A cheer for football fans

• Premier League clubs Arsenal and Tottenham said they will be holding ‘pilot events’ to bring up to 4,000 fans back to their games safely, a move made possible by 500-backed digital health company Prenetics.

• After 9 months in which fans could not enter the stadium, the United Kingdom government’s announced that it will allow outdoor spectator sports in certain areas when the national lockdown ends.
• Players and staff are currently required to take part in a mass testing program to be declared free of Covid-19. Prenetics’ rapid testing kit can return results within 30 minutes.
• As part of this partnership, the Premier League has access to the startup’s digital health passport, which links testing history to an individual’s mobile phone.
• This technology will also be available for fans, free of charge.
• Avi Lasarow, CEO of Prenetics, believes “an important step in getting fans back into venues is for point of care testing to take place, which would enable quicker results and elevate the strain on laboratories, and for health passports to be utilised by fans.”
• “For the foreseeable future, until there is a vaccine, it is almost de facto standard that having a test is going to be like putting your seatbelt on in a car,” he added.

A milestone for used cars

• 500-backed used car trading platform Carsome welcomed its 100,00th seller, a milestone marked in its fifth year of operations.

• The startup said this achievement is a “testament of customers’ trust and confidence” in the used car market that has been historically “marred with distrust, caused by a fragmented car-selling process and the lack of transparency”.
• “One of the biggest challenges in our early days was getting people to trust and use the then new-in-market service,” shared co-founder and Group CEO Eric Cheng. “I am so proud that more than 100,000 customers in Southeast Asia have entrusted us in selling their cars; we are definitely looking forward to our one-millionth seller, hopefully soon.”
• The startup currently operates in 50 cities in five Southeast Asian countries and plans to open more retail centres across the region.
• This year, Carsome launched two products to “improve process and workflow efficiencies”, namely CARpartner, a mobile app that “allows Carsome’s partners to make car inspection appointments, check appointment statuses, and get estimated car values”, and CARdealer (formerly known as CarsomeGO), a separate mobile app in Indonesia that “allows local used car dealers to bid for cars on-the-go, at their own comfort”.
• According to Cheng, Carsome will “continue to invest in the digitalization and upgrading of its products to enhance the speed and convenience of car transactions and “will also be venturing into the technical education sector in the coming months with an aspiration to upskill the technical workforce through accreditation.”

Going ‘K-razy’ for K-pop

• K-pop, short for Korean pop, enjoyed a “high amount” of online viewership in Southeast Asia in 2019, with the region emerging as the genre’s “third-biggest market” after Japan and greater China.
• Leading contributors are Indonesia and Thailand with 2.62 billion and 2.15 billion views respectively, with the region showing a 60 percent growth in just two years.
• But just how devoted are K-pop fans? Can fandom be measured or quantified? 500-backed e-commerce aggregator iPrice did the research by looking at how much money K-pop fans — specifically fans of BLACKPINK, TWICE, and BTS — spend on their idols.

• In the report, the startup measured three metrics: “how much a K-pop superfan spends (on average) if he/she bought at least one merchandise per shopping category, purchased all their idols’ albums, and attended one concert a year”.
• Merchandise includes clothing, concert lightsticks, and phone cases, to name a few.
• Overall, fans of BTS — dubbed the BTS Army — may have spent up to US$1,422, amounting to 15 music albums, 5 concerts, and numerous merchandise. This number is comparable to an iPhone 12 pro!
• Once, the fandom of TWICE, would have spent an average of $824 for 14 albums, 4 concerts, and merchandise, while Blinks, or fans of BLACKPINK, a newer group, would have already forked out US$665.
• Superfans who want to see their idols in the flesh would spend most on concerts, while purchasing albums is the least costly option to enjoy a band’s music.
• Read the full report here.

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500 Startups is a venture capital firm on a mission to discover and back the world’s most talented entrepreneurs, help them create successful companies at scale, and build thriving global ecosystems. In Southeast Asia, 500 Startups invests through the pioneering 500 Southeast Asia family of funds. The 500 Southeast Asia funds have backed over 240 companies across multiple sectors from internet to consumer to deep technology. It continues to connect founders with capital, expertise and powerful regional and global networks to help them succeed.

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