123RF takes top spot at Google hackathon

  • Beauty marketplace Hermo emerged as runner up
  • A total of seven brands participated in the two-day hackathon

 

123RF takes top spot at Google hackathon

 

STOCK photo agency 123RF emerged victorious at a recently held Mobile Hackathon in Google Malaysia.

The hackathon challenged developers from companies nationwide to build innovative and lightning fast digital experiences for end users utilising two new web technologies: Progressive Web App (PWA) and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).

Beauty marketplace Hermo emerged as runner up, with its newly developed AMP version of its online store fully loading in under two seconds from Google Search on a 3G connection.

A total of seven brands participated in the two-day hackathon, which is a follow up to Google Mobile Academy in April where 30 brands nationwide were introduced to PWA and AMP.

123RF’s victorious line-up saw developers: Alam Christian, Khairul Iszan, Ray Siew Chok Dong, Deric Chong, Novianto Kho (pic, below), and Lai Jih Chuan banding together to create a responsive mobile-friendly version of the company’s current website which let users easily access its stock photo offerings with smart device features like push notifications and Google Chrome’s ‘add to homescreen’ function.

 

123RF takes top spot at Google hackathon

 

“We know that traffic from mobile sources are increasing across our websites. It’s crucial to understand the technologies and opportunities that we can leverage to optimize the user experience for our mobile users from initial product discovery all the way to conversion,” said 123RF chief technology officer Pang Jack Sen.

The PWA version of 123RF’s site loads instantly as well as navigates seamlessly -- even without a stable network connection. PWA allows web apps to feel more like actual apps and work even without internet connectivity.

The competition panel of Google judges comprised APAC Solutions Engineering manager Manan Mehta; technical specialist Kumar Gaurav; performance specialist Jenny Lim; mobile solutions consultant Yusuke Utsunomiya, and SEA mobile solutions manager Minh Nguyen.

The winners were judged by how well they tackled their business problems and improved the user experience of their original sites using these technologies, as well as the quality of their implementation.

The judges felt that the winning team combined a complete end-to-end web experience including payment API and a meaningful offline experience -- which is rare even among seasoned PWA developers. 

 

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