A wave of innovation is sweeping through the online travel industry. While the traditional travel companies are falling over themselves to produce their first mobile site, or their very own iPhone app, elsewhere, online innovators are looking to make changes to travel fundamentals, from better ways to discover travel destinations to new ways to purchase hotels and flights.
The resurgence in interest in online travel is not limited to the West. There are companies right here in Asia looking to get started in online travel as well. However, while Asia now sports its own share of Airbnb clones and Kayak wannabes, we’ve yet to see any uniquely Asian travel innovators arise.
It’s only a matter of time before they appear, but what form will they take? Will they provide us with Asian versions of existing models, or will it be something we can’t foresee, something completely new?
In an attempt to gain some possible insights in what might be coming, here’s a quick look at some of today’s more interesting travel innovators, all of which are based in either North America or Europe. Read more
While the Internet is commonly being seen as distinct and separate from real life, that notion is increasingly being challenged. Augmented reality, as well as mobile commerce technologies like QR codes and NFC, are blurring the lines between the physical and virtual world, allowing consumers to transit seamlessly between both.
This trend is happening in the events space as well. Startups in Asia are at the frontier of this revolution, arming event organizers and participants with digital tools that enhance productivity and foster personal connections.
Here, we’ll look at just how these Singapore-based startups are shaping the way events are organized and merging them with the digital world.
For Singaporean Lawrence Koh (photo, right), no dream is so big that it can’t be achieved. Consider this: As the founder and managing director of iFly Singapore, he started the largest indoor skydiving facility in the world — at five meters wide and five storeys in height. It’s also the first in Singapore.
His business the fulfillment of his dream to gift the experience of flight to everyone, and while it’s arguable that commercial flight has achieved that, nothing beats the thrill of jumping off an airplane.
But the cost of skydiving is still prohibitive — it can run up to $400 per jump. So Lawrence did the next best thing: Set up a towering, state-of-the-art wind tunnel in Sentosa. iFly Singapore officially launched in May 2011 to much media fanfare. Read more
The next time you read in the papers about how supermarkets in Singapore are evolving and migrating online, remember that two former investment bankers could very well have played a major role in shaping the landscape.
No, no one’s buying over NTUC Fairprice or Cold Storage.
Meet Roger Egan III and Vikram Rupani, the co-founders of RedMart, a new online supermarket that emerged in the scene last year (see product feature) and received seed funding from Toivo Annus, the co-founder of Skype, in December 2011.
Their mission: To create the “eBay for Consumer Packaged Goods manufacturers” — the makers of of instant noodles and the ever-useful toilet paper. Read more
Filed under Featured, Funding, Great Business Ideas, Innovation & Technology, Retail, Technology, Venture Capital & Private Equity, WebTags: E-Commerce, e-supermarket, online shopping, redmart, Toivo Annus
All busy Singaporeans will be happy to know of yet another online store that brings household products right to one’s very doorsteps.
The latest addition to the local e-grocery scene, Redmart, caters to the modern need for efficiency and convenience as more people decide to allocate time away from basic housekeeping matters.
Though grocery e-shopping is not a new thing here in Singapore, the scene, pioneered by Cold Storage in 1997 (refer to this study done in 2000/2001 by ex-NUS student Tan Kok Leng), has been rather dormant in the past decade. Only in the previous year has the concept surged in popularity. Read more
Carol hails from Taiwan(left) while Maria (right) is from Hong Kong.
Carol Chyau and Maria So started social enterprise Shokay long before the term became a buzzword in recent years.
Shokay, which is the Tibetan word for yak, is a lifestyle brand that designs stylish products made from soft yak down. By sourcing from Tibetan herders in Qinghai and employing women in rural areas, it helps promote sustainable income in rural China.
Shokay’s work allows indigenous herders to generate more direct income, preserve local culture, promote sustainable usage of the environment and promote community development work.
Carol was in Singapore the past November for TEDxKRP to share her experience.
From inspiration to execution
While doing their Masters in Public Administration at Harvard, the duo decided to put the business concepts they learnt into action. The pair went seeking for inspiration on two weeklong trips in Yunnan, China in January 2006. Read more
Skype is nice, but you’re screwed if don’t have access to a wifi network and don’t want to pay hefty roaming charges. That’s a predicament many business travelers face when they’re out and about — say, heading to a site visit in India or a networking event in Vietnam.
Sure, the world is getting increasingly wired and a wifi Internet connection is becoming as common and taken-for-granted as water, but such luxuries aren’t always readily available in most countries. Read more
Filed under Featured, Great Business Ideas, Innovation & Technology, Mobile, TechnologyTags: flexiroam, Malaysia, Malaysia Entrepreneurs, malaysia entrepreneurship, malaysian entrepreneur, malaysian entrepreneurs, mobile roaming, roaming charges
This article is syndicated from MoneySmart, an online finance publication for the masses.
Reizo is a custom tailoring house, located at Wilkie Edge. Just a few years old, they already have a faithful following by delivering quality at affordable prices. REIZO’s custom suits suggest a wine-sniffing, caviar-munching elegance, which sets you a head above your less dressed colleagues.
At the helm of Reizo is young entrepreneur Vishnu Vasudeven. Graduating from NUS with a major in finance, he gave up a comfy bank job to create Reizo. In his own words:
“I wanted to do something different. I tried internships (at the bank) and didn’t like it. I wanted to start my own thing.” Read more
3rd Planet, an ambitious Singapore startup founded by avid traveler Terence Mak, has a simple vision: To give travelers the experience of being immersed in another country through their Internet browser. In their own words, they’re building “the first interactive 3D online travel portal” in the world.
The free-to-use service will be made available globally on 10th December with the launch of their “Journey to Everest” experience. The startup is supported by the Media Development Authority of Singapore.
I was a bit skeptical initially. After installing the required plugins, I was brought to a rotatable 3D image of the Earth within my browser. It bore a striking resemblance to Google Earth. Read more
Plenty of cloud services lets you store, share, and sync files across multiple devices. Dropbox and Google Docs are perhaps the most popular ones — but both have features that each other lack.
Dropbox has an offline client that lets users drop files into a special folder which will then be synced to an online account. But they can’t create Word documents and other files using Dropbox. On the other hand, while Google Docs has cloud storage and file editing capabilities, it has very limited offline functionality — users can only view files but not much else.
People who use both Google Docs/Apps and Dropbox have clamored for an integration of both apps for a long time. In comes Insync, a new online service started by Singapore and Philippines-based entrepreneur Terence Pua that hopes to bridge that gap by offering Dropbox-like features to Google Docs. Read more
Filed under Featured, Great Business Ideas, Innovation & Technology, Services, Technology, WebTags: cloud storage, Dropbox, Google Apps, google docs, insync, Philippines
