Introducing Lumi, Malaysia’s Latest News App

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Introducing Lumi News Malaysia, Malaysia’s latest news app featuring breaking news and headlines reported by over 30 quality publishers such as New Straits Times, Free Malaysia Today, Berita Harian, Harian Metro, SAYS, The Rakyat Post, Cilisos, SoyaCincau, CCN 精彩大马, The Malaysian Reserve, Bernama, IGN Southeast Asia, Mashable Southeast Asia, and more.

Users can download the Lumi app for free by searching for ‘Lumi News Malaysia’ on Google Play Store and Apple App Store. They must have a Malaysia-based Google Play Store or App Store account.

Lumi gives people direct, uninterrupted access to sources they know and trust, all in one app.

Users can follow publishers in their preferred languages, select topics they’re most interested in, and receive notifications whenever something of interest trends – all in a fast, smooth app experience.

Instead of chancing upon news on social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Twitter, or solely relying on news retold by friends, the Lumi news app makes it easier for people to know what’s happening around them, cross-check news that’s reported by credible news sites, and verify the legitimacy of viral news they see.

Top features of the Lumi app

• Get notifications as soon as journalists break the news on a topic of interest. Notifications can be increased or decreased depending on the amount of updates they want to receive. Notification selections include “Whenever something trends”, “Important news only”, “I want everything”, and the option to be notified whenever there’s good news.
• Follow a growing pool of renowned publishers in English, Bahasa Melayu, and Chinese. Great for multilinguals!
• See an overview of Malaysia’s vaccination rates, vaccination goals, and COVID-19 statistics every day, including state breakdowns on Lumi’s in-built COVID-19 tracker.
• Enable ‘Good News’ mode to turn the app’s home screen into a feed of the latest good news – wholesome, inspiring, humorous, optimistic, and heartwarming news, and get notified whenever there’s good news to share.
• Follow and select topics based on personal preferences like Trending News, COVID-19 coverage, News including social news and politics, Lifestyle, Entertainment, Food, Fun & Random, Tech, World, Sports, Gaming, and more.
• Fast, smooth, easy to use app interface.

Not your conventional news app

“We aim to shift the perception that news apps are only relevant to avid news readers by creating a more enjoyable, pain-free news reading habit for people of all age groups,” says CEO of Lumi News Malaysia, Judith Yeoh.

“Lumi’s friendly and easy-to-use user interface was purposefully designed to be inviting, thoughtful, and more social than utilitarian – an intentional departure from news apps that tend to have a standard sterile, cold, and ‘serious’ look,” says Lumi’s Design Lead, Rachel Anyi.

“We use emojis in our brand identity for Lumi to feel current, social, and familiar to our users,” Rachel adds.

“Presenting Lumi to the masses like this will hopefully increase the level of curiosity among more Malaysians towards current issues that impact them, while at the same time, be something useful and fun for everyone, no matter their political stands, worldviews, or personal interests,” Judith says.

Wake up to good news with Lumi

Lumi’s ‘Good News’ feature enables users to be greeted by a feed full of the latest inspiring, wholesome, optimistic, humorous, and heartwarming news as soon as they open the Lumi app. They can also choose to either be notified of good news only, or notified of good news in addition to all other news notifications.

An early market survey conducted by Lumi in June showed that some respondents were avoiding the news as much as they could due to mental exhaustion from keeping up with political and pandemic headlines. News was reminding them about how ‘bad’ things were.

The feature was bookmarked but not revisited until a recent conversation with Malaysian cartoonist Boey Chee Ming, publisher of the much-loved ‘When I Was A Kid’ cartoons, who suggested the idea of showing ‘good news only’ for the same reasons of feeling defeated by news reports of the pandemic and recent world events.

“Social media tends to fan the flame of shocking content, which can overshadow subtle articles that carry good news. The ‘Good News’ feature gives people the opportunity to discover uplifting stories that they might have missed, stories that will make their day,” Judith says.

