Next in our packed post-lunch session – Moo Natavudh, President Director at Ookbee. Ookbee’s seen remarkable growth and success in the last few years, and Moo will talk about creativity, risk and the importance of revenue.
#14:45:
Moo started an outsourcing company right after college, doing application development for overseas companies. One of the apps they worked on was a digital magazine for the then newly-launched iPad. So he pulled 5 people from the existing company and started Ookbee. 7 months later, they were profitable.
#14:50: In Ookbee’s first month after launch, their revenue was as low as several hundred USD. But the improvements accrued. Moo attributes part of the success to the business model – Ookbee’s revenue sharing deals with publishers brings good content in (publishers get to keep 70%, with little to no extra cost). In Thailand, that got all the big media hosues on board. The magazines themselves, then, gave the company free advertising…creating a snowball effect. Ookbee is now 40 people, 3 million users, about 10% of them paying. Last year, they made $3 million, with a slim $3-400,000 profit.
#14:56: Ookbee raised $2 million last year to focus on growth. Being one of the first Thai companies in this space, revenue had to be found right away to convince investors that this was worth doing. They’re now trying to expand outside of the country – with small offices in Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore (NOTE: They’re still looking for partners in Indonesia). Right now, they want to build “local knowledge” and lay low, before expanding aggressively.
#15:00: Thai entrepreneurs are “good, technical folks” but inexperienced. The problem is thinking out of the box to generate revenue streams – too many have the ideas, Moo says, but just talk vaguely about an “advertising model” when pressed on revenue generation. “Outsourcing is the easiest way to make money in this region,” he says. “But without your own projects you can never take off.”
Ookbee is looking for other products to sell to the same audience they’ve captured through Ookbee. Audio Books are in the pipeline (they’ve just finished constructing a recording room). “There are several more projects like that,” he says enigmatically.
#15:03: Buyers are interested in Ookbee, but Moo is isn’t telling us more. “Around 4″, he says in response to a question on just how many companies are interested in Ookbee. Moo says the exit option is there, but the chance to “take our service to the next level” takes priority.
“Bangkok’s Most Eligible Bachelor” then exits to applause, stage-left.
This is a part of our coverage of Startup Asia Singapore 2013, our event running on April 4 and 5. For all our newest Startup Arena pitches, see here. You can follow along on Twitter at @techinasia, and on our Facebook page.
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