Comparison of local startups using Alexa

I know Alexa ranking is not the best analytic software around but it gives me a quick and dirty way to know how my funded startups are doing. I recently did a sample comparison and thought it would be interesting to share the tidbits that I picked up just by looking though the rankings. Here is the ranking. Note that I only focus on the B2C type of startups. Also note that I personally may not have invest in any of them if I have a say in the investment decision : )

Viwawa (Social game): 6,057 (not funded by us)
XiaXue (Local blogger): 28,223 (not funded by us)
BattleStations (Social network game): 43, 834(NUS)
Fresbo World (2.5D virtual world): 139,839 (FrontEdge)
iHiPo (International Internships): 197,558 (Thymos)
Cherry Credits (Game payment): 215,449 (not funded by us)
GoThere (Local search): 224,099 (not funded by us)
ZopIM (Live chat for ecommerce): 258, 074 (NUS)
Mr Brown (Local blogger): 284, 612 (not funded by us)
Phlook (Making photos interactive): 437, 860 (Thymos)
HomeSpace (Real estate search): 812, 756 (NUS)
Spree2Shop (Shopping review): 910,466 (Thymos)
Motion Element (Stock Animation): 1,106,654 (Thymos)
Stockalicious (Stock portfolio analysis): 1,198,149 (FrontEdge)
Eteract (3D speed dating): 1,769, 180 (Thymos)
Jamifi (Interactive sound): 4,387, 905 (Expara)
MyWobile (Mobile social networking): 7,593, 129 (Azione Capital)

A couple of interesting things stood out for me:

i) The most successful startup is not funded by us! Moreover, our top blogger is even more successful than our supported companies. A one woman blogger (without any funding) attracting more viewers than our $50k startups. What does that say about our startups and incubators? More importantly, what does that say about Web businesses (which leads to my next point)

ii) The Web is truly a different. Startups that tried to build their online businesses the traditional way will find quickly that individuals are outflanking them. Individuals who have a deep sense of how the Web works and what are the true value drivers (making deals vs having true conversation with users, cultural vs business like, creating value vs capturing value etc)

iii) The more successful startups in terms of traffic seem to be games. Moreover, all of them are social casual games, rather than the hardcore platform games. Going forward, I expect to see more such startups especially in the mobile gaming space.

iv) How do we compare B2C businesses in different platforms? During the course of doing the comparisons, I had trouble getting numbers for virtual world and mobile startups and this inevitably will skew the rankings. A recent startup called BuUuk for example seem to be gaining traction on the iPhone but I have no way to compare it against the startups here.

v) Is there any disruptive ideas you see in the all the companies above? When Umair Haque talks about revolutionaries not revolutionising anything, it is exactly how these startups have been doing:

But a huge part of the problem is entrepreneurs. The current crop of entrepreneurs just isn't thinking big enough.

There are no shortage of massive problems next-gen media plays can help solve. Global hunger? Check. Healthcare? Check. Moral hazard across the financial system? Check. The loss of social cohesion? Check. The massive shift of global labour from town to megaslum? Check. Exploding demand for energy? Check.

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Posted in: Singapore startup environment