{"id":1972,"date":"2015-01-29T19:49:55","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T18:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/?p=1972"},"modified":"2022-12-22T15:06:18","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T14:06:18","slug":"saas-business-asia-birth-yet-another-startup-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/saas-business-asia-birth-yet-another-startup-ecosystem\/","title":{"rendered":"SaaS Business Asia: Birth of yet another startup ecosystem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>South-East Asia is a booming market<\/strong> for pretty much everything thanks to its huge economic and demographics growth. The Philippines were last year the <strong>2nd Asian growth<\/strong> after China (<a title=\"Philippines growth\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/id\/102378343\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CNBC<\/a>), and Indonesia remains a <strong>250 million population juggernaut<\/strong> with about 10 million more people entering the middle-class every year (<a title=\"Indonesia middle-class 10 million per year\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bcgperspectives.com\/content\/articles\/center_consumer_customer_insight_consumer_products_indonesias_rising_middle_class_affluent_consumers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BCG<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>As more companies serve these markets, they experience <strong>the need for better technologies<\/strong> as well: this is where the <strong><a title=\"Saas Business Asia Conference\" href=\"http:\/\/www.saasbusiness.asia\/saas-business-asia-conference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Saas Business Asia<\/a><\/strong> conference kicks in, showcasing for the first time the best startups from the region and reflecting on topics ranging from metrics to growth strategies.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1974\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Saas-business-asia-conference-florian-cornu-singapore-building-the-saas-ecosystem-in-asia-pacific-wrap-up-martin-pasquier-innovation-is-everywhere-5-2.png\" alt=\"Saas business asia conference florian cornu singapore building the saas ecosystem in asia pacific wrap-up martin pasquier innovation is everywhere 5\" width=\"480\" height=\"393\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The event, which sold out to about 100 participants, was co-organised by <a title=\"Florian Cornu Saas\" href=\"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/journey-singapore-startup-ecosystem-florian-cornu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Florian Cornu<\/strong> (a well known tech chameleon of Singapore)<\/a>, who recently took to <strong>studying the field of SaaS startups in South-East Asia<\/strong>, one country at a time, and <strong><a title=\"Adelina Peltea\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/adelinapeltea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Adelina Peltea<\/a>,<\/strong> VP Marketing at <strong><a title=\"TradeGecko\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tradegecko.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TradeGecko<\/a>, an inventory management startup<\/strong> based in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p>You can check the maps of the SaaS business Florian did <a title=\"Saas Business Asia Maps\" href=\"http:\/\/www.saasbusiness.asia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on his website<\/a> (a few excerpts are shown here).<\/p>\n<h2>Organisation strategies of SaaS startups<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to say if these insights are specifically from SaaS startups. Other tech ventures have shown <strong>how to organise differently<\/strong> both to please employees (<a title=\"Zappos culture startup\" href=\"http:\/\/www.www.innovationiseverywhere.com\/zappos-corporate-culture-innovating-employees-clients-ecosystem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">see how Zappos does take care of employees and customers<\/a>) or to strengthen their resilience (<a title=\"Netflix culture chaos monkey\" href=\"http:\/\/www.networkworld.com\/article\/2190195\/cloud-computing\/netflix-uncages-chaos-monkey-disaster-testing-system.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Netflix and its \u201cChaos Monkey\u201d strategy<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Still, <a title=\"Joel Gascoigne Buffer\" href=\"http:\/\/joel.is\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Buffer CEO Joel Gascoigne<\/a> made the biggest impression with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>No more managers<\/strong> both in function and title within the company<\/li>\n<li><strong>Systematic CC\u2019-ing of ALL the company e-mails<\/strong> to anyone in the company to help decrease them and increase transparency<\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Buffer baremetrics\" href=\"https:\/\/buffer.baremetrics.io\/dashboard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Publicly available metrics<\/strong><\/a> on their service, revenues and other key stats like Lifetime Value of each customer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1978\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Saas-business-asia-conference-florian-cornu-singapore-building-the-saas-ecosystem-in-asia-pacific-wrap-up-martin-pasquier-innovation-is-everywhere-buffer-baremetics-transparency-2.png\" alt=\"Saas