They also contributed to the economy by bringing direct investment from overseas venture capitalists and investors.

One of the most prominent start-ups who played a key role to help increase efficiency in the real estate industry is the Builk One Group. The company has provided software, big data analytic, e-commerce platform, and communication platform to all stakeholders in all construction and real estate industry supply chains.

Patai Padungtin, founder and chief executive officer of Builk One Group, said that the group’s mission is to help reduce risk while increasing efficiency in the industry. A start-up contributes to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by increasing the efficiency of the real sector industry (in each vertical industry) through digital transformation, he said.

“In real estate, Builk has helped increase industry efficiency by 5 per cent of total construction value (via Builk’s business platform) of Bt30 billion. It is my role since start-ups come to solve existing [industry] problems,” said Patai.

Builk provides free software to small contractors and small construction material shops to help them with digital transformation. Currently, there are 25,000 companies using software and there are over 1 million purchase orders recorded via Builk’s software that are turned into big data assets for the company to offer big data analytic service to manufacturers and brands.

Builk also provides the intelligent e-commerce platform called Yellow, which connects contractors, suppliers, and manufacturers. The intelligent platform will help match transactions between small contractors and suppliers; and large contractors and manufacturers by sourcing the best price for them. Currently, there are 5 million real-time product prices on Builk’s platform. This year’s total e-commerce revenue was Bt220 million, increasing from Bt70 million in 2016. It aims to reach Bt1 billion in 2018.

“The beauty is it is a win-win situation for all because Builk plays the role as an intermediary, providing them benefit, offering them free software and offering the best price for products [they order via e-commerce]. We connect manufacturers and supplier to contractors. We play a role as a virtual wholeseller for them to help bring online-to-offline (O2O) e-commerce in the construction industry,” said Patai.

One of its main focus is to help transform traditional construction material shops into digital businesses by offering free software and getting them into the e-commerce network as a distribution channel. This year it has encouraged 40 shops and next year it will have 160 shops in 77 provinces nationwide. He said there are 6,000 shops in the market.

Moreover, Builk has helped 300 large contractors achieve digital transformation for years by offering enterprise resource planing (ERP) software. For real estate companies, Builk also offers customer relationship management (CRM) communication platform. Currently, it provides for 15,000 condo units at three real estate properties. Next year, it plans to offer 50,000 units from more developers.

He said the role of a start-up is to help drive Thailand 4.0 in the real sector, in each vertical sector to undergo digital transformation. Thai start-ups can play an important role in helping a lot of SMEs transform their traditional business and help them to increase efficiency and competitive capability. Well-established start-ups also help the country by hiring more workers.

Meanwhile, Krating Poonpol, manager of 500 TukTuks, one of |the most active venture capitalists in Thailand, said that start-ups are the new economic engine for the country.

This year, the role of start-ups in Thailand is to play a role in generating employment. It estimates that start-ups can help 100,000 people earn through both direct and indirect employment.

500 TukTuks invested in 46 start-ups, and 47 per cent of them are growing and have fund-raising in bigger rounds. Start-ups under 500 TukTuks’ portfolio have together created 1,000 direct jobs and |created almost 10,000 jobs for people in Thailand. For example, Skootar has 3,000 messengers, Claim Di Bike has 3,000 messengers, Seekster has 1,000 house-mades, Pomelo employs 300 staff, Fastwork has 1,000 freelancers, and Ookbee has 100,000 writers.

Meanwhile, it expects that in the next 10 years, Southeast Asia can create many tech start-ups with company value of US$100 |billion (Bt3.27 trillion). If there |is one Thai start-up worth $100 billion it can help increase the country’s GDP immediately.

Sompoat Chansomboon, director of Business Innovation & dtac Accelerate, one of the most impactful start-up accelerators in Thailand, said that this year the prominent start-up ecosystem would see collaboration between start-ups and large corporates. The role of a start-up is to help corporates do innovation as part of corporates’ digital transformation journey. For example, SCG and Giztix and Finnomena and fund houses.

