While the local expansion of foreign multinationals such as Electronic Arts and Lucasfilm tend to hog the headlines, a new market study shows thecountry’s nascent interactive digital media (IDM) sector is in fact rife with local talent.

According to Deloitte Consulting, local firms make up 79 per cent of the local IDM industry and foreign companies accounted for the remaining 21 per cent.

This study, which polled 130 companies across the sector on their performance from 2007 to 2008, is one of the first few attempts to take a snapshot of a fledging industry which only came under the government spotlight in the last fewyears.

The Deloitte report revealed that there are around 585 IDM-related companies in Singapore and they added 1,500 jobs in 2008 to bring their combined employment tally to nearly 7,400.

Start-ups make up 19 per cent of IDM companieshere while small and mid-sized enterprises account for the lion’s share at 67 per cent. Large companies accounted for the rest, the survey showed.

The sector’s headcount boost is in line with its sizzling growth during the year, with itsvalue-add growing at a rate of 25 per cent to $798 million at the end of 2008. The IDM industry’s revenue also grew at a similar pace from an estimated $1 billion in 2007 to $1.3 billion in 2008.

‘This strong growth can be explained by intenseinvestments, R&D (research and development) and localisation in Singapore over the 2007 to 2008 period,’ according to the Deloitte report.

‘Such high growth suggests that Singapore is heading in the right direction,’ the firm said.

During the year, the Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA), which manages a $500 million war chest from the National Research Foundation, invested heavily to boost R&D in the IDM space.

These included allocating $40 million in seedfunding to support digital media start-ups as well as introducing a scheme to co-finance the creation of new computer games.

MDA also roped in partners such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to set up gaming labs and rallied investorsand distributors to set aside more money to fund local productions.

Sister agencies such as the Economic Development Board weighed in by wooing foreign media giants to plant their development operations here.

Last year, the governmentwent a step further to zone out a piece of land in Buona Vista to play host to media and gaming companies.

Called Mediapolis, the 19-hectare premises could eventually house dozens of new buildings for accommodating production houses, gamedevelopers and post- production companies when fully-completed in 2020.

‘In order to further monetise R&D-based innovation, Singapore should seek to promote greater technical standardisation, further collaboration within the IDM ecosystem andprovide customised funding to meet innovative companies’ needs based on their life cycle,’ Deloitte said.

Source : The Business Times
Author : Winston Chai

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SINGAPORE’S next generation of digital media whizzes are being grown with money from a $500 million fund that has gone into building digital classrooms, as well as promising commercial ventures by start-up companies and MNCs.

And now, funding will also go to research projects by companies in digital media, the Media Development Authority (MDA) said yesterday.

In the last two years, money from the Interactive Digital Media Programme Office (IDMPO) has helped 120 start-ups, and provided seed money for 68 other companies.

Funds have also gone to 64 schools and educational institutions to help them enhance teaching through digital media.

Among them was a project by the National Institute of Education to develop a multi-player game on mobile phones that would facilitate learning.

Started in 2006, the IDMPO aims to fuel the growth of interactive digital media and its research and development (R&D). To be disbursed over five years, it has more than six funding schemes now.

MDA revealed where the money had gone at yesterday’s Computer Games, Multimedia & Allied Technology (CGAT) conference but would not say how much had been given.

It hopes to fuel the growth of the media sector from $4.7 billion in 2005 to $10 billion by 2015, and add 10,000 jobs.

‘Singapore has a chance to create the next breakthrough in media,’ said Mr Michael Yap, deputy CEO and programme director of IDMPO, at the event.

Interactive digital media can encompass the areas of gaming, next generation Web and mobile technology, to name a few.

First Meta, a virtual credit card company in virtual worlds like Second Life, received funding in 2007 for R&D and manpower. Founder Aileen Sim said it saved her a lot of the heartache that most start-ups face.

‘The money allowed us to do up prototypes and other costly research. It also opened doors to investors, who saw us as more credible,’ said Ms Sim, who added that her company’s monthly revenue has hit the mid six-figures now.

With funding from IDMPO, it is currently working on converting virtual game currency into money that can be used in real life.

Mr Yap also announced that firms can start applying for new, additional funding for its latest initiative, Future of Media.

