TinyTrunk announces partnership with SingTel Digital Media, launches flea market feature

TinyTrunk, an e-commerce platform that connects virtual tenants to consumers, announced that it has entered into a partnership with SingTel Digital Media (STDM), a subsidiary of SingTel.

STDM will promote TinyTrunk on its digital platforms, including lifestyle portal inSing.com. The startup hopes to capitalize on this opportunity to boost its user base and merchant sign-ups.

TinyTrunk also unveiled a ‘flea market’ feature that enables up to 5 friends to conveniently create an online store on the platform. The online store has a shopping cart that consolidates payments into one bill and splits it up for the store owners. Read more

The rise of platformed creativity in Asia and how it’s connecting creators to consumers

Platformed creativity. Creative commerce. The maker movement. These words could very well become mainstream vernacular in the near future, not just in the West, but also in Asia.

Several digital trends are converging to make that happen. E-commerce and smartphone adoption are on the rise, and tastes in Asia are becoming more sophisticated. More consumers are demanding not just for cheap but also well-designed goods. Businesses are starting to recognize the need for effective branding, and are willing to hire designers to spruce up their image.

Just as important is the fact that creative professionals are warming up to the idea of using the Internet as an avenue to grow their businesses. E-commerce platforms, created by startups that sense a growing need for better tools, have become more sophisticated, social, and user-friendly.

Call it the rise of platformed creativity. Think of a flea market where upstart fashion designers go to sell their creations. Or an indie art gallery in a colonial shophouse. Now migrate all of these online. That’s platformed creativity at its core — aggregating creative products online, and then selling it to an audience. Read more

CuriousCatch, Tinytrunk and ArtKred: Startups that let you sell online with a human touch

E-commerce in the Asia-Pacific region is already huge, yet the potential for growth is still massive. According to the Asia Digital Marketing Yearbook 2012, the e-commerce market in Asia’s big four — India, Australia, Japan, and China — is expected to almost double to US$497.9B by 2016.

Yet the region’s overall Internet penetration is only at a low 26.2%, well below the global average of 41%. With so much untapped potential, it’s unsurprising that many new startups have arisen to plug the gap.

If you’re a merchant looking to dip your toes into the future of shopping, LiveJournal, Multiply, and eBay are some of the popular platforms to hop onto. But there are actually many other alternatives to consider. Here, we feature three of the newest e-commerce platforms from Singapore. Read more

Founders flying solo: Jon Yongfook, John Fearon, and Douglas Gan chime in

Being a solo founder is no fun. That’s the vibe I got after speaking to three seasoned entrepreneurs in Singapore’s technology scene: Jon Yongfook of Tinytrunk, John Fearon of Dropmyemail, and Douglas Gan of VanityTrove.

But doing it alone isn’t just unpleasant, it hampers your chances of succeeding. According to a Startup Genome report, technology companies with one founder tend to raise less money, experience less user growth, and take longer to scale.

Despite these known facts, many entrepreneurs still take the journey alone, for whatever reasons. That’s actually not always a bad thing. As these entrepreneurs will tell you, there’s never an ideal time to start a business. So why should the lack of a co-pilot stop you from taking off?

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