A different perspective to Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem

My friend Jon Russell from The Next Web has recently penned that there are four issues challenging Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem: risk aversion, fear of failure, lack of big firm presence and immature ecosystem.

To his credit, he has spotted some inherent weaknesses of a diverse market fragmented not just by geography but also business culture. In a similar reflection, Michael Smith Jr from Spuul focused on the lack of enough big firms.

While there is a lot of hurrah with the arrival of 500 Startups to the region, there are several trends that might deter the growth of the ecosystem — the purpose of this article is to open a discussion on what these might be. Read more

SingTel’s HungryGoWhere partners with Perx and Reserveit.sg, could lay foundation for ‘super food network’

Imagine reading a restaurant review on HungryGoWhere, then booking a table on Reserveit.sg. Once the reservation is done, you get a notification on Perx saying that you’ve received a chop, which allows you to redeem a dessert.

It’s a foodie’s dream come true, and we might not need to wait too long for it to happen.

The foundation is already set. We’ve learnt today that SingTel-owned HungryGoWhere, Singapore’s leading food portal, has partnered with mobile loyalty startup Perx (which has over 700 locations and 400,000 chops so far) and restaurant reservation service Reserveit.sg to integrate their services into the site. Read more

Cheatsheet of SingTel acquisitions

2012 has shaped up to be a landmark year for SingTel, Singapore’s largest telecom company. Motivated by a need to transform itself into a multimedia and IT company, it has embarked on a wave of acquisitions of mobile and web startups. Israel, China, and India are reportedly in its sights. The acquisitions are aimed at innovative mobile technologies and portals that diversify SingTel revenue stream and create future growth possibilities. In this cheatsheet, we take a quick look at recent SingTel acquisitions. Read more

Startup events helped HungryGoWhere secure the SingTel acquisition

Officially, SingTel‘s acquisition of HungryGoWhere for US$9.4M, Singapore’s number one food portal, was a few months in the making. Unofficially, the building blocks were being laid for three years.

The congenial work relationship between both HungryGoWhere and the InSing.com team was a key factor in the co-founders’ decision to join SingTel.

InSing.com is a lifestyle portal operated by the telecommunications company, covering food, shopping, events, travel, and more. Both sites’ food channels have a combined two million visitors a month.

“We know the people working in the inSing team. When they started off we actually helped with a couple of building blocks. So we know them from day one. The personal chemistry was there, and there was a high level of comfort,” said Yung Yih, who started HungryGoWhere, in a conference call between SGE and all three co-founders.

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Cheatsheet of technology startup exits in Southeast Asia

Last updated: 5 April, 2013

Tech startup activity has intensified in Southeast Asia in the past few years as investors and entrepreneurs have started to look more seriously at opportunities in the region. Acquisition activity has increased too. To help you keep track of what’s happening, here’s a cheatsheet of exits in the past few years, covering Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand. Let us know if we missed out on any company, or if you have any feedback on how to improve the list.

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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

Who will you nominate for the National Infocomm Awards 2012?

The biannual National Infocomm Awards (NIA) are back, and nominations have already opened. Organizations and companies in Singapore are eligible.

Some of the past winners include Brandtology, HungryGoWhere, and Muvee. Read more

No More Bill Limit With HungryDeals New eCode System

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it just irks me, as a consumer, that group buying restaurant offers on daily deal sites usually come with a bill limit. You pay $10 for $20 value, but you cannot combine vouchers in a single bill. And since restaurant meals with two or more people usually cost much more than $20, as much as you want to use your three vouchers to get 50% off the entire bill, you can’t. HungryDeals‘ new eCode system allows you to do that. Read more

Groupon + Threadless + Food = HungryDeals.sg

Started by three people with similar background in arts, online food portal HungryGoWhere had tough beginnings. The developer in the company at any time was the only technical person and thus dictated the web startup development. 4 years on and 16 people later, Hungry is leading the pack with its flagship site having inked a partnership with xinmsn, and spurned dedicated portals with HungryDelivery and HungryBBQ. Read more

In Conversation with Wong Hoong An, co-founder of HungryGoWhere

Food is one of the favourite pastimes for most Singaporeans. To cater for the constant need for the consumers to seek out new restaurants and food places, HungryGoWhere is a search engine that allows users to find out the type of food, pricing, location and other relevant information within a country. Although they started in Singapore with a test market, they have quickly made a headway to the markets overseas. The site also provides an array of services from food delivery to an iPhone app. So, we have Wong Hoong An, one of the co-founders of HungryGoWhere to tell us their story and how they are moving ahead forward. Read more