Continue reading ‘10 tips to get MDEC Preseed Grant worth RM150K’

2009 Year of the Ox - It’s going to be an exciting year ahead for startups in the tech scene. Historically speaking, economic uncertainty has been regarded as fertile soil for game changing startups. Most of the internet powerhouses (Google, Facebook, Digg) that emerged in this decade were conceived and developed during the last economic downturn. During this period, opportunity and resources will be available on the cheap, as is human talent, recipe for success.

Continue reading ‘Tech startups in the year of the Ox - Economic Outlook for 2009′

As online ads revenues continue to weaken, impression based models are taking a beating. Businesses continue to cut costs and the last thing they need is to advertise without any tangible returns.

Thinking fast on their feet, AdBrite is converting to a pay per click model. This is really where internet beats traditional media hands down. The ability to measure the succcess of an advertising campaign, which by and large is very subjective.  I would love to know my that 1 dollar was well spent getting some dude to the “purchase-this” page of my app. 
Continue reading ‘Adbrite - Online ads demand drops, CPM shifts to pay-per-click!’

Online ad revenue for the top US players in online advertising; Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL has stopped in its tracks for Q3 of 2008. Less money for them means less money to be dispersed to bloggers and other ad-revenue based websites. Numbers wise, online ad growth from Q3/Q4 2007 was recorded at 12%, where as Q2/Q3 2008 was <1%.
Continue reading ‘Adsense - Online ad earnings stopped, no growth, in Q3 2008′

I’m a big fan of the google empire of products. Docs/Sites/Forms/Gmail/Gtalk etc. I’m sure alot of you who use gmail know that you can embed Gtalk on the sidebar. Well now you can embed other cool apps too.

Google recently opened up APIs to developers and these are one of the first to jump onboard. Remember the milk is a cool app for you to manage tasks. Its pretty flexible for both casual users (free) or advanced scheduling features ($25/year). Instructions to add it to your sidebar available here. You DO have to sign up for the service though. I just use it casually, keeping up to date with appointments and items that i need to follow up on etc. Like a postit note attached to my gmail. 
Continue reading ‘Add Widgets to your Gmail - GoogleDocs, TodoLists etc.’

The FBFund started receiving applications August 2008 and receive 600 applications. 25 of these received $25K from Facebook. The real excitement is that the FBFund is divided into 2 stages, and Stage 2 is only open for developers who have won Stage 1.  Price money for Stage 2? a cool $250K.

I also wanted to point out that an app competition like the FBFund is really not comparable to a business plan competition. The ability to generate revenue and be self sustainable is only 1 out of 7 equally weighted criteria. Anyway, here goes the list of finalists: (also available here) 
Continue reading ‘Facebook gives out $25K to 25 Apps!’

Pay you to learn from Google’s best. What are you waiting for? sign up! 

When: Tuesday October 28th, 2008 1:00PM-10PM

Where: Singapore Management University

What: Google will be holding a DevFest Singapore. Join us for a day of coding and fun, where we’ll cover topics ranging from OpenSocial & App Engine to YouTube & the Google Maps API.

Who: You! Developers. Any developers who are keen with Open Social, familair with APIs, have your own developement house. Only 50 developers in Malaysia will be selected for this event.**

To register or find out more, visit here

* subsidy of travelling and accomodation will be reimbursed by  E27 up a maximum amount of S$125. Please provide relevant copies of reciepts. Repayment process will take 4 - 5 weeks.

** Selections are done by MYE and E27 . It will be based on experience and motivation of the developer.

A bungled con-job by CEO Paul Thomas Johnson, 40, and CFO Parrish Jones, 39. Both tried to make up numbers to attract venture capital. In dark times like these i suppose a shitty company needs all the made up numbers they could possibly get. Here is what they “faked”

2006, true $500K, false $4M
2007, true $1.4M, false $6.2M
2008, true $1.7M, false $5.2M

The false revenue numbers were used to attract approximately $50 million in investment, which includes about $19 million from Ignition, a VC firm based in Washington. 

I take this particularly personally because these fruitcakes ruin the market for everyone else. If my startup is ever asked to produce “certified true copies” or go through an audit, i will know to curse this 2 morons to hell. THe very least they could do is not get caught. flipping incompetent twits.