As 2020 comes to an end, and we anxiously await the arrival of 2021, we can’t help but reflect on just how crazy this year has been. We left 2019 with the hopes of 2020 being “our year,” but for many of us, this year threw a wrench into our plans. COVID-19 jumped in and stole the show, yet here we are. We have a lot to look back fondly on despite the ups and downs of 2020. Follow along as we shine a light on the more positive and uplifting moments of our 2020 year at Kdan Mobile.
Company Events
Though few and far between compared to other years, we were still able to attend a few events around the globe throughout 2020. Whether they were virtual or in-person, we still found ourselves enjoying the opportunity to both gain and share insight on our complex and rapidly evolving SaaS industry.
SSP Conference: New Orleans, United States: Before things started to get crazy, our US team was able to take a trip to New Orleans to visit the Society of Settlement Planners Conference in February. They were able to meet with other enterprises from across the United States to introduce our eSign solution to representatives in the paper-heavy financial planning industry.
NCKU Job Fair: Tainan City, Taiwan: We connected with students at National Cheng Kung University and chatted about tech-related job opportunities in Southern Taiwan. We are always very passionate about engaging with both the community as well as other tech professionals.
Meet Taipei: Taipei, Taiwan: At Asia’s largest startup festival, Meet Taipei, we met with Taiwan’s most influential technology business media as well as other startups, venture capitalists, enterprises, incubators, and service providers. This year’s audience was smaller than usual, but this gave us the chance to have more intimate conversations with our fellow attendees and share DottedSign with them and demonstrate how DottedSign can help organizations accelerate their digital transformation.
Virtual Trade Show: Tokyo, Japan: Our Japanese team attended the virtual version of this trade show in lieu of an annual Taiwan-Japan trade mission that normally takes place between the two countries. They were able to connect with and introduce DottedSign to several Japanese companies during the ongoing pandemic with ease.
Product News
All of our products had their own significant milestones in 2020. From awards to updates, and contests to social media, make sure to check out how PDF Reader, Markup, Animation Desk, NoteLedge, Write-on Video, and DottedSign have done over the last year!
PDF Reader: PDF Reader had a big year. PDF Reader MacOS started the year with an update that included new features like the text editing tool, PDF templates, and a new interface with shortcuts to other essential editing aides. PDF Reader was selected as a merit award winner this summer by Asia Smart App in the Business and Commercial category. Our tool was also one of our apps chosen as App of the Day on Design Nominees. To wrap up 2020, PDF Reader released an iOS14 integration update equipped with Widget, Scribble and PencilKit.
Markup: Markup has done quite a bit this year! Most notably, Markup was nominated by a community of educators called All Design School as Editor’s Choice in their Reading category. Markup also improved its UX on both iOS and Chrome Extension. In iOS, Markup got a new in-app browser interface and web bookmark that enables users to quickly save their favorite websites as shortcuts. As for Extension, the interface has been revamped to provide users a clean-cut interface for a better web highlighting experience and easier to manage their markups.
Animation Desk: What a year for Animation Desk! In between hosting several animation contests, Animation Desk was busy keeping things moving. In August, a new update gave Animation Desk a new interface that included zoom-in and zoom-out features, canvas rotation, brush optimization, and more! Animation Desk also participated in its first ever livestream in collaboration with a local animator. Here are some of the animation contests we hosted in 2020!
- DTIYS – a contest to allow users to create Animation Desk as an animal
- DTIYSLogo – a literal play on words to design the Animation Desk logo
- This Is Me – a self-expression contest for animators to introduce themselves
- AniMotion – a contest made to highlight the possibilities of 2D animation
- AniMonsters – a spooky Halloween contest designed to scare other users
NoteLedge: In early 2020, NoteLedge jumped into the Insta-world and launched its official Instagram account. Since then, NoteLedge has spent its time collaborating with creatives from all over, gathering inspiration to transform itself from a note-taking app, to a platform where creatives can gather and organize materials from design and fashion moodboards alike to leverage their creativity. NoteLedge is currently busy preparing for its upcoming update in early 2021.
Write-on Video: Write-on Video underwent its big 2020 update to start the calendar year. The entire interface got a fresh, stylish makeover and enabled videos to be exported in higher resolution. Other new features included timeline, pods, and outline. Write-on Video was also nominated for App of the Day and is set to be available on Android as we ring in 2021.
Write-on Video, along with PDF Reader, Markup, Animation Desk, and NoteLedge, hosted two educational campaigns to assist students and teachers with finding digital solutions as many underwent the shift from traditional to digital classroom.
DottedSign: As Kdan’s latest SaaS service, DottedSign reached several big milestones this year. It introduced users to the DottedSign Business plan for organization-wide use of e-signature. DottedSign was also nominated as one of the Top-10 E-Sign Tools by Goodfirms as well as App of the Day! DottedSign also integrated with CHT A+ Sign to provide users digital certificates on signed documents to confirm the validity of signatures.
At The Office
While much of this year took place outside the office or within the digital realm of our apps, we still experienced much of 2020 here in our offices. Equally balanced between hard work and fun, here are some of the things that went on throughout the course of the year!
Quality Assurance Team Comes to HQ: Kdan’s very own QA department joined our Tainan office this year. We have a full team of testers who work closely with our engineers to deliver the best possible versions of our products.
Kdan Beer Collaboration: Kdan celebrates its company brand with customized beer every year thanks to a partnership with a local brewery. Ours is locally blended into a refreshing beer suitable for summer drinking with rich tropical fruit fragrance and a mosaic hop pellets as the base. This year, we had a mini 11th birthday party for Kdan and mixed in our own little taste of company branding to go along with it.
Field Trip: Everyone at the office took an afternoon off to participate in a company field trip to wrap up a year of hard work. Everyone came out to enjoy a delicious Japanese-style barbecue lunch followed by a few competitive rounds of laser tag. This was a great chance for us to mingle with some newer members and really get into some fun team building. Overall, everyone really enjoyed trying not to get lasered!
That Was Our Year in Review – 2021, Here We Come!
This wasn’t the year we asked for, but it’s the year we got. We are grateful, nevertheless, that we got to spend another year doing what we love as a team. Instead of thinking about what could have been, we focused on the tasks at hand to drive forward progress. We worked hard and had fun, and are very much anticipating everything that 2021 will be sending our way!