The unprecedented explosion of smartphones in Myanmar

Outside the offices of an internet startup called nexlabs, a snarl of honking cars and rickshaws grinds to a standstill on a trash-strewn street lined with crumbling buildings. Inside, though, the scene could be straight out of Silicon Valley.

Programmers in t-shirts and jeans tap away at laptops beneath posters exhorting them to “Innovate” and “Dance Like Crazy”. Local demand for their smartphone apps and websites is exploding, and in the last 12 months they’ve inked marketing contracts with multi-nationals like Samsung Electronics Co and Nestle SA.

“It’s in the air,” says the company’s 25-year-old chief executive officer, Mr Ye Myat Min. “Yesterday, I was in a cafe and the guys next to me were talking about building an app.”

What’s remarkable about Mr Ye Myat Min’s internet success story is that it’s happening in a country where most people are farmers, the majority of roads are unpaved, and reliable electricity remains a luxury: Myanmar.

Just six years ago, when Myanmar was emerging from decades of isolation imposed by its military dictatorship, phones were an extravagance available only to the rich and well-connected. Only North Korea had fewer mobile phones. Now, though, after the airwaves were opened to foreign investors willing to bear some of the cost of building a vast wireless network, almost everyone in South-east Asia’s poorest country is connected.

“It’s amazing,” said Mr Marc Einstein, an analyst at Tokyo-based consulting firm ITR Corporation, who’s advised several telecommunications businesses moving into Myanmar. “I can’t think of another market where things have transformed so quickly.”

The watershed came in 2013, when a government led by former president Thein Sein ended the state monopoly over phone service. A smartly planned tender offer made sure new licenses weren’t a simple giveaway. Investors had to commit to covering the country’s farthest reaches, not just its cities, where population density makes for easier money.

By the following year, Norway’s Telenor ASA and Qatar’s Ooredoo QSC were starting to spend billions of dollars to cover a land mass the size of Texas, spread over steep mountains and lowlands that flood in monsoon season. Japanese carrier KDDI and trading company Sumitomo struck partnership deals with the government’s Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications to invest another US$2 billion (S$2.8 billion).

Now there are thousands of cell phone towers sprouting out of forests and remote rice paddies, running off their own solar-powered electricity. Refrigerated boxes protect their computerised brains from Myanmar’s sweltering heat.

In 2015, Myanmar signed up more people for mobile phone service than any country in the world except China and India, according to the Asian Development Bank. By last June, about 90 per cent of the country’s 54 million people had access to a phone with internet service, the Myanmar Computer Federation says. Some 60 per cent use Facebook or other social media to get news, state media reported in April. In Yangon, the country’s biggest city, you can now hail a car using ride-sharing apps like Uber or Grab.

Back in the days of the junta, the identification chip that goes inside a cellphone, a SIM card, could run you more than US$2,000 on the black market. These days, a data-enabled card sold by Ooredoo, the Qatari company, can be had for US$1.50. A smartphone itself can cost less than US$20. And domestic calls are about 2 cents per minute.

Mr Naing Win, a 30-year-old man selling waffles from a pushcart in Yangon, says for years he had no way to communicate with his family back home in the countryside, except by post. “It’s much easier” now that everyone has a smartphone, he said.

Ms Thiri Thant Mon, owner of a small investment bank in the city, says she still remembers how magazines from the outside world used to arrive weeks late because censors needed time to comb through them.

“Suddenly because we’re on internet,” she said, “people realise what the rest of the world looks like. Now it’s like everybody on the street is talking about Trump. A few years ago, nobody knew what was happening in the next town.’’
If there is a risk in Myanmar’s mobile phone miracle, it’s to the companies who’ve invested in it, according to Einstein, the telecom consultant. Asia is full of examples, he says, where regulators have allowed cut-throat competition that drives prices down fast, but also puts firms out of business.

In January, Myanmar may have taken a step in that direction when it issued a fourth license to a group led by Viettel Group, the state-owned carrier run by Vietnam’s Ministry of Defence, which has a track record of entering markets in far flung places like Haiti, Tanzania and Cambodia—and mowing down the competition.

Viettel didn’t respond to a request for comment. Representatives for all three of Myanmar’s current carriers said the companies have always assumed they would have to deal with a fourth competitor. Einstein, the analyst, summed it up this way: “Things are going to get nasty.”

For the average Burmese person, though, not so much.

