When people talk about Dr Kervis today, the labels that often come up are founder of the ASEAN AI entertainment ecosystem and founder of Zocco Group. Yet the Dr Kervis AI Journey did not begin in a corporate boardroom or on a technology stage. Wind the clock back thirty years, and a completely different picture emerges: a teenager growing up in a modest terrace house with limited financial resources, who relied on a single computer and an unbreakable refusal to give up to develop a powerful set of internet instincts.
Those instincts were not learned later in life. They were played into existence from childhood. Understanding this is the key to understanding why, thirty years on, he would stake his chips on an AI entertainment ecosystem with such conviction. This is not a career change. It is the same instinct, applied in a different era.
Selling Pen Refills At 7: The Earliest Business Education
Dr Kervis grew up poor. From an early age he was certain that his parents could not help him, and he began finding his own way very early on. At the age of 7, he started a small business selling pen refills at school. It was the first business of his life, and the starting point of his commercial instincts.
A single pen refill earned almost nothing. But for a 7-year-old, the most basic commercial logic, buy low, mark up, find buyers, was etched into his bones through those simple transactions. Every business he has run since then, whether direct sales, a streaming guild or an app, has essentially been answering the same question: how do you get something of value into the hands of people willing to pay for it?
He was not only a young businessman. He started learning guitar at 3, learned diabolo at 12 and became the captain of his school’s diabolo team, representing Johor in competitions. He learned hairdressing and worked at banquets to earn money. Versatility combined with an unwillingness to give up became the foundation for every pivot he made in later life.
Teaching Himself HTML At 13: The Birth Of A Teenage Forum Administrator
The moment that truly shaped the direction of his future came when he discovered the internet at the age of 12. He threw himself into a popular forum, and very quickly grew dissatisfied with being just another ordinary user. Between the ages of 13 and 14, he taught himself HTML and built his own forum, BlueSky Forum, at the domain BlueSky06.com, and became its administrator himself.
This was a remarkable thing to do at the time. A teenager had to not only figure out how to write web pages, but also manage a community, attract users, and learn how to monetise through online advertising. He had to make people want to come in, want to stay, and want to come back every day to post. That skill set, bring people together, make the community come alive, then find a way to make money, was first proven to work on BlueSky Forum.
The internet instinct I developed at 13 is the earliest and most valuable asset of my entire life.
What internet instinct really means, when you break it down, is a sensitivity to how people gather online, how they play, and what moves them. While others were still treating the internet as a novelty, he was already thinking about how to use it to build a business and bring people together. This precocious instinct became the foundation for every platform business he built afterwards.
From Bottom Of The Class To Top Three: The Unbreakable Refusal To Give Up
Dr Kervis’s academic journey was far from smooth. His grades fell sharply at one point, and he dropped to the bottom of his class. But he refused to accept it, and fought his way back, finishing high school in the top three of his commerce stream, winning the Best Improvement Award across all commerce students, and achieving 4A3B in his unified examinations.
Getting from last to top three was not about talent. It was about that refusal to give up. The experience of dragging himself out of the lowest point would repeat itself throughout his life, from relearning to walk after a car accident to pivoting to AI after his account was banned. It is always the same person doing the same thing: falling, then getting back up.
He often says he was pushed into becoming who he is by his circumstances. From a timid child who was afraid to raise his hand in class, to a leader who had to carry an entire team, in between were one hard-fought battle after another. The confidence that carried him through every one of those battles can always be traced back to that teenager who refused to quit, who at 13 dared to build his own forum.
The Same Instinct, Now Landing On Xing Yu Group And VYBE App
Thirty years have passed, and the teenage forum administrator has become a group chairman. But look closely, and you will find that the core of what he does has not changed. Back then, BlueSky Forum was about gathering internet users. Today, Xing Yu Group is about gathering creators. Back then, he was working out how to monetise through online advertising. Today, he is studying the multiple monetisation paths on VYBE App, including short drama exposure, brand partnerships, fan tipping, and platform tasks.
What VYBE App is trying to build is an ecosystem that weaves together AI, short dramas, creators, and fan economy into one. Behind it is an amplified version of that same youthful instinct: how do you bring people together, how do you make a community run on its own momentum, and how do you help creators earn money?
The tools have changed from HTML to AI storyboard generation and AI virtual character development, but the three underlying tasks remain the same:
- Gather people.
- Keep them active.
- Enable monetisation.
From a 13-year-old forum administrator to an entrepreneur betting on an AI entertainment ecosystem, Dr Kervis has actually been walking in a straight line. What has changed is the tools and the stage. What has not changed is his sensitivity to how people come together online.
Closing
Some abilities are written into the bones. When Dr Kervis built BlueSky Forum at 13, he probably did not imagine that thirty years later he would use the same instinct to place his bets on AI. But it is precisely this internet instinct, sustained from his teenage years to the present day, that makes the story of Xing Yu Group and VYBE App read as something entirely natural.
Where that instinct will take him over the next thirty years is well worth watching.