Asia Tech Scene 2012 Year in Review
December 31, 2012 by Gwendolyn Regina T
The Gregorian year of 2012 started with an ominous ring to it. But 2012 waltzed along anyway, and so did December 21. And here we are, at the cusp of a global new year.
Before you young folks party the night away, we thought it good to school you in the happenings of the Asian tech startup scene over the last 12 months. Or, if you’re reading this in 2013, welcome to the past.
JANUARY saw the launch of the iPhone in China. Chaos followed.
One of the world’s largest technology launch platforms, DEMO, came to Asia in late FEBRUARY. Myanmar hosted yet another Barcamp while Rocket Internet continues its blitzkrieg in Asia with a Pinterest clone. And full-fledged e-commerce comes to LiveJournal.
TREND ALERT: Crowdfunding starts to take off in Asia.
Singapore’s today’s almost legendary reputation of funding-overflow saw new private investors join hands with the government to start more VC funds. And MARCH also saw some of the world’s best iOS developers gather in Australia while Apple CEO Tim Cook visits an Apple store in China.
US’ Square also gets more competition in Asia with Swiff and PayPal Here.
Things were really starting to get heated up in Philippines in APRIL, as the country rises. And Evernote gets serious about Asia.
Things didn’t look too well as once-promising Chalkboard deadpooled but NASA Whirlpool-Galaxied its way into Indonesia with the International Space Apps Challenge.
And in more physics: Technology + Coca Cola’s Marketing poweress = Hug a Vending Machine.
Wrapp returns fire against Rocket.
Southeast Asia’s first Y-Combinator style incubator, JFDI.Asia, welcomed its first batch of startups and culminated with a demo day after 100 days of bootcamp in MAY. With Singapore’s first nation-wide tech company open house taking place a few days after.
TREND ALERT: Rise in startup accelerators in Asia.
One of Asia’s largest telcos, SingTel, goes on a shopping spree. While the company’s home country of Singapore tops the Mobile Payments Readiness Index study by MasterCard across the world.
JUNE saw three key startup events in the region: Echelon, beLAUNCH in South Korea and Startup Asia Jakarta. (Read: 4 things you must know to tackle the “Wild West of tech entrepreneurship” that is Indonesia.)
And Startup Weekend took place in Cambodia again while Path rolls out seven new languages including Thai and Bahasa Indonesia.
Intel Capital shows more interest in Asia with investments in Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam. This middle of the year also saw good news for Asian Apple consumers as the iTunes store touches down across the region.
And the Rocket launches its Square-missile in Asia.
JULY saw the finals of the nation-wide ON3 pitching competition in the Philippines and Australia hosted the grand finals of Imagine Cup. India’s InMobi acquires more companies and the world’s largest blackout occurs in India.
TREND ALERT: Medical tourism platforms and startups that allow you to find a doctor easily.
Amidst the global fascination with new CEO Marissa Mayer, Yahoo! in Southeast Asia demonstrates a butcher’s regret after it buys, kills, then later resurrects Koprol, Indonesia’s answer to Foursquare.
Rural Vietnam got biometric banking ability with fingerprint-enabled debit cards in AUGUST. While urban cities in Asia saw the continual deaths of daily deal companies.
TREND ALERT: Cosmetics subscription commerce the next Clone Rush
India continues to see more funds cycling around with its largest e-commerce platform, Flipkart having raise a new round and online photography startup, Canvera does the same.
More Rocket Internet layoffs, admits defeat in online furniture in Singapore.
READ: Rocket Internet: Is There A Method To Its Madness Or Is It Just Bad For Innovation
SEPTEMBER played host to India’s largest tech discovery platform, we saw Japan’s answer to SXSW and ChopChop’s founder break his cushy investment banking job scholarship to start the company in Malaysia.
Google also thinks Lao is important for its Translate tool.
The first ever FailCon in Singapore happened in OCTOBER and Friendster-owner, Malaysia’s MOL, expanded its payments reach in the US and Latin America with a majority investment in Rixty.
Thailand’s Ookbee and Indonesia’s SCOOP partner for e-publishing platform expansion. When competing startups partner rather than continue butting heads full on, one plus one equals three and one less kitten dies.
TREND ALERT: The sharing economy explodes, accommodation, co-working and rideshare startups pick up momentum.
NOVEMBER saw China’s TenCent turn 14, battles teenage angst.
Singapore hosted Asia’s first Javascript-focused conference and Japan’s CyberAgent Ventures continues to make a string of investments in Vietnam, Taiwan and Indonesia.
And again, from the world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia’s produces augmented reality app, Harpoen which was one of the winners of the World Summit Award Mobile.
Crowdsourced teeshirt design giant Threadless threw a huge day party in Singapore, one of its most important markets, ever.
TREND ALERT: The rise of platformed creativity in Asia and how it’s connecting creators to consumers.
The folks all the way in Ireland from the Dublin Web Summit asked us to recommend the top startups in Asia. One of which we recommended was Vibease, which went on to receive one of the top spots.
Japan’s gaming giant, GREE announced a partnership with Asian telco giant SingTel while Philippines and Indonesia gets Google Free Zone. And Taiwan’s Cubie and Japan’s CinemaCraft join the 5th batch of portfolio companies of US’ 500Startups.
DECEMBER saw the Malaysian government launch accreditation for angel investors and we found the top 10 startups of Asia at Open Web Asia in China.
Chinese e-commerce giant Taoball saw RMB 1 trillion (USD 160.5 billion) in revenue for the first 11 months in 2012 while 55Tuan claims to be the first profitable Chinese Groupon-clone.
TREND ALERT: Rise of e-commerce in Asia
Japan’s VC, Global Brain brought outside-Japan startups and individuals like myself for a Japan-Southeast-Asia-themed forum.
Further proof of interest of a growing Southeast Asia, South Korean mobile messaging app, KakaoTalk shows its seriousness about Indonesia.
IN SUMMARY, WE BELIEVE IN THE TWO ASIAS: urban/developed and rural/developing. We like ambitious founders, and we like sleeping, but some entrepreneurs like it so much, they sleep with their co-founder.
If you don’t, there is still hope for you.
Find out more about SGE’s research arm: SGE Insights, providing customized in-depth research reports to help you navigate the business of technology in Asia.
About The Author
Gwendolyn Regina T - Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Gwen is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of SGE. Previously, she was a partner of early stage technology investment firm, Thymos Capital and she has had two exits, one of which is iHipo. She is also an investor in Padlet, a Y-Combinator startup. Gwen also sits on the Board of Advisors for the Singapore Innovation & Productivity Institute, Steering Commmittee for the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation Awards 2013, and Board of Advisors for Social Media Week 2013. A frequent public speaker, mentor and judge at various startup bootcamps, events and competitions, Gwen loves meeting founders, developers, designers and scientists across all ages. An alumnus of the National University of Singapore and its University Scholars Programme, Gwen also spent some time in Silicon Valley and is a graduate of the NUS-Stanford University overseas college programme. She is also a mentor at Polish tech startup incubator Gamma Rebels, the Singapore curator for US-headquartered StartupDigest and the Singapore Ambassador for the Sandbox Network - the leading global network of innovators under 30. Gwen has also been a Worldwide Judge for Imagine Cup - the premier student technology competition helmed by Microsoft. She has also spoken in Hong Kong at one of its largest youth conferences, MaD Asia, and was recently in Austria to help envision the future of the country's economy in 2032 on invitation from an Austrian governmental organization. Gwen speaks 3.25 languages, loves physics, travelling, dance and adventure sports. She can be found on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Read other posts by Gwendolyn Regina T
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