Wealthy But Are They Healthy?

According to an article in Singapore's Straits Times there are thirty two billionaires in Singapore and increase of five over the previous year.

They share a combined wealth of US$65 billion.  What is revealing is the patriarchal nature of Singapore business, which remains very much a tradition within the country and its wealthiest families.

As this graphic shows, none of 32 billionaires are women and most of the money is, and has been, made in the financial sector.  The majority of these super wealthy are not born and bred Singaporeans but have moved there (or their families have) to take advantage of the country's growth and prosperity.

But whether they are a healthy lot is quite another matter with only a quarter showing any interest in health and wellness.  The drive to succeed I would suggest often overcomes any concerns of physical well-being.  That said,  as they have the money to buy the best medical services available, many of these folk enjoy a reasonable life span; the average age of these billionaires being sixty two.

The global trend shows a 7% growth in the number of billionaires and there are now 2,325 of them according to recent research from Wealth-X and the Swiss bank UBS.

12% of the world's billionaires are women and more than half are self-made. i.e. they did not inherit their fortunes.  The old saying about 'money makes money' holds true as most enjoyed an average growth in their wealth of 4.4%.

Even though Singapore is enjoying good growth in the super-rich club the best place to make your fortune remains the USA with China coming a close second.

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Singapore’s Top 100 People To Know - Nice To Be One Of Them

Nice to be identified as one of the "Singapore’s Top 100 People to Know Online", a list compiled by Sparkah Business Strategy.

Just goes to show that all of that tweeting and blogging over the years sometimes pays off in recognition and free advertising!

Vast, Vibrant & Growing - China's Internet

This video from The China Digital Conference neatly explains the depth and breadth of China's vibrant Internet.  More controlled it may be than its Western counterpart, but the sheer volume of online activity is very impressive.

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Advertising Placement In Asia And Elsewhere?

Wanting to take online advertising in Asia or elsewhere?  Not sure if social media or online versions of newspapers are your best choice? This interactive chart may give you some pointers.

Simply highlight one of the demographic or maximum impressions buttons and you can judge which platforms or media you will be able to use to best advantage.


All statistics are taken from Google's AdPlanner.

Vietnam Thinks Local & Excels In Online Video Use

A recent survey from comScore revealed some interesting data about the popularity and growth of online video in the East Asia region.

In June of this year 83.1 percent of the world’s online population watched online video from a home or work computer. That represents 1.2 billion people worldwide age 15 and older undertaking this activity.

In the same month 197.5 billion videos were viewed online globally.  The average viewer watched 159.4 videos in June of 2012 and it is a particularly popular past time in Asia.

A significant factor in this development has been increased broadband access and content availability which has resulted in higher online video viewing activity.

It should be noted though that these results only present part of the picture, as they relate to video watching using a PC and do not include other platforms or situations such as viewing a video in an Internet cafe, on a mobile phone or tablet.  Given the impact of mobile not having this data included is a flaw.  Where too are South Korean and Thailand both of which are heavy users of broadband & mobile technologies?

The key findings from the survey were:

• Vietnam has the strongest reach of online video viewers in the Asia-Pacific region
• Vietnam has the highest video viewing penetration (89.8 percent ) and  Indonesia  had the lowest (66.9 percent ).
• Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and New Zealand all exceeded  the global average for online video penetration
• China was the leader when it came to the largest online video market by audience size.  It hads 266.2 million unique viewers (79.4 percent reach).  Next was Japan with 61.5 million viewers (83.7 percent reach) followed by India with 44.6 million viewers (73.1 percent reach).
• When it came to online video engagement, the average Japanese viewer watched 242.5 videos per month, Hong Kong viewers watched 180.7 videos, Singapore 158.1 videos and Australia 151.4.
• Google sites are the top video destination in Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam thanks to its ownership of YouTube
• Facebook.com ranked as the second largest video viewing destination in the Philippines and the third ranked destination in Indonesia and Taiwan
• VEVO and Viacom Digital were in the top five  video viewing destinations in both Indonesia and the Philippines
• Yahoo! Sites are big in Taiwan, ranking second. Tudou Sites come in 4th ranked and Youku Inc.5th.
• Local providers always excel in Vietnam so it is no surprise that VnExpress, Vega Corporation (Clip.vn) and Tuoi Tre Online securing places were all in the top five in the rankings.

