If you don’t know Rocket Internet, you should. This German startup incubator, founded by the famous Samwer Brothers, has a knack for copying business models from Silicon Valley and replicating them successfully elsewhere.
Now, they are conquering Southeast Asia.
SGE got wind from Raphael Strauch, managing director of Rocket Internet, that they have started Zalora.com, a Zappos clone, in Malaysia and Singapore. Zalora is an online fashion retailer that stocks clothing and accesories from indie brands around the region.
Besides an online fashion business spanning the region, a check with various online recruitment sites has revealed that Rocket Internet is also embarking on an online food delivery venture and a furniture business called Home24.sg. Raphael declined to reveal more details at the point of time.
What we do know is that the company has embarked on a massive recruitment drive in Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, with the aim of taking Southeast Asia’s online retail market by storm, as their job ads put it.
Based on what we’ve seen, the company is in the midst of creating multiple localized e-commerce websites utilizing a common logistical and operational backbone, each focusing on different verticals. Read more
While the LiveJournal press release has said that “only” ten percent of blogshops earn more than S$2,000 (US$1,500), I actually think it’s a pretty good figure.
Let’s consider LiveJournal‘s estimate that there are beyond 50,000 blogshops in Singapore: That would mean over 5,000 blogshop owners are on their way to doing it full time. That’s a lot.
Another 80 percent earn S$500 (US$385) or less, enough to earn some extra cash, while I presume the rest earn nothing or are losing money.
Some of Singapore’s top blogshops got a chance to flaunt their fashion items on the catwalk last Friday night at LiveJournal.sg‘s launch party, described as the country’s ‘first blogshop fashion show’.
LiveJournal has a special place in the heart of many blogshop owners in Singapore because of its ease of use and community features. To cater to this user base, they launched a Singapore startpage that acts as a directory to showcase the best local LiveJournal content.
Currently, LiveJournal.sg hosts over 5,000 active blogshops, which together brings in over 1 million visitors and more than 30 million pageviews each month. Blogshopping has became a popular way to shop for fashion items among women in Singapore aged 18 to 25, according to the press release. Read more
So you’re an aspiring entrepreneur looking to step up a blogshop selling apparel, shoes, catfood, or anything your awesome mind can conjure up. You’ll be happy to know that LiveJournal and Blogger, trusty old venerables in Internet time, are no longer your only options — a new kid on the block has arrived.
The EZ Suite is a new website creation tool by PayPal and Singapore Post that’s built from the ground up for e-commerce. Available only in Singapore at the moment, it is targeted at startup founders with lots of passion but little technical know-how, and its interface is designed for ease of use with step-by-step instructions and illustrations. The whole process of stepping up shop is broken into six distinct steps, ensuring that you don’t miss out on crucial bits. Read more
Did you know? is a project targeted at spreading the spirit of entrepreneurship through sharing success stories about entrepreneurs in Singapore. It was done by five youthful individuals, Grace, Kimberly, Ki Wan, Siyu and Yiyuan who are deeply interested in entrepreneurship. This video is republished with permission.
For more SGE content on fashion blogshops, click here.
LiveJournal, one of the most popular blogging platforms in the world, has just launched their new Singapore startpage (livejournal.sg) on August 5. The actual site will go live sometime the following week. Read more
It turns out that not all of Nanyang Technological University‘s top five recent graduates in 2011 are the high-flying investment banking types. In fact, two of them are entrepreneurs who started their businesses while in university, reported Singapore tabloid The New Paper.
The first is Lester Lin, 25, a chemical and bioengineering graduate who founded Science Hub, an enrichment center for primary school kids, in 2008. The second is Tan Yi Fong, 23, a married young mother, who started online fashion stores Ministry of Retail in 2009 and Creme & Co this year (she and her husband were interviewed in this SGE story).
Both entrepreneurs earn about S$12,000 (US$9,955) a month, while the top earner, who works in the finance sector, rakes in some S$20,000 (US$16,591).
Generation Blogshop has come of age. While hundreds, if not thousands of garishly designed and brashly-colored blogshops have arrived and died, many online retailers have done well enough to venture into brick and mortar stores. Read more
LiveJournal just announced that they have appointed Singapore-based digital publishing house, Tickled Media to be their official representative in Southeast Asia and India. Tickled Media is behind properties like TheAsianParent, Singapore’s largest online parenting magazine.
Dealing virtually with clients does not mean that Min does not try to add a personal touch to the interaction. Always typing and responding to emails from clients with a smile on her face, Min believes that these smiles can be subtly communicated through text. We listen to Min as she speaks about Little Red Heels, an online blogshop that she started with her friend. Read more
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