Lien We King (Singapore Entrepreneur)

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Lien We King. Photo from Hong Lai Huat Group Limited.
Lien We King. Photo from Hong Lai Huat Group Limited.

Lien We King (born 1975) is a Singaporean entrepreneur, as well as the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Mothership, a well-known Singapore digital news agency.[1] He is also the Managing Director of Bridgewater Holdings Pte Ltd, the parent company of Mothership.sg.[2]

Background

Lien We King is a former fund manager and finance executive whose “hobby site” took off overnight, after its article “48 reasons why you still feel for Singapore” went viral in February 2014.[3][4] Today, this joint venture with fellow entrepreneurs Martino Tan and Belmont Lay has become well-known among Singaporeans as the online news site, Mothership.sg.[2][5]

Besides his role at Mothership.sg, Lien We King is currently the Managing Director of Bridgewater Holdings Pte Ltd, and a Board Member of real estate and property developer, Hong Lai Huat Group.[2]

Personal life

Kiara Khor and Lien We King walking down the aisle at their wedding. Photo from Singapore Brides.
Kiara Khor and Lien We King walking down the aisle at their wedding. Photo from Singapore Brides.

In 2018, Lien We King solemnised his marriage to healthcare strategies professional, Kiara Khor.[6] The couple celebrated this event with a wedding ceremony at Shangri-La Hotel Singapore.[7] Kiara is noted to have worked at Mothership.sg as a Market Analyst in 2014.[6]

He is also known to be friends with former Foreign Minister, George Yeo, who despite his political roots, had decided to take on the role of “Non-Executive Advisor” and writer at Mothership.sg.[8]

Career

Mothership.sg (2013 to Present)

Lien We King (far right) pictured with the staff of Mothership.sg. Photo from Teo Yu Sheng.
Lien We King (far right) pictured with the staff of Mothership.sg. Photo from Teo Yu Sheng.

Lien We King is one of the co-founders and the Executive Director of the Singapore news outlet, Mothership.sg.[1]

The digital news agency is currently funded by social enterprise, Project Fisher-men, where Lien We King assumes the role of one of its three directors.[9]

Press accreditation suspended for breaking untimely release of information from the Budget speech (2022)

On 18 February 2022, Mothership.sg mistakenly posted an infographic with sensitive details about planned GST hikes, ahead of the official release by Deputy Prime Minister, Lawrence Wong at the Budget speech 2022.[10]

This mishap resulted in a suspension of Mothership.sg’s press accreditation until 18 August 2022.[10] It meant that the agency’s representatives, such as Lien We King and Managing Director Martino Tan were not be able to attend government press events and conferences during this period.[10]

Brought under Media Development Authority (MDA) individual licensing regime as a site for local news content (2015)

On 30 July 2022, Mothership.sg released a statement detailing how its website was mandated to comply with Section 8 of MDA’s Broadcasting Act.[11]

According to the Singapore government, such online sites had to meet the following criteria:[12]

  • Report an average of at least one article per week on Singapore news and current affairs, over a period of two months.
  • These articles should be accessed by at least 50,000 unique IP addresses from Singapore each month over the same period of two months.

Earlier in 2014, Mothership.sg had been registered under Section 9 of the Broadcasting Act, where it was prohibited from receiving funds from foreign entities as a “class licensee”.[13]

Mothership’s successful debut after its first article blew up (2014)

In February 2014, Mothership.sg posted its first piece, “48 Reasons Why You Still Feel For Singapore”.[8] The article was an experimental breath of fresh air as compared to traditional forms of journalism, and was met with positive reactions from the public.[8] However, the huge traffic of readers overwhelmed the website and caused it to crash.[8]

How Mothership.sg came to be (2012)

In 2012, Lien We King approached Belmont Lay, the founder of Singaporean satire site, NewNation.sg and Martino Tan, who was a civil servant working under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) at the time.[8] The latter was Senior Manager of online communications at the PMO, where he was best known for managing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s Facebook posts.[8] Both men would later on become his business partners, after he proposed a “digital-only platform for young Singaporeans”.[8]

In fact, the trio wanted to realise a common vision of creating an online site where Singaporeans can keep up to date with and educate themselves on Singapore’s social and political climate. They were “inspired by the ideals of openness, inclusiveness and creativity”.[8]

Later on, they were joined by former Foreign Minister, George Yeo and civil service veteran, Philip Yeo.[8] A friend of Lien We King, George Yeo occasionally contributes as a writer, where he shares his perspective on Singapore life as well as life away from his homeland as he is based in Hong Kong.[8] On the other hand, Philip Yeo is the Chairman of social enterprise Project Fisher-men, which backed Mothership.sg with funding in its early days. Today, Yeo continues to “volunteer” as the Chairman of Project Fisher-men.[8]

Previous occupations

Prior to launching Mothership.sg, Lien We King had been a Director at Pacific Equity Group Pte Ltd, a private equity real estate investment firm. Later on, he became the Managing Director of Bridgewater Holdings Pte Ltd and was appointed to the Board of Hong Lai Huat Group as Non-Executive Independent Director on 1 March 2019.[5]

References/Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chan, Robin. “Social news website Mothership brings home discussion on Singapore”. The Straits Times. February 3, 2014. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lien, We King. “We King Lien”. LinkedIn. n.d. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  3. ↑ Wong, Terence. “It all started with a crash, says Mothership’s founder Lien We King”. Azure Capital. August 14, 2020. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  4. ↑ Lay, Belmont. “48 reasons why you still feel for Singapore”. Mothership.sg. August 10, 2022. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Hong Lai Huat Group. “Board of Directors”. Hong Lai Huat Group. n.d. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Khor, Kiara. “Kiara Khor”. LinkedIn. n.d. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  7. ↑ Singapore Brides. “Lien We King and Kiara Khor’s Beautiful Wedding Celebrations at Shangri La Singapore”. Singapore Brides. June 13, 2018. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  8. ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 Tan, Theresa. “Charting His Own Course”. The AlumNUS. n.d. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  9. ↑ Mothership. “Mothership.sg fuelled by love, seed funding”. Mothership.sg. April 11, 2022. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Abdullah, Ahmad Zhaki. “Mothership’s press accreditation suspended until Aug 18 for breaking embargo during Budget”. CNA. March 25, 2022. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  11. ↑ En, Siau Ming. Matthews, Holly. “Mothership.sg to operate under MDA individual licensing regime”. Today Online. July 30, 2015. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  12. ↑ Gov.sg. “What is the licensing framework for online news sites all about?”. Gov.sg. n.d. Accessed 7 September 2022.
  13. ↑ Sim, Walter. “Mothership.sg told to comply with licensing requirements in place for online news sites”. The Straits Times. July 30, 2015. Accessed 7 September 2022.
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