Symantec Managed Security Services Positioned as a leader in 2011 Magic Quadrant

Gartner Inc. has positioned Symantec Corp. in the Leaders Quadrant of the 2011 Magic Quadrant for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) North America report. The security, storage and systems has also received “Strong Positive” ratings in Gartner’s MarketScope Reports for Managed Security Services in both Europe and Asia/Pacific.

In a press release, Grant Geyer, vice president of the Threat and Risk Management Group at Symantec said, “With more sophisticated cyber attacks coming from outside the enterprise and evolving IT infrastructure on the inside, the risk of information loss is rising. More than ever, organizations recognize the need to actively monitor their environments for signs of malicious activity to ensure their information is safe. We believe our position as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for MSSPs and our ‘Strong Positive’ ratings in the MSS MarketScopes for Europe and Asia/Pacific confirm Symantec’s strong vision and sustained global commitment to protecting our customers’ assets and information.”

On the state of MSSs in Asia Pacific, Scott McCrady, director, Managed Security Services, APJ, Symantec, explains in the press release that, “With the increased incidence and sophistication of cyber attacks, many organizations across Asia Pacific and Japan are taking a more proactive approach to protect their information. Businesses are leveraging managed security service providers, such as Symantec, to provide real-time threat monitoring, analysis, and remediation guidance to minimize the impact of security incidents and reduce overall IT risk. Symantec’s managed security services team has a strong presence in the Asia Pacific and Japan region and is backed by the global capabilities of our intelligence network which comprises more than 240,000 sensors in approximately 200 countries; a system of more than five million decoy accounts to capture spam and phishing data; and more than more than 133 million client, server, and gateway systems to capture malicious code intelligence.  Our strong local APJ presence together with our global capabilities enables Symantec to develop and deliver one of the world’s most comprehensive managed security services.”

Read the press release here for the full details.

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The9′s Korea Head Tony Park Talks Firefall, the Garena Deal, and More

Shaking hands on the Reg 5-Garena deal

The9, a Chinese gaming company, recently established a South Korean branch. Not content with expanding just into Korea, The9 also recently inked a deal for The9-owned American developers Red 5 Studios to bring their game Firefall to Southeast Asia via Singapore-based Garena. Tony Park, the head of The9′s Korea branch, recently sat down to talk with Korean gaming site Thisisgame, and shed more light on the deal, the game, and gaming in China and Korea in general.

(A brief disclaimer: the original article is in Korean, which I can’t read, so I’m working from this Chinese translation on QQ Games. Given that I’m translating from a translation anyway, I won’t bother with direct quotes.)

First, Park was asked why bring Firefall to Taiwan and Southeast Asia before approaching bigger markets like China and Korea. He responded that the market strategy for those larger countries wasn’t yet in place, but that they wanted to get things rolling in the right direction as quickly as possible; hence the early expansion into smaller Asian markets.

Those markets aren’t necessarily going to be easy, though. Park conceded that they’d face challenges from Korean first-person shooter games in the Southeast Asian market, but pointed out that Firefall — as an open world, massively-multiplayer PvE-based FPS — is pretty distinct from much of the competition, which tends to be low player-count PvP games in small maps rather than an open world (although Firefall does have PvP elements as well as PvE). He says this is something they discussed with Garena during the negotiations, and ultimately Garena was convinced of the game’s ability to compete or they wouldn’t have signed the deal.

So that explains why Garena went for Firefall, but why did Red 5 and The9 go for Garena? Park says they were impressed by Garena’s performance as the operator of League of Legends in many Asian countries, where it was offering reliable service despite extremely high player counts. Players in Southeast Asia trust them, and their service has worked for similar free-to-play titles like League of Legends, so Garena was a natural choice.

I'm Tony Park, suckaaaaa! (not a direct quote)

Of course, there’s also the question of the deal, which at $10 million just for southeast Asia broke a record that had been previously set by multiplayer gaming giant Blizzard. Park says the number got so high simply because people — Garena reps and gamers in general — were excited about the game. After Red 5 showed it and let people play it publicly at a number of gaming conventions internationally (G-star, Chinajoy, PAX, etc.), Garena was convinced the game was, as they say, the real deal.

