Let’s start with the question, “Are Southeast Asia technology companies under-valued? Different people will have different perspectives depending whether you sit in Singapore or in Jakarta or Bangkok. Recently, Terence from Tech In Asia published an interesting post on the investment activity around Southeast Asia. Two important observations came out from the article: (a) the investment in e-commerce, fashion and online retail constituted where most of the money were channeled to and (b) the amount of investment that Rocket Internet amassed against local investors is 5 to 1. Taking this further with the data from Techlist Asia, we can draw some interesting insights about the value of Southeast Asia technology companies. One interesting insight is that the asymmetry of information about the Southeast Asia leads to different perceived values of startup companies in the market.
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Category: Technology
First Encounters with Google Glass: What I learned about developing apps on the glass
After my trip to Google I/O 2013 last year, I wrote about the development of applications on the Google Glass. As a prequel to the review on Google Glass (which I have been recently gotten one unit through a private unit via the glass explorer program and using it for at least a week), I thought it might be good to share this earlier article I have written about how one should think about developing applications. One important thinking is that the development philosophy on the Glass follows closer to web development than native mobile application in either iOS or Android SDK.
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Android or iOS first? A definitive guide for startups & corporations
In building a native mobile application either for your startup or corporation, one major question for entrepreneurs and corporate executives is, “Which mobile platform should I build the native mobile application that will further the business objective of my company?” We should be of no delusion that it is now a two horses race between Android and iOS, with the rest being a far distant third. The question now becomes, “Android of iOS first?” I propose a checklist in how one should tackle this question for both start-ups and corporations.
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Apple should be a Louis Vuitton and not Zara
Recently, I made a bet with a good friend (who is currently a CFO of a retail giant in China) on whether Apple needs market share to be successful. Our bet set the timeline about two years from now and the thesis is that Apple does not need market share to have high profit margins against the android operating system onslaught from Google and their original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and user adoption & retention. Obviously, you know which side I am from. Some analysts often drew their arguments that Apple needs market share to succeed based on the personal computers (PCs) and browser wars from 1980s to 2000s. I am going to draw on the metaphor on why the market share argument do not work in our world today and Apple should be Louis Vuitton and not Zara to be successful.
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My Advice for Finding Technology Co-Founders
It’s a common phenomenon in startups that the hustler or what I called the business guy, typically goes out to search for the technology co-founder. In meeting entrepreneurs via my network fund, they often asked me one common question after the initial pitching of the idea, “I am looking for a technology co-founder who can get this done. Can you help me with this?” Of course, 99% of these startup co-founders whether they are rookies or MBA students have no clue to who they really want to hire. Hence, this article is addressed to people who might want my advice on seeking out technology co-founders.
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