Tencent’s Real Name Social Network, Pengyou.com is Now An Open Platform

Tencent seems truly serious about opening up itself this time. Just two weeks after it released its open API. Just hours ago, Tencent’s social network Pengyou.com announced its open platform where you can already find around 40 applications from third-parties.

First of all, what is Pengyou (means Friend). You may only knows QZone, the social network claims over 428 millions users thanks to QQ. QZone obviously has a massive user base but the problem is that it is not really a real name network meaning the connection between the users on QZone is quite ‘virtual’ and many connections are built among strangers. This is said to be the difference and also the weak point to compete with RenRen and Kaixin001. Obviously Tencent does not want to give up the battle, Pengyou.qq.com was launched in July 2010 and until yesterday the service is moved to and officially launched on Pengyou.com. Also from strategy point of view, Pengyou is also the direct competitor of RenRen and Kaixin001 as it also targeted at both campus and office users.

Need to mention that unlike other Tencent’s online services which all require QQ ID as the login username. Pengyou even allows users to register with any valid email address, which is really a fundamental change for Tencent.

Tencent's Pengyou.com Open Platform - Application Gallery

Also take a closer look  at Tencent’s Open SNS platform, currently it offers three ways to connect with QZone and Pengyou: Share component, Like component and SNS API.

• Share component – allows users to easily share your content to QZone or Pengyou;
• Like component – like Google Friend connect service which allows Tencent users become the fans of any sites;
• SNS API – allows third-parties applications running on Pengyou open platform.

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The9 brings social gaming network OpenFeint to China

Shanghai based online game company The9 is moving its direction to mobile internet.  One of its key initiatives is to bring U.S. social gaming network OpenFeint (http://openfeint.com) to China.

OpenFeint is a mobile game platform running over iPhones and Android phones. It has over 3,400 games and 45 million users.  Besides playing games, it also allow game players to interact with each other, for example, competing for the best score, inviting friends from facebook, Twitter and address book to play together.

In July, The9 bought some of the share of  U.S. based Aurora Feint, which owns and operates OpenFeint.  It also secured a 5 year contract to operate  OpenFeint in China.  Apart from The9, Intel Capital also has invested into Aurora Feint.

Earlier, the9 has set up a US$100million funds with other investors to develop mobile internet.  It is expected many of the invested companies will distribute their applications via the OpenFeint platform in China.

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What Do Telecom Operators Want? [A Look At App Platform Strategy]

Recently, IDC published a white paper on the App strategy of Mobile operators and while the report doesn’t get into the real depth of what operators really want (apart from increasing ARPU), it does throw some interesting insight and a good summary of operators’ role in the new app world.

Operator Model

• Store within a store. This is a carrier-branded store, which contains other stores within it such as RIM and Microsoft.
• Coexisting side-by-side stores. This is typical with Android Marketplace, where the operator brands its own store but also supports Android Marketplace.
• A joint service model. This means that an operator handles the retail operations of billing, customer service, and marketing, while the application store such as Nokia Ovi does the wholesale aspects of content aggregation, developer relationships, certifying, testing, and so forth.
• Virtual preloaded operator apps. In this model, the operator works with the open OS platforms such as Android, Microsoft Windows for Mobile, RIM, and Ovi and preloads the operator-branded application infrastructure.

Most Popular App Platform

Android tops the chart, followed by RIM/Blackberry App world.

What’s interesting is that 26% of the interviewed operators expressed interest in migrating from their proprietary platform to that of a partner – essentially this means that operators are now realizing the need to open up and partner with other app platform, in order to scale their app offering.

Also, operators in emerging markets were more open to partner as opposed to the ones in developed world.

Preferred Business Model

"Revenue share" was identified as the most preferred model by 85% of the interviewed operators. Capex and fee/subscriber were the other two preferred models (15%).

Also, depending on how big an operator is (i.e. number of subscribers), they have different pain points when it comes to defining a strategy for app stores.

• Smaller operators view enhanced customer experience as a top objective of their application store; larger operators focus the application store strategy on reduced customer churn rate.
• Smaller operators depend on local, vernacular content as one of the primary drivers for application store success.
• Larger operators, which focus on reducing churn and increasing customer acquisitions, identify quality and relevance of applications as the differentiation success factor.
• Large operators, which are already farther along with implementation of their application store strategy, are more willing to work with partners.
• Providing an integrated three-screen experience across mobile devices, PCs, and TV sets is a critical point of differentiation for many of the world’s integrated operators.

What’s your take?

[Download the report from here.]

