Creative Idea Powerhouse

After yesterday event, everything seems settle down perfectly as what we have decided and expected.

Me and Edward stay back at hotel for breakfast while Dr. Ola has his morning work out session. Perhaps due to exciting event last night, our brain experience the reluctant session and not stay in pace with the time passing by.

We head back to office at 10am and Ron, one of our new partner already waiting for us in the office. I really like this person. He shared with excitement that he has his new facebook account setup and e has added 50 of his friends while waiting for us. Ron is the above 60 man with strong energy and from his military background, I bet he is the man with strong decipline.

As we promised Ron, we go through with him the basic fundamental process for how to setup the account and we can see his passion in learning to master this new toys – SMilDS. We spent 2 hours together to learn through the SMilDS and nothing get more excited to see his passion in SMilDS. I wish we can stay longer here and really push through the SMilDS here.

It does not take long to reach the lunch time and we have a great time enjoying our westerning dining.

Nothing much happen on noon and evening time. We have some brainstorming session with Chris and Lawrence on the system setup site and that’s interesting to share te same passion with them on the same area.

Now, we have a few interesting tasks to work on and we know once all these are done, everything will get very very cool, exciting and crazy! We will make it happen!

Dinner in TGi, as usual, time is passing so fast where we do not have the chance to stop, check in and look back. Enjoy!!!

Today is the judgement day for SMilDS in states because we going to launch our solution to a group of pioneer people who will be endorsing the system. Their action and decision will
decide our destination in USA. We decide to not going out for breakfast and instead having it at hotel.

I took a heavy breakfast and follow Edward and Dr. Ola to office and start to get the hands on the slides. While I’m tuning the site, Ola came by and join me to go through the entire slides. meanwhile, Scot is aside helping us on the preparation of the entire stuffs in putting together tonight event.

Dr. Ola gave a very fruitful and powerful insight to me, and i have to admit that I have learn alot from him through his bold and solid experience in public speaking and human behavior. Am very please to have so many mentors in my life to continue assist me and grow me in every expects of my life. Thank you!

When come to noon time, the biological effect in my body start to drive me into a sleepy mode. Since monday that I was in LA till thursday, I have total 17hrs of sleeping time. I know I need to get my body a rest so I can maintain a good performing state for tonight presentation. Good enough, Dr. Ola drive us back to hotel for a short rest after lunch that took place at the Grill Noodle- a Korean noodle store. it was one of the favorite store for Edward but I think due to my sleepy mood, I didn’t really enjoy the meal well- for first time.

Back in hotel, it took me less then 10min to enter my dreamland. It was a great rest of 2hrs perfect condition sleeps for me. At 6pm, me and Edward is all set and ready to go back office for tonight event.

When we reach at the office, some of the old friends of Edward are already there. Scot, Chris, Lawrence and Norman are busy setup the entire event area. I get to know that Chris will join us in the presentation and that really make me excited. What’s more cool to have the techie experts to share his experience and view on this industry in United States and groom the audience before I was introduce in for my presentation

Both Dr. Ola and Edwards did a great sharing. As usual, Dr. Ola starts the event by giving a strong motivation to the audience, leaving them with high state and introduce Edward into the event. On the other side Edwards drive the audience into a very exciting mood by sharing his passion in building a Long Term value company- a great vision that has inspire me alot and has enroll me completely into his vision and passion all these while beside listen to Datuk. Edward end his talks by sharing the latest Live Camp for So Easy in Philippines to the audience. Again the audience are entertained and inspired.

Dr. Ola continue to introduce Chris into the event and his introduction was very interesting. I like Chris pretty much because he has the kick and passion in what he did. Can see through his eye that this brilliant guy will be someone who can rock the world!

I was introduce by Chris into the event and I have to admit I’m pretty amaze with Chris public speaking skill. He did a great jobs for any speaker who are still very fresh in this area. He did much better than me compare to my time that I jus started to give talks in front of audience.

