Interview with Ridzuan Ashim, co-founder of Widgeous
June 23, 2008 by Bernard Leong
Filed under Entrepreneurs, Interviews
Widgeous is a platform that allows applications and people to communicate via multiple channels like widgets, SMS and Instant Messaging. Co-founded by two young and passionate entrepreneurs, Ridzuan Ashim and Chua U-Zyn, the team recently launched their platform at the Barcamp Singapore II – Maps and Mobile Unconference. So, we took the opportunity to speak to Ridzuan and got him to do an interview with us here in SGE, to tell us more about the story and features of Widgeous together with his thoughts on the trends of building platforms in the Internet.
BL: Thank you for the interview with SG Entrepreneurs. Let’s begin by telling us your story. How did both U-Zyn and you come about starting Widgeous?
Ridzuan: Well it started some time in the middle of last year when U-Zyn came up to me with the idea of building some sort of SMS-applications platform. I bought into the idea because it sounded like a really good way of making some of my own communication practices easier. In two days we shaped up something to present for a Master Class conducted by former Amazon Chief Scientist, Andreas Weigend. Needless to say, the idea was still so ‘infant’ that very few understood what we were doing but it served as a good sounding board for refinement of the idea. Fast forward a few months and we’re here…still a long way to go though.
BL: What were your backgrounds before engaging in your current start-up?
Ridzuan: I’m majoring in Computer Engineering in NTU while running a small web consultancy/development company outfit while Uzyn was, as many probably already know, a freelance developer and also founder of local blog community Ping.sg.
It helps that both of us are somewhat actively involved in the blogosphere because it allows us to understand some of the needs in cyberspace. Aside from that, both of us have a lot of little projects that keep us plugged into various developments in other areas which I feel is essential in understand where innovation and synergy can occur.
BL: As a platform, what are the main problems that Widgeous is trying to solve for the community?
Ridzuan: Fundamentally, we want to achieve 2 things. Firstly, we want to make it easy for people to communicate. We’re inundated with so many communication options like Twitter, Instant Messaging protocol, email, text messages, social networks, etc. This really makes it complicated when we want to deliver a message to another person because we now face that need to deliberate over which channel would best be used. With Widgeous, the platform decides how best to send something across. It even gives the recipient the power to control how he wishes to receive messages from other individuals as well as applications.
Secondly, we want to make it easy for application developers to deploy their applications across communication channels. Traditionally, developers create an application and have to keep up with making sure it supports the various channels. This takes time and in the event that an API changes, many developers would be forced to make modifications. With us, developers can plug into our API and have immediate support for all the various channels. And because we intend to not just consolidate digital communication channels like email and IMs but to also include SMS and social networks, applications plugged into us would follow users wherever they went.
BL: What are the three essential features in Widgeous?
Ridzuan: 1. Cross communication channel support – With Widgeous, you’re plugged to your friends as well to the applications from wherever you are.
2. Central Contact List – A central place where you can store your online and offline information and have this data seamlessly transmitted to your friends. Not entirely new (as compared to existing services) but we’ve got some interesting ways of leveraging on this… We’ll tell you more about this soon. :)
3. A repository of application – once we establish a sizable repository of apps, widgeous users would be able to have access to everything from information-on-demand services all the way to full scale applications like mini-games, event coordination tools and more! The repository will also give exposure to the applications which would be a great way to leverage on our userbase.
BL: How does the developer gain from working with the Widgeous API? Is it difficult to develop from your platform?
Ridzuan: Difficult? Definitely not. We will be providing a REST API for developers to use later next month which will be really useful. Basically, developers would have to request for a developer’s key, build their app and have it listed in our repository. From there, they’re good to go.
BL: Given the trends in the Internet industry are moving towards the “web as a platform” or web 2.5, what is the position of Widgeous in the ecosystem? How does it attract the end-users?
Ridzuan: Well, quite honestly, we see ourselves as that layer that sits between applications and the people. Our platform would connect various websites and various groups of people to each other as easily as possible without sacrificing control.