Most people in Myanmar still have to carry wads of cash in their pockets — banks are scarce and only 5 per cent of the population has an account, according to the United Nations — but a crush of new apps may solve that.

One of them called Wave Money, an app developed by Telenor with a local partner, allows people to make payments or transfer money, and even withdraw cash at thousands of general stores using nothing besides their smartphones. Some 450,000 people have used the service since its launch last August, according to the company.

“Myanmar is crying out for better financial services and smartphones make this possible without the usual brick-and- mortar investment,” said Mr David Madden, founder and CEO of Yangon-based business incubator Phandeeyar.

Smartphones for everyone means Myanmar’s farmers can now get addicted to online games just like everyone else. Local software developer My Play says it already has one million users for its five games, including one that allows players to race the obstacle course of Myanmar’s roads in a rickshaw. In March, Australia’s Isentric said it agreed to purchase the company for US$4.6 million.
Myanmar is offering the world an object lesson in how the internet can render obsolete some elements of physical infrastructure, like fixed line phones or even bank branches, but there are still things the internet can’t replace.

At nexlabs, the Yangon start-up, the electricity failed just as CEO Ye Myat Min sat down to talk about Myanmar’s mobile phone gold rush. The young entrepreneur seemed unfazed as the office plunged into darkness for a few seconds before backup generators roared to life.

Source : http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/unprecedented-explosion-smartphones-myanmar

Blockchain pilots making waves in developing Asia

Not just a fancy but impractical idea, blockchain is taking on a crucial role in supply chain management and finance in developing Asia. Here are some works in progress.

We’ve all heard the buzz about the potential applications of blockchain technology. But what’s actually happening in developing countries in Asia and the Pacific?

Beyond bitcoin payments and remittances, blockchain exists largely in the pilot stage. Governments and banks are collaborating with technology firms to see if it can be used to solve persistent problems like traceability, identification, and trust.

Energy 4 ways blockchain will disrupt the energy sector Read now  Let’s bring some clarity to the hypotheticals. But first, what exactly is blockchain? It’s a type of database that takes records and puts them in a block (akin to, say, a sheet in your Excel file).

Each block is then “chained” to the previous block, using a cryptographic signature. This allows blockchains to be used like a ledger, which can be shared and corroborated by anyone with permission.

In short, it’s peer-to-peer sharing of data – it does not require a trusted intermediary. Let’s look at some ways our countries are using it.

Georgia – land registry  

In 2016, Georgia and a US-incorporated provider piloted a blockchain-based platform for the National Agency of Public Registry to record land titles and integrate them into the existing digital records system.

Georgians can now register land titles and verify the dates of transactions, thereby increasing transparency and accountability. The original agreement was expanded in 2017 to include other government departments.

Technically, there are two parts to the system. A private blockchain, on which the government records data on transactions, and a public blockchain. The information on ownership is publicly available, although the data underlying it are not - in order to protect the owner’s privacy.

Cambodia – payment systems  

Last April, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) signed an agreement with a Japanese startup to design a new payments system. The testing phase is expected to be launched by the end of this year.

The objective is to design a system for interbank transactions that will offer a secure and cost efficient way to transfer money. This can benefit many in a country where the commercial banking infrastructure is still evolving, but which enjoys solid mobile technology and connectivity.

Unique to this project is the collaborative relationship between the partners. The technology provider will build the infrastructure, and the NBC will contribute to the startup’s ongoing technology design.

Globally, many central banks have been exploring the potential of blockchain. The International Monetary Fund has encouraged this activity and urged banks to study its implications.

Indonesia – sustainable supply chains  

During the first half of 2016, a UK company piloted a blockchain project that tracked the provenance of yellowfin and skipjack tuna caught by local fishermen as part of a sustainable supply chain.

This allows proof of compliance at origin, which in can potentially replace the current paper records which are difficult to verify and subject to corruption.

The system is a mix of mobile technology and blockchain. Fishers registered their catches to the blockchain via text message. Additional data are later verified and added by NGOs. Once the information is transmitted through the supply chain, it cannot be altered, and the data are visible through the product’s whole journey.

Supply chain transparency for commodities where provenance may impact consumers is moving forward quickly, and using blockchain for this is gaining traction.

Myanmar – microfinance transactions  

BC Finance, the biggest microfinance institution in Myanmar, is working with a Japanese firm to record transactions on blockchain. 