Apart from collaboration with corporates, the other prominent role of start-ups is to draw direct investment from overseas to inject into Thai-based start-ups totalling $87 million, excluding non-disclose-value deals. The government has budgeted Bt20 billion into the local start-up ecosystem. Meanwhile, dtac Accelerate itself has enabled 34 start-ups and together have raised $3.5 billion, drawing oveseas direct investment of over $10 million. This has helped create 10,000 jobs for Thais.

Vachara Aemavat, president of Thailand Tech Startup Association, said that Thai start-ups in the past year had played a prominent role in helping create jobs, careers and business in many real sectors such as real estate, finance and banking, logistics, and healthcare. The role of the association is to connect the real sector and commercial associations with start-ups as well as to connect start-ups among themselves to increase their capability.

“The association did a survey of 240 start-ups in Thailand and found that 25 per cent of them had received fund raising, while 50 per cent of start-ups had success in seed fund raising. It is rare for them to achieve series-A fund-raising,” said Vachara.

He said, one strategy to help start-ups grow is to match them with corporates and the association will play a key role in matching them.

No matter your industry, you have the opportunity to use your energy, enthusiasm and confidence to create a competitive and, perhaps, wildly successful company.

As a long-time serial entrepreneur, before coming to Oracle to work with startups and SMBs, I experienced the excitement and satisfaction of creating a thriving enterprise from an idea. I’ve also come to recognize that this process is a marathon, not a sprint. Just as when you run a marathon, you will experience different stages along the route, and each of them represents a different challenge for you as a leader.

Perhaps the most daunting, and difficult to recognize, is the early shift from startup to SMB. It’s a stage where some of the leadership characteristics that were great assets at first have become liabilities. Making the transition may mean shifting your leadership style, of course without sacrificing your ideals and brand, or even assuming a different role while bringing on others who can provide long-term leadership for the company.

A new business is held together by the optimism and involvement of the founder. When all you have is an idea, maybe a working prototype, even a customer or two, and you’re still working to find the right market fit, you’re a startup. At that stage, it’s the enthusiasm of leadership and the power of the idea that binds everyone together and keeps them forging ahead. Founders also wears many hats, and tend to be directly involved in almost every aspect of day-to-day operations.

There will come a point, though, when you have gotten large enough that it’s no longer possible to operate that way. When you go from a couple of customers you know personally to a customer base big enough to track in the cloud, or when you have a scalable business, you’ve moved into the ranks of the SMB.

That’s often when that boundless optimism and desire to manage every aspect of the business personally can become liabilities for the founder and the company. Now, the company needs to establish formal processes and procedures. It needs to manage a growing workforce that may well include remote offices and even mobile employees. There’s far too much going on for the founders to be part of every decision and every piece of the operation.

While you should never shed your optimism, this is the time to develop a bit of humility to balance the raw enthusiasm of the startup phase. Leaders also need to recognize the company’s vulnerabilities before they get too large to overcome, and be willing to make some difficult decisions. The things you do at the transition to SMB will have consequences two years from now, when the company has become an enterprise.

Technology can help you make that transition, and maintain an optimistic and effective culture. Because you can’t communicate with everyone face-to-face all the time, use online channels to keep the lines of communication working across the organization and from the top down. Video conference meetings that let remote employees see and be seen can help keep everyone working together.

Using the cloud to help analyze data and gain insights can be extremely important at this stage, too. Having information at your fingertips via the cloud will let you evaluate markets, opportunities and decisions with greater confidence. You can be a lot more enthusiastic about your SMB when you’re able to make decisions based on solid, data-based insights.

Most important, this transition is the time when leaders need to recognize their own blind spots. It’s the rare individual indeed that can make the successful transition from startup founder to the CEO of a public company. The skills required are entirely different. Start now to add people to your leadership team who are smarter than you are, people who have more experience and have been through these kinds of transitions before.

That may not be easy to do; it can be hard to back away from being the decision maker for everything. But driving down decision making in the organization, trusting your people to get things done, and trusting your extended leadership team to support you, is what will enable your SMB to thrive. Making the right decisions, using the right technology, and being honest about your limitations, will help ensure you have a culture and a company that can survive for the long haul.

