The TWIA crew gathers before the Chinese New Year on Valentine’s day with our typical ramblings with Google Nexus One and Google Buzz. Following on, we continue an interesting joint venture between Baidu (China’s top search engine) and Rakuten (Japan’s top e-commerce company), and examine their implications. Then we switched gears to examine why Yahoo! is doing well in East Asia and then do a quick discussion on Wireless SG, the continuing saga between Google China and the Chinese government and Paypal’s run-in with India regulators.

• From Google Nexus One to Google Buzz: We discuss what are Mike’s thoughts on Google Nexus One followed by the crew’s reactions to the story of the week: Google Buzz.
• Rakuten Allies With Baidu To Promote Their E-commerce Business in Mainland China: An interesting joint venture and alliance with Baidu’s top search engine moving into the e-commerce space with a Japanese top e-commerce platform, Rakuten and how it will pit against Ali-Baba, TaoBao, Dang Dang and other e-commerce sites in China.
• Yahoo’s Hidden Treasures Are in Asia: We looked at Benjamin Joffe’s analysis on Yahoo! and how it is relatively success in the East Asian markets by working with local partners in China (AliBaba) and Japan (Soft Bank).
• Wireless@SG goes places with new engine: The crew looks at the possibility on how Wireless@SG in Singapore can finally monetize with their new location based service engine.
• One month later, Google still censors China search: The saga goes on and we debate whether it’s a posture from Google to push the boundaries drawn by the Chinese authorities.
• PayPal: India payments suspended for ‘at least a few months’: The crew talks about how PayPal’s run in with the Indian regulation authorities led to Indian users unable to access their accounts and get their money from the bank.
• Check out Daniel’s new blog Cerventus.com and a quick plug on Geeks on the Plane coming to Echelon 2010 organized by E27.

It seems like there will be less money for technology based entrepreneurs (technopreneurs) in 2010 in form of government grants. According to the article below by the Star dated 4th Feb 2010, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation or MOSTI has lost RM1 Billion of its budget due to a cut.

As we know, grants such as the e-content grant and the MSC Preseed fund have recently run out(the last batch 21 closed on 3rd Dec 2009).

Looking at 2010 will be the in-between years of most grants technology related or otherwise because of the 10th Malaysian plan, it is highly unlikely for any agencies or ministries to give up more fund.

As for other grants in Malaysia, we think most ministry are in a look and see mode for the 10th Malaysia plan (RMK10) which will be only pen down in June but implemented in 2011. We figure that the ministries have already draft their proposal for the (RMK10), there are no indication yet that RMK 10 will benefit the technology entrepreneurs in Malaysia.

Taken from the Star 4th Feb 2010

KUALA LUMPUR: Technopreneurs hoping for funding from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) are in for a tougher time this year.

And the predicament has upset several applicants who are already not happy over the red-tape encountered when applying for such grants.

The ministry said its 2010 budget for such grants has been cut by RM1bil, leaving RM2.7bil in its coffers to be handed out to deserving applicants.

“Funds are quite limited for this year,” said Suhaimi Hamzah, deputy undersecretary for the commercialisation section at Mosti. “Sole proprietorships and certain partnerships and companies have about 10 months left to apply.”

“Our e-content grant funds have already run out,” he said.

Suhaimi was speaking at the National Chamber of Commerce and Industry Malaysia seminar on government grants and financial assistance for Malaysian companies, held in the capital on Tuesday.

Mosti has several funding programmes for various fields of research, development and commercialisation, including biotechnology, industrial, information and communications technology (ICT), sea to space technology, and science technology.

Another source of funding for technopreneurs is the Multimedia Development Corp (MDeC), which oversees the nation’s ICT initiatives.

The 10th Malaysia Plan, to be announced in June and which will only kick in next year, may or may not see an increase in the amount of future government grants.

SINGAPORE, February 8th, 2010 – Silicon Valley-based The Founder Institute, a four-month training and mentoring programme for technology entrepreneurs, announces its first-ever Spring 2010 semester for Singapore. With this expansion, the Institute will be the first Silicon Valley mentoring program in Singapore, and will now be on pace to graduate over 700 founders creating over 500 companies per year in nine cities worldwide.

The Founder Institute has appointed Singapore-based venture advisory and investment firm Battle Ventures, who is partnered with iAxil, the venture accelerator arm of Ascendas, to jointly bring their programme to Singapore and Southeast Asia-based entrepreneurs.

Run by founders for founders, this unique mentoring program nurtures aspiring and current high-tech entrepreneurs and employs a unique, team-work oriented ecosystem to foster the establishment of new start-up ventures. The programme also allows a small amount of equity to be shared amongst all participants in the
companies formed – including the experienced mentors who help grow the new businesses.