business asia conference florian cornu singapore building the saas ecosystem in asia pacific wrap-up martin pasquier innovation is everywhere buffer baremetics transparency\" width=\"640\" height=\"253\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Other speakers such as Service Now VP for Asia-Pacific <a title=\"James Fitzgerald Service Now\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jamesfitzgeraldservicenow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James Fitzgerald<\/a> showed how <strong><em>\u201crecruiting drivers, not passengers\u201d,<\/em><\/strong> helped them <strong>in a mere 18 months to grow from 1 to 300 employees regionally<\/strong> (in case we needed one more sign of the extraordinary growth of the Asian economy).<\/p>\n<p>On another note, <a title=\"Jon Yongfook\" href=\"http:\/\/yongfook.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jon Yongfook<\/a>, known to have <em>\u00ab\u00a0hacked the \u00ab\u00a0growth hacking\u00a0\u00bb keyword on Google\u00a0\u00bb<\/em>, is now <em>\u201chaving an ultra-rigid schedule, working with the team from 8am to 12pm. Then: the beach, and when at the beach, no work in mind, no one left behind\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Startups are probably <strong>as much about organisation and culture than technology.<\/strong> We\u2019ll have other opportunities to discuss this (we speak at and cover <a title=\"Coworking Unconference Asia\" href=\"http:\/\/www.cuasia.co\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Asia\u2019s first Coworking Unconference<\/a> tomorrow by the way).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1975 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Saas-business-asia-conference-florian-cornu-singapore-building-the-saas-ecosystem-in-asia-pacific-wrap-up-martin-pasquier-innovation-is-everywhere-florian-cornu-meng-weng-wong4-2.jpeg\" alt=\"Saas business asia conference florian cornu singapore building the saas ecosystem in asia pacific wrap-up martin pasquier innovation is everywhere florian cornu meng weng wong4\" width=\"640\" height=\"640\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>What metrics for SaaS startups?<\/h2>\n<p>Entrepreneurs, investors and would-be startupers gained a lot of time by listening to the data stories on-stage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Metrics<\/strong> which were discussed and deemed relevant for SaaS business were both expected, and for some of them, really innovative.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Basic metrics<\/strong> for SaaS startups included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Growth<\/strong> of the revenues<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cost of Customer Acquisition<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Lifetime Value of Customer<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Churn<\/strong> &amp; Retention<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>More innovative metrics and KPIs<\/strong> can be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Upsell<\/strong> capability<\/li>\n<li>Detection of <strong>high-risk accounts<\/strong> based on consumption data<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hiring rates<\/strong> of the SaaS<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>Increasing SaaS market adoption in Asia<\/h2>\n<p>Of course, conquering the Asian market for SaaS business is not an easy feat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A first hurdle is cultural<\/strong>. <em>\u00ab\u00a0In Australia, people are OK with having virtual meetings but in Korea, people need to see you face-to-face\u00a0\u00bb<\/em> said<a title=\"Ivan Gomez Microsoft\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/igomez\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Ivan Gomez<\/a> from Microsoft, speaking about the development of Skype for business in the region.<\/p>\n<p>Another feature of the Asian business is <strong>their relationship to technology and software<\/strong>, not as open as in the US. <a title=\"Tiang Lim evernote Singapore\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/tianglimfoo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tiang Lim<\/a> from Evernote notices that <em>\u201c<strong>SMEs see SaaS as a cost,<\/strong> they want to know the savings value, and look for government incentive to decide themselves\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1976\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Saas-business-asia-conference-florian-cornu-singapore-building-the-saas-ecosystem-in-asia-pacific-wrap-up-martin-pasquier-innovation-is-everywhere-6-2.jpeg\" alt=\"Saas business asia conference florian cornu singapore building the saas ecosystem in asia pacific wrap-up martin pasquier innovation is everywhere 6\" width=\"640\" height=\"361\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a title=\"Map of SaaS startups Asia\" href=\"http:\/\/www.saasbusiness.asia\/news\/2015\/1\/map-of-saas-in-southeast-asia-v4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">(Full version of the SaaS Business Map in Asia here)<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Then, <strong>the infrastructure of both bandwidth and payment<\/strong> are another limit to strong adoption of SaaS solutions. Traffic jams in notoriously congested cities is another aspect SaaS business must take into account.