reQall, a company founded four years ago as a MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) decided to set up its regional HQ in Singapore earlier this year.
“The ease with which one can do business, have easy access to various Asian countries, and to the regional offices of many international companies right here in Singapore are all pluses,” said Mr Machiraju, CEO and co-founder of reQall.
ReQall lets users capture key action items and ideas through their mobile devices and integrate that information into their mobile phone, e-mail, and messaging applications.
Mr Machiraju likened it to Silicon Valley, which is very small and enclosed and thrives because of the universities, research institutions, dynamic infrastructure and people.
“That is the reason why we said this is where we want to build our R&D,” he said. “Because there are groups like A-Star, with the research capabilities, and the universities; it’s compact and easy for me to go to a coffee shop and sit down and chat with somebody and not miss reading an e-mail at the same time.”
Mr Machiraju also praised the Singapore government for its proactive efforts. “The support you get from the Singapore Government really stands out. For us, we worked with Infocomm Investments and they really interacted with us on a regular basis, to make sure we get referred to the recruiters that we needed, offering simple suggestions, and providing some hand-holding, if you will,” he said.
Incorporated as reQall Singapore, the office will serve as the regional headquarters for Asia, and the company expects to have a six-person team by the end of the year.
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A survey has shown that Singaporeans aged 8 to 24 years make up 85 percent of handset users, an increase from 80 percent two years ago.
According to the survey conducted by Synovate, Singaporeans are among the heaviest SMS users in the region, with 82 per cent respondents sending and receiving texts, compared to the regional average of 70 per cent. The mobile phone is also widely used by this user group for games, music and photo taking.
The proliferation of smartphones and mobile Internet is also likely to result in more young people accessing the Web through their phones. 22 per cent of young Singaporeans own a smartphone, a proportion almost three times the Asian average of 8 per cent.
Singapore also tops the usage of social networking sites via mobile channels.
According to research firm IDC’s projections, Singapore’s public sector ICT spending will increase by 3.5% per year to US41.5 billion in 2013.
The Infocomm Authority of Singapore has plans to invest in S$1.1 billion worth of tenders for this financial year ending March 2011, with a significant proportion of the 350 tenders valued below S$500,000 each, creating business opportunities for providers of different sizes.
The spending areas include cloud computing, social networking, business analytics and technology that can enable the Government to better reach out and collaborate with citizens and businesses.
July 16, 2010 Comments Off
The global video gaming industry in 2009 was estimated at US$52.5 billion, and video game revenue is expected to jump to US$86.8 billion in 2014, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
And with the Singapore video games industry growing from $87 million in 2005 to $285 million in 2007, Herman Ng, managing director of Rapture Gaming, co-organisers of The Games XPO (TGX) 2010 said that he hoped the exhibition would promote game developers based in Singapore.
Christopher Low, managing director of Pendulab, a Singapore-based casual games company said that there is a huge market for such games. He cited that Zynga achieved around US$300 million in revenue last year.
He added that gaming industry is forming and becoming noticeable as overseas game developers are also entering Singapore.
“Singapore — a hub for technology startups” might seem like a message
lifted straight from marketing brochures and not in tune with reality
on the ground.
The organizers of Echelon 2010, one of the leading technology conferences in Asia, had got to experience this phenomenon. While there is a lot of talk about the burgeoning Asian tech-startup scene, this event showcased the continent’s diversity of startup ventures by featuring 50 startups, 40 speakers, and 650 attendees from over 20 countries.
“Events like this make a huge difference and put Singapore on the
technology map,” said Michael Smith, director of technology initiatives for Yahoo.
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