Category: Spuul

Dare we trust Twitter?

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

I love Twitter but I must admit I only ever see it via tweetbot. At Spuul we have started to use Mopub and will be comparing it to the new Facebook ad product. I must admit that wherever possible in the ad space I try to use google as little as possible.

Now enter Twitter with something interesting around logging in. At Spuul we do a lot of telco integrations and we always enable some form of login via mobile phone number. Problem is that each integration is locked to that specific carrier and therefore not super portable.

If Twitter has truly built a handy global phone number based login system that I can just drop into a mobile app – I am intrigued.

Problem is, as we all know, Twitter has a habit of effing over developers but for my products I am not interested in Twitter integration but the other services they are offering like Digits and Mopub.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/22/7034113/inside-twitters-ambitious-plan-to-kill-the-password-on-mobile-devices

Times they are a changing and I may just go with the flow…

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!

Google vs Apple

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Say what you will but this is the battle of our times. Why do I feel that way? Cause I still believe the mobile phone or let’s say the handheld computer that is always on, always connected to the Internet and happens to be in our pockets that is able to make and receive calls – is the biggest thing since sliced bread. It just is – bottom line.

There are still years to go for this global phenomenon to play out. Years.

That being said, even if you do not agree, it means that the biggest two companies in the world who control this ecosystem are Apple and Google.

You can click the Google or Apple categories on my blog to see what I have written before. I am not a fanboy. I am a realist. I started with Android and moved to Apple. As a startup wanting to dominate the world – I am fluent in managing teams shipping both Apple and Android apps. I won’t get into which app to build first or which platform is bigger or better – if you expect global domination then you have to ship Apple and Android apps. Period.

I won’t lie – there are reasons to like one platform over another but lately I have to admit that Google is pulling ahead. Not in hardware, software but in other places – sheer scale, better app store tools and in relationship building.

Knowing people is a big thing – it trumps developer docs, forums and conferences. I do my best to network and I think it’s important to reach out to folks you know when you need some help. Knowing people is a huge asset.

Do I know anyone in Apple for SEA region? No – only one developer contact who doesn’t respond to me much. Do I know anyone in Google SEA? Yes – many. Did I hunt them down? No – they hunted me down.

It started with someone from Adx and then grew into other connections from various departments and groups. Then it was over to some Android folks and then it is suddenly a meeting with four Android folks from around the region. Yes – they called me.

They updated me on the latest Android news, talked through some issues we had and gave us some guidance with our Google strategies. Was it groundbreaking or earth shattering? No – but is was helpful, meaningful and personal.

Does it make my team and I feel closer to Google? Yes. Do I feel even farther away from Apple as a result? Yes.

Apple seriously needs to step up their game. The OS’s are buggy, the developer support is weak and the App Store needs a redo.

Am I still a big fan! I am. But for the first time ever – I am starting to think Apple is spreading themselves way too thin.

Given their huge profit margins – I find this slightly appalling.

This team is killing it!

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

You may not have heard of this team or know about all their apps they have built as a team or individually. I use dispatch, nextride and of course Spuul. Yes HC of clean shaven apps is the guy behind Spuul iOS. I need to check out clips.

This is a humble team folks but you know they are making it when they are having to explain how to prep for Apple promotions.

I stand by the statement – this is the best OS X and iOS team in Singapore – maybe Southeast Asia.

Love working with these folks.

http://blog.cleanshavenapps.com/app-store-promo-artwork-tips-and-sketch-template

India Time!

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Warning – I am biased here to some extent but I am always a harsh critic.

