Internet Products or SaaS in Bangladesh

Recently our team is contemplating on some of the ideas to launch a SaaS (Software as a Service) product or a simple internet product. Some of the successful  internet products in Bangladesh I can name are:

bdjobs: job site, successful both commercially and on popularity index. bdjobs registered tk. 65 million yearly revenue last year. Not bad, eh?

prothom-alojobs: a late follower of bdjobs, but piggybacking on its popular Bangla daily, gained some popularity. Its main revenue source is earned from training rather than from job ads.

Somewherein Blog: Started early, and enjoying lion’s share as a Bangla blogging platform. I doubt it generates enough revenue to maintain and sustain global competition. What I presume  Somweherein has other business that ensures cash flow. Aawaj and custom software development are two I can think of.

Contenders of somwherein are prothothm-aloblog, Sachalayatan, amarblog, nagorikblog and myriad more. Obviously they are not commercially interesting.

Champs21 launched with big budget and huge media hype leveraging on its partner The Daily Star. I am sure they are generating some revenue. One thing is good that they did not offer free from the beginning, thus following model of lean startup. Sure Champs21 is yet to recover its investment, but that’s fine. You don’t expect to reach break even in the first year of your launching.

KhanAcademyBangla developed by Nascenia in partnership with the world famous Khan Academy is yet to launch commercially. The content is great and licensed under creative commons, but they are yet to come up with a business model.

Stockbangladesh is hugely popular, at least it was during the heydays of share business. Stockbangladesh earns revenue from advertisement only. Not a very sustainable model, I would say. It probably leverages its popularity to sell trainings and other stock related products to business organizations. OMO is such a product.

A second most popular stock related product is bdipo. Nascenia is the developer an owner of it. It gets revenue from ad and subscription through Freemium model. No, not really a commercially lucrative product yet.

The Ebay model is followed by CellBazaar (acquired by Telenor) and Clickbd. Both are strong players and show all the signs to sustain and make a successful business. Cellbazaar being the partner of Grameenphone sure has edge over others, and sure generates some revenue from mobile platform. Clickbd on the other hand, being a Bangladeshi company, is in an advantageous position regarding issues related to government regulation, permission and expansion.

The very recent addition is akhoni.com selling online discount coupons. Wannabe Groupon in Bangladesh. Stellar start. Time will say how long they need to hang around before becoming next bdjobs.

There are many news sites those are among the top hit site in Bangladesh. They are far more popular than most of the sites I mentioned above. I am confused if I should mention them, as they are more of sites and less of internet product. Especially those who ride over their print editions (e.g. prothom-alojobs, thedailystar, newage). The first notable purely digital news site is bdnews 24.com. The followers are banglanews24 -- created by the mighty and (in)famous Basundhara group and sheershanews.

Is that all? Of course not, but these are the names come up top of mind (ToM) of mine and sure many more like me.

Stay tuned to catch up more about SaaS.

Bumpy Road of a Startup

It's a continuous high and low. We receive an award on one moment, an important client becomes non-responsive on the next. We get a nod from a major client, one of our engineers leaves for a multinational on the next. If you like roller coster ride, bungee jumping, adrenaline rush, horror film or something of that sort, you gotta love the ride on a startup.

No guarantee of a paycheck at the end of the month, you punch your ATM card not to see the account is topped up by an invisible one. You got to plan for your next dollar, but you never know where it is coming from. Usually it comes from an unusual source. Boy! You gotta love this one.

So, how do you survive these? After all surviving is success for a startup, right?

You must know how to dream. Dream of a glorified future on the expense of the bumpy road ahead. That's the entry barrier to this territory. That's why it is not everybody's cup of tea.

Advertisers, please don't insult us

I will refer to two of the advertisements published in the recent dailies.

First one is published on The Daily Star on Oct 26 is by Brac Bank. No doubt it is a leading private bank. A bank respected by many, built an image as a pioneer in SME banking. A modern, tech-savvy bank.

The agency responsible for the ad creative is Bitopi, an affiliate of Leo Burnett.