The money is to encourage companies to innovate and conduct research on next-generation media applications in television, mobile phones, virtual worlds or three-dimensional Web, books and games. MDA will accept and fund 50 to 100 companies to work on each ‘future’ field.

It wants to work these future services and applications into its massive virtual city, Co-Space, first launched about a year ago as its answer to Second Life.

IDMPO is a testament to how funding can water growth.

Between September 2007 and September last year, applications from start-ups applying for seed money of up to $50,000 leapt threefold.

Progress of Singapore’s media sector
Singapore’s media sector has enjoyed steady growth since the industry’s national blueprint Media 21 was unveiled. As at 2006, the media sector1 contributed $5 billion value-added and $19.5 billion revenue to the economy, employing 54,700 workers.

The compounded annual growth rate of the media sector from 1996 to 2006 was 8.0%, higher than 5.2% for the overall economy.

Recognising the growth prospects of the sector, the Government announced in Parliament last month that it will set aside $230 million over five years under the Singapore Media Fusion plan to develop the local media industry, representing a 40% increase in funding from the previous Media 21 blueprint. That is on top of existing NRF support of $500 million over five years for interactive digital media
research and development.

Said Dr Christopher Chia, MDA’s Chief Executive Officer, “For the coming year and beyond, MDA will focus on funding and developing high-value and exportable content and applications, with an emphasis on helping Singapore companies to leverage digital media and adopt a 360° approach to exploit original intellectual properties across multiple platforms and formats. To this end, we will issue major calls for proposals throughout the year across TV, film, publishing, music, interactive media
and games, aimed at stimulating a strong pipeline of projects for local media companies.

“Alongside efforts to boost industry activity are stepped up capability development initiatives to train manpower and match talents to projects, that will help to prepare the media sector for the upturn.”
Stimulating a strong pipeline of projects Leading the first wave of project calls at today’s Media Business Forum was the request for innovative public service programmes that can travel across platforms and borders. In a separate call under its “360° TV” initiative to build brands and franchises around media properties, MDA requested for original TV concepts that leverage various digital media distribution avenues and partnerships. Both calls are expected to result in more TV content produced out of Singapore. This year, MDA aims to support 2,380 hours of broadcast content, 200 hours more than the previous year.

Recognising the potential of the music industry as a platform for the development of local talents, as well as a springboard for creative and business enhancements across broadcast, animation, film and games, a call was also initiated for proposals to transform Singapore into a digital music hub, build the music ecosystem and develop music services to support content productions.

Establishing strategic networks
To galvanise the industry to secure a foothold in niche sub-sectors of the emerging new media arena, MDA today launched a “Future of Media” initiative that aims to form five partner networks for companies to share resources, collaborate, experiment and innovate. The partner networks are Future Mobile, Future Games, Future TV, Future Worlds and Future Books. Each partner network aims to cluster between 50 to 100 companies, ranging from start-ups, small and medium enterprises and anchor companies. MDA will provide support in the form of industry contacts, matchmaking and co-funding the call for proposals.

To kick off the initiative, some 20 companies, including Friendster, G Element, Mozat, QALA Singapore, SingTel and Sun Microsystems, are joining MDA in calling for proposals. The calls will collate the business requirements and demands of technology and innovative applications of these companies, and provide the industry with a network of user base, distribution networks and development platforms for industry members to leverage. For example, SingTel, Mozat and Friendster combined can provide start-ups with access to potentially hundreds of millions of users.

Training and upgrading media manpower
To sharpen the competitive edge of Singapore’s media industry, MDA is working with Workforce Development Authority and the industry on programmes to train and upgrade media manpower, leveraging initiatives such as Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) and Professional Conversion Programme (PCP). MDA will commit $6 million to fund the slate of manpower programmes, which is expected to benefit 6,000 media talents this year.

A new programme – Media Training & Attachment (META) – will give global exposure and work opportunities to local talents and media professionals by matching, and upgrading their skills where needed, to projects and companies with corresponding needs. MDA will co-fund such attachments to both local and overseas companies. An estimated 150 talents will benefit from META this year.

In addition, the revamped Singapore Media Fusion industry portal (www.smf.sg) will incorporate a bulletin board that allows organisations that are hiring, to post their manpower or resource requirements. Individuals can also upload their CVs for prospective employers to assess for a better job match.

