FORMER Perth-based entrepreneur Steven Goh has relocated his social networking company, Project Goth, from the US to Singapore in a bid to host the world’s largest online community.
FORMER Perth-based entrepreneur Steven Goh has relocated his social networking company, Project Goth, from the US to Singapore in a bid to host the world’s largest online community.
The company’s flagship application mig33, which was originally launched in Perth in 2005, can be downloaded onto mobile phones and used for social networking purposes, such as instant messaging and virtual gifts.
Mr Goh moved Project Goth from Perth to Silicon Valley at the beginning of 2007 and subsequently secured $US10 million in venture capital funding, co-led by Accel Partners and Redpoint Ventures.
The investment enabled Mr Goh to expand migg33’s capabilities and, in turn, grow the database from 4 million shortly after its inception, to an estimated 40 million registered users worldwide.
Mr Goh said the company was now generating revenue of several million US dollars each year, which he hopes to grow “by a few fold next year”.
“We grew rapidly in 2008, but then things started to go sideways and we made the decision to move the company to Singapore because our user base had grown everywhere except in North America,” Mr Goh told WA Business News.
“We have this great arc of users in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, and right now we’re delivering approximately one billion messages each day.”
A WA Business News 40under40 Award winner, Mr Goh is best known in the Perth business community as the founder of online stockbroker Sanford Securities, which floated on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2000.
Despite winning accolades for its technology and pioneering the online distribution of IPOs, Sanford suffered cash flow problems and was bought by IWL Limited in 2003.
Emerging from bankruptcy in late 2006, Mr Goh co-founded online brokerage Bell Direct with Melbourne-based Bell Group, where he remains a board member.
“It’s not a trivial thing to build up a large consumer internet success, that’s for sure,” he said.
“But one of the great things about coming out of WA is the attitude to risk; we have to be quick on our feet and [the isolation] has forced us to think about what will make a success story in emerging markets.”
Mr Goh said the 40under40 Award was particularly special to him as it recognised his personal achievements.
“I know a few friends were pretty inspired by the fact that there was an award out there that recognises business and professional leadership,” he said.
“I think it was very flattering to win such an award and I still have it with me.”
Mr Goh said running a business was largely a thankless experience and that “no-one really tells you well done”, therefore the 40under40 Award provided a much-deserved opportunity to the risk takers of the WA business community.
“I was able to form relationships with a number of my peers at the time, and I still keep in touch with some of the winners from back then,” he said.
Mr Goh is confident that mig33 has the potential to become “one of the greatest consumer internet success stories out there” and the relocation to Singapore has injected some renewed momentum to make the business work more effectively.
And as for whether he’s left WA for good, Mr Goh said he was in frequent contact with the tech start-up scene, and that Perth would always be ‘home’.
