Singapore Entrepreneurs

SINGAPORE: M2B World Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of US-listed Amaru, Inc yesterday launched its news on-demand channel with Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) during a press conference at its newly opened showroom and media production studio. Our resident contributor and co-founder of Entrepreneur27, Justin Lee reports on this interesting event and shares his thoughts on this competitive media industry in Singapore.

M2B World Asia Pacific operates M2Btv, Singapore’s First Broadband TV. M2Btv is an IPTV media broadcaster that brings news and entertainment over the Internet to the TVs of its subscribers through custom set-top boxes.

The new SPH Video News Channel is compiled from AsiaOne, STI (Straits Times Interactive) and STOMP. This is in addition to the current offering of 55 channels of video on-demand entertainment comprising local and international programming as well as casual interactive games like Soduku.

Accessed through the Pony set-box using any high speed broadband connection, Singapore’s First Broadband TV service also provides M2Btv subscribers face-to-face video calls and messaging at no additional charges, along with online on-demand shopping.

M2B World currently reaches out to a regional audience of subscribers in Southeast Asia, China and the USA. The installed base just in Singapore would be expected to reach over 10,000 users in 2007.

At the unveiling ceremony, CEO Colin Binny said, “Since the launch of M2Btv last year, we have banked on continually expanding our offering of on-demand programming to deliver an alternative, value-for-money platform for home entertainment, with a rich array of content that has largely not been seen on free-to-air TV or cable.”

Also in attendance was a bevy of beauty queens who were winners of pageants sponsored by M2B World. They showcased the variety of offerings to be available on M2Btv including:

• The exclusive High Definition premiere of “The DaVinci Code”
• A Karaoke on-demand channel with up to 10,000 titles
• An original full high-definition Singapore documentary series entitled “Facets of a Nation” hosted by Lim Kay Tong

The M2Btv service is distributed over the Internet to specially designed “PONY” set-top boxes that incorporate a custom designed remote-control. Accessories such as microphones and web-cams can be connected to the device to enable video-conferencing.

M2Btv has also struck partnerships with retailer Harvey Norman and karaoke equipment retailer Electro-Voice to distribute its set-top boxes. Every purchase of an LCD, plasma or conventional TV at Harvey Norman will come bundled with a free 12 month subscription.

The bundle of attractive entertainment offerings, quality content and wide distribution could mean that the Singapore consumer looks set to gain with competitive offerings for the consumers by IPTV companies such as M2Btv.

After the formalities of the launch, Amaru, Inc CEO, Colin Binny brought the guests on a tour of its showroom and media product facilities.

The showroom is an impressive double-height ceiling suite with a wall of 9 large plasma-TVs on one wall. Behind the reception hall was a large digital production studio.

The digital production studio had a team of people working on round-the-clock shifts producing content for the web and the various channels. Various teams of employees worked on tasks ranging from video encoding to subtitling. The operational aspects of the company were well thought out and process oriented.

VP of Corporate Communications, Liew Kim Siong, explained that the entire system was web-based and enabled the company to work more effectively. The process of media production began in this studio (the company has one other studio in Los Angeles serving the USA market). Video content was first encoded and prepared for local consumption. They are then uploaded to server farms located in Singapore and USA for distribution to the set-top boxes.

In a personal interview, Colin explained to me that he started this company in 2000 as he saw a market for IPTV. It was difficult starting up a company then as it was in the wake of the Dot-Com crash. However, he believed in his idea and put in his own money by mortgaging his property. Eventually, he managed to raise additional investments to get the company going. To date over $30m dollars has been invested and the company is also listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in USA.

When asked for advice for entrepreneurs, Colin emphasized that it was important not to try to do everything alone but to be willing to give up a part of your company to bring in good partners and financers. He also encouraged entrepreneurs to learn how to raise financing from the financial markets so as to be able to grow the company quickly.

On this blog, I think many of the readers and contributors are focused on the idea generation and starting up stage, but rarely do we get a glimpse into a company that has pulled past the early stages and is now expanding globally.

I hope this post has been valuable to you in providing a glimpse into the operations and marketing of a Singapore founded firm making inroads into the competitive IPTV market.

The M2Btv showroom is located at 112 Middle Road, 01-01 Midland House, together with M2B World Asia Pacific.

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