Category: Singapore

Amazing to see the depth at Google

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

https://www.techinasia.com/googles-lead-apac-product-manager-andrew-mcglinchey-speaks-on-how-the-company-picks-its-battles-in-asia/

Google prints money so it is not surprising they can afford to have resources for a product manager that helps to represent Asia. This is similar to what I was doing at Yahoo but of course we didn’t have this expansive of a charter.

I have to admit that Google is pretty serious about Asia. We are working with them at Spuul on some stuff and they devote ample resources, are very organized and run some strict deadlines.

As I hear about all the dismantling of Yahoo in Asia, I tend to think about what could have been but obviously wasn’t.

Google is not my favorite but I am impressed with how much money and effort they put into Asia.

Will write up another post about an interesting project they are doing with PWC in the region.

The taxi nuttiness in Singapore

~ michael_msft ~ 2 Comments

Adding some of the tweetstorms that roll in:

https://storify.com/dreampipe/conversation-with-bleongcw-and-dreampipe

In reading this article yesterday I was thinking a bit about the whole taxi situation in Singapore. First off in general I have always been impressed with the taxi ecosystem here – apart from the price but that just goes with Singapore. Let’s not get into that but when it comes to the system generally working I mostly don’t have complaints. I tend to use the comfort SMS system and it has been working fine since the moment I got to town. I find it funny that all the “app” people talk up how apps are better and SMS is old skool. Really? If you are carrying an iPhone you probably have your SMS app open all the time. It’s called iMessage. I can simply text one line – book 528686. That is the zip for my condo and in seconds I get a reply saying it is booked and on the way or sometimes you wait to get a all taxis are busy message. Other times it is busy and you wait a while to get a response. I think it would help the system if you got a reply right away to say it is working on it or something. Sure if taxis are all busy which is during rain or peak times or the dreaded shift change then chances are you won’t get a taxi. Usually during those times you never get a taxi though. No matter what system or app you are using.

But back to the SMS system – there is no simpler method. Every app, all of them, takes more steps to book a cab. Many of them want your destination, have a shitty search function and only work when you have a good connection. At the base of my building I have problems with 4g but SMS always works. Also when I plug in an address versus a zip or a taxi station code, the system usually figures it out anyway or replies telling me it is not exact enough but normally I can edit it to make it work. Still faster than an app.

Which leads me to ask why don’t the other taxi apps add this feature? Even if it only works in Singapore it would offer them another leg up on the apps that don’t. Would be awesome if Uber or Grab implemented this so I simply say – book home. Book work. Dead simple. Faster than fussing with an app. Might also force them to implement the zip code stuff which many are not doing well. For those outside of Singapore – every address in Singapore has its own unique zip code which means no matter where you are the zip code is all that is needed but try plugging in the zip code into Uber or Grab and it normally can’t figure it out but yet the Singapore government offers this data so not sure why they can’t solve it.

For all the haters – make an app that works better than Comfort SMS booking if you want to make some waves in the taxi app race.

Moving on from that the other issue is payments. On this subject, as with the SMS, we can discuss this from a regional angle or from a Singapore angle. To be fair the zip code thing is all about Singapore but SMS can work anywhere if implemented right. On the payments subject we know that credit cards are fine in Singapore. The main reason I stick with Uber today is I don’t have to fuss with money. Sounds silly but I don’t know how many times I take a normal taxi in Singapore and when going to pay I get the dreaded look from the uncle. I don’t have change, my machine isn’t working – shit like that. Well uncle – that is your problem. Not mine. The ATM gave me a 50 – what the hell do you want me to do? Whip out my swiss army knife and cut it in half for you? Carry some freaking change. As to the machine not working – why don’t you tell me when I get in the taxi so I can choose to not take it knowing I have no cash on me. Silly shit. Uber wins cause I never have to give a crap about money. I take the ride and I get out. I know some of the other apps offer it but normally when I cannot book a normal taxi I can get an UberX.

Let’s talk about that later though since we are still on payments. So in Singapore the credit card is fine but regionally it will be a problem. Given that, one of these guys needs to work on some payment systems that will work without cards. Maybe some top up card with loyalty points or hooks to telcos. This is where the telcos don’t get a clue at all. I already get billed via the telco – work out something to allow me to use my phone, which I am using to book the taxi, to pay for my taxi. Throw in some loyalty points for it and lock me in. So the taxi app race is going to be somewhat fought on payments and Singapore will look different than say – Thailand.

Back to the UberX comment, the bigger issue I see in Singapore is that the taxi app race in some sense has exasperated the taxi situation a bit in that if utilization is higher but there are not net new taxis coming into the scene than it makes getting a taxi scarcer. I can see how some folks who are not using the apps might feel left out cause they can’t seem to get a taxi when they want one because the taxis are booked via the apps already. I don’t have the stats on this but it feels credible and hence the call for legislation might be needed. This is one reason why Grab and Uber who are brining other cars into the system are helping but to me only the UberX pricing is affordable to be used daily. The rest of the cars are too expensive. I am not sure where this all goes but it feels like we need more capacity while keeping utilization high which benefits the drivers. It is a delicate dance but the apps, and the startups, are key to making this all work. The competition is great but there will be growing pains.

