State prosecutors charge that City Harvest Church Pastor Kong Hee had conspired with five others – church management board vice-president Mr Tan Ye Peng, board member Mr John Lam Leng Hung, the church’s investment manager Mr Chew Eng Han and finance managers Ms Sharon Tan Shao Yuen and Ms Serina Wee Gek Yin – to redirect the funds in an effort to boost the music career of his wife, Ms Ho Yeow Sun.
But, since the first leg of the trial started in May 2013, it has been Ms Serina Wee that has been hitting all the right notes with her fashion sense. A “Serina Wee” fan page on Facebook has more than 2,000 followers, and describes the 37-year-old mother of three as a “goddess”.
Forget the music career that never took off despite the millions of dollars that were pumped into it. Ms Serina Wee’s blogshop might well prove to be where the harvest is richest.
After all, if the media and the online community are going to religiously follow your “outfit of the day” each time you make a public appearance, it makes for a perfect business opportunity. And plenty of free publicity for Serina Wee’s blogshop.
In 2011, a survey by social network LiveJournal revealed that while it hosted more than 50,000 Singapore-based blogshops, only 10 per cent of these online shops earned more than US$1,500 a month, with the highest reported at US$15,000. The survey found that blogshops on the LiveJournal platform generated more than US$72 million worth of transactions in Singapore in 2011.
“With the Singapore e-commerce market estimated at US$1.2 billion this year (2011), we are proud that LiveJournal drives 6 per cent of that. We believe blogshopping will continue to grow here as e-commerce represents the most cost-effective way to do business,” said Ms Roshni Mahtani, CEO of Tickled Media, the publisher of LiveJournal in the South-East Asian markets, in the 2011 report.
In an interview with Yahoo! Singapore in 2011, owners of blogshop My Glamour Place (MGP), Ms Angela Ang and Mr Keith Tay, claimed that MGP, which the couple started in 2006, rakes in an average revenue of S$30,000 (US$23,567) a month, and more than S$45,000 (US$35,350) a month during festive periods like Chinese New Year and Christmas.
In 2013, business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce sales worldwide is expected to grow by some 17 per cent to reach US$1.2 trillion, according to forecasts by market research firm eMarketer. B2C e-commerce sales in Asia-Pacific accounts for close to one-third of all B2C e-commerce sales in the world.
The success of Ms Serina Wee’s blogshop, Missy Stella, will no doubt be boosted by technological advancements, especially in Singapore’s tech-savvy environment, where internet penetration rate currently stands at a healthy 78 per cent.
For example, Paypal’s Asia-Pacific division this week launched mo.bi.pay (mobile built-in payments), a new online payment service for small and medium enterprises. Developed by Vertical Solutions, a development firm in Singapore, the mobile plug-in enables merchants to use PayPal shopping carts on web platforms such as e-commerce websites or online stores.
Already, several online shopping brand names have established themselves in Singapore. Online fashion retailer Zalora, eBay-linked Qoo10, and Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten, to name a few, have headquarters in Singapore.
Even as the sun is setting on Ms Ho’s music career amid charges of embezzlement by leaders of City Harvest Church, it seems the star is rising for Ms Serina Wee and her aptly-named online shop.
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