The traditional strategy of simplifying interaction between people-to-people or people-to-applications is to create a new standard that requires people to leave a service and adopt a new one. Now we all know how difficult it is to convince a friend to leave one social network for another…or perhaps to try out a new Instant Messaging service. What we’ve decided is to not replace anyone but to be that layer that helps to manage the connections…So you could on say gTalk and I could on MSN and we would still be able to get messages to each other.
So how does this translate to something useful for end users? Well, in time to come it wouldn’t matter what services your friends are using or whether someone changed their mobile number because all you have to do is make sure your friend is in your contact list and you can talk to him/her from anywhere! And if you’re the one changing your particulars, you no longer have to update all your 10,000 friends about it.
But that’s only half the benefit. As users of applications that are plugged into our platform, you can also use these applications from wherever you are. You could check the status of the weather or get the movie listings direct from your IM or you could start an event direct from your mobile. It wouldn’t even matter if there’s no WI-FI in the area because you could interact with the application via text messaging too!
BL: Is there a business model behind Widgeous or just another web service that you grow a community and wait to be acquired?
Ridzuan: Yes there is business model behind the company although let’s be honest and practical – if someone named a reasonable price one day, it’s only responsible that we consider it right?
Right now, we’ve adopted several forms of monetization but the immediate one would be the option for companies and organizations to use our platform as a white label solution.
BL: What are the challenges for the team at the moment? How do you all try to overcome them?
Ridzuan: As a platform, we have a chicken and egg issue – we really have little value unless there are applications that realize our capabilities. At the same time, users will have little incentive to sign up if there are no applications. So how do we intend to breach this problem?
We’ll begin by first engaging the developer community and try to convince them as to why they should be plugged into us. In a few weeks, we’ll be opening up our API and start being a bit more liberal with our invitations into the platform. We’re also in the midst of planning a hackathon of sorts for next month (local and overseas) so that we can teach people and at the same time get to know where our API is lacking (and we’ll try to build those shortfalls on the spot). Do check out our blog as we break the news.
BL: Our favourite question to your team: What are the three most important attributes that an entrepreneur must have?
Ridzuan: 1. Perseverance – to ride out the tough times and the naysayers (although please be realistic about one’s idea). Don’t believe all the glamour that the media attaches to the word ‘entrepreneur’.
2. Passion for the idea – It’s the fuel when nothing else motivates you and you’re trying to go through the dip.
3. Faith coupled with a quick feet– If you’ve thought it out and you truly believe it’s going to bring value that people want, then have faith. That said, it’s important to be able to react quickly to changes. Besides, as a startup entrepreneurs, speed is what we have against larger corporations..it’ll be a terrible waste not to capitalize on that.
BL: Given the proliferation of the platforms by the established players (for example, Apple iPhone Apps store, Google Apps Engine and Facebook Developer Platform), what do you think are the key challenges issues faced by small medium enterprises who are also developing platforms to provide essential web and mobile services?
Ridzuan: One challenge I think would have to be marketing and adoption. These bigger players have an existing user and developer base. They have all the resources to help push applications out. But the fundamental question to ask is, “what value would our platform really bring to the participants of our platform?” I say, don’t fight the big boys but instead complement what they have.
And this is where the bigger problem begins…With the industry developments speeding up, keeping up to date with the latest developments become really difficult but still very much crucial. And when it comes to web and mobile services being a field that everyone is trying to go into (the mobile operators are trying to get onto the web and the web players are trying to get into phones!), it’s crucial to know who’s doing what and to react quickly.
Profile of Widgeous founders
Ridzuan Ashim – CEO, Co-Founder and his Widgeous ID : ridz84. Ridzuan is a passionate individual who has been involved in the Web Development scene since early 2000. After using his first computer at the age of 6, he is an avid adopter of technology and believes that while technology should allow us to perform more complex tasks, it should remain as easily usable for the common man on the street.
U-Zyn Chua – CTO, Co-Founder and his Widgeous ID : uzyn. U-Zyn Chua has been actively involved in the Singapore web industry scene since he was still a student in National University of Singapore. He has created various web-based applications for various companies in and outside of Singapore besides being the founder and the sole developer for the online community for Singapore bloggers – Ping.sg.
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