The partners hope that this initiative can propel the sector’s growth by cutting costs and reducing the administrative complexity of tracking large numbers of small transactions.

It is expected that blockchain technology can be useful in a country like Myanmar, where advanced accounting systems are not yet in place. However, obstacles include frequent power outages and low-quality local circuits.

Finance in general and trade finance in particular, is one of the more active areas for blockchain development. Commercial banks throughout the region are participating in consortiums to come up with blockchain solutions to the very expensive, slow, and opaque trade process.

Bottom line 

Blockchain pilots are making waves in countries in developing Asia for two reasons. 

The first reason is that most developing countries don’t have legacy systems that need to be replaced. Blockchain can provide the first upgrade of an existing inefficient system, or introduce infrastructure that didn’t exist before. 

The second reason for the widespread interest stems from the light regulatory infrastructure in many countries. So far, this has been an opportunity, but it also raises some concerns as this technology matures.

ADB can play an important role in ensuring that blockchain is implemented in a development-friendly way. We can bring together regulators, best practices, IT experts, and officials to ensure everyone is on the same page. 

Alisa DiCaprio is Economic Researcher at ADB Institute and Steven Beck is Head of Trade Finance at ADB. This post is republished from the ADB blog.

Source : http://www.eco-business.com/opinion/blockchain-pilots-making-waves-in-developing-asia/

Press freedom 'under threat' in new Myanmar

Under the military junta that ruled Myanmar for nearly 50 years, the media were tightly controlled.

But after a quasi-civilian government took over in 2011, many curbs were lifted and a rigid censorship regime abolished.

Journalists were among masses of political prisoners released, and media outlets mushroomed to serve a highly literate population that had been starved of independent news.

When the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Laureate kept under house arrest for years because of her democratic activism, won historic elections in 2015, many expected more media freedom would follow.

But journalists and press freedom advocates are alarmed by what they say is an increasingly heavy-handed approach, especially on matters of sensitivity to the military, which retains significant power.

The latest case involves three journalists arrested by the military on 26 June after watching the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), a rebel group, burn drugs in north-eastern Shan State.

Aye Nai, 53, and Pyae Phone Naing, 24, report for the Democratic Voice of Burma broadcaster, while Lawi Weng, 38, works for The Irrawaddy news magazine and website. Both outlets were run by exiles who fled during the junta era to report on abuses in the then pariah state, and who returned home after reforms in 2012.

The trio were handed to police and charged under the colonial-era Unlawful Associations Act for having alleged contact with the TNLA, which the army has recently been clashing with and describes as a "terrorist" group. They could face up to three years in prison, and a close aide of Ms Suu Kyi has defended the charges.

"It's true that they broke the law by going to meet ethnic groups," Win Htein, a former political prisoner, said.

Yet the case has caused uproar because many journalists have met TNLA rebels without facing prosecution, and the group came into direct contact with reporters and officials when it attended peace talks in May in the capital, Naypyitaw.

'Climate of fear'

Lawi Weng is well-respected for his reporting on ethnic armed groups around Myanmar.

His fiancée, Loa Htaw, told Reuters news agency that he was well aware that he could be jailed for reporting on such issues, and criticising both the military and government.

But "he needs to report for the voiceless and the powerless", she said.

Aung Zaw, editor of The Irrawaddy, said his reporter had been planning to investigate reports of abuses by the army and local militias in the area.

He said he had been unlawfully arrested, and that journalists were legally allowed to gather news in conflict zones. "Our work is under threat," he told the BBC.

In an opinion piece, he wrote: "The return of a climate of fear is very disturbing, particularly after the National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the 2015 election.

"I can't help but recall Lawi's optimism on Election Day. No, he was not thinking that he would eventually be locked up under this government".

Facebook posts targeted

The arrests come weeks after two journalists from The Voice newspaper were sued by the military over a satirical article.

Editor Kyaw Min Swe remains in custody and has been charged with defamation under a controversial section of the telecommunications law that human rights groups say is being used to silence criticism of the military and government online.

Activists say at least 71 people have been charged under Section 66(d) since the law came into force in 2013 - the vast majority after Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD took power.

One man was sentenced to six months for posting a poem on Facebook about having a tattoo of former President Thein Sein on his penis.

Aung San Suu Kyi has come under sustained criticism internationally for what many perceive as her failure to speak out about grave human rights abuses allegedly committed by the military against the Muslim minority Rohingya community, and civilians from other ethnic minorities in conflict-affected areas.

