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The target for Give up for Good 2016 was 500 cigarette sticks. The final collection was 1951 sticks of cigarettes (almost 4 times the target) at a street value of $1170.60.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.campaignbrief.com/asia/2016/12/up-up-and-singapore-cancer-soc.html|title=Singapore Cancer Society volunteers and Up & Up's initiative helps smokers give up for good|work=Campaign Brief Asia|access-date=2017-10-16}}</ref>
The target for Give up for Good 2016 was 500 cigarette sticks. The final collection was 1951 sticks of cigarettes (almost 4 times the target) at a street value of $1170.60.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.campaignbrief.com/asia/2016/12/up-up-and-singapore-cancer-soc.html|title=Singapore Cancer Society volunteers and Up & Up's initiative helps smokers give up for good|work=Campaign Brief Asia|access-date=2017-10-16}}</ref>

== Awards & Recognition ==
At the Wild Digital Conference 2017, held from the 24th to the 25th of May, one of the highlights of the conference was the very first Wild Digital Tech Awards which aimed to recognise the roles played by tech founders and companies in livening up the digital ecosystem in this region. honestbee received the #BOOM Startup of the Year award which “recognises startup companies who have demonstrated outstanding growth; whether in revenue, market expansion, new offering in technology and services or company valuation”.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://vulcanpost.com/611586/honestbee-wild-digital-tech-awards-2017-boom-startup/|title=#BOOM! Honestbee Snags Startup Of The Year At The First Ever Wild Digital Tech Awards|last=Pang|first=VenXhin|date=2017-05-25|work=Vulcan Post|access-date=2017-10-16|language=en-US}}</ref>

honestbee was shortlisted for the "Best Singapore Digital Startup in Buro 24/7 Digital Awards held on 26 July 2017.


== Competitors ==
== Competitors ==

Revision as of 10:04, 16 October 2017

honestbee
honestbee logo
Screenshot
Type of site
Privately held company
Founded23 July 2015; 9 years ago (23 July 2015)
Headquarters
Singapore
Area servedSingapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Japan
IndustryRetail
ServicesGrocery delivery, food delivery, laundry delivery, parcel delivery
URLhonestbee.sg

honestbee is an online concierge and delivery service offering next-hour grocery and food delivery services as well as parcel delivery services for its B2B clients via its Goodship channel. In Singapore, honestbee also offers laundry collection and delivery services[1]. The company was launched in Singapore on 23 July 2015 [2] and over the course of the next two years, has also launched in Hong Kong,[3] Taipei,[4] Jakarta,[5] Kuala Lumpur,[6] Bangkok,[7] Manila[8] and Tokyo.[9] It was founded by Joel Sng, Isaac Tay, and Jonathan Low and has backing from venture capital companies in Asia and the United States.[10] In October 2015, honestbee raised $15 million for its on-demand grocery delivery service. Led by Formation 8, participants included Pejman Mar Ventures, Gideon Yu, Owen T. Van Natta, and Steve Chen.[11]

Overview

honestbee's vision is to become the world's most convenient services marketplace and its mission is to provide positive social and financial impact on the lives and businesses it touches[12]. As a "social impact" business, honestbee gives employment to people who can’t hold regular jobs, such as stay-at-home parents, caregivers, and students,[13] thus providing financial opportunities to people from all walks of life. The company works on a partnership model where it works with merchant partners (like NTUC Fairprice[14] and Pet Lovers Centre[15] ) to offer last mile delivery service logistics by fulfilling orders that come in through the honestbee website or app. This partnership allows for merchant partners to establish an online presence without having to invest in infrastructure building. Additionally, honestbee adds the touch of a personal concierge for the customers, thus helping these brands to differentiate themselves.[16]

For the grocery business, honestbee employs freelancers as part-time shoppers or delivery drivers, who are referred to as "bees". The shopper bees are trained personal shoppers are in charge of purchasing groceries from local partnering stores fulfilling each customer’s shopping list. The shopper bees then hand the package to the delivery bees, who usually deliver orders typically within the hour after the orders are placed.[11]

