SparX Up Awards to commence

The 2011 SparX Up Awards for Indonesian digital startups will take place on Friday night after the finalists presented their projects on Thursday.

“We want to help promote talented startups,” said Herman Kwok, chief marketing officer of Merah Cipta Media, the company that organized the contest.

He said that Indonesia was host to so many innovative startups, but that not many people knew of their existence due to startups being unaware of how to publish their work.

“We want our invention to get published,” said Nyon games website co-founder and competition participant Bintang Mahacakrie, as she explained why she had joined the contest.

The Awards aim to improve the digital landscape in Indonesia and are committed to providing a platform for startups to communicate and gain insight from each other.

The competition has 25 finalists selected from 129 participants from all over Indonesia.

Herman explained that these finalists will be divided into eight categories including best social networking site, best use of technology, best e-commerce, best game, best user generated content, best portal, best WAP and best mobile application.

From the finalists, the committee would also select a winner for the best rising startup and another winner for the most promising startup.(drs)