“There are websites and Facebook pages dedicated to good news but putting it in a news app like Lumi gives it a fresh spin for the Malaysian audience.”

“We’ll curate good news for Malaysians for users to be ‘greeted’ daily by optimistic stories as soon as they open the Lumi app, send notifications when there are new ones to read, and populate Lumi’s social media channels with good news people might have missed,” explains Lumi’s Product & Content Manager, Tang Ruxyn. “Important topics shouldn’t be ignored, despite how they make us feel, but we want to acknowledge the good that’s happening around us as we introduce Lumi to Malaysians.”

Social media users can also submit their personal ‘good news’ entries for a chance to be featured by Lumi, by hashtagging #lumigoodnews or #lumiberitabaik.

Paving the way for audience and publishers

Lumi’s mission? To be the only news app Malaysians will ever need.

Lumi News Malaysia is led by Judith Yeoh, founding member of SAYS, and former General Manager of the English Network at REV Media Group. Lumi is backed by angel investor and blockchain entrepreneur, Ong Teng Siong, and a group of prominent Malaysians in tech. Siong leads Mercurial Finance, a cryptocurrency platform that has raised USD10 million from acclaimed investors like Alameda Research and Sino Global Capital.

“I got to know Siong through a mutual friend of ours, Khailee Ng (managing partner at 500 Startups and founder of SAYS). His tech guidance and past experience as a founding engineer of tech companies in Silicon Valley have been crucial in shaping the early days of Lumi!” Judith says.

“The product must not remain purely as a news aggregation app,” Siong says. “Lumi has got to be different from what the market has already seen. Until then, our job’s not done yet! The goal now is user acquisition, to find out what’s working best for them, and to keep pushing for innovation that will lead to super growth.”

The Lumi team comprises 5 team members: Judith Yeoh (CEO), Chan Hau Jie (Tech Lead), Rachel Anyi (Design Lead), Tang Ruxyn (Product & Content Manager), and app developer, Chan Weng Keit. Current hiring efforts include openings for a senior backend developer and multilingual writers.

“Staying agile and responsive to current events is crucial,” says Lumi’s Tech Lead, Chan Hau Jie. “When the Bendera Putih movement started, we customised a tab for users to see the latest Bendera Putih stories in one feed so they could stay updated and use it as a reference point to offer aid quickly. Shortly after, we built our own COVID-19 tracker in less than 2 weeks in response to people’s habit of checking COVID-19 statistics, putting an emphasis on Malaysia’s vaccination progress instead of daily case numbers. Now, we’ve rolled out the ‘Good News’ feature based on people’s sentiments towards stressful news. Coincidentally, SOP’s were being relaxed and things were reopening in the country at the same time, so that’s good news!”

Besides mass audience appeal, local publishers on Lumi could regain traffic they may have lost from users leaving social media platforms, as the app’s user growth will provide publishers with an alternative stream of direct traffic. The exodus of users from Facebook, in particular, opens a gap for Lumi to fill. Reports from Parse.ly, a web analytics tool used by local and global digital publishers, said that some publishers in their 1,400-site sample saw a 10% to 40% dip in traffic from social media in 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.

“We want to create an uninterrupted environment for publishers to show their best work to a captured audience that cares about the content they produce, every day,” Judith explains.

“Competing local publishers don’t come together very often, what more publishers of different languages, despite having the same growing pains and worries about the future. The opportunity to unify them in one place where they can leverage off each other’s brand presence, therefore casting their net over a wider, more diverse audience, is necessary in today’s media landscape.

Upcoming features on Lumi include the creation of user profiles, social features on the app such as the ability to leave comments, and introducing more content such as videos, podcasts, and live streams.

The Lumi team commits to being responsive towards the needs of both the local audience and media companies, and current events of Malaysia.

“We want to build a better news app that everyone will need and want in their daily lives; the app they can’t live without; the app they need to know what everybody’s reading or saying. The app that illuminates their mind.”

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