“Our slate of initiatives is aimed at saving and creating jobs, and also maintaining a strong pipeline of projects through an increased investment in the media sector. By enhancing the media sector’s digital value proposition and increasing efforts in capability development, we hope to strengthen the foundation for growth,“ said Dr Chia.

Even our start-ups are starting to gain recognitions, as 6 of our companies beat competition from countries like China, India, Korea, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Vietnam to emerge as finalists in BusinessWeek’s Best Young Entrepreneurs in Asia, and the Red Herring 100 Asia 2008 awards.

IDMPO Companies at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards 2008
The Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) is an international Awards Program initiated by the Multimedia Development Corporation of Malaysia to increase ICT awareness in the community and assist in bridging the Digital Divide. The program is designed to stimulate ICT innovation and creativity, promote economic and trade relations, facilitate technology transfer, and offer business matching opportunities via exposure to venture capitalists and investors.

Out of 126 nominations submitted by 10 countries, Singapore emerged as the biggest winner with 3 submissions winning 3 out of 16 categories. Our winners, PGK Media and Personal e-Motion came in tops for the Research and Development and e-Learning categories, with the Central Provident Fund Board winning the e-Inclusion and e-Community category. Singapore also received 6 merit awards in the the other categories.

Winners received the awards from the Vice President of Indonesia, H.E. Jusuf Kalla when the awards were announced during the Gala Dinners and Award Ceremony earlier this month.

Institutes of Higher Learning

Microsoft XNA Dream-Build-Play Content 2008
GAMBIT won the first place prize of $40,000 for “CarneyVale: Showtime” in Microsoft’s XNA Dream-Build-Play 2008, a game development contest to create innovative and fun-to-play video games for Xbox 360 using XNA Game Studio. The Singapore team from GAMBIT beat 350 games entry from over 100 countries.

CarneyVale: Showtime is an acrobatic puzzle game where players are asked to complete various circus stunts. Bruce Chia from Team GAMBIT even built-in a circus map editor for players to create their own obstacles to overcome, bringing user-generated content to a new a level.

The Star Challenge @ Fusionopolis
Team NUS led by Professor Chua Tat Seng won the top prize of US$100,000 in Singapore’s Star Challenge@Fusionopolis organized by A*STAR, beating finalists from China, France, Japan and USA. It was a culmination of 10 months of intense competition involving 56 teams from 17 countries using new technologies and algorithms created by contestants to perform multimedia search on a multilingual database. The contestants included search engine enthusiasts as well as several of the world’s top laboratories.

Nokia Ubimedia Mindtrek Award 2008
Babbage Cabbage (http://babbagecabbage.mixedrealitylab.org), developed by researchers from the Mixed Reality Lab of National University of Singapore was recently been awarded third prize in the prestigious International Nokia Ubimedia Mindtrek Award 2008. The head of the jury explained how the project was so compelling and forward thinking, that he used it as an example in his university class to teach his students about the design of cutting edge interactive systems!

IDM Companies

Red Herring 100 Asia 2008 Awards
IDMPO is proud to note that 3 of its funded companies are included in the exclusive list of finalists who came from 16 countries/regions including China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Vietnam.

The companies are 2C2P, Mozat and Telliwave.

Our “finalists were selected from across 16 countries and regions are all excellent contenders…,they are exceptional companies who thrive on innovation and strongly define the important role of technology in Asia’s economy and throughout the world.” said Joel Dreyfuss, Editor-in-Chief of Red Herring.

The finalists and winning companies will be celebrated at the Red Herring 100 Asia event in Hong Kong, on December 2-3, 2008. The event brings together an elite roster of entrepreneurial and global venture investment firms to showcase excellence in innovation. It features two days of keynote discussions, roundtable panels and intimate networking events designed for participants to make connections and learn what it takes to achieve the best in business and technology in Asia.

About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company uniting the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine; an online daily technology news service; technology research, and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy. For more information, visit www.redherring.com.

About 2C2P
2C2P is an e-commerce payment provider offering innovative payment processing solutions for businesses with online e-commerce sites. 2C2P is in compliance with the highest security standards and utilizes the latest web 2.0 technologies extensively to process payments faster and to enhance user experience. 2C2P manages a complete transaction life-cycle, which includes payer authentication, payment authorization, payment routing, settlement and post-settlement dispute and chargeback management. Its customer portfolio includes government agencies, financial institutions and other large corporations.

