View Larger Map

When: Friday 19th November 2010
Time: 1500-1700
Where: National University (Hall Auditorium), Lee Kong Chian Wing, Level 2, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Road, Singapore 119077

Register by emailing Aditi at necv4 [at] nus.edu.sg.

This event is part of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2010.

SGE is proud to be the Official Online Media partner for GEW 2010.

• Event – CommunicAsia 2010: How have the exhibitions and conferences fare this year? Is the conference losing focus or becoming more and more diverse? The TWIA crew examines the annual event that rocked Asia this week.
• Event – Nokia Connection: The announcement of X5, X6 and N8 phones and the news that the C3 is completely sold out in Indonesia with delegates all over Southeast Asia and India turned up in Singapore for the event. We also examine how Nokia needs to step up the fight in the smart-phone space.
• Social, smartphones shaping Philippines mobile landscape: With the success of how the Indonesia mobile landscape, we review how the same business models and mobile usage are replicated in the Philippines.
• InMobi announces 2M Developer Fund: InMobi, the Indian mobile ad-network has finally stepped onto the shores of US with investments from KPCB, and open a new front to the Google-Admob vs Apple war. Will their independence and also the new developer fund change the mobile advertising landscape?
• Tencent to acquire Comsenz?: So, web 1.0 online BBS forums has been popular in China and is the top social networking service Tencent acquire or invest in this company?
• FourSquare banned in China: Yes, FourSquare has joined the list of banned services in China. We have inside stories on how people got a swarm badge in Tiananmen which led to the service being banned and not to mention, the emerging clones of FourSquare in China.
• Open Web Asia 2010 in Kuala Lumpur on 13 and 14 July and you can register with our own promo code: TWIA

About Chris Evdemon from Innovation Works: Chris Evdemon is the Investments & Business Development Manager at Innovation Works and Venture Partner at Eastern Bell Venture Capital. Chris has 10 years of ‘hands on’ entrepreneurial experience primarily in Information Technology, as well as in the shipping and hospitality / entertainment industries. He has served as the CEO of ICDL Asia Pacific Ltd., an organization with operations in over 25 Asian countries which he helped turnaround and relocate in Singapore. Chris has considerable expertise in start-up environments and operations, as well as in franchising and licensing networks. He is also a Founding Member of the China Business Angel Network (CBAN) as well as a Director of the Business Angel Network South-East Asia (BANSEA). Chris has a M.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College and an MBA from INSEAD.

About Benjamin Joffe from CMUNE and +8* | Plus Eight Star: Benjamin Joffe was selected among the “China’s TOP 100 Mobile Industry Influencers” in 2007 and 2008 and frequently quoted in various online and offline media such as CNN.com, AdAge, Asian Business Leaders and many more. Joffe’s specialties are in Asian Innovation, SNS, Mobile and Internet industries, social networks Web 2.0 in Asia, 3G services and many more.

• Ushi.cn – a Chinese Linkedin?: Since BL’s comment in Barcamp KL about no Chinese Linkedin clone, he got a surprise invitation to join on Ushi.cn, a social network which is poised to be the bridge for Chinese and Western professionals.
• Yahoo! Japan And DeNA To Runs Social Game Site Yahoo! Mobage: We examine the success of Yahoo! Japan and why Google is having such tough time in east Asia. What is Yahoo! doing correctly there?
• Softbank To Stop Further Development Of Japan-Made Mobile Technology And To Take Chinese 4G Standard?: The investor to Yahoo! Japan, Softbank (also well known for other Internet investments like Mixi and Twitter Japan) is adopting the standard from China for 4G. Does that mean that we are seeing a China-Japan nexus on tech happening in our backyard?
• Microsoft plans to invest Kaixin001 – Chinese Social Network: Is Microsoft adopting the same principle to how they invest in Facebook with Kaixin001 in China? BL relates a tale with the CEO of Kaixin001 where he shares how the western media keep getting it wrong to get people to talk. While this investment is rumored to happen, the TWIA crew also talked about the recent acquisition of Palm by HP and wondered why they got it wrong with Lenovo and HTC.
• Baidu sees 165% increase in Profit after departure of Google China: So, with Google China’s exit, Baidu is picking up the profits from the consumers now. So, what else is new for them?

Our friends at Tech65 starts off this week with their weekly podcast on the following issues that dominated the tech landscape: [1] Google turns off filter in China, [2] GoDaddy to stop registering domain names in China, [3] HTC EVO 4G, [4] Every citizen to have personal webpage: eCitizen. Do click and check out their latest podcast here. You can now also listen to the Tech65 podcast here as well by coming to the blog post directly.