So, what is the problem here? Nowhere it mentioned how much part of the credit card's annual fee would be donated to green fund. So, if at the end of the year Brac Bank pays altogether tk. 2 to green fund, it can certainly claim, it kept its promise. "Hey, we have just donated 0.000000001% of your card's fee to green fund. Be proud of yourself, and your bank." Neither the ad mentions which green fund it is going to donate to. Maybe Brac Bank will plant a sapling in its MD's house. That's a green fund!

However, the ad clearly conveys a message without a mistake. That the advertiser thinks the audience are a bunch of idiots. They will jump into getting the 'green cards' with a big hope that SOME part of the annual fee would be donated to SOME kind of green fund on SOME day. And believe it, this not coming from an ordinary organization. This is coming from a bank, that deals with numbers as its day job.

Now the other one. Also from a bank. Equally revered. Published on Oct 21 on the first page of The Daily Star.

The ad reads: 

MTB Centre, A green building.

MTB Center is a unique project with each floor attributed to one of the major energy sources such as trees, water, wind, sun and earth; and these components together define the critical balance of sustainability. 

What should I call it? Exploitation of the word Green? Again a bank, that believes in numbers only, did not mention anywhere how the building is energy efficient. Or, how much part of its energy is sourced form alternative or green energy source. In short, how on the world the building is green.

I visited Gulshan to see the building myself. I tried without success to spot any kind of visible solar panels or whatsoever. However, I found a little part of the building is covered with green sticker. Maybe that's how the building is claimed to be Green.

Central Bank's governor a few days back encouraged banks to go green. Look at the responses. I feel like I am a complete idiot. The readers of The Daily Star must be idiots. Prospects and customers of these banks must be idiots.

I am defeated by my 7 year old son

My 7 year old son, Meesam defeated me last week on a video game. Virtua Cop 2. I've never been able to cross all three levels at one go to face the final boss. I first played VC2 in 1999. I've put a few times more hours in this game than he did.  It took Meesam just a month to learn the game and cross all the levels.

Meesam and his sister playing with my Macbook

Is it a sign that he is smarter than I am? Or, am I too dumb not to reach at the end of the game? Or, am I too old (that shouldn't be -- I learned the game while I was 25, now I am 36). Or,  is it that children are just like that?

Should I be proud of Meesam? Or, be ashamed of myself? Or, stay indifferent? Any expert opinion?

I keep telling myself: "Welcome, this is only the beginning :)".

Finland Ranked First and Bangladesh 88th by Newsweek

In the research done by Newsweek on the criteria of health, education, politics and economy – Bangladesh ranked 88th while Finland 1st and USA 11th. Many of us are elated seeing Bangladesh first time ranked in double digit – in whatsoever category, by whatsoever authority. But I am intrigued by some of the comments from the champions. Here is one from some Kalevi supposedly from Finland

One in four people in Finland has to take psychiatric medication just to get through the day. Mood disorders have more than tripled in some population groups during the last decade (this trend is especially noticeable among young adults who have just entered the job market). Finland is also the top fifth most suicidal nation in Europe. But hey, if you want to measure well-being according to such indices as how many cell phones or Internet connections there are per capita, or how many people can read a newspaper or do basic math, then sure, we Finns are the champions of the world. It's just that these supposed indices of well-being do not seem to correlate with happiness in the real world of human beings. In fact, there would rather seem to be a correlation between them and unhappiness.

To really understand the high score of Finland in this and some other studies, you need to know that this is a country that strives to become the perfect living-machine, a society as a machine for efficient living. The general goal is to rationalize every aspect of life, much the same way as labor is rationalized in a McDonald's restaurant, until nothing escapes the standardization and control of the welfare machine. As a result of this pervasive institutionalization (or, indeed, McDonaldization) of Finnish society, life in this country has become increasingly alienating socially. People are generally estranged from their immediate communities, their neighbours and even their own families, and rely on the authorities (experts, professionals) in the most mundane problems of life.