<\/p>\n<p>A side-effect of both the ease of launching a tech business today, the numerous languages and territories of South-East Asian countries (Indonesia is made up of about 17,000 islands) is that <strong>the market of SaaS is extremely fragmented<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t help SMEs and business to read this industry and choose a solution. Its sustainability is all but guaranteed, when a US-based SaaS can have a few dozen millions user as a reference.<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>Evolution of SaaS business in Asia<\/h2>\n<p>In any case, the SaaS startups need to anticipate, if not lead the way, into their own evolution.<\/p>\n<p>Florian Cornu <strong>compared the industry with advertising<\/strong>: <em>\u201cAds went from selling eyeballs to clicks to actions. SaaS can switch from selling on a per user basis to a per transaction\/performance. <strong>Then SaaS could go from being perceived as an expense to being a revenue-generating service<\/strong>, and be stronger on market adoption\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1977\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Saas-business-asia-conference-florian-cornu-singapore-building-the-saas-ecosystem-in-asia-pacific-wrap-up-martin-pasquier-innovation-is-everywhere-investors-2.jpeg\" alt=\"Saas business asia conference florian cornu singapore building the saas ecosystem in asia pacific wrap-up martin pasquier innovation is everywhere investors\" width=\"640\" height=\"549\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Another hint at future development is <strong>offline access to the service<\/strong>, says Florian Cornu: <em>\u201cThe problem with SaaS is you can&rsquo;t use it if there&rsquo;s no Internet. We need to think of more offline solutions\u201d.<\/em> It\u2019s especially true in Asia where the connection is pretty bad on average.<\/p>\n<p>A future evolution of SaaS ventures is also on <strong>simplifying the access and education, or on boarding, on the service<\/strong>. We\u2019ve met <a title=\"Peter Walraven Pie\" href=\"sg.linkedin.com\/in\/pieterpaulwalraven\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peter Walraven<\/a> from Pie, a SaaS whose tagline could be <strong>\u201cSlack for your mother\u201d<\/strong>. He adds: <em>\u201cSo far, SaaS has a strong adoption in geek, tech circles, but if you put your parents on Slack, there\u2019s no chance they would understand it, they would not know what a hashtag is in the first place\u201d.<\/em> So his solution tries to make it simple for non-tech users to collaborate with a SaaS format.<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>SaaS Business Asia: a new startup ecosystem<\/h2>\n<p>Well, it\u2019s fair to say that with this SaaS Business Asia conference, and the underlying data projects Florian is running, <strong>the ecosystem is discovering its own existence<\/strong>, and has now a meeting point to reflect on its challenges and history.<\/p>\n<p>What has been built in the previous month is <strong><a title=\"Saas Business Asia\" href=\"http:\/\/www.saasbusiness.asia\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a data-driven media<\/a><\/strong>, where qualified readers (= investors) can find an information on companies which is actionable rapidly.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1979\" src=\"http:\/\/innovao.cluster030.hosting.ovh.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Saas-business-asia-conference-florian-cornu-singapore-building-the-saas-ecosystem-in-asia-pacific-wrap-up-martin-pasquier-innovation-is-everywhere-1-2.jpeg\" alt=\"Saas business asia conference florian cornu singapore building the saas ecosystem in asia pacific wrap-up martin pasquier innovation is everywhere 1\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Two other leads are being explored by Florian:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A <strong>database of SaaS startups<\/strong>, already partly built by his website, and which could get closer to a Mattermark for Asia.<\/li>\n<li>A <strong>bootcamp to empower teams of entrepreneurs to take over the \u201cwhite spots\u201d<\/strong> which have been discovered during this one-day conference.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Stay tuned, <strong>Innovation is Everywhere is a proud and happy sponsor of the Saas Business Asia<\/strong> conference, and the upcoming adventures of its crazy founder.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South-East Asia is a booming market for pretty much everything thanks to its huge economic and demographics growth. The Philippines were last year the 2nd Asian growth after China (CNBC), and Indonesia remains a 250 million population juggernaut with about 10 million more people entering the middle-class every year (BCG). As more companies serve these [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,87,80],"tags":[46,81,342,314,328,57,377,102,103],"class_list":["post-1972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-startups-innovators","category-research-category","tag-asia","tag-b2b","tag-conference","tag-ecosystem","tag-saas","tag-singapore","tag-software-as-a-service","tag-south-east-asia","tag-startups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/innovationiseverywhere.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}