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The Early QR Code Catches The Worm

Want to capture the attention of those busy commuters and convince them to shop with you?  Here's what Tesco did in Korea, redefining the meaning of 'grocery shopping' for today's generation.

Using Smartphone technology it is providing QRCodes for items. A quick scan of a mock supermarket shelf (the poster version) puts the product into the virtual shopping basket.  Once the shopping list is complete he or she pays for it online and the products are delivered to the home.

No more standing in Supermarket queues and being kneecapped by errant trolleys for these savvy shoppers. The virtual grocery stores are to be found in subway stations and similar location where traffic is heaviest.

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'Nuff Churp In Your Tweets?

Putting bloggers and advertising in contact with each other and making money in the process of so doing is not a new occurrence.

EBuzzing does this quite successfully and now there is a Asia-Pacific equivalent, Nuffnang; the brainchild of a London School of Economics graduate, Cheo Ming Shen.

Mr Cheo has expanded his operation still further to promote similar advertising relationships using Twitter and Facebook.

Enter Churp Churp  which at this stage is only open to Singaporean and Malaysian residents.

In both cases the power of social media Influencers is being harnessed to deliver product information.

Not content with these two online platforms the entrepreneur and his company has also built Jipaban which claims to be South East Asia's largest online mall with 86 stalls and more than 3,000 products.

In a BBC Interview he says "he is fortunate to be able to do this and is wary of Singapore's attempts to create more self-starting entrepreneurs through government grants. He believes they could deter genuine business models with scope for development.

Instead, he fears that the schemes have the potential to "cultivate a group of people who just come up with ideas…for funding and they think: with this funding I can run off my crazy 're-invent the wheel' kind of ideas."

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Boku Garni And Other Micro Payment Recipes For Success

Micro Payment Systems can revolutionise business in developing countries and is doing so according to an early report from InfoDev that provided an assessment of mobile-enabled financial services in the Philippines.

Their crystal ball gazing in 2006 has turned out to be a very accurate prediction.

Cash is king in the rural hinterlands of most developing countries but this is a far from secure arrangement.  According to the report 3.5 million people in the Philippines were then using a service that allowed them to transfer money over the two major mobile networks.

The ability to make remote payments in this fashion is a  win-win for the consumer, the operator and the retailer.

In 2010 major credit card companies such as Mastercard have opened their API to App. developers and companies such as Paypal are keen to remind everyone that they remain very much in the game.  PayPalX has already been integrated into many applications and they have recently turned their attemtion to the possibilities of Google's Android.

Twitpay uses the power of micro blogging to make a micro payment and is also intregated with Paypal.

Another big mover in the micropayment market is Boku  which does away with the need for any form of plastic card.  They claim a 60% conversion rate as opposed to 7% using traditional credit cards on line.



 

Four key things to consider when selecting a provider:

• who understands the current digital climate best and is adapting their product to meet the market?
• who has the lowest fees?  - per transaction, hidden costs?
• which system provides the easiest integration with your current operation?
• who has a proven track record and longevity? (there have been many micropayment providers that have failed in the past so my advice is to stick to the tried and true)

Most of the past debate around micro payments has been in paying for content in publications, with Mr Murdoch (not surprising) being a staunch advocate.  The debate will rage until the case is commercially proven, either way. 

The fact remains that people are prepared to make micro payments for the services that interest them and there is also an opportunity to capitalise upon impulse buying.

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The 2010 Asian Digital Marketing Association Handbook

Image via Wikipedia

Based in Hong Kong, this association produces one of the most valuable marketing resources in the Asia Pacific Region.Its annual yearbook contains a wealth of information . See the Boxnet file share at the bottom of this blog site to get a copy.

Some salient statistics to consider when developing your digital marketing strategy:

•  Asia Pacific internet uses spent more than 5.6 trillion minute online in 2009
• They bought an estimated $US7 billion dollars in virtual goods
• The influence of online friends when making a purchasing decision is notable
• Mobile shopping is undertaken by 80% of mobile users
• Australians spend more time on social networking sites than anyone else in the world
• The Asia Pacific region is home to the largest and fastest growing internet population in the world with 764 million users at the beginning of this year, compared to 995 million for the rest of the world combined.
• Search is an increasingly popular activity with the volume of searches rising 31% over the previous year.
• Half of the top twenty sites in the Asia Pacific region are based in China.

 Comscore's Data Passport for the first half of 2010 also supports these findings and the usage type varies quite markedly by region - charts below

Source: Comscore

Source: Comscore

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