Octopass aiming for all-in-one social media network

Can you briefly share your route to form the Octopass e-cards?

My idea came to me during in early 2021 when New Zealand and much of the world were strictly locked down. People were forced to stay at home so the demands on connecting with relatives, friends, and colleagues was very necessary.

VIR is now available on Octopass at www.octopass.me/@vir.com.vn

A lot of technology solutions and measures were provided to help people communicate during the tough times. Social networks seemed the practical measure to update on how people were doing. But for some, it has been hard to follow due to the various social channels and individual daily updates, sometime by Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and so on.

That’s the reason why I raised the idea to develop my own social platform combining all social media accounts into one single social ID with a sleek physical near-field communication (NFC) card or QR code to help people share, update, and follow contacts with anyone in the world.

How exactly does it work?

It’s rather easy and hassle-free to create your digital business card and manage your private account for Octopass NFC through a mobile running on Andriod, iOS, or Windows at www.octopass.me/app.

Actually, no app installs are needed for the card to work, and the software development platform supports both NFC and QR codes.

The Octopass card is also very easy to use thanks to a sleek ‘tap and share’ function. One Octopass can link to an infinite number of social networks, streaming platforms, contact details, bitcoin wallet addresses and any information you want to share with the public.

More importantly, it can replace things such as printed business cards that use a lot of paper, and which are typically re-printed and re-distributed whenever someone relocates, moves job, or is promoted.

You can pass the Octopass once to anyone, and then it updates and your network will receive updated contact details instantly. The Octopass QR code remains the same forever.

My digital solution can also contribute to sustainable development and reduce carbon emission effectively. According to research, over 80 per cent of business cards get thrown away, which equates to billions of cards a year.

So we can help save the Earth by ditching paper business cards and switching to a reusable Octopass card that never runs out, pollutes the planet, or cuts trees down.

In addition, new perspectives can be discovered through Octopass analytics, including the number of views on your profile, the number of times people shared your details, the most popular and unpopular social links on your profile, and a breakdown of these stats by demographics.

Which challenges have you faced when introducing the new product?

The challenges I have faced for nearly three years has included explaining what Octopass is to users, which takes some time for them to grasp. Once they have got the idea, they want to purchase it outright. This is true for New Zealand, Thailand, and now Vietnam.

Octopass is purely my own business without any financial support from elsewhere. With positive feedback from users worldwide, I want to focus on introducing the platform to a wider audience to attract many more users and big buyers such as corporates, and if we find a good partner who shares our vision and gives us the right deal, then we may think about accepting investment.

Why did you choose the likes of Thailand and Vietnam to promote your product?

I believe that Asian countries like Thailand, China, and Vietnam have potential because of the sheer number of people, many of whom find it easier to accept new technologies and new ideas.

Vietnam, particularly, is on a speedy route to digital transformation and innovation. I can see what the Vietnamese government did at its International Innovation Expo in Hanoi in October, where I also joined to exhibit the Octopass.

I can see Vietnamese people are eager to learn and adapt quickly to new innovative technologies towards global trends.

I realise the huge potential of the market and am ready to meet all the demands with the aim to join the digital transformation and innovation campaigns of the country.

QR codes pushing development in digital payments Due to cheap investment and fast implementation, QR codes have developed quickly to become more popular among customers across industries.

ASEAN supports companies to utlise QR code purchasing across region Chairman of the ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN-BAC) Arsjad Rasjid, who is also Chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KADIN), on April 3 said that ASEAN-BAC will support micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the region to implement QRcodeASEAN initiative.