Asia Tech Scene 2012 Year in Review

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. Read more

In Cambodia, Project Alba helps farmers increase income, protect against seed raiders

In parts of rural Cambodia, farmers’ primary source of income comes from harvesting rice — once a year. This is a poor outcome compared to other ASEAN countries which harvest twice or thrice annually.

To help increase farmers’ income, Victor Combal-Weiss and Guillaume Virag founded Project Alba. Project Alba’s socially-minded, sustainable business model works by lowering the risk for farmers to start a second cropping. Farmers get their farm inputs like seeds, fertilizers, and technical knowhow from Project Alba along with a guaranteed buying price for their produce.

In Cambodia, Project Alba has already developed a market for lettuce — an entirely new crop that wasn’t previously produced in Cambodia. It turned out there was a ready market for the vegetable in the increasing number of high end hotels that were sprouting in Cambodia. Read more

Cooliris is number 1 app in 63 countries for lifestyle category

Two weeks ago, we featured Cooliris, an iPad app that aims to improve the way users view and share photos on the tablet. Now, the team has shared a major milestone with us: Cooliris is now number 1 for iPad apps in 63 countries for the lifestyle category. Read more

iTunes store arrives at 12 Asian countries, lets users buy music and movies

Starting from today, consumers in 12 Asian countries can finally purchase local and international music, as well as rent or purchase movie from the iTunes store.

These countries are: Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.  Read more

SingTel continues shopping spree, acquires HungryGoWhere for US$9.4M

SingTel announced in a press release today that it is acquiring GTW Holdings, the owners of HungryGoWhere, Singapore’s most visited foodie site, for S$12M (US$9.4M).

The site, which was started in 2007, has a presence in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Australia. Under the terms, GTW will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of SingTel. It will merge operations with inSing.com, another SingTel subsidiary with an audience of two million customers.

With the purchase, SingTel claims it has the largest food and lifestyle audience in the island state.

GTW’s Singapore-based founders will play a crucial role in growing SingTel’s services in Singapore and beyond. Read more

Startup Weekend Cambodia 2 – 22-24 June 2012

Startup Weekend is an intense 54-hour event which focuses on building a web or mobile application that could form the basis of a credible business over the course of a weekend. The weekend brings together people with different skillsets – primarily software developers, graphics designers and business people – to build applications and develop a commercial case around them.

This is Cambodia’s second Startup Weekend and it promises to be even BIGGER and BETTER than the last one! There is increased capacity, hosted at a much larger, more modern venue: Yellow Tower and several members of the Startup Weekend Core Team flying for a visit!

When: Friday-Sunday, 22-24th June 2012
Where: Yellow Tower, No. 191, Tonle Sap (Rd.), Village 12, Sangkat Chroy Changva, 12110, Phnom Penh, Cambodia [map]

Register here.

The fastest growing Facebook nations in Asia (first quarter 2012)

A version of this article was first published on Grey Review.

Facebook has over 850 million users worldwide. Out of that, a total of 194 million users are from Asia at the end of March 2012. Most of these users from the Southeast Asia region – 97 million or 54% of the total Facebook users in Asia. Some other observations on the latest Facebook in Asia statistics: Read more

Forget S’pore, Chibi founder finds Cambodia a great launchpad for Asia

Conventional wisdom says that Singapore is an attractive test market and launchpad for the rest of Asia. Indeed, that’s what its government agencies like to say. Actually, they’re not wrong either.

If you’re a startup that wants to go into emerging markets, Singapore may be a great place to set up your regional headquarters, but it most certainly isn’t your test market.

David Wilkie, an entrepreneur based in Phnom Penh, certainly thinks Cambodia is a great place to launch his business.  Read more