Envisioned to be China’s version of Silicon Valley or Route 128 by Chen Chunxian, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) during the early 1980s, the technology cluster sits right in an area sperated between the top two universities of China: Peking University and Tsinghua University. The technology park is located in Beijing city, in an area between the north west direction of 3rd Ring Road and 4th Ring Road (Note that the best way to navigate around Beijing city is to think of concentric rings roads, for example, the famous Tiananmen where the central government is located is in the first ring road).

• Networking and Importance of Local Partners: It is not advisable to go into China without working with someone local there. The important thing to note when talking to local people there is not to make a quick assessment but rather take some time to build the relationship. You should also find ways to test the person who you might be interested to get as a local partner so that you can roughly know if the person really know what he or she is doing. Of course, be careful that everyone does name-dropping in Beijing and it would be better if you slowly sieve your way through. Being able to speak Chinese makes a lot of difference to get the first impression. If you can’t speak the language properly, the Chinese will like you, similar to the French who prefer you speak broken French to English to them.
• Sales lead can be tedious and ardous for many: If you are talking to a potential customer or client particularly in the realm of sales, it is not so straightforward that you can get them on board after a while. Don’t take too long in following one lead. Oftentimes, you will have to go through many iterations to find the customer. Hence, it is frustrating but it is part of the process. It is also good to speak to people who are in your relevant industry so that they can offer you leads and help along the way. Of course, the rule of doing due diligence on that person is important. One advice is to hire a local who you have properly checked out to do sales for you.
• Check Currency Transactions: If you are setting up retail or F&B businesses, it is important to make sure that you have a device which most shops in China used to sieve out fake Chinese RMB notes. I observe a lot of shops doing checks on the currencies from Shanghai to Beijing. You should try making purchases in retail stores and you should be able to check out how the cashier checks the RMB notes.
• Following up with people in Shanghai and Beijing: In Shanghai, the follow up procedure after meetings is closer to the West, i.e. you send a follow up email in Mandarin and then with the action points required for both parties. While in Beijing, you may find yourself caught in many discussion points and you have to really restrict what your follow up points are with the people there. Beijing is more representative of the rest of China while Shanghai is a hub where most foreigner expats set up their shops first before their entry into the rest of the Chinese domestic market.

My friend, Boon is a serial entrepreneur and while running his tech company for 9 years and making the transition from Singapore to Beijing for about 2-3 years ago, he went back to basics and started a juice bar in Sanlitun North Road, Chaoyang District. He ran it with some partners, and the most distinct feature you will find out about the juice bar are the chairs based on an unique European design. If one needs a comparison to Singapore, Sanlitun North Road is reminiscent of Holland Village in Singapore where most expats will hang out. In fact, for the Apple fans, the Beijing Apple store is right next to the the juice bar. For one, he picked that place because he knows that the foreign expats prefer the healthy juicebar type of drinks. In fact, if you think that it’s easy to set up such a business, there are a few challenges that he has faced in running this enterprise for a year:

• Getting the proper ingredients: While China is plagued with quality problems on certain dairy products, one of the challenges Boon and his team faced is to find a good source of milk that is imported directly from outside China. The reason is clear, the juice bar focussed on quality drinks and is a luxury which the foreign expats can afford. Once he has established which ingredients he can buy (which is directly imported to China) and which ones he can get it fresh from the market, it is straightforward to work out the prices.
• Location, Location and Location: It is important to stress that location is an important issue for the Eden juice bar. If you have a niche product which only a certain group of people can afford, your natural response is to position the store right in the middle where that group of people hang out. In fact, through his juice bar, Boon has encountered the most interesting people who are passing by China to set up big multi-national companies. Just when I was there, I bumped into a senior executive from Norvatis and people who I may not be able to have access if I am in Singapore.
• Four seasons can make life complicated: So, the Juice bar sells cold healthy fruit juices and does relatively well in summer. In fact, business according to Boon, during the Beijing Olympics 2008, was amazing. What happens when Beijing hits winter? In fact, they have to go back to the drawing board and worked out how to bring people into the juice bar. Perhaps, such circumstances will push people to think about how to deal with various situations.

It’s actually an interesting time to visit my business partner and checking out how a Singaporean entrepreneur does business in China. If you are a Singaporean doing business in Beijing or making a social visit, do pop by the Eden Juice Bar, and perhaps, you will learn more about how a Singaporean entrepreneur have to deal with just to run a business in China.

Some photos from the Eden Juice Bar in the Night