LG Display’s plan to build an organic light-emitting diode plant in China was conditionally approved by the South Korean government after a five-month-long review, giving the green light to the firm amid growing demand for OLED TVs in the global market.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said Tuesday it approved LG Display’s OLED plant for televisions in Guangzhou, considering its positive ramifications, including market expansion and job creation at LG Display’s partner companies.

The approval, however, was made on the condition that the display maker increase the use of Korean firms’ materials and equipment; its future investments should be made in Korea; and security should be strengthened to minimize technology and manpower leakage.

LG Display welcomed the decision, saying, “With respect to the delayed approval, we will work hard to provide products in a timely way to clients by shortening the schedule.”

In July, LG Display announced its plan to build a plant for generation 8.5 of its OLED panels for televisions in China in response to growing demand for OLED TVs in the global market. The Korean display maker is currently the sole producer of large OLED panels for televisions globally.

At the end of July, the display firm asked for approval from the Korean government to build a plant in China. A company should obtain permission from the government before building a plant overseas to produce one of the nation’s designated key technologies in order to prevent leaks and protect key industries.

The government belatedly gave the green light to the firm, as it had been unsure whether it was appropriate to build plants in China. Some Korean conglomerates have faced operational setbacks due to political issues.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) currently forecasts solar flares by identifying the locations of sunspots using a radio telescope, and detecting magnetic anomalies in the atmosphere and other unusual factors via an observation device. The current prediction accuracy is said to be about 50 percent.

In January, the NICT announced that it successfully conducted an experiment to increase the accuracy of its forecast by having AI learn 300,000 images of sunspots. However, the current observation device can only store about several months’ worth of information on sunspots and magnetism.

With the help of AI, the government intends to increase the device’s capacity to allow it to store at least several years’ worth of data.

The government also plans to build another Space Weather Forecast Center under the NICT somewhere in a provincial area — the existing center is in Koganei, western Tokyo — and install a backup antenna there that would be linked to the observation device to allow for continued monitoring in the event of a large-scale disaster hitting the Tokyo metropolitan area.

A solar flare that was generated on Sept. 6 emitted high-temperature gas that took two days to reach Earth. The NICT issued an alert concerning the phenomenon on Sept. 7.

The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry believes that improving forecast technology will help the institute release more accurate information in advance. The ministry has requested ¥100 million for enhancing the observation device in its supplementary budget request for the current fiscal year.

In October 2003, the largest solar flare to have been recorded at that time caused problems with a Japanese satellite, as well as a major power outage in Sweden. Solar activities are said to intensify about every 11 years; the next peak is estimated to be in the mid-2020s. Solar flares could occur frequently during that period, and countries are making efforts to cope with the phenomenon.

The government aims to cooperate with other countries on the issue.

■Solar flare

A large-scale explosion occurring around a dark area on the sun’s surface known as a sunspot. The explosion emits strong X-rays, high-temperature gases — which carry electrified particles — and others. They collide with Earth’s atmosphere and affect the planet’s magnetism. This phenomenon sometimes causes errors in Global Positioning System and failures at power stations that lead to blackouts.

The guest of honour who officiated at the new mobile app was Haji Abdul Manap bin Othman, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health (MoH).

The new app, which is created to help patients perform the five time daily prayers including Wudhu (ablution) and Tayammum, can be downloaded via Google Play and App Store.

The main features of the application are guidelines on Wudhu, Tayammum and prayer for patients with physical disabilities in the form of audio, visual and text. Other features include prayer time, prayer time alarm, Surah for prayer, Doa and Kiblat direction.

The main ‘iBantu Solat’ is the result of the pilot project on ‘Khidmat Bantu Solat Pesakit’ at government hospitals which was implemented in April 2015.

In his welcoming remarks, chairman of the ceremony Haji Zulkifli bin Panglima Asgar Dato Paduka Haji Abdullah, Acting Deputy Permanent Secretary at the MoRA, said that the ‘Khidmat Bantu Solat Pesakit’ project was created three years ago to strengthen the faith of Muslim community in Brunei.