Looking around Asia we can all see that China has had it’s time – Alibaba going public is huge evidence of that. Not saying China is over but mostly pointing out that a lot of focus has been there. Now it looks like India is coming into focus. Startup funding is going nuts, lots of VIPs are going to India, and Modi is getting the world interested again. I am pretty fired up about it all and of course bodes well for my main project – Spuul.

http://fortune.com/2014/09/27/why-investors-should-bet-on-india/

Thoughts on SEA ecosystem and location

~ michael_msft ~ Leave a comment

Lots of twitter activity over the this post :: http://www.nokpis.com/2014/08/28/hong-kong-versus-singapore/

As mentioned I wanted to follow it up with some thoughts on this post :: http://thenextweb.com/asia/2014/08/23/time-founders-southeast-asia-accepted-location-used-advantage/

Let me preface I did not attend GOAB nd I don’t know Mona. I used to follow her on twitter but she broke my follow rule of never replying to my replies. One of my twitter rules is if I reply a few times to folks – famous or not and they don’t ever reply back then I figure there is no point in following. The point of twitter is reasonable discourse – at least for me anyway.

Mona nails well the recent rise of the SEA ecosystem and how one can most likely build a startup anywhere. Totally agree! However I think there are still some issues.

I will add that this is a tough soapbox to get on for me these days cause I will admit I am NOT in the scene as much as I used to be but this is also one of my weird opinions on the local scene. People talking about the scene and eventing tend to get more attention than those just heads down actually building a startup. Maybe that is just my personal feeling but the local media tends to focus on funding, rumors and covering events talking about the scene more than going deep on what is getting built, by who and the obvious failures that can happen. If I had more time I would do a few things – start a podcast talking to folks building things about how they got here and why they are building what they are building. I would start a review service going deep on all the consumer facing products that are coming at us everyday – some good and of course some bad. An investigative service trying to uncover why local startups fail so we can all learn from it. Alas – I don’t have the time. I am too busy with Spuul and my family to take on any more tasks. I will keep up my mentoring and writing as I see fit. The podcast idea is still brewing cause I miss TWIA and figure there is still some local demand for a good audio feed.

That being said, unlike my time at Yahoo, I am not running around at events or attending many startup focused conferences. Which leads me to another need in the local ecosystem, there are not many events or communities to lean on for those in the local startup land that are a few years in and maturing. This will hopefully improve over time.

Back to some of my thoughts on the article…

– I think seed funding is getting pretty easy to get. However it might all depends on your definition of it. Let’s say less than 150k USD for starters as a rough estimate. I think anyone with some connections, a good idea and some perseverance can land some money in this range. But anything past this I think is hard – there are some trends that buck this. Do something in ecommerce or transportation and for some reason the money is just flowing. Try to do anything with a large risk portfolio, hardware or enterprise and I think the money is much harder to find. Jump in the 150k to 1 million range and unless you have rockstar metrics, a super connected angel or crazy PR – it gets quite hard to find. This is from my personal experience and what I hear from companies I either mentor or talk to a fair amount.

– Location is still tricky. We at Spuul experience this some. The local press tends to pass us up cause they don’t see us in Singapore much. The Indian press always wonders why we are not in India and the USA press tends to overlook global plays from Singapore in general. I think the funding conversations take a similar tact at times. I think for location to work well for you it might make sense to be sure that you can dominate in the market where you have your HQ. Then figure out your regional play and maybe the globe later. Saying you are here and working on the globe might not work for those that like a tangible way to grok things. Of course you may have built something killer or viral that just works for everyone. I am speaking in terms of products as well – not the notion of outsourcing or being a vendor.

– The silicon valley stigma. I look at this one from a different angle than others. I base this on doing some focus groups with yahoo and talking with anthropologists who also study tech. If you get in a room in let’s say in Indonesia. You have a set of normal people who use tech and the internet. You present them with a novel product idea, some screens and user stories. You ask some of these people would they use this if it it came from Indonesia. Or Singapore. Then ask some of them would they use it if it came from Silicon Valley. What happens is they almost always get more excited about the product from the valley. Always. I don’t think this will change anytime soon. It is no different than people loving a Hollywood movie. It is not about what is better but just the cultural aspects that appeal to folks. I think startups in the region have to contend with people on a very local level to win or doing something very unique. If you build something similar to something else that comes from the the valley I think it won’t be successful. Granted this does not pertain to closed or unfair markets like China or say Vietnam who don’t allow truly level playing fields.

The local scene is exploding – just figure out where to make your mark.