Gapture’s CEO, Stanley Chee, was recently being interviewed by Weng Sheng, editor of The Peak magazine. Here is the digital copy of the article.
Digital Revolution
Stanley Chee, 35, CEO and co-founder of Gapture“It is important to focus on your strengths.”
From high tech to nature
“It’s difficult to get away from work nowadays because I’m a stakeholder in a new online store that my wife is running. So work follows me home. However, on weekends we enjoy going hiking and camping. Being at one with nature when I go up to the mountains and waterfalls helps keeps me sane.”Looking back, Stanley Chee never would have envisioned himself as the entrepreneur he is today. Armed with a degree in computer systems and a natural interest in programming, Chee always thought ‘he’d be the guy behind the scenes setting up the software infrastructure.’ Fate would prove otherwise, and following a number of joint ventures with his friends and his brothers in starting up online companies, Chee soon found himself drawn towards becoming an entrepreneur: “It pushed me out of my comfort zone as I [had] to learn a lot of things very quickly; accounting, finance and legal systems,” recounts Chee. “But it was a very interest path so I decided to pursue it.”
So in 2002, Chee joined venture with his two brothers to create Offgamers, an online platform that served gamers by selling digital currencies, items and products. While Offgamers performed well from the get go, it wasn’t until 2006 that Chee saw an opportunity to truly make a cornerstone change. “One of our managers decided to use [Google AdWords] that year, and we saw our sales double overnight,” recounts Chee. “So we invested a lot into understanding online marketing strategies through social media and [Google AdWords].” This ultimately resulted in Chee starting up Gapture, an online media and advertising agency, in 2011. “We decided to monetise on our knowledge and experience in online marketing with Gapture,” explains Chee.
Why online marketing? “Going online is the way to go because people are always online, especially the younger generation,” notes Chee. However, given the massive scope of possibilities enabled by the online world, Chee believes ‘it is important to focus on your strengths’. “Spreading ourselves over too wide a scope didn’t work well because we spent a lot of time working on proposals for numerous companies with only a small closing rate as a return,” recounts Chee. With this in mind, Chee decided to place a heavier focus on [Google AdWords] and Facebook marketing at Gapture, a trend they will continue to follow into 2014. “In 2013, we decided to stop being a ‘general’ digital marketing agency and focus on our core strengths, and we saw positive results form this new direction very quickly.”