Despite the Asian-connections, Firefall is an American game that’s being developed primarily by the Red 5 Studios team in the US. How will that affect its reception in Southeast Asia and elsewhere? Park notes that very few American and European online games find major success in Asia. But, the Firefall team is made up of a lot of people who worked on World of Warcraft, one of the few Western online games that is an undeniable smash hit in Asia. And, of course, Red 5 has studio branches in Asia and is now owned by The9, so they’re being led by people who know Asia well.

On a broader note, Park was asked about the differences between the market in China and Korea, since he’s in a particularly unique position to deal with them both on a regular basis. He said there was lots of imagination in the constantly-changing Chinese market, but that he also felt there wasn’t a lot of creative challenge happening at the development level.

In case you’re wondering what the heck everyone is talking about, here’s the Firefall trailer from G-star. Think this has the potential to conquer Southeast Asia?

[Via QQ Games]

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Vancl Raises US$230 Million in Round F Funding

Popular online fashion e-commerce company, Vancl has closed a big US$230 Million in round F funding. VC investors include IDG, Ceyuan, Lei Jun, Qiming, Toger and Tamasek. Interestingly, Vancl CEO, Chen Nian founded Joyo with Lei Jun, which was later acquired by Amazon.

Giving a keynote speech at an annual meeting, CEO Chen Nian mentioned some key points of the e-commerce landscape and entrepreneurship.

In terms of competition, Chen sees one of the biggest threats in the B2C e-commerce battle could be Suning. Although Suning has traditionally focused on electronics, they have expanded into books to compete with DangDang. Likewise, they could move into fashion to compete with Vancl. A possible reason for this threat is that Suning has an established network of physical bricks and mortar locations which give them an advantage with warehousing, logistics and dealing with returns and repairs. However Chen views Vancl with an advantage over brands which are primarily physical stores such as Zara, because they can more quickly design, produce and ship.

Chen gave some simple yet fundamental advice to entrepreneurs to focus on product and users. Without it, there is no income, talented team or capital.

 

 

Related posts:

1. Vancl Raised Its 5th Round of Funding at $100millions
2. Vancl Plans To Get Listed By Early 2012
3. Innovation Works’ Start-up, Doodle Mobile Raises US$10 million in Series A Funding

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Goo-goo! Gaa-gaa! Porsche! The Chinese iOS App for Kids That Teaches Car Logos

Goo-goo… gaa-gaa… Porsche… Yes, that could be your baby’s first proper word, if a Chinese app developer has anything to do with it. The BabyTouch app for iOS is designed for kids aged from zero to three, and encourages them to learn visually and aurally as they tap on recognizable animals, foods, fruits, and… er, car logos.

We’ll put that down to a quirk of the startup’s developer – Joooy – which has made this BabyTouch app for iPhone and iPad for China’s growing ranks of middle-/high-income parents who want to let their kids learn from apps as well as from cloth books. Actually, the app works in both English and Chinese, and the language can be changed inside the app – I suppose that’s a bonus for local parents who get the English-learning aspect thrown in for free.

This cutesy app is simple enough for the tiny tots to use by themselves, and starts with a nice touch: a cartoony lock-screen. (That’ll sure help the kids learn how to access your phone at anytime they want). Thereafter there’s not too much for little fingers to do except pick a category of picture-cards – there are eight in all – and then listen to the voice-over say what the image shows. The child can then tap on the screen for the next image, or just ‘scribble’ across the screen to make an adorable trail of smiley faces, stars or hearts.

The free app gives you one category for free, with all others available as in-app purchases for 99 cents – or 6 RMB – each. The paid app gives you them all at a discount.

Of course, there are other Chinese developers and startups focusing on early learning as well, especially on Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS platform. In the web browser, meanwhile, there are some more entertaining options, such as the cartoon-streaming service LeKan.

Find the app via the Joooy homepage.

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Cane for the blind + Foursquare + ultrasound sensor = Win

A white cane that doubles as a GPS-enabled smartphone, complete with an inductive charging dock (wireless charging), an ultrasonic sensor to detect sharp objects, and integration with popular location-based service Foursquare, which enables the blind user to locate friends through audio messages and a tactile navigator.

While cool as a piece of technological and design wizardry, this cane, called Blindspot, is mainly a tool to enhance the social lives of people who are visually impaired. It is created by Selene Chew, a design student at the National University of Singapore, as her final year thesis project.

