While mobile apps may be all there rage right now, startups are still doing very interesting things in the web space. Here, we present you the good, bad, and ugly of the web technology companies that presented at DEMO Asia 2012 yesterday.
Fitness Buffet, Singapore
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As a business, Fitness Buffet shows a lot of promise. I’ve written about them once before, and I’m glad to see that they’re getting validation from the Sages, who have a lot of good things to say about them.
In a nutshell, Fitness Buffet is a service that offers a wide variety of special deals at a fixed price of US$99. Customers who sign up will receive a whole list of deals which they must redeem by a set date.
The founder, New Zealander Callum Laing, explains that his company wants to make exercise fun again by offering really interesting activities.
From a business standpoint, it makes a lot of sense as they’re able to generate revenue very quickly. It’s also scalable — all it needs are local partnerships to secure the deals in various countries. It also appears to be a first mover; I don’t see many websites doing similar things.
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He emphasized that his company is different from Groupon in two ways: 1) While Groupon brings many customers to one deal, Fitness Buffet brings one customer to many deals (he calls Fitness Buffet the “AirBnb of the fitness industry”; 2) While Groupon refused a buyout from Google for US$6B, Fitness Buffet would not.
I do think both the group buying business and Fitness Buffet have one thing in common though: They’re both easily copied. Which means Fitness Buffet must aggressively expand to multiple markets. They seem to be doing that: Callum announced that they’re aiming to reach 500 cities by the end of the year. They’re in 44 right now.
Heyawanna Labs, Singapore
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Their product, Heya! Wanna?, is a web app to make event planning with friends more fun. It’s also an event discovery tool that allows users to share and join activities.
Upon entering the website, users will see a list of activities they want to participate in. They will also be able to track which of their friends are checking out the event. The website does this through your Facebook account. Besides checking in to an activity, users can vote on timings for the event and chat with one another. They plan to monetize through listing fees — airlines, hotels, and tour agencies can pay to have their services suggested to users.
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It’s a simple, elegant, and fulfils a niche. It’s suitable for events that aren’t as complex as an overseas trip and not as simple as a date to the movies. It’s social discovery component makes it special.
The revenue model is quite straightforward too, although their immediate focus would be to gain traction and the loyalty of thousands of users in order to generate substantial profits.
Hanasake Pictures, Japan
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Clik here to view.Their product, Style Share is essentially a white label web and mobile technology that allows online shoppers to create avatars, drag and drop clothes onto them, and even coordinate different fashion items to see how they look together. Right now, they’re being used by Japanese retailer United Arrows.
The idea certainly has commercial potential as a B2B business, as it makes the online shopping experience much more intuitive. However, the Sages were right to point out that it doesn’t address a major pain point of online consumers — finding the right fit and quality. If they could address that by allowing avatars to measure their fit exactly, that would be truly disruptive.
PlayMoolah, Singapore
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I think most people agree that PlayMoolah, a fun online platform for kids aged six to twelve to learn about money, is a great idea. The startup founders seem confident and knowledgeable about their industry too. “Think Mint.com meets ClubPenguin,” said Lee Min Xuan, co-founder of PlayMoolah, which was started in 2008.
But here’s the problem: Why haven’t they launched?
They were the winners of Echelon 2011 launchpad last May. It’s almost four years since they started on PlayMoolah and ten months since Echelon. That’s a long time in the tech world.
Splaype, Singapore
The Sages at DEMO Asia seem to think Splaype is a very good idea. I’m not sure if I agree. Splaype is essentially a desktop app that allows parents to interact with kids through video calls and games. Parents can also read to their children, watch videos, and do a whole host of other educational activities together.
Jeffrey Paine from Golden Gate Ventures believes an iPad version would do even better.
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But it seems like a lot of what Splaype offers can be done via other means. If I want to play Tic Tac Toe, I can use the good ol’ pen and paper and do it over Skype. If I want to read to my child remotely, I can simply recite the story book to him over the phone.
Sure, Splaype wants to make all these activities richer and more interactive, but I’m not unconvinced if the market is large enough since many parents would be happy with less technological methods anyway.
Nundino, Singapore
Nundino is a social network for traders, aimed at sharing information about companies, discussing strategies on trading, and sharing about trades. My beef with it is that it may have entered the field a little too late. It faces competition from Currensee, a more established startup that has series B funding, and also StockTwits.
At DEMO Asia itself, there’s even Trade Hero, which seems to be doing exactly the very same thing as Nundino. Erwan Mace, developer relations at Google Southeast Asia, said that he preferred Trade Hero over Nundino because the former had some gamification elements.
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Clik here to view.I’m not sure if there’s enough room for four tigers on the same mountain.
To survive, they’ll have to find ways to really differentiate themselves, and try to capture the Asian market before their more established competitors swoop in for the kill.
Epsilon Mobile, Singapore
They’re developing Papyrus, a platform that enables publishers to create their own e-books that are published in the App Store as apps. They appear to be more focused on the marketing industry, seeing a gap in the market for an easy way to produce interactive marketing materials.
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Clik here to view.Now, they are reaching out to magazine, comic and book publishers, as well as listed companies who want to publish their annual reports. I’m not certain whether Papyrus will work though, given the intricacies of the e-publishing world. I would also want to find out how it’ll stack up against Apple’s iBooks and Zeenco, which offers a complete solution for textbook publishers.
BCZ.com, Singapore
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Their pitch didn't quite hit the mark.
When a salesman comes and promises you the world, alarm bells are automatically raised. That’s how I felt about BCZ.com. It purports to be an all-in-one business platform that consists of a social network, a website and e-commerce site builder, as well as an “award-winning, “location-aware”, search AI called Qryos (think Apple’s Siri without the voice).
I would love to find out what award it has won.
The damning part for me was when they showed a slide promoting their “website builder”, which is essentially WordPress with plugins installed. Now, I use WordPress everyday; it is free, and anyone can download and use it. What BCZ.com may have essentially done is to repackage WordPress and offer it in a bundle with its own services, for a price.Image may be NSFW.
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BCZ.com, it seems, is trying to be all things to all people. But here’s the problem: Even Google, with all their might, can’t do everything well. Most certainly not a resource-strapped startup like BCZ.com.
Studio Ousia, Japan
Searching for information on a smartphone can be a pain in the ass. It requires me to select a text with my fat fingers, then copy and paste it into the search box.
Phroni is a Mobile Firefox plugin that aims to solve this problem. It automatically adds links to relevant keywords on the web browser using algorithms.
I’m not convinced that this will work as a business. While it has received close to a million US dollars in funding, Phroni is a great feature for mobile phones but not a great business. At a flick of a switch, Google and Apple can instantly improve their mobile platform’s search functionality, rendering Phroni obsolete.
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