After refining their service processes in the grocery delivery operations, honestbee added on-demand take out food to its business model in February 2017. [17] This foray into food delivery is in line with the company's grand plan of building a delivery network which enables freelance riders to fulfill an assortment of services. [18]

honestbee’s predecessor is LifeOpp, a social impact company with the aim of creating jobs for people who can’t work fixed hours. The small ten person strong team was working out of a shophouse in Niven Road. Within a few months of launching honestbee, the team had swelled to more than a hundred and the team relocated to their new premises at Delta House, Singapore.[19]

Since its inception in Singapore, honestbee has expanded its service across the region:

  • Launched in Hong Kong on 16 October 2015[20]
  • Launched pop-up version in Niseko on 1 November 2015[21]
  • Launched in Taiwan on 5 January 2016[22]
  • Launched in Indonesia on 25 January 2017 [23]
  • Launched in Malaysia on 28 February 2017 [24]
  • Launched in Thailand on 16 March 2017[25]
  • Launched in Philippines on 16 June 2017[26]
  • Launched in Tokyo on 20 July 2017[27]

Corporate Social Responsibility

Bag of Love

In December 2015, honestbee announced their participation in "Giving Week", an annual philanthropic campaign organised by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre in support of Beyond Social Services. The company ran the "Bag of Love" campaign - a grocery bag donation initiative.

For the first time in a large-scale charity drive, families supported by Beyond Social Services received grocery bags filled with fresh and dry food delivered by honestbee. Prepared in collaboration with NTUC Fairprice, each Halal grocery bag cost $25. It included fresh produce such as meats, vegetables and eggs, as well as non-perishable items such as biscuits, rice and bread. [28]

The "Bag of Love" campaign saw over 700 bags of groceries donated to low-income families who are beneficiaries of Beyond Social Services. Giving Week saw a 24% increase in donation collections from the previous year. [29]

Give up for Good

honestbee participated in the Give up for Good anti-smoking initiative launched by Up & Up and Singapore Cancer Society. The initiative brought together three stakeholders – smokers, corporates, cancer patients and their families with smokers. As a part of the initiative, smokers were urged to donate or give up any number of their cigarettes willingly. Corporate then matched or multiplied the street value of the collected cigarettes (at SG$0.60 a stick) in food items and necessities, which would be then distributed to needy cancer patients and their families[30].

The target for Give up for Good 2016 was 500 cigarette sticks. The final collection was 1951 sticks of cigarettes (almost 4 times the target) at a street value of $1170.60.[31]

Awards & Recognition

At the Wild Digital Conference 2017, held from the 24th to the 25th of May, one of the highlights of the conference was the very first Wild Digital Tech Awards which aimed to recognise the roles played by tech founders and companies in livening up the digital ecosystem in this region. honestbee received the #BOOM Startup of the Year award which “recognises startup companies who have demonstrated outstanding growth; whether in revenue, market expansion, new offering in technology and services or company valuation”.[32]

honestbee was shortlisted for the "Best Singapore Digital Startup in Buro 24/7 Digital Awards held on 26 July 2017.

Competitors

Other online grocery delivery services in the region include:

Criticism

April Fools' Day prank

In a bid to bring awareness and stimulate conversation about the plight of endangered species, around April Fools' Day 2016, honestbee announced a partnership with the fictitious "Explorer Joe Exotic Meats", which would seemingly allow customers to purchase meat from endangered animals, including pandas and whales.[35] The company faced backlash from the public both before and after the revelation that the campaign was a hoax, with a number of customers saying they would boycott the service.[36]