He hoped that the new application can achieve its main objectives of providing patients the convenience to perform prayers according to their situation as well as heal physical illnesses through spiritual cleansing.

The ceremony also saw the presentation of published materials and purified sand for Tayammum for the use of patients by the Acting Deputy Permanent Secretary at the MoRA to Haji Md Khairul Anuar bin Pehin Orang Kaya Pendikar Alam Dato Paduka Seri Haji Hasrin, Chief Executive Officer of RIPAS Hospital.

Also in attendance was Dato Seri Setia Haji Abdul Aziz bin Orang Kaya Maharaja Lela Haji Mohd Yusof, Permanent Secretary at the MoRA.

According to local broadcaster SBS, the Korean arm of Google reported sales of 267.1 billion won ($245 million) to tax authorities last year, much less than its estimated sales of 1.8 trillion won calculated by app analysis firm IGAWorks.

Such a low sales figure may be reported because the revenue generated in Korea — along with sales generated in other Asian nations — is sent to Google Asia Pacific, which located in Singapore, considered an Asian tax haven.

Figuring out actual sales generated in Korea is also difficult because Google Korea is not obligated to publicly disclose its sales or taxes here because it is set up as a limited liability company.

Google’s continued opaque business and its growing sales of Google Play in the nation has led to growing calls for more transparent business performance. Sales in Google Play accounts for 71 percent of the total content sales of the app market in Korea this year.

“Because Google Korea does not accurately disclose its service sales, doubts remain over whether the company properly pays taxes,” said Ahn Chang-nam, a professor at Kangnam University’s tax law college.

Globally, some nations have begun to take action to collect “unpaid taxes” from Google. The UK and Italy announced they would recoup 130 million pounds ($174 million) and 360 million euros ($424 million), respectively, in taxes from the search firm.

“Korea should also have legal grounds and join international movements of tackling BEPS to improve its bargaining power with global firms,” said Shin Min-soo, a professor at Hanyang University. Base erosion and profit shifting, or BEPS, refers to tax avoidance strategies that exploit gaps and mismatches in tax rules to artificially shift profits to low or no-tax locations.

Setting legal groundwork is ongoing here from both lawmakers and the government. Rep. Kim Sung-tae of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party has proposed a bill to revise the current Telecommunications Business Act to impose the same regulations on global companies as it imposes on local firms.

The government began reviewing how to regulate global companies, including Google, by creating a task force comprised of representatives of the ICT Ministry, Finance Ministry, National Tax Service and Financial Services Commission.

A Google Korea spokesperson said, “Gogle follows the laws and pays all applicable taxes in Korea. Information on Google Korea’s revenue and profit is regularly reported to the Korean tax authority.”

Chinese bike-sharing top player Mobike Technology Co Ltd on Wednesday announced a strategic partnership with LINE Corp, Japan’s largest mobile social network service provider, to better facilitate its expansion in the Japanese market.

Under the partnership, LINE led an undisclosed Series A round of investment in Mobike Japan, the Beijing-based dockless rental company’s subsidiary in the country. LINE Corp, which operates Japan’s popular messaging platform LINE with 71 million local users, will own less than 20 per cent of Mobike Japan, taking the largest minority stake.

The two companies will also work together to integrate Mobike service into the LINE app in a similar way as it did with WeChat in China. The integration will allow LINE users to rent Mobike shared bikes inside the chat app, simply by scanning the QR code on the bike and paying using their LINE pay account or other payment methods.

“LINE is the clear leader in Japan’s social media space, with a strong culture of innovation and creativity, and therefore, is the perfect partner to support our ambitious growth plans in Japan,” Mobike founder Hu Weiwei said in a statement. “Working together with LINE, we will be able to provide tens of millions of LINE users with a seamless and localized experience for finding, unlocking and paying for bikes with the LINE app.”

Takeshi Idezawa, president and CEO of LINE Corp, said via the new partnership, LINE was eager to offer additional value-added services that make life more convenient and comfortable for users.

