Perx dumped daily deals business to focus on loyalty card app, has no regrets

Before Perx co-founders Andrew Roth and Jon Sugihara started work on their loyalty card mobile app, which is now the market leader in Singapore, they ran successful daily deals site PLAYhawaii.com. It was on track to generate US$2M in revenue a year.

Based in Hawaii, they expanded their business to Asia, founding Maiplay last year with Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin as an investor and advisor. They launched in Jakarta and Singapore, entering a heated field dominated by Groupon.

However, they dumped their daily deals business within months. They sold PLAYhawaii.com and launched their loyalty card mobile app in October 2011. They’re now based in Singapore.

What sparked the change was their belief that daily deals is a lousy way to acquire loyal customers for merchants. The hunch paid off: At the time of the interview, Perx had close to 40,000 registered users, and about 400 merchants in Singapore, with 10 to 20 new locations each week.

Their partner merchants are not lightweights either. Big brands like Popeyes, Famous Amos, and Dunkin Donuts have come on board. With pole position in the country secured (around!, Pointpal, and Squiryl are competitors), they are now working with a partner to scale their business to other parts of Asia.

“When we call merchants, we really had to tell them not to hang up as we’re not a daily deals company.”

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Music video startup AtticTV takes on YouTube

Music lovers who want to get their daily fix now have another way to get it — via AtticTV, an online music channel that aims to be an MTV for the Internet generation.

Founded by Malaysians Johnson Goh and Grey Ang, who had previously worked together on another startup that didn’t take off, AtticTV is their second venture together. It allows users to lean back and discover new music videos from YouTube.

The website essentially streams users a constant diet of music videos — it’s like watching MTV the old-school way. You consume clip after clip, making a mental note of those you like (or don’t). Read more