Hyperlab aims to disrupt SEA market with chat app JustAsq

• App enables immediate connection and conversation with brands and experts
• Customisable nature means convenience and better user engagement

A TESTAMENT to the world we live in, most digital solutions nowadays connect people in some way, provide much needed information, or both. Information is certainly a big commodity, and the founders of Malaysia-based service design firm Hyperlab believe that there is a much better and more efficient way to obtain niche information than what is currently available.

Hyperlab’s platform JustAsq with its website JustAsq.me will change the way people look for and obtain information, says co-founder Vic Sithasanan.

“The world’s information actually resides in people’s heads. We feel the best way to get that information is to connect you with someone who is an expert on that specific thing you are looking for. Knowledge will be a powerful part of how people connect,” he says.

The information a person is seeking can range from something complex, such as a tax matter that needs resolving – the app will connect the user to a tax expert -  or something simple such as a recipe for a traditional dish the user wants to cook.

Though platforms such as Whatsapp and Facebook are already doing a good job of connecting people, their range is limited; essentially, they focus on connecting you to people within your network. The whole idea of JustAsq is that it connects you with people outside your network so that you can find the expert knowledge you require.

“Anything you want to do outside your network, we want to connect you to that piece of knowledge or someone who can service your request,” says Vic.

Discovery is important

Though a person’s network may be extensive, and the Internet full of information, discovering the right expert within the profusion is difficult and time consuming.

“How do you connect your intent with someone who can help you with that intent? That’s the problem we’re trying to solve.”

Launched in Malaysia in November to a restricted audience, the JustAsq chat app is populated by some big-name brands, including local telco giant Maxis, Sime Darby Group, Tropicana Corp Bhd, CIMB-Principal Asset Management, UEM Sunrise and Top Gear. There are also what the founders refer to as independent experts – individuals who are niche subject-matter experts on a range of subjects from food and cars to fashion and travel.

While the benefits for the users are evident – immediate access to relevant information – the incentives for the experts, especially the established brand names, essentially boil down to boosting branding through sales and services.

Consumers connect with a brand when they are seeking a brand experience or help with services. Vic explains that JustAsq allows these brands to provide the quality customer experience that both they and the customer demand, which in turn helps boost sales.

This is verified by DPO International Sdn Bhd, which owns the JustAsq client online grocery shopping and delivery company The BigBox.asia. Corporate Communications and Marketing Manager Shobana Jayandran says that DPO International was keen on an online chat tool as a real-time form of customer service and interaction, something its online customers demand.

“Allowing customers and site visitors the ability to speak to the brand in real time also provides a new kind of conversational experience that is interactive and intuitive,” she says.

For independent experts, profit comes in the form of being able to monetise their knowledge. “All of us have tonnes of knowledge in passion areas and are ready to share that knowledge because it makes you feel good. Getting paid for sharing your knowledge is an even better incentive,” says Vic.

Immediate gains

To enable this chat app, Hyperlab has built some substantial technology. Vic explains that once the Hyperlab team realised that the inherently multiway and asynchronous nature of chat was ideal for this application, it was able to build a conversational cloud that could be plugged in to every digital asset a brand owns.

Vic uses the example of Tropicana Corporation Bhd to illustrate – by clicking on an Internet ad, a potential customer is connected directly to a sales agent via JustAsq or, if after hours, to a chat bot that arranges a call back. The potential customer is able to obtain information immediately, the sales agent obtains a lead and the company saves on costs because of the highly efficient nature of the system.

According to Tropicana Corporation representative Ixora Ang, the decision to use JustAsq was made as an avenue to communicate with prospects and customers more effectively in terms of content and time. “It’s a ready solution for digital enquiries being seamlessly answered by the bot and the ability for further enquiries to be handled immediately and directly by our personnel.”

The inclusive nature of the system seems to be a big draw for JustAsq. DPO International cites it as an ideal ready-made solution – automated and versatile, allowing full control over the flow of content.

“JustAsq understands that there is an art to chat, and truly enhanced our user engagement. Having an automated solution allows us to answer and handle more customers than we previously could, and in a timely manner. It’s a convenient win for us and also for our customers,” says Shobana, adding that as the app is customisable, DPO International eschewed the need to develop its own chat app.

By using chat as a platform, JustAsq is connecting business with customers and customers with businesses, what Vic describes as a B to C to B service and something of a marketplace. Businesses are able to attract consumers (B to C) and consumers are able to obtain services such as booking a restaurant or a test drive. “Someone has something to offer, always.”

Building up and out

Hyperlab raised US$500,000 (RM2,231,124) in seed funding in May this year but was initially self-funded with about US$112,051 (RM500,000) by the co-founders from its inception in June 2015 until then.

 Vic reveals that Hyperlab is currently looking for more funding, probably in the form of a pre-series A round as JustAsq needs to show a lot more traction before a series A.

“Look at what WeChat has been able to do in China. That’s really something we want to achieve in Southeast Asia – engaging with brands, have transactions go through our site, to be a microeconomy on the app. But to do all that we have to work on customer acquisition, incentivisation and just building up the platform so that it is robust enough to handle the traffic. So we have to raise a lot of money to enable all this,” he says.

Having obtained significant interest and initial success with its clients, Hyperlab will be focusing heavily on acquisitions of end-users in Malaysia and Singapore the next six months. “There are two parts to this equation – the experts and the consumers who want to access the experts. Of course, brands want to access consumers too. We need to do both acquisitions at the same time.”

Vic points out that JustAsq is merely a David striving against the Goliaths of the market, such as Facebook, who Hyperlab sees as its biggest competitor. He does, however, believe that JustAsq has an advantage – the fact that it is specifically built to connect users to brands and experts outside their network, something that other platforms are not built to do.

“It’s not like we’re going to take over but we are going to be a strong alternative when users want to connect to knowledge,” he says.

The Hyperlab team is hyper aware of its need to prepare for the incumbents in the market to adapt to JustAsq’s hoped-for disruption. “We need to be agile and confident that we can succeed, and we need the financial support and the support of the country to do it,” says Vic. “It’s not going to be an easy journey, but it is exciting.” 
 
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