This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 27, 2019 - June 2, 2019
ANYONE who has ever attended an annual general meeting of a listed company knows that one of the biggest headaches is the voting process for resolutions and the length of time it takes for the votes to be counted.
VotesApp.co aims to disrupt traditional poll voting by accelerating the whole process. While the idea might seem like a simple one, the company, co-founded by Ngoi Se Chai and Tan Zhenyi, boasts revenue of RM250,000 and has turned profitable even though it is not even a year old.
“We first came up with the idea after Ngoi had gone for a long AGM — waiting for about four hours due to the lengthy process of poll voting. This was after Bursa made it compulsory to make poll voting compulsory for all resolutions tabled by listed companies,” Tan tells The Edge in an interview after conducting an AGM for a client.
VotesApp’s chief technology officer, Tan explains the company’s rapid success. Beyond the technology in its software, VotesApp also understands the needs of the board of directors and shareholders when it comes to voting via smartphone.
VotesApp was born of the discussion between the two founders, and they were confident they could come up with a better solution to the tedious voting process.
Tan’s tech expertise, coupled with Ngoi’s understanding of the rules and regulations that govern companies listed on Bursa Malaysia, helped them create VotesApp, which essentially provides shareholders with a URL link.
At a meeting, shareholders can access the URL link on their smartphone or a device provided to them upon registration. When voting begins, they can easily cast their votes using the link and the results are tabulated quickly and accurately.
The voting process for a meeting of 300 shareholders would take about 10 minutes, depending on the number of resolutions tabled. When the voting begins, shareholders are shown the resolution and given a 15-second window to cast their vote. The results are almost immediate and are shown to the shareholders.
In comparison, manual polling takes two to three hours, including vote counting.
In addition to speed, Tan says the adoption of e-voting at an AGM could slash polling costs by more than 60%.
He reveals that the start-up costs for VotesApp were minimal as the technology was mostly developed in-house, although they invested about RM100,000 in the hardware. And because the platform is web-based, it is simple for shareholders or proxies to access directly on their smartphones.
“We wanted to maintain a low cost structure, so a lot of things were developed in-house as we do have the expertise. A web-based platform also reduces the need to buy a substantial number of devices, which helps us to pass on the cost savings to our clients.”
Aiming for a tenth of the market in two years
About 30 clients have signed up for VotesApp and the company has already helped to conduct 60 AGMs and extraordinary general meetings.
As there are about 1,000 companies listed on Bursa, and more than 80% of them are still relying on manual polling, the growth potential is obvious. Tan says VotesApp’s first target is to hit 10% of the market, or about 100 clients, in two years. It hopes to achieve this by leveraging its network of partners and their contacts in listed entities.
“As our clients are the listed companies, we need to have the right network, which can help us to pitch our solutions to the companies. Thankfully, we have the right mix of partners,” Tan says, adding that collaborating with share registrars — some have 200 to 300 companies in their portfolio — could also escalate its growth.
But the share registrars are competitors, as are other e-polling firms. Tan says it is “quite pricey” for registrars to implement their own e-polling solutions. Moreover, he maintains VotesApp has done a lot to ensure its competitive advantage in a number of aspects including cost, user friendliness and user interface. It is also considering additional features, such as the registration of shareholders and proxies during the meetings.
“We have done pretty well in our development, mainly because we started from scratch, designed the UI and developed the software and hardware on our own,” he says, noting that copycat solutions would, in a way, validate VotesApp’s direction.
“I think what is important is to keep innovating and making sure the voting process is a seamless one for shareholders,” says Tan, adding VotesApp’s expansion plans could include tapping companies listed on the Singapore stock exchange.
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