“We have discovered a formula to help passionate founders create meaningful and enduring companies in different markets around the world,” says Adeo Ressi, CEO of TheFunded.com and the Founder Institute. “We leverage leading social science methods to identify top talent, and then we offer an intense start-up curriculum focused on teamwork and guidance from leading local and global CEOs. Our unique approach has allowed the Institute to scale almost ten times larger than comparable incubators or accelerators.”
“iAxil is committed to fostering a nurturing and vibrant start-up environment that is vital to spawning innovative high-tech start-ups with the global potential and appeal,” says Mr Tan Yew Chin, Director of iAxil and CEO of Ascendas Land (Singapore). “The iAxil team of senior incubator managers will combine their
business skills; domain expertise and start-up experience with our wide network of partners to help graduates from the Founder Institute Mentoring Programme jumpstart their ventures.”

During the semesters, local aspiring and current entrepreneurs can gain access to founders and CEOs of world-renown companies, such as Philip Kaplan, Co-Founder of Blippy, Jeff Stewart, Founder and CEO of Urgent Career, Pete Deemer, Co-Founder of Scrum Training Institute, Dr. KF Lai, Co-Founder and CEO of Buzzcity and Jared Morgenstern, Product Ninja of Facebook as mentors amongst others.

“One of the greatest problems facing local entrepreneurs is the lack of credible and experienced mentors to help guide and advise them,” said Jeffrey Paine, Managing Partner at Battle Ventures. “With this programme, our entrepreneurs now have access to founders who have successfully created and run multiple start-ups
themselves and who are best placed to advise them.”

Applications for early acceptance into the Singapore semester are due on February 15th, 2010, with the final application deadline on February 28th. Anyone starting a technology company or with a dream to launch an innovative business in Singapore is invited to apply at http://www.founderinstitute.com/apply/11.
The Singapore Founder Institute mentoring programme is administered by iAxil, and is supported by SPRING Singapore under the Incubator Development Programme (IDP).

What is this USD 1 Million Challange?

Well, YTL Communication calls it mYprize and it is a global content creation contest for it up coming 4G network devices. As a motivation, they are offering USD 1 Million in prizes for those who can develop creative application and solutions for the need of the consumers.

It states in the website

mYprize challenges developers from across the world to create unique applications, content or devices that highlight the benefits of YTL Communications’ 4G Mobile Internet Network in Malaysia.

Timeline: The timeline for the competition shall be as follows:

Jan 8 – May 1: Submission of entries and community voting
May 2 – June 1: Community voting only; Submissions closed
June: Judging begins
July: First round of judging complete
August: Second round of judging complete
September: Selection of winners

For more details visit www.myprize.my

Plug & Play Technology Garden (P&P) will be presenting an informational talk on 11th February 2009, Thursday, at Plug & Play Technology Garden, The Gardens South Tower, MID VALLEY CITY.

The Informational Talk, which covers Due Diligence and Corporate Governance is targeting audiences line-up from technopreneurs/start-up companies and some others who are also eyeing for the relevant details.
So come and join us! Admission is FREE, but seats are limited therefore confirm your attendance by returning to us the Registration Form attached on or before 10th February 2010 at 12.00 noon

Let us help you jumpstart your business today!

DETAILS :-
Date of Event: 11 February 2010, Thursday
Time of Event: 2.30 pm – 5.30 pm
Speaker: Mohd. Hazani Hassan (Plug & Play Technology Garden)
Yeat Soo Ching (Cheang & Arrif)
Elaine Wong (Security Services)
AGENDA :-
TIME SPEAKER TOPIC COVERED
2.30 – 3.00 pm Tea & Snacks
3.00 – 3.30 pm En. Hazani Plug & Play Technology Garden
3.30 – 4.00 pm Yeat Soo Ching Cheang & Arrif What is legal due diligence?
4.00 – 4.45 pm Elaine Wong Security Services Brief introduction to Corporate Governance
4.45 – 5.30 pm

contact hirna@modalperdana.com to RSVP

Map

With Pamela Fox (@pamelafox) from Google Australia as our special guest this week, the TWIA crew tried to make sense out of the JooJoo’s new partnership with CSL Malaysia. We also reviewed the future of Naver, the top search engine in South Korea, the Malaysia government’s declaration of 95% adoption in OSS and most exciting of all, the impact of the court ruling on iiNet’s victory over the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT). Not to mention, we weaved Google Wave, FilmCamp SG, the #dIE6 movement and adoption of open source in governments into an exciting week of This Week in Asia.

• The return of JooJoo from Fusion Garage and the new battle against Apple’s iPad together with the partnership with CSL Malaysia: With their declaration that pre-sales for JooJoo went up after the announcement of iPad, the TWIA crew and their special guest talked about the implications of the partnership of JooJoo with CSL Malaysia with the latter doing the manufacturing of the tablet.
• NHN Posts All-time High Profits, Yet “Future Isn’t All That Rosy,” Analysts Say: Will Korea’s top search engine prevail given CyWorld has been taken over by Facebook in Korea?
• Safe Harbour for Australian ISP: The ruling on the iiNET and AFACT case offer a new light for the ISPs in Australia.
• Malaysia govt touts 95 percent OSS adoption: Do you believe this? You can read this report from MAMPU and ask yourself whether the news is really true.
• Modern Browsers for Modern Applications: Check out the crew’s initiative to send IE6 to the graveyard with the hashtag #dIE6.