Every day at Tech in Asia, we work hard to share stories with our readers we believe shed light on this continent’s fascinating consumer tech industry.
Like other online media outlets, we celebrate when our stories go viral, and feel a tinge of disappointment when pieces we’ve worked on don’t get the attention we anticipate. Below we’ve compiled a list of stories that we writers love, for various reasons – maybe they were fun to write, or challenging to write – but that didn’t break any records for page views. We think they deserve more attention. Add them to Pocket before the year’s end!
These Chinese students built a makeshift business selling fruit on WeChat
Josh Horwitz: Need an example of how WeChat is a Facebook or Ebay-esque platform in the making, rather than a WhatsApp clone? Look to these six college students from Liaocheng in Shandong Province. They’re just one micro-case study of how Tencent’s mobile messaging app is set to influence China’s mobile internet in 2015.
Techfund wants to be the YCombinator of Japan. But it invests using technology, not money
David Corbin: The accelerator and incubator field in Japan is dominated by large corporations looking for a cheap, easy way to build their own products. Techfund, founded by a 25-year-old design wiz, takes five percent in sweat equity by supplying design and technical know-how to fledgling entrepreneurs who enter its Sunrise program. The unique business model positions Techfund as a potential white knight – an accelerator for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
4 up and coming game studios in Myanmar that you might not have heard of
Mary-Anne Lee: Myanmar is a pretty amazing market. It’s been closed off to the world for so long, and is only starting to open up. Yet its passion for tech and games already runs deep. While game developers in Myanmar may not have had the privilege of attending international schools, or even access to steady internet connections, what they have is heart.
“It’s the Silicon Valley experience in Shanghai”
Steven Millward: It seems to be easy for Chinese startups to get funding, with huge rounds in the hundreds of millions of dollars relatively commonplace these days. But in a startup’s much earlier days, it’s a lot harder for these young teams in China to get expert advice. That’s a role that Shanghai-based Chinaccelerator focuses on. Even after startups graduate from Chinaccelerator, its mentors give guidance on gaining traction and open up doors to help make that happen.
5 contenders up against Tokopedia, Indonesia’s newly-crowned ecommerce giant
Leighton Cosseboom: Following the largest tech startup funding round in Indonesian history, Tokopedia grabbed international headlines. But what about its local competition? Do names like BukaLapak and Elevenia still stand a chance against what SoftBank and Sequoia capital could be grooming as the next Alibaba?
This university dropout turned down Japan’s top tech firms to follow his own entrepreneurial path
J.T. Quigley: Back in the 80s, Yoichiro “Pina” Hirano dropped out of college after finding out that he’d have to wait until junior year to use the only high-spec computer on campus. Two years after calling it quits, he had coded Japan’s best-selling word processing software. This is the untold story of one of Japan’s early programming geniuses and original startup entrepreneurs.
Which Chinese tech companies benefit from cyber security row with US?
Paul Bischoff: The intersection of politics and technology is difficult to navigate, to say the least. Over half a year since this piece was published, the manipulation of the cybersecurity debate for economic gain is still one of the most pressing issues affecting China’s tech sphere today, especially when it comes to big sectors like core IT systems, ERP, and telecommunications. Had this been written but a couple months later, chipset makers like Spreadtrum and Leadcore would have been added to the list at the expense of Qualcomm.
Their startup won $21 million for the ultimate disruptor: WAN on cloud
Malavika Velayanikal: We get used to hearing about data centers, software services, and computing platforms on the cloud. But what about an entire wide area network on the cloud? Chennai and California-based VeloCloud came up with a product that bridges the gap between expensive WAN architecture and unreliable public broadband internet. It transforms ordinary broadband links into fast, resilient, and secure connections for businesses to work remotely. This is disruptive because business-grade connectivity on a small budget can change the way large companies with multiple branch offices work.
Think underwater internet is impossible? This Singapore startup is proving people wrong
Terence Lee: Subnero deserves a second look. It’s trying to make the internet possible underwater, which is a huge challenge given that seas and oceans are turbulent and choppy. But if they succeed, their technology could be used widely by oil and gas companies, research institutions, and the military.
How Vietnam’s richest billionaire is secretly building Vietnam’s biggest ecommerce site
Minh Do: One of the hottest topics in Vietnam’s ecommerce world is VinEcom, a $50 million project led by a Vietamese billionaire. But even before launch, there are signs that it’s too bloated and not sustainable. In fact, right after this article was written, VinEcom fired a handful of upper management, including Eric Johnsson and Kyle Pham, along with over 60 staff. Everyone in the startup scene waits eagerly to see how VinEcom will fare.
Top image via Nathan Congleton
This post 10 overlooked Asia tech stories from 2014 appeared first on Tech in Asia.
10 overlooked Asia tech stories from 2014
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