“Through this capital investment and strategic business partnership with Mobike, we can support the expansion of Mobike’s service in Japan by leveraging our network that make use of our various activities and services,” he added.

The partnership marks Mobike’s latest move to further its global expansion strategy and to better integrate in local markets.

“Similar to WeChat in China, LINE is Japan’s most popular messaging service platform,” said Zhang Xu, a Beijing-based internet analyst. “Thus the integration will greatly benefit Mobike, providing a larger user base and enabling new ways of conveniently accessing the shared bike services.”

Founded in 2015, Mobike currently rents out more than 8 million bikes in more than 200 cities in 12 countries.

Under its ambitious goal to expand the services to 200 cities globally by the end of this year, Mobike began offering its services in the Japanese city of Sapporo in August. And it is set to officially pedal to Fukuoka this week.

Its top domestic rival, Ofo Inc, also expanded its bike-sharing services in Japan in August, with a similar global strategy, via a partnership agreement with Japanese technology firm SoftBank Commerce & Service Corp.

HANOI — YouTube has removed approximately 90 per cent of “toxic” video clips the Vietnamese Government complained about in 2017, Minister of Information and Communications Truong Minh Tuan claimed yesterday.

During a conference on the ministry’s performance this year and its agenda for 2018, Tuan said that the Government so far requested Google to block and delete about 5,000 clips with bad content on YouTube, which is one of Google’s subsidiaries.

Of which, 4,500 clips were erased from YouTube.

The largest social network in the world and also the most popular in Vietnam, Facebook,  removed 159 accounts smearing the reputation of officials and leaders or those posting anti-Party and State content this year, Tuan said.

Under Vietnam’s request, Facebook also deleted 107 fake accounts and another 394 advertising and selling illegal goods and services.

“One of the highlights of the (communications) ministry this year is making Vietnam one of those countries pioneering in implementing

measures to tighten management of enterprises providing trans-border services, particularly Google and Facebook,” the minister said.

“Vietnam is among those countries of which the rate of their (removal) demand stisfied by Google was the highest in the world,” he added.

In times of rapid technological development, Tuan said forces with evil intents would take advantage to deliver toxic information using foreign-based social services.

The mission of the communications ministry in 2018 is to improve mechanisms to monitor information on the Internet and manage foreign content service providers operating in Vietnam, while encouraging domestic firms to join the sector.

Communications growth

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the sector gained revenue of more than VND2.13 quadrillion (US$94.9 billion) this year, a growth rate of 9.34 per cent over 2016.

The information technology industry yielded about VNĐ1.7 quadrillion, about 80 per cent of the total sector’s revenue. .Communications service providers were far behind in the second place, with only VNĐ352 trillion in the year despite growth over 2016.

All virtual currency transactions are recorded on public ledgers called blockchain, which are managed jointly by PC users around the world. People can obtain the digital coins through mining — a process where remuneration is earned by adding new transaction records to the ledgers.

In many cases, high-performance PCs are used for this mining operation because it involves a huge volume of data calculation. There is also a method called pool mining, in which multiple PCs share the same task.

The illicit websites in question abuse this pool mining method. PC or smartphone users are directed to the illicit websites without their knowledge if they browse certain fake websites or ads. If their device’s operating software or apps have flaws, the device then automatically downloads a malicious program, which starts the mining operation. Any digital coins that are obtained are sent to the operators of the illicit websites.

PCs that run this mining program see a drop in their performance speed in some cases, but it is difficult for users to tell if their PCs are being used for mining.

Information security firm Trend Micro Inc. in Tokyo confirmed that there were a total of 1,749 such illicit websites from July to September, about 12 times the figure in the April-June period.One bitcoin, which had a value of about ¥100,000 at domestic exchanges at the beginning of this year, topped ¥1 million for the first time on Nov. 26 and ¥2 million earlier this month.

“If your PCs are used without your permission, that means you are forced to join in a plot by an illicit website operator to gain revenue,” a Trend Micro official said. The official called for keeping software up-to-date at all times, saying, “There is also a danger of viruses entering your PC.”