Young, mobile & entrepreneurial

Sia Hui Yong, only in his mid-20s is already head of his own company, Ionnex, which he founded shortly after graduation. What began as a freelance effort is now a 10-person company that was shortlisted as one of the Best Startup Companies in the MSC-Asia Pacific IT Awards 2004. MW talks to this bright, young entrepreneur about his company, 3G and more...

Oon Yeoh

MW:   What type of services do you offer?
HY:    We provide B2B mobile services, namely end-to-end gateway solutions for content providers and a mobile commerce platform. We are not currently in the B2C space.

MW:   Which one is more profitable?
HY:    Mobile commerce used to be but lately, the telcos themselves have gotten into the game of providing a mobile commerce platform for their dealers to do mobile reloads, so that has affected us quite a bit.

MW:   There are many gateway providers, how do you differentiate yourself?
HY:    We don’t do any content. Many gateway providers are also content providers themselves, so there is a possibility of conflict of interest. With us, you can be assured that we will not be competing with our clients.
MW:   What type of content sells?
HY:    Traditionally it was ringtones but that’s declining now. Text-based information like 4D results, football odds and stuff like that sells. The business model is also changing. Before, people would buy individual items (ringtones, wallpapers, games) but now, content providers are offering subscriptions.

MW:   Can the subscription model work?
HY:    It’s definitely viable and some players are already offering it. But there are some hurdles. In Malaysia, 80% of the mobile market is pre-paid. That’s a problem. If a subscriber’s pre-paid credit is low or down to zero, the subscription model won’t work.

MW:   What do you think of 3G?
HY:    With 3G, WAP may finally take off. The reason WAP failed the first time around was that it was run on GSM, which was very slow. With 3G, bandwidth is not a problem anymore. The only obstacle now is price.

MW:   What price is necessary for mass adoption of 3G?
HY:    Right now, it’s RM120 for Maxis and RM150 for Celcom. You or I might be willing to pay this amount because we’re in the mobile business. But for the average user, how can he justify paying that much every month? The price needs to be much lower – between RM20 to RM30 a month – if they want to see mass adoption.

MW:   How did you get involved in the mobile industry?
HY:    I was from the first batch of graduates from Multimedia University in 2001. Instead of working for people, I thought, “Why not give entrepreneurship a shot?” I figured I’ve got nothing to lose because if this doesn’t work out, I can always find a job somewhere.



MW:   With your computer science background, are you a keen Internet fan?
HY:    Yes, I am. I’m not in the Internet business but I do use the Internet a lot. In fact, I wouldn’t be able to do my mobile business without the Internet. I get a lot of my information from there.

MW:   How’s the company doing?
HY:    We’ve been profitable since June last year. And this year, we’re meeting our targets. So, it’s okay. But, of course, we can always do better.