Youth Search 2008 already got a winner. Twenty-one-year-old university dropout Tan Wei Heng won the Malaysian Youth DotCom Search Award 2008, beating 456 other contenders, last week.

TAN: Dare to dream courtesy of nst.com.my

He developed a chat widget called ShoutMix, an interactive add-on messaging system for blogs or other websites, where visitors can more easily post comments and chat with others in real-time. He won the RM20,000 cash prize, a life insurance policy from Tune Money, and a laptop computer sponsored by Animax, a 24-hour anime channel. He will also get the opportunity to participate in the MCA ICT Resource Centre’s (MIRC) MSC status incubator program, that is funded by the Multimedia Development Corporation, caretaker of the MSC Malaysia initiative.

For a record, Tan created the widget when he was 15 years old as a way to communicate with his friends online, and has been fine-tuning the program over the past several years.

While most Malaysian youth busy themselves online with Friendster and chat, the 21-year-old Tan Wei Heng makes USD2,500(RM8,225) a month selling his chat widget to the likes of Fox TV and Microsoft National Broadcasting Company(MSNBC).

The paid version of ShoutMix widget, offers extra features such as more storage, no advertisements, the ability to edit posts, as well as IP and URL banning privileges. This version cost USD24(RM77) a year.

Well done to Tan and I would like to wish him a greater success in the future and make Malaysian proud of his achievements and in no time he will be a great online entrepreneur or a technopreneur.

As to YouthMalaysia.com, I would also wish them a great success and stick to their aim that is “To unleash young technopreneurs who have utilized cutting-edge technology to realize inspirational ideas”. Get more youth into your programs so that there will be no more Mat and Minah Rempit around.

Tan advised young dreamers like himself, during an interview by a local daily: “You must dare to dream and make your own decisions but be careful, research everything and don’t be content to just follow foundations laid by others”.

How about you…our next young Malaysian to be famous online?

Are you an Aspiring Entrepreneur . . . . . . . . . . .

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