This will be the first time I stand in front of a group of American doing my presentation and I really enjoy the moment. Truely, American response to the speaker well and there are dynamic and bonding within the speaker and audience, compare to other Asian countries. My talks took more than 1hour, slightly longer than my expecation and time slot given to me but I know I need an hour in nature to keep the audience rock! I think the result and response from the audience are pretty impress and everyone know what the right decision to make at the end of the event, thanks to the powerful closing done by Dr. Ola. He is really a great speaker always!

As result, the first presentation of Platform2u.com and SMilDS.com in United States was declared successful and we achieved more than 100% than our expectation. Next thing, we will go all out and start to promote entrepreneurships, and as always-heropreneurs!! Also, we declare the birth and rise of Platform2u.com USA in 4th March 2010!!

Thank you Datuk, and Edward! Thank you Dr. Ola, and all his committed team including Scot, Chris, Lawrence, Norman and others! You guys ROCKS!!!

The entire event end at 11.15pm. Me and Edward went back to hotel and spend ourselves a luxury dinner at TGI Friday. It was one of the great meals too for the night. Because of our good mood, the dinner also taste beter! Good night America, Good night Carlifornia, and Good morning Malaysia!

We start our third day by havig twice breakfast. Once inside our Embassy Suites Hotel, where we enjoy the yogurt alot, and head back to Corner Bakery for our usual coffee.

This morning marked as one of the most exciting morning in the Entire Platform2u.com USA history until today. We have our entire Platform2u.com USA roadmap draw out and we are once again reaffirming that all the strategies we going to execute in next 9 months until end of Dec 2010 will help us to get at least 1500 merchants in US. It is surely a great start and three of us can surely virtualized the entire end pictures infront of us that we going to celebrate during Christmas this year.

Our entire afternoon was spent in office constructing the slides of the presentation for tomorrow evening. Scot is getting same level of passion with us and all of us are ready to go all out to mark this impactful day of tomorrow for Platform2u.com USA.

Our evening dinner were spent in Cheesecake Factory again and all our mind and passion are focus on tomorrow event. After having our favorite Miso Salmon for third time, I feel I still like it!

We continue to spend the balance of the night preparing for tomorrow content and it is always great to work with passion!!

My flight to LA was schedule at 10pm monday, 1st March Philippines local time – Philippines Airline PR102 direct from Manila to LA. This is my first trip to USA and a trip that I long been waiting for. A remarkable memory for me not only because of my first trip to US but also means we finally bring Platform2u.com into this country.

We reach the airport at 8.15pm and it took us longer than we schedule to check in our lugages, and when we are in the departure hall it is already 9.05pm and we are still with empty stomatch. After a quick meal, and I really love this pao thinggy sold in Manila airport, taste good!

We end up to be the last 5 person who board the aircraft, and what shocked me is, the seats were nearly 99% full. Our seats number 61A and 61B were just beside the Exit of the aircraft. Thanks to the helpful cabin crew, we manage to get to change our seats with a lady.

The 12 hours flight was summary into a meal and a breakfast; 3 movie Shows – twilight – new moon; It is it- MJ; and 2012, and of course plenty of sleeping hours. The seats of Philippines Air comes slightly smaller compare to Malaysia Airlines, make me realize that somehow our Malaysian style is way beter than others in many sense.

We touched down at LA int. Airports at local time 6.45pm 1st March and everything is so smooth sailing. Our partner in US were outside the arrival hall to welcome our arrival and drive us to Brea.

We have our dinner at Cheesecake Factory at Brea and I must say that this is one of the awesome restaurant here. The food, the environment, and even the people working in the restaurant are nice, and what’s more the price of the food is pretty much close to the price of our Malaysia standard. Three of us all ordered the Miso Salmon, and it is perfectly cook with miso source and taste great for our Asian.