Since it began operations, 2C2P has been continuously developing and launching new products to offer unequalled benefits to its users. For more information about the company, please visit www.2c2p.com.

About Mozat
MOZAT Pte Ltd was incorporated in 2003 by two PhD research scholars from the National University of Singapore with the mission to mobilize the world’s information and make it universally accessible from mobile devices and useful for everyone. MOZAT is dedicated in thorough investigation of different mobile development platforms and establishing the first device independent platform that can help worldwide developers build and deliver elegant and powerful mobile applications and services of any category. For more information, please visit www.mozat.com

About Telliwave
Teliwave Pte Ltd was incorporated in Singapore on April 2007 and has established itself to be an innovative and revolutionary company. Teliwave Pte Ltd aims to provide users with useful and inventive technologies that connect people and services, regardless of devices or networks, in a seamless integrated communication environment. Teliwave’s ground-breaking communication solution – the Hoiio mobile application is an innovative communication solution that empowers the user with a smarter way to stay in touch with their loved ones at a reduced cost through Hoiio’s global low call-rates. For more information, visit www.teliwave.com

SIGGRAPH Asia 2008
The first ACM SIGGRAPH Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia opens in Singapore on 10 December 2008.

For four fascinating days, SIGGRAPH Asia 2008 will extend the horizons of innovation and excellence. It will feature creative, scientific, and educational work that provokes thought, explores ideas in innovative ways, addresses contemporary issues, interactively engages viewers in discovery, and stimulates their intellect and imagination.

Visit event website

Italian animation firm sets up $25m gaming unit here
Singapore’s video games industry gets a boost as Italy’s top animation company Rainbow invests $25 million in a new gaming unit here, to create a virtual world based on its popular Winx Club fantasy franchise.

Rainbow’s chief executive office Iginio Straffi said at a press briefing yesterday that the studio in Chinatown is expected to have about 100 full-time employees by 2011. Right now, it has 12, half of them Singaporeans.

Mr Straffi – married to Singaporean Joanne Lee, who is an executive vice-president of the company – said the upcoming game is expected to create jobs for another 200 people such as external freelance artists.

Read more

In the second phase, SiTF will cultivate these ideas further into the project stage with the ultimate goal for commercialisation by establishing funding mechanisms through close collaboration with government bodies and the industry. The selected projects will also have the opportunity to be matched with SiTF’s vast network of members for further investment. Lead SiTF members like MediaCorp Pte Ltd, Microsoft, SingTel and ST Electronics (Training & Simulation Systems) have already expressed their interest in project domains such as interactive media, mobile digital media, broadcast, IPTV and open source development etc. SiTF will continue to market this program to gain greater interest from more corporations who see opportunity to partner with start ups. Through support from the industry, the mentorship programme hopes to make available up to $10m worth of project funding and support over a period of five years.

On the partnership with SiTF, Mr Michael Yap, Executive Director of IDMPO said: “We welcome the joining of SiTF in our effort to fuel innovation in the IDM space. We believe SiTF’s wide network of industry members would add to the vibrancy of our IDM ecosystem. We are exploring with companies such as MediaCorp Pte Ltd and ST Electronics to conduct joint calls for proposals.”

With SiTF, the IDMPO now has a network of 10 incubators to create support structures for the start-ups, including the platforms for regular pitching sessions and finding industry partners. Collectively, the incubators will nurture some 450 start-ups over the next few years. The existing incubators have facilitated the funding of some 90 projects to date, out of which 15 were completed. Thirty per cent of the completed projects have successfully received private investment.

“These are exciting times for players in the interactive digital media industry. Through the joint mentorship programme, SiTF aims to catalyse growth in the industry by enabling ideas to gain access to the right connections, guidance from industry experts and veterans, and obtain the necessary funding in order to ultimately develop into innovative products and services and bring them to market,” said Mr Ng Chong Khim, Chairman of SiTF’s Digitial Media Chapter.