Not sure if everyone noticed but around the time Grab and Uber entered the scene the comfort SMS booking reply started to share the taxi’s phone number. They never did this before. This allowed me to SMS them with location or other info as needed. Funny thing was talking to the taxi drivers who were asking me how I got their phone number – seems Comfort didn’t tell them they were doing this. For sure this is Comfort trying to compete a bit. I would tell them that I could Google them to find their number. 😉

The other issue I notice is that since all these systems are not integrated I think there is some availability inflation at times. Simple example. Many times you will see when you open the Uber or Grab app that it shows you there are a ton of taxis around you. However when you try and get a booking you get nothing – even though Grab will say there are 45 drivers around you and on the Uber app I see 7 yellow cars driving around. What is happening? My guess is that they are already on a ride with their Comfort system, remember all Comfort drivers are obligated to take a certain amount of Comfort bookings per day, but the Comfort system is not connected to the Grab or Uber app which is just running on their phones. So the Uber and Grab app will show taxis but of course those drivers will not take your booking cause they are already on a ride. I have stood on the street and watched the taxis on the map to see their red lights are on. Even looked inside one at a stop light. So the availability the apps are showing is largely inaccurate.

Lastly – let us get to the “rain” issue which we all know in Singapore can happen at any moment. Most people think the taxis are busy cause everyone who might normally walk, ride or motorcycle are suddenly wanting a taxi. However that is not what is happening. The taxis are actually sitting still due to the insurance issues. There is not a lot of information on this subject but I had confirmed with a few drivers before the deposit issue. The nice thing for this situation is services like UberX tend to help get around this since there is no “company” involved.

All that being said. I am no expert but I use taxis a bit and I am a product guy. So I think about this too much but the app guys could do a lot more to lock me in. Right now only payments are the thing locking me in but I still find the SMS booking to be the easiest to use. The apps guys should think about that more when designing their apps. God knows investors are throwing money at this space but so far I don’t see a lot if innovation – just marketing.

carry on…

What is happening with Yahoo?

~ michael_msft ~ 2 Comments

Had a few people pinging me and looks like some serious retrenching in EMEA and Asia.

http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/03/more-yahoo-restructuring-as-offices-sales-teams-get-cut-across-europe-and-asia/

It makes sense – outside of the USA the biz keeps falling. What is scary though, is in places like Asia, other companies are growing like a weed. Is Yahoo quickly becoming a USA focused company or is this just more centralization around running the biz from the states? But these are sales folks though so not sure how one can grow the number by losing more sales people?

I am sure there is more info to come. What is stunning though is at one point Vietnam was one of the bigger offices in Asia – pricey real estate too. Gone are the days where Yahoo 360 and messenger ruled the roost. I think in places like Vietnam where Yahoo used to be powerful, Yahoo is suddenly looking irrelevant.

I argue the biggest issue in Yahoo Asia is that the team has not brought in new blood similar to what has happened in EMEA and USA.

The numbers are telling – the revenue keeps slipping in Asia and the Alibaba pressure is greater than ever.

Quite the shakeup.

I am sure more news to come.

Microsoft is only missing the apps…

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

Excellent read here by Aulia :: https://medium.com/adventures-in-consumer-technology/picking-up-nokias-last-flagship-phone-ad6576cf06dc

Bummer it’s on medium…

As I read the article I nod my head and concur that it sounds like a great phone and the camera is amazing. My wife has asked about these phones before cause she wants the best camera but I always warn her that in the end she will hate the phone. Yes HATE it. Why?

That’s very simple. The apps suck.

The Lumia 930 a great mobile device that’s let down by the lack of third party app support in terms of quality if not selection but the popular apps are there and functional and the lack of polish doesn’t seriously affect their usage (except maybe for Path and Flickr, which at this point are just ridiculously bad).

Microsoft will never be able to crank out enough of their own apps to fix this issue. They also seem to be unable to properly prime the pump.

What you see then is a bunch of 3rd rate apps with some of them even being from first rate companies who have been convinced by someone in marketing to build the app (they were promised promotional love by Microsoft). The app is built, probably outsourced, and it works but it doesn’t compare to the same app on iOS or Android. Those apps were written by the core team cause they know that they have to excel – it is where all the competition and customers are.

For this issue we only have Microsoft to blame. They tried to incentivize a lot of devs but they did it the wrong way – they created an open door policy around getting apps built. This didn’t work well cause it was just devs chasing easy money.

What they should have done and still refuse to do is help folks with category leading apps on either iOS or Android to build something for Microsoft.

Let me highlight my own experience with Spuul. Microsoft was willing to help pay for a Spuul windows app but we told them over and over we see no reason to have one – our website works just fine on IE. This flummoxed then because they were focused on pushing windows – we all know now that didn’t go so well.

