Amidst the array of consumer tech gadget booths, Sitex offers consumers a chance to find tech jobs
It is no secret that Singaporeans are voracious hunters of tech gadget bargains. The country is host to a series of consumer electronics bonanzas all year-round, contributing to an industry that has generated US$679 million in revenue this year (thus far).
One key player in this carousel of consumerism is Sitex, organised by Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) and SingEx.
But rather than just afford consumers the opportunity to lose themselves in a dizzying labyrinth of discounted gadgets and electronics, Sitex is also becoming a place where consumers can discover indie homebrew innovations and learn about the startup ecosystem.
“Sitex is an industry-driven show, it is not just a bargain show. Over the years, we have introduced elements that make sense for the consumers and the [tech] community,” Semun Ho, Executive Director of SiTF, told e27.
And by “over the years”, Ho was referring to the 16-year time span since Sitex’s first incarnation. Back in 2001, the only well known (globally) Singaporean consumer electronics brand was audio sound card company Creative.
Today, that brand is conspicuously absent from most trade and consumer electronic shows; the new Singaporean headliner is Razer, which was proudly showing off its gaming accessories as well as its new Razer Phone at Sitex.
But while Razer and its charismatic founder Min-Liang Tan may be flying brand Singapore high in the public eye, Sitex is eager to showcase the little players.
You see, while Singapore’s startup ecosystem has achieved rockstar status among its peers in the global community, the reality is that the kid who is looking to buy a gaming monitor to play the new Star Wars: Battlefront II game doesn’t really care.
“Our interest is more than commercial; we want to align more with the intentions of the nation, the Smart Nation; we want to use this platform — where we have good traffic — to expose people to the new innovations that are coming up — be it jobs, applications, or tools,” said Ho.
“At the same time, we want startups to get more eyeballs and more traction for their solutions,” she said.
As for its career exhibits — a first in Sitex — Ho said the idea was to give startups another venue to find tech talent, which is in short supply in the country despite the demand.
That being said, Sitex is still primarily a consumer electronics-focused affair, so its jobs exhibits and startup booths were not advertised heavily, and neither are they given prime estate locations within the hall; instead they are tucked away near one of the exhibition’s side entrances.
One definitely gets the feeling they are do not share top-billed appearances with the big retail players; but it’s a nice start.
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Ho said the idea wasn’t about segmenting the event into two different tracks but to rather create an awareness about the startup ecosystem amongst Sitex’s visitors.
The hope is that since the visitors are already techies, they would naturally take an interest in this other side of tech.
“We don’t want to skew it so that it becomes a career fair. If you look at Sitex, there are many different elements, so we need to strike a balance between all of them,” she said.
The startups
Ho said the startups that can exhibit have to be either B2C or B2B2C, and they also need to have a working product.
“We don’t want startups that are only at the ideation stage. They must have something that the consumers can really try. Every year we try to get startups we feel people can relate to; not esoteric ones that people don’t understand,” she said.
These startups include insurance startup PolicyPal. The company provides an app that has a dashboard to display existing insurance coverage, payment and renewal dates. Consumers will also be able to check outstanding insurance payment amounts, as well as policy expiry and payment dates.
Additionally, it digitalises existing insurance policies to analyse and suggest improvements on the coverage. Consumers can also optimise policies and request for recommendations by speaking with the app’s chatbot.
Then there’s the Mining Rig Club. The company sells high-powered computers, or mining rigs, to mine blockchain-based products such as cryptocurrency or ethereum.
Customers can purchase the rigs, which come pre-installed with Mining Rig Club’s proprietary software, to mine ethereum. According to Mining Rig Club, customers can expect to bring even within a year of purchasing a mining rig, which mines 0.80 – 0.85 ethereum per month.
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If consumers would like to find out what diets or fitness regimes best suit them, they can purchase a DNA swab test at Imagene Labs. The startup also offers health supplements.
For Nalinee Chinowuthichai, COO of InvoiceInterchange, a p2p invoice trading marketplace, she is looking for both sales and talent leads.
Unlike scouting for talent at university or polytechnic job fairs, Chinowuthichai said there’s more variety at an event like Sitex.
“It’s not just school-going people, we could [encounter] people looking for a career change, or just people interested in startups, or just someone who is interested in technology,” she said.
The fact that SiTF heavily subsidised the cost of exhibiting at Sitex for startups was also a draw for her. “Basically, SiTF really supportsupportscompanies in attracting talents,” she said.
Within two hours of Sitex’s opening, InvoiceInterchange met two interested parties.
Sitex will remain a consumer-focused event, said SiTFs Semun Ho, when e27 asked if there were plans to build a larger startup-focused segment.
“I think there are already many events that specifically target startups,” she said. “But I think it all depends on the appetite of the consumers. If there is a demand for it we will definitely look into it,”
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