the big guys (Google, Facebook, etc), but if so, you must have an exit strategy in case they end up screwing you over.
During lunch, I had the opportunity to meet with a few of the startups that were there. They all had interesting ideas, and it was refreshing to hear all about them. Here’s what caught my attention:
Twinity
Ok, these are guys who are going to re-model Singapore into a 3D environment, with Orchard Road and all, so what’s not to love? They are still in beta, and the desktop client is only for Windows, but they do have the city of Berlin in there, so it’s good to check them out. I’m going to follow their progress and can’t wait to see the finished product when Singapore goes 3D. Their business model is very similar to Second Life though, with a virtual currency called “Global”, and you will need to pay in order to buy an apartment within Twinity as well as everything else, like furniture, and in the future, maybe online stores might open up shop in there. [http://www.twinity.com].
eJamming Audiio
Having not met them before they did their pitch in the auditorium, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I heard musical instruments playing in the background. But when the girl on stage started singing to the music, I discovered that she was “jamming” with fellow musicians right on the site! It turns out that the cool technology behind ejamming was the near zero latency and its peer to peer live streaming. That means you can form a band anywhere in the world with just about anyone in the world. Their live demonstration was enough to make me want to go start a band. LOL. Pretty amazing stuff. Revenue comes from their subscription model, and also from the selling of hardware on their site. [http://www.ejamming.com]
Human Network Labs (HNL)
Now this is interesting. This company strives to dominate the market for short-range location tracking devices using RF technology. Their prototype chip, which they showed by sticking one on the back of a Windows Mobile Phone (who uses that?!) and the other chip to a teddy bear, and voila, the screen started showing the location of the bear in a sonar-like interface. Think along the lines of a child or pet tracking device, or maybe a way short-range tracking of your favorite coffeeshop, and if another person has that device within range, you will be able to “locate” each other. [http://www.humannetworklabs.com/]
Great event, great location, and great turnout.
Here are some related blog posts and presentations about the event:
MDA Misses The Mark At UnConference 2009 by Daniel Goh
After unConference Singapore 2009 by Singapore Entrepreneurs
The Startups That Rocked UnConference 2009 by Daniel Goh
