SEPANG, Oct 23 — A thriving entrepreneur himself, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes this time traded places and oversaw the launch of a new digital business card smartphone app, OnOn, where he offered to be the company’s adviser midway through his speech on Monday.

The AirAsia Group CEO was addressing an intimate crowd and congratulating app founder Sanny Chin, when he went on about how much he despised physical business cards, something he said more often than not ended up in the rubbish bin.

"But its almost like a greeting that you give your business card, my business card has nothing, no title, no email, just my Twitter and Instagram, but we still give it out.

"So I think I would be happy to be an adviser because I would love to use this product, I would love to promote this product, if you want me,” he said, which set off an applause from the crowd.

Its founder, Chin, when speaking to Malay Mail, could not hide his glee following the offer from Fernandes, and said he would instead appoint the airline tycoon as his chief adviser.

"I told him (Fernandes), you will become my chief adviser, the chief adviser among three existing advisers,” said Chin.

Founder of OnOn Tech Sdn Bhd Sanny Chin speaks to Malay Mail in Sepang October 21, 2019. — Picture by Choo Choy May

Chin said another collaboration is currently in the works between AirAsia and OnOn, for the networking app to be the official digital name cards of the airline’s staff.

The OnOn app is aimed at taking the field of networking among professionals and entrepreneurs,  and the habit of exchanging business cards into the digital realm, while taking the more environmentally friendly route and eliminating the need for physical paper business cards.

OnOn also offers space for interaction among businesses, service owners, and entrepreneurs, where users can upload photos and videos of their products and receive feedback.

The app also offers live updates on the current stock exchange news, while current news from Malay Mail is featured on the app’s newsfeed.

Chin, an architectural graduate of Universiti Malaya and a building surveyor for the last 14-years, said his inspiration for the app had come about when he accompanied his son for a mobile app entrepreneurship class last year.

"I actually accompanied my son to the class, I did not plan to go myself, but son said, ‘dad, why don't you accompany me?

"So I registered myself and we went together. It is a three day class and on the last day they require you to present your app idea, so I presented mine and it turned out I emerged as the champion,” he said.

Chin said he was then urged by other like-minded participants to go through with his idea, put together a team and actually develop the app.

On what inspired him to develop a networking app, Chin said he was disturbed by an observation with property agents, who he claimed could go through three boxes of name cards in a month.

"So they (agents) need to print three boxes every month, and imagine that times 4,000 other agents.

"So this app can save them a lot of money and costs in printing, and we can save a lot of paper by going green and doing what we can to save the environment,” he explained.

The OnOn app, which is now available on Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, has been growing in numbers since going live in August, with around 500 registered users at the time of the launch.