To find out more about the joint Mentorship Programme, please contact Jacquie Khoo at Jacquie.khoo@sitf.org.sg.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Jasmine Wong
Assistant Manager, Communications
Media Development Authority of Singapore
Mobile: 9296-7004
Email: jasmine_wong@mda.gov.sg

Jacqueline Khoo
SiTF
Mobile: +65 9115 8800
DID: +65 6325 9713
Email: Jacquie.khoo@sitf.org.sg

Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA)
The Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) was formed on 1 January 2003 to champion Media 21, a blueprint to transform Singapore into a global media city. Media 21 seeks to create a vibrant media environment by establishing Singapore as a media exchange, exporting Made-by-Singapore content, internationalising local media companies, nurturing local media talent and developing digital media. More information on MDA can be found on www.mda.gov.sg

Interactive & Digital Media (IDM) Sector
The development of the IDM sector requires the collaboration of a diverse range of public sector agencies, educational institutions, industry players and other stakeholders. To achieve this, the National Research Foundation has allocated $500 million over the next five years from 2006 to fund the development of a strategic IDM research programme and the set-up of a multi-agency IDM R&D Programme Office within the Media Development Authority of Singapore to oversee R&D initiatives in the IDM space. This multi-agency team is accountable to the IDM Executive Committee and coordinates a cross-disciplinary effort to deepen Singapore’s research capacity in IDM. Please visit www.idm.sg for more information.

About SiTF
Singapore infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) is Singapore’s premier infocomm industry association. It brings together 400 corporate members from MNCs and local companies. The main charter of the federation is to assist its members in business development, market intelligence, overseas trade missions, networking and alliances.
The eight chapters under SiTF are: Best Sourcing, Digital Media, eGovernment, eLearning, Security & Governance, Singapore Enterprise, Service-Oriented Architecture and Wireless. Besides working closely with government and foreign agencies, SiTF is also a member of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA), Asian-Oceania Computing Industry Organisation (ASOCIO) and Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA). SiTF also manages the Infocomm Singapore Centre (ISC) in China (Shanghai and Hangzhou) to give local infocomm companies a foothold in Greater China.
SiTF organises several Singapore’s key infocomm events – SiTF Golf Classic, iX Conference, SITEX, and administers the ‘Infocomm Singapore’ brand initiative. For more information on SiTF, please visit www.sitf.org.sg

The National Research Foundation (NRF)
The National Research Foundation (NRF), a department under the Prime Minister’s Office, sets the national direction for research and development (R&D) by developing policies, plans and strategies for research, innovation and enterprise, funds strategic initiatives, builds up R&D capabilities and capacities through nurturing our own and attracting foreign talent, and coordinates the research agenda of different agencies to transform Singapore into a knowledge-intensive, innovative and entrepreneurial economy. It provides secretariat support to the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Council (RIEC), chaired by the Prime Minister. A five-year budget of S$5 billion has been allocated to the NRF in 2006 to achieve this mission. For more information, please visit www.nrf.gov.sg.

RAdm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister of State for Education and Information, Communications and the Arts, announced the initiative at the i.JAM Networking Session. The initiative is meant to help raise the investment needed by IDM companies to further commercialise and develop their products and their companies.

This is done by putting selected companies through an intensive programme consisting of business planning and presentation classes, business plan improvement meetings, and personal coaching sessions.

These companies will then pitch their products to venture capitalists and other investors who might be interested in their products. On top of the private investments, the companies also qualify for R&D grants from IMDMPO or co-investment by SPRING SEEDS Capital of Spring Singapore.

So far, the initiative has signed up 40 potential investors, including big names like SPH, ST Electronics, Mediacorp Technologies, IDG Ventures Vietnam, and Stream Global.

This initiative is part of IDMPO’s ongoing effort to create an interlocking ecosystem between the four key groups in IDM R&D, which are institutes of higher learning, industry players, start-ups and individuals, and schools, to create innovation and capacity in the IDM industry.

Source: Business Times Online

Other i.MATCH related news

MDA launches iMATCH to bridge funding gap for IDM startups (Channel News Asia)
IDM start-ups to get boost from i.MATCH initiative (Business Times)
MATCH to boost local IDM companies’ search for funding (Berita Harian)
IDM start-ups to get boost from i.MATCH initiative (Business Times Online)
MDA help for digital media startups (The New Paper)
MDA sets digital fund, new niche TV (The Hollywood Reporter)
Singapore govt to support interactive digital media startups (IndiaTelevision.com)