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News Roundup: UID To Be Used As KYC (?), iGate to Acquire Patni Computers

Most of the telecom operators face a big hurdle with KYC process and recently, there was a news report that 60% of prepaid mobile connections in Mumbai were secured through fake documents.

Combating this, DoT is considering using UID as a definitive proof for subscriber verification.

“Serious consideration is being given to make UID the fundamental basis of subscriber verification. This will mean that the present arrangement will continue for a period of time but once UID is up and running the transition could occur very quickly and nationwide.” [source]

Recommended Read: Hygiene in UID Project [Technical Analysis] | UID Project plans to introduce micro-payment platform for Rural India

iGate to Acquire Patni Computers

iGate is set to acquire the country’s sixth largest software exporter, Patni Computer Systems in a $1 billion deal, at a price of around Rs 525 for every share.

The Patni brothers, who hold 46% in the company, are selling their entire stake as is private equity firm General Atlantic, which holds 16%. The three brothers and GA are being advised by Credit Suisse , Ambit and Avendus in the deal. Patni shares ended flat on the BSE on Monday at Rs 486.40. Shares of iGate, were down marginally on Nasdaq in early trading. [source]

SEBI vs. Facebook/Twitter?

These days, a lot of discussions over stock prices/valuation happen in the social networks (like Facebook, Twitter) and SEBI (The Securities & Exchange Board of India) wants to take a stock of the same. SEBI is putting in place new software tools that will analyze discussions on social networking platforms.[source].

Cyber Crimes in AP

Andhra Pradesh witnessed three cyber crimes a week on average in 2010 and a majority of them were Nigerian frauds, according to the state crime investigation department.

Often, it is difficult to catch the foreign nationals involved because they use gullible local people to share their bank accounts, promising 3 or 4 percent of a “huge money transfer[source].

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Heaven or Hell? Chinese Location-Based Check-in Services at the End of 2010

Location-based check-in service, is one of the hottest keywords in mobile market this year. This business is controversial, as we all agree that location-based service is full of potential, but check-in seems boring and lacking of revenue model.But if you believe in this market, you need give it a go, now!

Today’s obviously an interesting date for Chinese location-based service. Jiepang, announced its API to encourage third-parties to check-in on Jiepang in different ways or use the data generated by the community. Three companies show up in Jiepang’s press conference to demo their integration with Jiepang’s API, Banmake (mobile social media ads solution provider based on QR-code), 16Fun (MyTown-like location-based game) and Weico (a popular UI/UX design company specialized for mobile application). Jiepang also released its new version with Instagram-like photo filters integrated. Although I am pretty sure that other check-in service will soon follow Jiepang to launch their own API, but Jiepang takes the first step to lead this, we see its confidence and its good sense about the market. Launching an API is easy, building an ecosystem around it is super hard, especially in China. It needs a couple of weeks to judge the success of the API strategy, but the good news we’ve heard is that Jiepang is planning to move to a bigger office, so 2011 sounds quite promising for Jiepang.

However, also a rumor came to us early today that another LBS service Linxun, operated by the listed company Vodone, has laid off 5/6 of the team (update: tonight, Vodone has officially denied this and emphasized its Linxun business was running on the right track). Linxun might be the ‘richest’ LBS company as its advertisement is actually often found in Beijing’s subway. Linxun was co-developed by Orange Beijing Lab and Vodone in early this year and now fully operated by Vodone. It was reported that Linxun had 4 millions users. So let’s do hope it’s not a Hell ahead of Linxun.

2010 is the first year for Chinese location-based service and everyone is testing the market, and no doubt next year the competition will be tough as we might see more big companies like social network Renren and even portals to release its own LBS service. We might see 2 or 3 winners hopefully go to heaven and the rest (most of them) might need find a niche market to survive before they go to hell.

David Liu, Jiepang's CEO Spoke about its API

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Best of Pluggd.in in 2010 [Product Management Articles]

Here are the top articles (based on traffic and comments) published in 2010 under the category Product Management.

The Groupon Story –From WordPress Blog to $5Bn Company [Lean Startup]

Groupon started off as a WordPress blog and followed the cheapest way to do concept validation.

Building a Successful Business –The Mint.com Story (Interview with Aaron Patzer)

“Most investors told me not to bother to start a personal finance business. We had all the site securities  and product features, but the biggest thing we did for trust was to have a highly secured website. Trust is an emotional thing – you know if you are walking down a street in the night – the person coming from the opposite direction is a threat or not. Same thing with websites. We have a pixel perfect website that added to the trust.”