Finnish sociologists conducted a study on people's reactions to school shootings in the U.S. and in Finland, where these “extended suicides” have become increasingly common in recent years. They found to their surprise that while Americans often sought emotional support from their immediate community, their neighbours, colleagues and families, Finns almost never did. What Finns did instead is typical of people living in an advanced welfare society: they sought the advice of the professionals, the doctors, psychiatrists and crisis therapists. When the study was publicized in Finland, many people reacted to it with a kind of scornful superiority. Some said that the results only show what a backward country the United States really is, and how advanced the Finnish welfare society. It did not occur to them that the results indicate something disturbing about their own society.

Finland is, indeed, such an efficient society that we have even eliminated the need for community and normal human relations. We are the perfect living-machine, a society as a machine for efficient living. I seem to be among an increasingly small number of people living in this country who still dare to ask, “What is the real human cost of this coldly rational way of life?”

Finland: the healthiest, most educated, rich and politically sound nation. Photo: Newsweek

Another one from Kraig Watson and liked by Kalevi –

What about enjoyment of life? i live in oslo and would have more fun in a microwave with a metal suit on.

And one more Jacob Matthan –

Is Finland the best country in the world to live in?

That is what a recent Newsweek report said.

It is obvious that none of the Newsweek Team have never lived in Finland!

Finns are the “Masters of Spin”. The country is controlled by an oligarchy of about 50 powerful families (It used to be 5 but the base has widened slightly during the three decades.)

The Oligarchy control the Media. That is the most powerful weapon in the arsenal.

The judiciary, police, bureaucracy, lawyers, and politicians are primarily corrupt. The laws of the country are written to run such a system, so the word corruption does not exist in their little world.

How else can the proportional system of Government exist. In one election it may be a coalition of right and centre, while in the next it may be left and centre, while in the next it could be right and left! the promises made in any election campaign are just words for the masses to consume. the real wheeler dealing occurs in the chambers of power after the election where the poor are sacrificed at the expense of the rich!

The politicians do what the Oligarchy tells them. In the process they throw a few crumbs to the Finnish Public!

The schooling system is a joke in that the students are not permitted to question their teachers. This takes the student to adolescence where the Finnish male is forced into compulsory military service which makes them into zombies. (Exceptions do occur, but they are exceptions!)

To not take part in the army service was considered traitorous till one son of a Finnish sitting President decided he world not join the army. A dilemma but it gave relief to some who were not the zombies of Finland.

The country has been run by a cartel system. There is no maximum retail price law. The Finns are fleeced. The Oligarchy convinced the Finnish Public that just because they paid highest prices, they had the “Highest Standard of Living”. Whereas the Finns just had the “Highest Cost of Living”.

As a result Finns have been the top “Economic Migrants” to every corner of the globe, starting with their neighbour Sweden.

On the other hand Finns do not tolerate migration into Finland, except when it serves their purpose as allowing prostitutes from third world countries to enter freely!

Even the word for migrant - immigrant or emigrant was demonized in Finland!

Every country has its good and bad points and so to Finland. Finland is a good country to live in, but certainly not the BEST! The grass always appears greener on the other side of the fence. The Newsweek team should live in finland for a short while and then they will realise the error of their conclusions.

 So, where on earth people are happy, then?

Bangladesh: Children on Boat.   Photo: Wikimedia

Freakonomics - Review of the Book

I made a quick review of the book Freakonomics by Steven D. Lavitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Well it did not yield me a mundane return, but I think there would be people who might like it anyway.

Freakonomics: Review of the Book

View more presentations from Shaer Hassan.

By the way, do you know who Ted Kaczynski is? He is mentioned at the end of the presentation. You know what? He got a post in his own name in Wikipedia! Must be a very famous guy? Click the link here: Ted Kaczynski.

Color Picker for Mac

I have been using Mac for a couple of years, and am never through with its enigma. Mac has so many gems under its hood!

If you were wondering like me how to get a color picker for Mac, here is the solution.

If you are using Mac OS X, just type DigitalColor Meter on the spotlight. Run the application. Point to any position of the desktop. Press command+shift+h to select the color.

To know the hexadecimal color code, choose 'RGB as Hex value, 8-bit' from the drop down of the application. Whereever you need to put the color code just type the value against R, G and B serially without space (666699 for the blue in above image). Voila!

There are other solutions to this color picker problem. But this is the quick and easiest. Enjoy!