GeeksOnAPlane At echelon 2010 In Singapore: An Overview Of South East Asia’s Web Scene

Following Shanghai , Beijing , and Seoul , the GeeksOnAPlane (GOAP) tour reached its fourth and penultimate stop last week: Singapore . The island nation isn’t a very big market by itself (population: 5 million), but it’s located in the center of South East Asia, home to 600 million people. Only a small fraction of the population in that region currently has access to the web. However, it’s just a question of time until places like Indonesia (240 million people, 12.5% Internet penetration), Vietnam (89 million, 25.7%), or the Philippines (98 million, 24.5%) catch up to the rest of the wired world. There’s quite a lot happening in this region of the world already, as demonstrated by the 650 local entrepreneurs, investors and executives who attended echelon 2010 , a two-day web industry event organized by Singaporean startup community e27 . What follows is a summary of just a few presentations, panel discussions, and startup demos the GOAP witnessed at that event.