“Small is Big” – Of User Intent and How Great Products are Built on Small Features

One of the main reasons why users prefer one product over the other is trust – and you don’t gain trust by putting up your uptime numbers. You gain trust by helping your users in their decision, by helping them to not commit mistakes when they are using the product. You gain immense trust when your product exactly understands the user intent and is a ‘F**king Cool” experience.

Freemium Series

• Business Model 101: Making the most of the free users

• Business Model 101: The Free, The Mium and Mel Gibson

• Business Model 101: Number Crunching before you try Freemium

• Business Model 101: Why startups often fail at Freemium

Examples of Successful Product Companies/Collections

• Dropbox Founder, Drew Houston on Zero to Two Million User Jump [Lean Startup]

• Why Wesabe Lost to Mint? Product Lessons

• So you have an idea. Do you start with Product or PoC? [Aardvark Story]

• Product Management Resources For Startups [A Collection]

• Creating Differentiation in Crowded Market – Few Examples

Product Management Vis-à-vis Other Roles

• Product Messaging: What Language Does Your Product Speak?
• Use Case: Building Product For Negative Use Cases?
• Hiring: How Indian Startups should Hire Product Management Function?
• Sales: What do you sell? Holes or Drills?
• Base Role: How Products are conceived, discussed and Destroyed (Product Management)
• Usability: Can Product Usability be an afterthought?

We will restart the Product Strategy workshops in 2011 – expect more focus on this category, as we continue to explore the product startup ecosystem.

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Evolution of 4G Services

News of the floor is that 3G will bring much needed telecom growth for INDIA and 4G for developed world. Here I am trying to put the different view about the 4G and its future in developed world.

Verizon-US has launched its 4G service with 2X2 MIMO and most of user reviews are indicating that Downlink data rate is going to be 25 MBPS and uplink close to 5 MBPS. In a lab trial at RIL last month Ericsson has shown 80 MBPS downlink speed and 20 MBPS uplink speed which was maintained at 70 Kmph (with 4X4 MIMO). So we can say that user is going to have more than 10 times of current internet speed in its mobile device.

Now coming to my main agenda, is user really require this much of bandwidth at handset/mobile device, do we have ecosystem of applications which requires that much of band-width (in present context only high definition IPTV/Video and movie download would be helpful from this much of speed) and finally is market i.e. user ready to bear the cost of such speed even if we have such application which require such high bandwidth (because if the speed is 10 times then monthly download per user will increase at least by a factor of two or three i.e. higher cost of data plan). Answer to all above questions is NO at this point of time but is YES in the future.

In 2001 all telecom journals was providing the impression that the growth of 3G will drive the mobile world but in reality 3G operators were struggling with the financial return of 3G and kept on struggling till 2006. The reason for this struggle was very simple i.e. missing of ecosystem of application which would have had required that much of bandwidth offered by 3G apart from the cost of the service. Or in simple world 3G technology was matured in 2001 but market got the maturity in 2007 to accept it commercially. Technical success Verizon has achieved, let’s wish a good luck to Verizon for a early market success of 4G services.

[Guest article by Salil. Reproduced from his blog]

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SmartDevices R10 hands-on videos

SmartDevices’s new tablet R10  was ever a highly-anticipated device in China when the company just announced it with this piece of teasing information that it would come with a 10-inches IPS display. Now it’s set to be shipped during the upcoming New Year holiday and main specs were revealed. Not good as SmartDevices has told people!  

R10 does get a 9.7 inches IPS display, but sadly it’s resistive, with resolutions of 1024×768. Other specs include a 720MHz ARM11 based Telechip TCC8902 chip, 256MB RAM, 2GB on-board storage, 3G connectivity, Android and a 7500 mAh battery that could support at least 5 hours for video displaying. Those R10 is still not available at the market, but someone has been able to put hands on it. The two videos below shows its response are not very smooth, and terrible for 3D games like Angry Birds (showed in the second video). Click on the source link 4 more hands-on videos if you are insterested.

[Source:1pad]

• SmartDevices SmartQ V5-Ⅱ hits the market
• SmartDevices To Launch Sub-$100 Android MID SmartQ V3
• Video: SmartDevices T7 and T7-3G arrive at the market
• SmartDevices T7 tablet Runs Android
• SmartDevices to ship R7 this week, with a magazine store
• SmartDevices R7 ebook reader hands-on video
• SmartDevices R7 e-book reader
• SmartDevices SmartQ V5 now on sale, priced at 1099 Yuan
• Video: SmartQ V7 multi-boot MID
• SmartDevices SmartQ V7 priced at 1500 Yuan

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1000 Students Gather At A Job Fair In Ameba Pigg

It is not already unusual that the job fair is held in virtual world. But is there a company holding a serious job fair in the “cute” 2D virtual world? CyberAgent utilized their virtual world “Ameba Pigg” for their job fair.

