Saturday, July 4, 2009

New E-Commerce Player

Its a Saturday morning, but I woke up early to get dressed up and ready for the launching of our new Malaysian partner, Platform2u.com's SMilDS e-commerce platform at Makati Shangrila, 9am. They were referred to me by PayEasy's Malaysian payment gateway partner, iPay88/Mobile88. So PayEasy was announced as a major partner for this endeavor along with LBC and DHL.

The Platform2U guys rented the Rizal ballroom. There were about 30 tables and a grand stage. They certainly did not scrimp on the launching. Aside from the ballroom, they rented a separate function room at the 3rd floor for the press conference. There were several VIP's including a representative from the DTI, the Malaysian Ambassador to the Philippines, and Platform2u's chairman, who is apparently a former cabinet minister and member of parliament of Malaysia.

The name of their e-commerce platform is SMilDS. Personally, I find the name to be not too marketing-friendly. As a rule, I always tell clients to choose domain names that are easy to recall and does not require much explanation or instructions on how to spell. If you have to expain it, then it must be complicated. SMilDS (pronounced "smile-ds") is actually an acronym. I wish they could have chosen an easier-to-remember name.

A sister company of SMilDS is Easy Pha-max. Its a health supplement made from wheat grass. Their local celebrity endorser is TV host (Sports Unlimited) and former tennis professional athlete, Dyan Castillejo. During lunch at the Shang Palace chinese restaurant, I was seated beside Dyan and had a good time talking with her. She's really into the wheat grass product and even gave me a sample to drink. I have to admit that I did not like the taste though. Its probably an acquired taste as she said she drinks it at least 3 times a day.

Later in the evening, we had dinner at Speaker Perez because Cols' mom and grandma are in town.

1 comment:

冰雨 said...

Hi Dick,

Thanks for all the support during the event.

Will love to pick up more from you in later stage when we officially operates in Phil during Sep.

Meanwhile, cheers and stay close :)

Too, can check out our latest updates and Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49989605930

Cheers,

Eddie