Bandar Seri Begawan - After 18 months of operation, SocialDeal.com.bn, a community website where Bruneians gather together and channel buying power into obtaining great savings to local businesses in Brunei, currently has more than 8,000 members and more than 55,000 followers at its social media network, Facebook.

SocialDeal.com.bn founder, Hiro, yesterday visited the Business School in Gadong to share his experiences as a young ICT Entrepreneur in Brunei, to inspire, as well as give advice and tips for the students to follow - the challenges, potential, pitfalls and preparations needed.

"The talk went smoothly as expected of the majority of the students who are tech-savvy especially in utilising Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. The talk was the idea of two Diploma students, who were attached for a seven-month work placement with us, where they suggested that we should introduce this to more people at their school, while at the same time, expose the students 'to the world of online ICT business especially from a Brunei company's perspective. Hence, we got in touch with the Deputy Principal of Administration, Pengiran Ashikin, through the interns and they were really up to it, and after a month of schedule arrangement, the 'talk and visit' finally came true," said Hiro.

"Firstly, we want to convey the message that when a group of young people like us can do it, so can they, especially in the thriving era of internet broadband penetration, as well as exploding social network penetration in the country and the region. There are countless potential to tap into via the internet; be it selling products online or simply an innovative service," he added.

SocialDeal.com.bn works in a unique way, where offers are only unlocked when a certain amount of people is committed to participate.

"We collectively saved more than $350,000 for the whole community, and is targetting to save close to $1,000,000 by the end of 2013," revealed Hiro.

Hiro said that he and his team wanted the students to get an upfront knowledge of what it is like to be in ICT business in Brunei, using personal experiences after having to run SocialDeal.com.bn for 18 months in Brunei.

Present at the 'campus launch' was the founder, Hiro. Business development executives, Nurul and Yasmie, as well as their interns from the Business School, Zie and Dirah, were also present during the talk.

To further enhance their services by making use of the smartphone user explosion, SocialDeal.com.bn is now in its final stage of development of their own Android and Apple iOS apps. The app is scheduled for release by the first half of this year for the public.

--Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin