******************

Final day at DLD12 began on a most enthusiastic note with a line-up of interesting discussions and conversations on India & Turkey as future markets, Women entrepreneurs, future of new studios and social success.

There was Sonny Caberwal, world’s first Sikh model and an entrepreneur who co-founded India’s first online lifestyle brand Sher Singh, and Lisa Haydon (Model & Actress) from India talking about India as a future market for fashion, lifestyle and digital technology. They referred to India’s middle-class segment as the new emerging market that now purchases products on the basis of disposable income and no longer for the need. Moving to Turkey -In 2011, Turkey was the second fastest growing e-commerce market in the world, behind India. It is the youth that drives internet growth in Turkey. For instance, Turkey is the 6th most active country on Facebook. For emerging markets like Turkey and India, e-commerce and social gaming are considered new-age entertainment by customers.

Nikesh Arora (Google) spoke about the diminishing difference between digital and non-digital business. He went on to add that we are gradually moving from the information era back to the people era. That’s what stood out to us because at ClearKarma, we wish to engage with people and their lives.

John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, an online auction and shopping website discussed how the social scene is shaping shopping for consumers with Sonali De Rycker (ACCEL Partners). He said he hopes to create a seamless experience every time a consumer shops or pays using eBay. He had a futuristic thought in mind when he went on to say that we will not require physical wallets one day; everything will be on the cloud! Leaving the audience speechless we say! He even threw out an advice to new start-ups and entrepreneurs – Have a clear vision of what you want to do!

To get a global view on market-places there was Hiroshi Mikitani (Rakuten) who said the service that they provide is the key strategy of their business. Rakuten has a unique business model – B2B2C and not the usual B2B/B2C. Mikitani further believes that internet shopping should not just be about price and efficiency, but a fun experience. He believes Japan is too small for them and so they will keep expanding but at the same time they would want to localise their services. Mikitani has revolutionary ideas which he brings into practise at the right time. Rakuten is the first Japanese company to change their communication language (internal & external) from Japanese to English. This move did receive back-lashes from various quarters but eventually he says the transition is happening.

There was a 27 year old entrepreneur who claimed to be the reason why Facebook is not too popular in Russia. This gentleman is Pavel Durov, the founder of VKontakte – a popular social networking website in Russia. He even cheekily added that they are efficient in wasting people’s time. On a more serious note, Pavel pledged to donate $ 1million to Wikipedia in the presence of Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.org and the media. Pavel believes Wikipedia has done and continues doing a lot for education than many government organisations and hence the donation. That’s generous we say!

Maria-Theresia von Seidlein (S&L Medien Gruppe) and Anne Gfrerer (UniCredit Bank AG) spoke about women empowerment and offered to support women entrepreneurs with new start-ups. We at ClearKarma enjoy being a rare tech startup with a mixed team counting currently more women than men and being led by inspiring Sylvie Chin!

The Aenne Burda Award 2012 was presented to Arianna Huffington, Co-founder of The Huffington Post. The award pays homage to the late Aenne Burda, a visionary entrepreneur, who passed away in November 2005. The award is presented to women in the media who successfully implement their extraordinary visions. Arianna Huffington stole the show with her humorous anecdotes and perfectly represented the DLD spirit.

The last part of the day was a keynote by Sheryl Sandberg (COO-Facebook) who spoke about how facebook has changed the social scene around the globe. With that talk DLD12 wrapped up for the year promising an equally enthralling, engaging and interesting event next year.

ClearKarma takes this opportunity to thank DLD for inviting us to the prestigious event and letting us hob-nob with the who’s who of various industries. It was an insightful experience that we will cherish!

******************

*  About us:

Social start-up ClearKarma supports you changing to healthier food habits. Our solution is a mobile and web app where you can easily find alternatives for food products based on your personal health, environmental or social criteria: E.g. for people with food-allergies or who follow special diets (diabetes, vegetarian, Halal, Kosher, pregnant women, etc.). Soon you will be able to choose preferences like: GMO Free, Organic, Fair Trade, Palm Oil Free. Enter your profile, scan a product barcode, see if a product suits your diet or find local product alternatives.

>> You can DOWNLOAD our iPhone app NOW and read further: http://bit.ly/x76PDM

No iPhone? No Problem… Our Web App will be ready soon!
>> You can register NOW to access our private beta-test: http://bit.ly/wCLiQi

*  YOU CAN HELP US MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

You can easily contribute and spread message of hope and empowerment across the world!
How? You can:

1. share this blogpost to people who will certainly benefit from our app
2. Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ClearKarma
3. Like our Facebook-page: http://facebook.com/ClearKarma
4. sign-up for our monthly newsletter to know when our service will be available in your country: http://www.clearskarma.com/about
5. Read here what else you can do: http://www.clearskarma.com/contribute