Inspiring businesses of the year

 

The business ecosystem has changed, though. Technology has played a large part and a business’s success is not defined solely by revenue and profit. Ideas and innovation count, allowing people without established family names, connections or money to prosper and inspire others to put their ideas to good use.

This year our kudos go to start-up companies that dare to introduce new business models and ably usher them towards success. In the digital age, while conventional companies struggle to maintain growth amid sluggish domestic sales and deflating exports, these companies prosper by cashing in on the benefits that technology has to offer. Three of them are singled out – Ookbee, Techsauce Media and Hubba – when most other small and medium-sized enterprises struggle to survive. Innovation may be the main answer why these companies thrive when other SMEs dive.

Founded in 2012, Ookbee’s dream is to be the Thai version of Amazon. With seed funding of Bt57.84 million from InVent, the investment arm of InTouch, Ookbee started out as an e-book and digital content publisher. It has now expanded to become a community platform for content creators. Today, Ookbee has spread its e-book and digital publishing business to countries in Southeast Asia including Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Ookbee logs revenue of about US$100 million (Bt3.6 billion) a year. It counts 30 million active users searching for reading material in comics, fiction, “feel good” stories, music and magazines. 

Besides providing cyber goods, Ookbee also provides physical goods. Ookbee Mall was opened recently to lure these active online users into retail shopping. Next year, it aims to raise $10 million to fund its plan to increase its users by five- to six-fold. It targets to double revenue.

Hubba started as a dream to build a dream office for a dream community. Co-working spaces were introduced three years ago by Amarit “Aim” Charoenphan, now 29. The co-founder and co-chief executive officer came up with the idea from his own hardships in getting his application-building business kicked off. As a “nobody”, he had no connections in the tech industry. 

He then realised that co-working spaces could be an essential part of the start-up ecosystem. Catering to people in the tech industry, Hubba now operates three branches in Bangkok, two in Chiang Mai and one in Laos. 

Amarit knows that the start-up ecosystem could be further improved with constructive support. Hubba has set its role to be a coach and business partner in a start-up’s journey from day one until success. Assistance is offered in the areas of ideas, team formation, capital and marketing.

Next year, it will expand its co-working sites as well as provide courses on human resources to support back-end developers, mobile developers, UX (user experience) designers and data scientists. Techsauce Media was launched this year as a joint venture of Thumbsup and Hubba.

Oranuch Lerdsuwankij, a co-founder of Techsauce Media, firmly believes that the start-up ecosystem could improve if people with new ideas were connected with venture capitalists, investors and others in the business community.

Over the past four years, the company has hosted nine events for start-ups under the Thumbups brand with the latest drawing about 800 participants. 

The ambition is there. Next year, the conference hopes to welcome about 3,000-4,000 participants.

The long-term goal of Techsauce Media is to expand in Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. A pilot project will be initiated next year. These companies are working hand-in-hand with other key players to raise the start-up ecosystem to another level. 

A related effort is Disrupt University, established and run by Krating Poonpol, which has helped produce talent for the Thai tech community. 

The university offers programmes combining the frameworks from top idea accelerators in Silicon Valley, classes taught at Stanford University, and the practical knowledge and tools used by start-up communities and tech companies in Silicon Valley. Together, these ambitious projects share the goal to put Thai tech start-ups on the world map. By 2020, the companies’ combined valuation is expected to hit $1 billion.

 

Tomorrow: What 2016 holds in store for the economy