Worker pay

In 2015, honestbee stated it was paying Singapore workers "up to SGD $14 (about $10) an hour;"[11] by May of 2016, however, workers countered that the company had lowered the "basic rate" twice, from $7.50 to $6 and then $5, and that there were also issues with payroll being late or miscalculated.[37]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Honestbee launches laundry service". AsiaOne. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  2. ^ "Food fight: New challengers spice up Singapore's online grocery war". Tech In Asia. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  3. ^ "honestbee delivers groceries in an hour".
  4. ^ a b Asia, Forbes. "Honestbee's Joel Sng Sets Big Regional Goals for Grocery Delivery Startup". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  5. ^ "Honestbee officially launches in Indonesia".
  6. ^ "Honestbee launches in Malaysia".
  7. ^ "Honestbee launches its grocery delivery service in Thailand".
  8. ^ "SG-based mobile app grocery delivery service expands to PH".
  9. ^ "Singapore grocery concierge service Honestbee buzzes towards 'global store' concept". Straitstimes.com.
  10. ^ "Online grocery startup Honestbee raises $15M from Silicon Valley to deliver the goods". TechInAsia.com.
  11. ^ a b c Shu, Catherine. "Singaporean On-Demand Grocery Startup Honestbee Gets $15M To Expand To Six New Asian Countries". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  12. ^ "honestbee". honestbee | Concierge and Delivery Service. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  13. ^ Shu, Catherine. "Singaporean On-Demand Grocery Startup Honestbee Gets $15M To Expand To Six New Asian Countries". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-10-16. {{cite news}}: no-break space character in |title= at position 85 (help)
  14. ^ "honestbee & NTUC FairPrice PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT". Mail Online. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  15. ^ "Pet Lovers Centre :: News". Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  16. ^ Yap, Jacky (2016-03-07). "The Story Of honestbee - Growing From One To Four Cities In Just 6 Months". Vulcan Post. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  17. ^ "Singapore-based Honestbee goes up against Uber Eats and Deliveroo for food delivery". The Drum. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  18. ^ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  19. ^ Yap, Jacky (2016-03-07). "The Story Of honestbee - Growing From One To Four Cities In Just 6 Months". Vulcan Post. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  20. ^ "Concierge grocery delivery service honestbee lands US$15 million of funding in wake of Hong Kong launch". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  21. ^ "Honestbee Brings On-Demand Grocery and Delivery Service to Japan". www.businesswire.com. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  22. ^ Shu, Catherine. "Grocery Delivery Startup Honestbee Launches In Taiwan". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-10-16. {{cite news}}: no-break space character in |title= at position 47 (help)
  23. ^ "Honestbee officially launches in Indonesia". www.eightyquartier.com. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  24. ^ "Honestbee, Online Grocery Shopping Service, Has Finally Made Its Way To Malaysia - Lowyat.NET". www.lowyat.net. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  25. ^ "Honestbee Thailand launches in Bangkok - Inside Retail Asia". Inside Retail Asia. 2017-03-17. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  26. ^ "Grocery shopping made hassle-free with 'honestbee'". philstar.com. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  27. ^ hermesauto (2017-07-20). "Singapore grocery concierge service Honestbee buzzes towards 'global store' concept". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  28. ^ "honestbee wants you to give a "Bag of Love" this Christmas". TechieLobang. 2015-12-07. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  29. ^ hermes (2016-01-03). "Giving Week gets 24% more donations in its latest collection". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  30. ^ Rao, Monisha. "Singapore Cancer Society breaks away from the usual scary smoking campaigns". Marketing Interactive. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  31. ^ "Singapore Cancer Society volunteers and Up & Up's initiative helps smokers give up for good". Campaign Brief Asia. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  32. ^ Pang, VenXhin (2017-05-25). "#BOOM! Honestbee Snags Startup Of The Year At The First Ever Wild Digital Tech Awards". Vulcan Post. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  33. ^ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". Techinasia.com. Retrieved 2016-06-14.
  34. ^ "Amazon Prime Now delivery unavailable for second day after launch". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  35. ^ "Stop illegal wildlife trading now - bee blog | honestbee". blog.honestbee.com. Retrieved 2017-10-16.
  36. ^ Ravikrishnan, Ashutosh (2016-03-30). "'Sale' of panda meat, koala sausages part of endangered animals awareness campaign: honestbee". Today. Retrieved 2017-08-19. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  37. ^ Ho, Olivia (2016-05-10). "Freelancers for honestbee feeling the sting". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2017-08-19. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)

Further reading

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