Then they offered to help coach us with design and said there were even some design resources we could use to outsource the work to but we told them we have our own designer. They seem to think if they help with design that all the apps will look cool but they don’t realize that design is only half of it – you still need to build a great app.

We asked if we could take the design money and use it to outsource the code since we don’t have the expertise on the Microsoft stack. Nope – the money was only available for design.

So we did nothing.

Months later we finally got a phone out of them so we could test our designs some and model app behaviors. Getting this phone was like getting a tooth pulled – it’s funny to me that Microsoft thinks all of us have their phones. They sure seem to hand them out like candy to bloggers. Newsflash – bloggers don’t make apps Microsoft – you need apps more than you need bloggers writing about cool phones that are missing cool apps.

Microsoft is a big company – they could fix this problem. Hand out phones. Design kits and IDE kits. Give every real startup or company with a good app some cash to outsource development to – a starter package of sorts. Offer every certified app a discount on App Store transaction fees and give each app a week of promotion.

Prime the pump in a methodical way.

Otherwise be prepared to keep reading blogs about cool phones that don’t have any cool apps.

Your move Microsoft.

Ps. I will add that even when I approach Microsoft to concur that I will build a Spuul app they still will not put in writing they will promote it. So they offer zero incentives to take a risk. Yes – spending a startups resources to build for Windows Phone is a risk.

Singapore the aircraft carrier

~ michael_msft ~ 1 Comment

https://www.techinasia.com/singapores-startup-scene-is-overrated/

Great article and largely models how I think about Singapore – it is an incredible base for being a global startup and it should be how it is marketed. I still think there is too much focus on local businesses and having your staff all be in Singapore though but it is improving.

We at Spuul don’t get talked about much in the local scene – I think mostly cause we are not great at PR, have never been externally funded and are not very big in Singapore. My guess is there are others out there in Singapore like Spuul who else don’t get much attention since they don’t focus on Singapore but just use it as a hub. At Spuul we are now even exploring our first remote engineering center – guess where we are putting it? 🙂

I also think Singapore is a good hub for foreigners as well given the ability to become a permanent resident, the schools, the family friendly atmosphere and the rule of law. Nowhere is perfect but from other places I have been I think Singapore is pretty damn good.

All the recent activity is just a nod to how important the region is becoming but Singapore in my opinion will do very well as the center of the region for a lot of startups.

Hopefully you will see more global ones in the making.

Nice little tweet conversation from some locals…

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

This is what I love about twitter. Real peeps willing to say real things.

Here we have Bernard kicking it off and then Chirstian, Hian and myself all jump into the deep end of the pool.

This storify link I made from tweetbot might be the best :: https://storify.com/dreampipe/conversation-with-bleongcw-dreampipe-hiangoh-and-c

Follow this link to see the whole thread on twitter :: https://twitter.com/bleongcw/status/524492894363611136

For the life of me I can’t find any easy way to enmbed the whole thread.

🙂

New stuff at Spuul

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

At Spuul we are always trying to solve video problems for emerging markets – something that most video folks are not working on. Even the video infrastructure guys tend to focus on developed countries and good networks. We focus on developing countries and shitty networks. That being said we always have said streaming kind of sucks unless you are on a killer connection and don’t mind paying for data. However a lot of people are not on killer connections and can’t afford the data charges. Enter download – something that sounds old school and usually the realm of piracy but we think if done right it is more convenient and more secure than streaming anyway. We also know that customers love it.

It’s pretty simple. Find a video – download it. Choose your size. Watch it as it downloads. When finished go offline to view it.

Boom.

http://blog.spuul.com/2014/10/our-new-android-release/

Much more to come!

Video consolidation pace is pretty staggering

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Looks like I spoke too soon – maybe another deal going down already – http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/sources-yahoo-in-talks-to-buy-video-ad-platform-brightroll-for-around-700m/

Some of you may or may not follow all the companies in the “video” space but since I am in the space I can’t stop watching. Lately though the pace of acquisitions has been hectic. Couple this with all the announcements these past few weeks about all the content guys getting into launching their own OTT services and you can see that their is a land grab going on. I won’t list all the players but yesterday I was having a meeting with Brightcove and talking to a senior Zencoder employee about the space and the consolidation. Zencoder was a yCombinator company that was bought by Brightcove so they kicked off some of this activity.

Liverail bought by Facebook – this was the other big ad player in the region so now we have Videoplaza being bought by Ooyala :: http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/ooyala-buys-euro-video-ad-startup-videoplaza-in-its-first-acquisition/ . Ooyala was just recently bought by Telstra.

Viki was bought by Rakuten which kicked off activity in this region.

Dramafever was just picked up by Softbank. Their big competitor Crunchyroll was picked up The Chernin Group.

The list goes on and on but the more this pace quickens the more I realize there are not that many independent players left to work with in the space which means the products we all use to build video based sites are shrinking pretty rapidly. This is partially the reason why at Spuul we try to roll a lot of our own kit – we never know anymore what product we are using if it will still be around.

Nutty times!