The treatment of journalists under her government has also come under scrutiny.

Some Myanmar watchers say that not all the criticism is warranted, however. The military retains significant power throughout the country, and controls the defence, home and border affairs ministries and holds 25% of the seats in Parliament.

As a tenuous democratic transition continues, Ms Suu Kyi's room to manoeuvre is tight and she is choosing her priorities carefully, some argue.

In April, she told the BBC that she was "just a politician" and "no Mother Theresa".

Suu Kyi denies Rohingya ethnic cleansing

A global icon, isolated

Still, with a parliamentary majority the NLD government "has the power to amend or abolish many repressive laws" that are used to target journalists, the Democratic Voice of Burma's editor-in-chief Aye Chan Naing told the BBC.

He adds that the arrest of two of his journalists for doing their "normal job" is "shocking ".

"It's very disappointing the way the government [has reacted] on this case," he says.

"We can understand the way the military is acting but it's really shocking to see [the government], instead of helping and siding with the independent journalists, is kind of giving the green light to the military to go ahead."

But Win Htein, the aide to Ms Suu Kyi, has said that getting a peace deal is a bigger priority than amending the Unlawful Associations Act.

Mratt Kyaw Thu, a senior reporter with the magazine Frontier Myanmar, says he doesn't believe journalists will stop reporting from conflict zones and on ethnic armed groups.

But he does admit that the recent series of cases has sparked fresh debate among reporters about how far they can go in criticising the military.

He says journalists approached Aung San Suu Kyi on 28 June to ask about press freedom in the wake of the arrests, "but she never listens about that".

Source : http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40448504

Ooredoo Myanmar offers unlimited Iflix access, free data

Ooredoo Myanmar has signed a deal with Iflix to provide customers with up to six months of unlimited access to Iflix. Each customer is entitled to an extra 1 GB of monthly data for up to six months to stream and download on Iflix exclusively, on top of their existing data allocation.

Ooredoo has also introduced monthly data packs exclusively for use on Iflix, with 1 GB costing MMK 999, 4 GB costing MMK 2,999 and 10 GB costing MMK 5,999. Customers who purchase a standard Paung Kuu pack (from MMK 2,999) through the My Ooredoo app receive 10 percent bonus data for Iflix.

Iflix has a library of first-run exclusive shows, TV serials, blockbuster films, popular local and regional content and children's programmes. Access to Iflix is available on up to five devices at once, including phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, TVs and other connected devices.

Customers will have unlimited access to download TV shows and movies to any phone, tablet or mobile device to binge-watch offline, when not connected to the internet, and to share the iflix subscription with family or friends and watch shows on two different devices at the same time.

Source : https://www.telecompaper.com/news/ooredoo-myanmar-offers-unlimited-iflix-access-free-data--1202204

Myanmar weighs in on booming online food shops

Myanmar's online food shops have become very popular among the country’s millions of Internet users, giving restaurants and street food shops a run for their money.

As the internet has become widely used in Myanmar, people have taken to online shopping, importing clothes and accessories mainly from Thailand and Singapore as well as dried or fried food, snacks and recipes using social media.

According to a survey by the Myanmar ICT Development Organisation (MIDO) conducted in June, almost 14 million Myanmar people aged 18 to 64 use Facebook.

“Of course, the number of food sellers on social media has increased. Crab recipes are selling like hotcakes,” Khine Su Wai, who has sold hotpot and crab recipes online for the past year and a half, told Weekend.

People order food online when the food is not easy to make or when they are too lazy to cook. One can get special food online anytime they want, especially when it’s raining or when it’s inconvenient to go out to eat.

Yuzana Khin, an avid online shopper who started purchasing knick-knacks in 2014 then graduated to ordering food online, said buying food online is similar to buying food at a restaurant.

“For example, Mote Hninn Karr - the traditional Myanmar soup sold in almost every shop - does not always taste good, even in a well-known shop,” she said. “It’s the same when you order food online. I try once, and I continue ordering and sharing with friends if it is good. If not, I don’t order again.”

“I’ ve receive many defective things when I order online, but not food. Most of the food I order online is good and tasty,” said Yuzana Khin, who said she always checks customer reviews and feedback for an online shop before she places an order.

But 46-year-old Richard, who likes to find and eat good food at restaurants, is wary.