We have a long chat after dinner, partly focus on business strategies, as well as sharing from Dr. Ola about the USA market outlook from his experiences with this marketplace. We have a great 2 hours dinner time spent fruitfully, and yummy!

We checked in at Embassy Hotel Brea and this bring another good experience for me about LA trip. It is really a blessing for me all these while in our entrepreneurship journey. Most often we heard entrepreneurs share their painful and difficulties face in oversea expansion. I have to really thanks god and also my beloving partners for all these initial setup that make our oversea expansion become so easy. Starting from April Y2009 we launched SMilDS.com in Malaysia; we already establish ourselves in total 3 countries including Hong Kong (May 09) and Philippines (Jul 09). In Y2010, our expansion plan include China, Taiwan, and of course US and that is why my first trip here to prepare for all our initial setup.

Well I missed my Jetlack experience.. Thanks to yummy and delicious dinner in Cheesecake Factory, and of course kinda lots of preparation for tomorrow onwards make me can’t wait to jump in and zzz.. Of cos the nice hotel also part of the reason for me to enroll myself into it so much!

Until then, will continue updates my 10 days journey here in US. Cheers!

China e-Commerce market place been a very challenging market ever. There are currently more than 56Million online merchants in China, according to a recent report published by AliResearch-the leading C2C e-Commerce platform in China. The total market size for Online Retailing in China for Y2009 also topping RMB200Billion (Aprox US$30Billion), growth from RMB128Billion in Y2008; a huge growth of market since Year 2002 when C2C market start to get into mainstream.

Base on the research published in Mandarin from AliResearch, what interested to me more is the data showed that there is total 13.2% of the online retailers are fresh graduates from universities. It shows that more and more graduates students are directly enter into online entrepreneurship since their graduation. Just have this data in your brain, there are 7million students graduates from universities directly enter into setup their own webstore and sell online in China! With 87million online consumer buying and consuming basically everything sell online, this is a market that cant be neglect.

There is no reason why we get to know today from the Techcrunch that Baidu and Rakuten is forming a new alliance to tap into the China Online retailing industry. Both of the company will invest a total of US$50mil into this new JV and Rakuten will control majority stake in this new formation JV. This is not the first time for Rakuten to handle the new JV for oversea expansion. In early Y2008, Rakuten has setup their first e-Commerce expansion in Taiwan, follow by Europe. In Y2009, Rakuten form  a new JV in Thailand with a local e-Commerce partner. The company continue to expand their foot print in oversea expansion into Malaysia in late Y2009 – according to some source, they worked with local Internet Tycoon – Malaysia Online (MOL.COM) in Malaysia e-Commerce development roadmap. In early Y2010, they have new plan, and they are now put their focus on the Asia soon to be largest e-Commerce marketplace. 100Million of online consumers, over US$50bil of market in Y2012; and what else, a fast growing of income level in all level of workforces in China that making them consume basically all the ‘import branded products’ from ‘Out of China’.

The strategic move, from my point of view, is pretty interesting as we can see in Y2010, another new high for e-Commerce development in Asia, particulary for China e-Marketplace. For instance, majority of these mid-income level netizens would like to consume and purchase ‘oversea’ branded products that rather than cheap and ‘look-alike’ products that are ‘made in China, brand by oversea’. Rakuten will employ the same strategies as they did for Taiwan market, to continue to ‘export’ Japanese products into neighbouring countries.

As I always believe, the Year 2010 will be a very exciting year for E-Commerce. The development of Internet has enter a new era where everything is going to be so realistic about turning CPM or your adveritising dollar into sales profit. Forget about a million of click through, or billion of impression if nothing convert into placement of orders. Show me the money, will be the most concern for business during this recovering period. More and more traditional retailers are seeking for ‘reasonable’ expansion to oversea. Rakuten model of exporting Jap products through B2C model into countries like Taiwan or China, are the model we are having the cross-selling model you can find in SMilDS.COM. As I said, the Y2010 is a rising year for e-Commerce! Fun and excitement!~