Recently, CyberAgent strengthens overseas development, and push forward the employment of the Android application development engineers. However, not all university students live in the metropolitan area(CyberAgent holds “real” job fairs only in Tokyo and Osaka).

Last month, they held a job fair in Ameba Pigg for the university students who are supposed to graduate in spring, 2012 (Event administration method is the same as former Idol Event). Then about 1,000 students gathered there. 40% of who logged in were from countryside and oversea.

This cute avatar is CyberAgent CEO Susumu Fujita. He himself operated his avatar there!.

Then avatars of five employees appeared and did Q&A session with students.

Job fairs which used 3D virtual world and virtual event system were observed before. But most of them were in serious styles. All the participants wore suits and avatars were real-type graphics… CyberAgent and Ameba Pigg proved that job fair could be held even in cute 2D virtual world.

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Turn your passion into a business!

This is a sponsored post for ideas.Inc

To most of us, watching anime or reading manga is just a past time, and beyond dressing up in our favourite character’s costumes, and collecting memorabilia, there really isn’t much else to do.

But Sylvia Yao and Wu Di, both manga fanatics and gaming enthusiasts, decided they had to do something manga-related to fill the void that the growing social gaming scene had left behind. Observing the growing interest in manga here in Singapore, and the many social games that have sprouted over the internet, especially social media platforms, it was only natural the duo felt marrying the two would then give manga fans access to a wide array of manga-styled games to add depth to their hobbies.

Manga Castle was finally born in January 2010, and so well-received by manga fans all over Asia, the US, Canada and the UK, it already has a growing community of more than 17,000 fans on its Facebook page. A feat that was made possible by their participation in various business competitions, most notably, the Ideas.Inc Challenge 2009, where they received $15,000 in prize money, another $100,000 through the competition’s Top Incubation Award, and mentorship and entrepreneurship training on top of that.
The seed money has allowed them to be able to hire a team of graphic designers and programmers, and they now have the capability to constantly improve their gaming engine for a more enriching experience for gamers.

What was originally a consumer-driven, subscription-based gaming portal, has also since evolved to become a platform that also attracts gaming developers to showcase their games. Manga Castle provides these gaming developers with the business intelligence they have gathered, through the gamers’ behaviours online, to ensure gaming developers are able to develop games that are now based on facts and science, instead of intuition that they’re traditionally used to. This then ensures developers build games that are profitable and have business sustainability.

With this business concept, Manga Castle expects to build an all-rounded manga community that is well-connected from gamer to developer, although business ideas continue to evolve with time and the needs of the community.

However, passion is the only constant in this journey. As Sylvia puts it, “Only when you are passionate about what you do, can you persuade others to buy in to your idea. Although we are still in the middle of this journey, our vision remains steadfast and I am still in awe of this journey of self-discovery.”

Your passion can materialise into a successful business idea, if you do something about it! Execute it now by taking part in ideas.Inc. Business Challenge, an annual business competition organised by the Nanyang Technopreneurship Center for aspiring entrepreneurs aged 26 years of age and below. ideas.Inc. Business Challenge provides significant funding, mentorship and skills enhancement workshops for its successful participants. Registration for the competition closes 7 February 2011. More details can be found here at www.ntu.edu.sg/ideasinc

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New Deadline for Mapping License, or Google Maps Get Lost in 2011

31st March 2011, it is the new deadline (it was by end of 2010) given by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM) to get the mapping license. If the mapping service operator continues its service without the licence, it will be punished after 1st July. And till now, Google has not submitted its application to the officials yet.

The hurdles

Why is it so difficult for Google? According the regulation, for foreign companies which want to apply for mapping license,  the most important requirements are:

• a). the servers which store the map-related data must be located within China;
• b). the license must be applied by a join venture company or a legal Chinese partner.

As Google has moved most of its service to HongKong, the requirement a). could be really the headache. Note that there is one foreign company has got the license, it is Nokia via its Shanghai-based join venture company.

The Consequence

If Google Maps is out of China, it is going to be really bad not only for Google itself, but for many Chinese local internet companies. Most of Android phone and iPhone are bundled with Google Maps applications, popular service like Dianpin (Chinese Yelp) have been using it for years, and many new mobile applications such as Location-based Service all have Google Maps integrated. They might be thinking of the alternatives now.

And another international giant Microsoft needs the license asap too.

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