“Ordering food online is similar to testing my luck. I prefer to eat outside where I can see and smell the food being cooked. Reviews? Some people may write reviews in exchange for something,” he told Weekend.

He is not the only one. Food blogger Show Show Aung also prefers to eat out rather than order food online.

“Online shops cannot maintain the quality of the taste and cannot take the pressure when they have a lot of orders. I have never heard of online shops being run by an organisation but rather by families. It is a good business for a family but not for a long-term business,” he said.

Despite the mixed reactions, Htike Htike Aung, executive director of MIDO, said there is a big potential for online food sales.

“The cost of opening an online shop is low, so the price of food will be cheap, and they can offer door-to-door delivery, which is an added convenience for customers who do not want to go out to enjoy their favourite food. It also supports the family business.”

She said it is a win-win situation for the food shops and the consumer.

“Consumers can check the feedback easily via Facebook, which will provide more incentive for online food shops to offer better service,” she said.

Zin Min Htet, who operates an online food shop, said it is not necessarily true that prices at restaurants are higher than at online shops.

“At some restaurants, the food costs more because of expensive decorations and ingredients. But I also see food from online shops that are expensive, maybe because of their wages,” Zin Min Htet, who also sells crab recipes online, said.

Both online food shops and restaurants have to charge 5 percent sales tax and 5pc to 10pc service fee on top of the price of food, according to Kywe Kywe Ohn.

“It is really bad that the cost of delivery is the same amount as the price of the food I want to eat. Only when you order a lot, is it a better deal,” Kywe Kywe Ohn said.

If you want to order online food, be sure to check the customer reviews, especially those of friends and relatives, so that you can get not only tasty food but the best value for your money.

Source : http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/lifestyle/dining/26627-myanmar-weighs-in-on-booming-online-food-shops.html

Myanmar's Startup Revolution

Myanmar's rapid development since the end of military rule is nurturing a new wave of young entrepreneurs. Launching a new business was nearly unthinkable just a few years ago. But now, with the soaring popularity of smartphones, startups are poised to revolutionize the market with innovative business concepts.

On the very first “Demo Day” for tech startups in Myanmar, 4 young entrepreneurs are pitching their ideas. They were selected from among 80 applicants.

“We created mobile comic application for all the comic readers in Myanmar.”
Venture capitalists and angel investors were invited to listen and consider injecting funds.

"We’ve got very rich home-grown talents here and I think I‘ve been surprised by the entrepreneurial mindset of people here," says one of them.

First prize goes to Honey Mya Win. She founded her startup with her programmer sister less than a year ago after quitting her job with a Chinese telecom firm.

“Myanmar is open up and these investors are coming in, so that will be wise to start it right now," she says.

Her startup, “Chate Sat,” -- meaning “connect” in Burmese -- is a platform linking freelancers with work opportunities.

The 4,000 or so registered freelancers have skills from writing content to developing websites. They can apply for projects directly, without having to pay large sums to a middleman.

"Our dream is to let people know that Chate Sat is here to help people out," she says.

Myanmar is in an era of rapid digital transformation. More people are using the internet, thanks to cheap smart phones and competition among telecom firms.

Myanmar's dramatic opening-up and the rapid spread of smart phones has created a healthy breeding ground for startups, according to the pitch contest's organizer.

"Three years ago, their businesses would not just have been viable. So, this technology leapfrog is essential in enabling the kind of activities," says Jes Kaliebe Petersen, Director of Phandeeyar Accelerator.

Koe Koe Tech's app is called “Maymay,” meaning “mother.” It's a health support service for pregnant women and mothers.

The app has Q-and-As about pregnancy and childcare, and chat rooms where users can discuss health issues. Users can quickly find a doctor, or even shop for baby goods.

New mother Thandar Aung has been using it since she was pregnant. Even living in a suburb of Yangon, she says, reliable medical advice is hard to find.

"I can use the app to check what kind of food to give my children. I can get useful information direct from my smartphone, so it’s very convenient," she says.

"With access to high-quality health information, high quality health provider, high quality health products, will improve health outcome of Myanmar. We definitely want to reduce… kind of the simplest things, maternal and children-under-5 mortality rates in the country," says Koe Koe Tech Co-founder Michael Lwin.

Most Myanmar startups are still struggling to get funding and make money. But after decades of isolation, these entrepreneurs are making a valuable contribution to the country's development.

Source :  https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/editors/1/myanmarsstartuprevolution/index.html