Online chats reveal how ex-TRS operator Yang Kaiheng dealt with ex-business partner

On Tuesday morning, the trial involving former TheRealSingapore.com operator Yang Kaiheng continued after some downtime over Friday and the weekend, with prosecutors introducing a new witness — Yang’s junior college schoolmate and former prospective business partner K Sudesh Durai, who is in his third year of a mechanical engineering course at NTU.

His presence and evidence showed a host of chat exchanges between Yang’s Facebook account and him over Facebook messenger, as well as their mobile numbers on WhatsApp.

Here is a comprehensive look at some of the more interesting ones, ad verbatim (i.e. we are reproducing it without changes. Certain sections are omitted with “…”):

 

1. On looking to expand the reach of TheRealSingapore.com

(on May 6, 2012)
Yang: u wan start business with me?
sell my brand in SG

(on May 16, 2012)
Sudesh: hey sorry for the delay in my reply… I dun think I am able to start a business with you because I’m currently starting 2 from a competition and I’m pretty busy with those at the moment man

(on Sep 17, 2012)
Yang: What business did u started so far?
i started TheRealSingapore.com
earning around 3k/month thru ads..but I wanna expand more
u have any ideas?

Sudesh: dude thanks for the message .. sorry I am very busy at the moment and will reply once abit more free

Yang: ok
lol

 

2. Negotiating collaboration terms on a new website idea

(on Oct 23, 2012)
Sudesh: anyways let me mention the idea to you .. see if you think might be viable enough…although what I intend is more of experimentation rather than looking at business aspect directly

Yang: ok
tell me

Sudesh: (explains idea)

Yang: u not scared i steal ur idea

Sudesh: no its black and white on fb chat
haha anyway the reason why I am telling you is to see if we can work out this together also

Yang: ok tell me more

Sudesh: the experiment part is to see if can achieve this website to go viral within a month of launching

Yang: i will jump into it if i think it will work

Sudesh: ok thats great to hear hahahaha

Yang: ok so basically gain revenue thru advertisement
sounds feasible

Sudesh: yup

Yang: i want 50-50. cost also must share 50-50
u ok?
i will do the site
and i have the traffic and people
from TheRealSingapore already
have 50k singaporeans reading it everyday
and i know the advertisement company that do it also
u have to tell me more also la

 

3. “i wan buy car bungalow”

Yang: and tell me other than giving me the idea. what else can u contribute to the site
i need to feel that u have the value
ur idea definietly feasible
i earning 4-5k a month from my website now
with this kind of clothing site it attracts alot of kids..so i think might have even more revenue
coz politics stuff is quite boring
not many people follow

Sudesh: 4-5k ??hahaha very decent amount what

Yang: yah
i wan earn more
i wan buy car bungalow
4-5k where got enuff
ur idea very good

…

Sudesh: nice .. i also wanna do the same

…

Yang: we same interest
i told u we should have collaborated long ago
somemore i know u well enuff
to trust u

…

Yang: don’t tell other people this idea
must keep it within ourselves

…

Yang: i think it might work
my insight won’t wrong one

Sudesh: great
i want to be a Multi Millionaire
top few richest in SG
hahaha
once we earn enough traffic ppl can post all kinda branded good and site should go viral enough for us to earn money through ads to pay off the winner

 

4. “my another goal is to become an influential person in SG”

Yang: this one very good
my another goal is to become an influential person in SG
my TRS audience is for adults
ur website is for those sec jc people kids

Sudesh: yeah i read it to ..

Yang: very good..makes me very wide audience influential
i like ur idea
and u r a decent chap
i trust working with u
good
so wad u plan to do first

Sudesh: whats tt gotta do man ?

 

5. Talking about his success with TheRealSingapore

Yang: u do proper entrupeuneruship club one right
what is the procedure
need write up proposal one ar
for me i ownself start-up my own style one
like TRS liddat
i slowly build audience
u go alexa.com
u type in TheRealSingapore.com
we are the top 200 sites in Singapore
even higher than OnlineCitizen
show off haha

…

Sudesh: yup .. u have been on online business for some time alread right

Yang: yup
2 years already bro
tried importing stuff from china fail
start socio-political site, success

…

Yang: i not website designer
but i know how to maintain one

…

not only $ we need to focus on how to grab the people to sign up with us initially
i will do my part
putting banners on TRS
ads

 

6. A marketing idea for the new business venture

Yang: i am thinking
stirring a news
stirring shit
what u think

Sudesh: what shit ?

Yang: like Teens posts photos on a website hoping that they can get a free branded dress. Is this materialistic behavior bad?
something liddat
stir up news lor
i have connections
with local newspaper
wanbao
newpaper

Sudesh: hahahaha .. no man

Yang: they always email me
begging me for news
dun wan?
haha

Sudesh: we want to make good impression

Yang: just suggesting only
okok

Sudesh: dont want the bad publicity ..

Yang: ok fair enough

 

 

7. On WhatsApp, Yang approaches Sudesh with a new business idea

(On Mar 9, 2013)
Yang: I got a new business model

Sudesh: For ?

Yang: help me think of something a merchandise or product that I can make $1 profit but 500,000 Singaporeans will buy
and I will give u 10% of the profit
my recent t-shirt was viewed by 500,000 Singaporeans on fb but only sold 5,000

Sudesh: Woah ..

