Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

Selling Online in Malaysia

Monday, May 4th, 2009

Let’s take a look at some of most popular websites and the proper methods for selling things via the Internet in Malaysia.

AUCTIONS

Auctions are a great way to sell things as you sometimes get more than you expect.

  • eBay

ebay-malaysia

The most recognisable website for online buying and selling is, of course, eBay. The online auction site has been available in Malaysia since 2004 and has been gaining in popularity over the years.

Registration is free and eBay Malaysia does not charge insertion fees or final value fees. However, the site will charge you if you want to add an extra picture or subtitles for the item you are selling.

  • Tip!: It is important to have multiple views of any item, particularly for expensive products where it is best to have high-resolution pictures from different angles to increase the chances of finding an interested buyer.

eBay owns PayPal and it is one of the more popular ways to pay. PayPal allows the buyer to transfer money from his credit card or bank account (note: In Malaysia only credit cards are allowed) to a PayPal account and then send payment to the seller’s PayPal account without exchanging sensitive financial information.

In Malaysia, however, once the money has been transferred to the sellers PayPal account, the money cannot be withdrawn from a bank and can only be credited into your credit card account.

Other payment methods include bank transfers and cash on delivery.

Advanced users hoping to start a side business online may want to consider signing up for an eBay store.This allows users who meet the requirements to create their own customisable eBay page and even gives them the option of selling fixed price items. Setting up a store will incur an extra monthly fee and only users with a fixed number of ratings and verifications will be eligible to rent one.

  • Lelong.com.my

lelong

Another auction site that is popular amongst the local audience is Lelong.com.my. The site is fashioned much like eBay and even has a similar user rating system.

Established locally, it is a lot more Malaysia-centric as there are options to pay specifically via Maybank2u and shows which state in Malaysia the item is in.

Lelong is also pushing its virtual stores to people who meet its rating requirements. You pay a small yearly sum for your own page and store logo as well as an inventory mechanism provided by the site. Again, this is for advanced users looking to take online selling to the next level.

Lelong also does not charge fees on items sold on its site. You are only charged if you wish to add more than one picture.

  • Tip!: The best way to get around paying too much for extra pictures on eBay and Lelong is to take several photos and merge them into one picture as effectively as possible.

FIXED PRICES

There are websites which allow you to sell things at a fixed price to any interested party. The difference here is that you have the prerogative to sell to whomever you please, not necessarily to the highest bidder who may not have hiked the price to a satisfactory level.

  • Lowyat.net

lowyat-net

Arguably the most popular fixed price website is Lowyat.net. This website deals primarily with electronics such as computers and computer parts, MP3 players, speakers, and essentially anything that requires some form of electric energy to operate.

The site is free to sign up and it is probably the most straight to the point for selling stuff. It is forum based so you can ask questions immediately and a private messaging system for more detailed inquiries.

The site offers trade at no cost at all as there are no charges for extra pictures, (although the quantity is limited) or a final value fee. Reputation as well as amount of items sold will be taken into account in assessing a user’s reliability.

  • mySimplifieds.com

mysimplifiedss

A relative newcomer to the realm of online trade is Digi Telecommunication’s mySimplifieds.com.

Launched in February, it hopes to offer Malaysians yet another venue to buy and sell their items. Advertised as a classifieds website, this site allows users to advertise a wide range of products and even extends to property. Many houses, apartments and rooms are up for sale or rent on Digi’s site within months of its launch.

Currently, registration and usage is completely free and it remains to be seen whether that is subject to change. The site offers some interesting services such as a built-in Facebook feature designed to notify your friends about your posting. Also, links to YouTube will be allowed for further product or property demonstration via video.

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Posted in Business, Education, Entrepreneurship, Technologies | 2 Comments »

Laptops for Terengganu students - Good or Bad?

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Recently, I came to learn that all Year 5 students in Terengganu will be given laptops under the state’s e-book program. That translates to RM30 million, with some 25,000 pupils involved.

With broadband connection, it is claimed that the pupils would gain access to lots of vital resources.

But I doubt the laptops will be useful academically. Mesti semua sibuk download movies, songs, porn, etc. Tak pun layan chat, friendster, facebook, etc. So I did a simple search, and I found that numerous studies have shown that there is no correlation between laptop usage and academic performance:

  • The US Department of Education recently released a study showing no difference in academic achievement between students who used educational software programs for math and reading and those who did not.
  • Mark Warschauer, a professor at the University of California also found no evidence that laptops increased test scores in a study of 10 schools in California and Maine from 2003 to 2005.
  • The Texas Center for Educational Research, a nonprofit group, has so far found no overall difference on test scores between 21 schools where students received laptops, and 21 schools where they did not.

Interestingly, I also found that hundreds of schools across the globe have started abandoning their laptop programs. Here just a few reasons why:

  • Underutilized by Students. Matoaca High School began eliminating its five-year-old laptop program after concluding that students had failed to show any academic gains. A survey found that one-fifth of their students rarely or never used their laptops for learning.
  • Underutilized by Teachers. Everett Rea Elementary School in Califronia gave away 30 new laptops to another school in 2005 after a class that was trying them out changed to new teachers who simply did not do as much with the technology.
  • High Training Costs. Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts eliminated its five-year-old laptop program in 2002 after it found that more effort was being expended on training teachers to teach with laptops.
  • High Maintenance Cost. In Liverpool Highschool in Syracuse, parents have long criticized the cost of the laptop program: about $300,000 a year from the state, plus individual student leases of $25 a month.
  • High Repair Costs. School officials in Broward County in Florida paid $7.2 million to lease 6,000 laptops at four schools, and was spending more than $100,000 a year for repairs to screens and keyboards that are not covered by warranties.

Yes, I know that Terengganu is cash-rich. Still, is the laptop program a wise move? What do you think?

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Posted in Education, Politics | 1 Comment »