Yang:  I only earn $2 profit on each t shirt
if u can think of something simple
that 500,000 people will buy and go viral
then we can earn our first pot of gol from my website
just $1 profit
think along those line

Sudesh: Hey I’ll email u a list of products at ard 6pm ..see if u got any interest in them. .

Yang: ok
must be cheap leg
if the thing cost more than $5 chances are u will fail
thanks bro
lets hope we can succeed
all I need is the product and idea and I’ll handle the rest
and u get 10% of the profit. good deal for both of us. we compliment each other

Sudesh: Can a little higher ?

Yang: I execute with my establish market base leh
u think of the product first la.. if really more than 100,000 people buy I give u 20%
promise

Sudesh: Ok ok

Yang: aiya as long as don’t waste my time I give u 20%
u good friend
it must be something related to my site or patriotic or about sg one
or something funny
u know what I mean?
u can’t ask TRS sell a nail clipper
or a shoe
abit weird
if ur item is viral my website definietly spread the fastest
c’mon top 100 traffic site in the country. somemore is news site. best channel ever. looking forward to hear your ideas k?
no rush take ur time… genius need time to think one

 

8. Yang changes his mind

(On Apr 24, 2013)
Yang: I think we should change the acreet concept abit

Sudesh: In what sense

…

What is the concept u wanna implement ?

Yang: more of a gum tree thing
like SGcarmart

Sudesh: sgcarmart seems like a completely diff concept
I would want to try out acreet and see the success before changing because this idea is not yet done by any one

…

Let me know ur thoughts about what to do as in if u still want to continue

…

Yang: i don’t mind engaging them as long as we have a strong concept
I feel like acreet not strong enough

Sudesh: I mean we can’t judge anything without trying ..so tts why I think its beat if we just do what acreet was supposed to be and from there we will be able to know what needs to be done
I feel confident with the concept

 

9. Yang bails, and takes the domain name with him

(On April 28, 2013)

Yang: got any other website idea other than acreet ?
i think acreet too costly and risky already

Sudesh: Nope no other ideas man
This the best I can bring down the cost to ..5k
And launch in august

Yang: ok I will get back to u

Sudesh: can get back by tonight cos I trying to get things moving faster

Yang: I not very keen actually I think quote hard to reach out to people
sorry bro

Sudesh: Oh you mean you don’t wanna involve in the concept and acreet ?

Yang: ya
I wanna ask u change the concept
but you insist
so I not really keen anymore
good luck to u and yash bro
u guys can do it

Sudesh: Alright thats an interesting turn of event
Ok man not gonna force you into this ..

Yang: ok thanks bro

Sudesh: Thank you and good luck for our ventures

Yang: I just not keen on the business idea that’s all

Sudesh: Yup I understand it holds a lot of risk
No worries

…

Yang: I don’t mind doing something else la

Sudesh: But if we need help we can still approach you for the marketing right

Yang: this one I think cannot work

Sudesh: Prob u charge us smth for tt

Yang: if you wanna change the business idea u can approach me. I will work on a similar but diff concept as acreet during my holiday

Sudesh: When ur holiday ?
So long its different from acreet I’m fine ..I don’t want to conflict with you

Yang: next month lor
I already say I am doing something similar to acreet
but you not interested to listen to my idea so I guess I have to do it alone or find other people
I think your idea will not work and is too costly for me
I don’t want work with someone that is not receptive of your partners ideas
no offence bro I think your idea is great but I feels it needs to be changed

Sudesh: What is our idea abt ?
You said smth abt sg car mart ..

Yang: not a giveaway site
but still a voting system

Sudesh: Can elaborate more ?

Yang: yes a forum based website
user generated content

Sudesh: Oh ok ..I think its fine man ..
So if that is the case can I have the acreet domain transfered to me

Yang: wtf
no
u r not receptive of other people idea y must transfer to u
go register your own domain then
cya
I will develop my own site then
I think it’s fine then
ok? thanks!

Suresh: I pass u the money for the domain
Because the name I came up with ? And its not abt not being receptive of our idea man ..

Yang:  no thanks
bye bye
go sue me then
u r a f**king C**e b*e
don’t bother me anymore thanks

Sudesh: Erm ok ..
Thanks again
It was pleasant working and sorry that it din work out

Yang: the name u came up with because you don’t agree with any name I think of
nah it’s not pleasant working with u I don’t think u can work with people

Sudesh: Hahahahahahaha ..that made my day

Yang: f**k u
k blocked

 

Yang continues to face the same seven charges (with one stood down) for publishing seditious articles on TheRealSingapore.com. His case is that it was his wife, Ai Takagi, who did the dirty work — she has pleaded guilty to four charges, convicted and sentenced to 10 months’ jail, slated to begin from April 22.

The trial resumes with defence lawyer Choo Zheng Xi cross-examining Sudesh on the witness stand.

 

Related articles:

The Real Singapore site operator Ai Takagi gets 10 months’ jail for sedition, to start April 22

The Real Singapore made AU$474,000 in Google ad revenue in 17 months from Dec. 2013 to April 2015

TRS editor paid off almost all of 30-year mortgage in 11 months

Here’s how TRS editor Ai Takagi ran one of S’pore’s most visited websites

 

Top photo: File

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- Jeanette Tan