Here’s how it works:Suppose a blind person is meeting a friend at Bugis Junction. Once the friend checks in via Foursquare at the location, the white cane would prompt the blind user, who would be wearing a bluetooth earpiece. He can then choose from a menu to ignore the message, call the friend, or find the friend.

If he picks the last option, an audio message will prompt him about how far he is from the location. A tactile navigator converts GPS map directions into an ‘arrow’ that points towards the path to take. On his way to the Bugis Junction, a warning message would sound whenever he is about to bump into an object, courtesy of the ultrasonic sensor.

The inductive charger serves a practical purpose too. All a user has to do is place the detachable smartphone on the receptacle to start charging. This saves a lot of trouble since a blind person would not need to locate and manually plug a cable into the device.

White cane with detachable phone, bluetooth headset, and inductive charger.

Blindspot has certainly found a way to marry existing social media tools and technology that we take for granted with traditional items to benefit people who are visually impaired.  It empowers them to take the initiative and be independent in instances where they would be reliant on their friends.

It’s no surprise that Blindspot has received widespread media coverage from Fast Company, CNET, and more. Selene recently won second runner-up at the prestigious James Dyson Award, which aims to inspire the next generation of design engineers. She is also looking for a partner to bring the product to market.

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Baidu Phone on Sale by Year’s end?

Baidu is said to start selling its Baidu Phone at probably RMB 3000 (US$ 471) by end of this month. The phone will be built on the search company’s Baidu Yi mobile platform.

The Beijing-based company launched Baidu Yi mobile platform this September in its annual Baidu World conference. Baidu Yi (means ‘easy’ in Chinese) is constructed on top of Google Android as it customized Android and then integrated some of Baidu’s own apps and services into it, including Baidu Maps, Shen Bian (like Google Places), Ting music platform, and Baidu Yue (reader).

Baidu reorganized its mobile internet businesses to set up a ‘Baidu Mobile|Cloud Computing Division’ with a sharper focus on mobile industry and probably mobile OS.

Though Baidu phone seems to be slightly cheaper when comparing to some smartphones such as iPhone 4 (RMB 3998 and iPhone 4S currently is not available in China yet) and Samsung Galaxy S2 Lite (RMB 3999), but in a market dominated by smartphones priced between RMB 1500 – 2500 (US$ 235 – 392), Baidu’s mobile has no price advantage over its counterparts made by HTC, Huawei or Lenovo. And we have no idea of the specification yet, is it worth the price tag? Let’s wait and see.

According to our previous report, Baidu phone might be OEMed by Dell.

 

Related posts:

1. Lee Kaifu's comments on Baidu's mobile phone OS
2. Baidu Launches Baidu Yi, Partners with Dell on Devices
3. MediaTek $100 Android Phone is Coming, Game-Changing for Shanzhai Phone Market?

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China’s Daily Deals Market Sees Three Local Winners Emerge

Updated stats for China’s fierce group-buy market seem to suggest that we can now crown a triumvirate of winners – Lashou, Meituan, and 55Tuan. That’s because the trio has finally nailed the holy grail of leading in terms of market share, number of deals sold, below average discounts, and highest revenues. To make that even better, Lashou has a higher than average deal price (where the average deal sold is 137 RMB, which is US$22).

As with the last time we looked at this sector in-depth, the stats are provided by Dataotuan. One major difference is that Tencent’s (HKG:0700) group buying portal, QQTuan, has been ignored as it’s now deemed to be more of a deals aggregator. Taobao’s Jua Hua Suan is similarly left out of these stats.

Here are a five key slides from the presentation which shows figures that go up to the end of October, which are the newest available. (Hit the source link below to see the full show):

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Daily Deals Market Share

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Lashou once again cements its lead as the top indie startup in this segment, with 12.7 percent of market share evaluated by revenue. Groupon’s (NASDAQ:GRPN) venture in China, Gaopeng, is still clinging on just outside of the top ten.

In fourth and fifth places are some hard-charging smaller rivals – 58Tuan, and 24Quan. The latter has been in the news for all the wrong reasons this month, so it’ll be interesting to see if that progress is sustainable:

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Revenue and Deals Sold

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This industry has been so painful – with lay-offs, protests, unpaid merchants, etc. – because the revenue from such deals is often so low, leaving the labour-intensive group buy sites struggling to survive on single-digit profit margins. The bad news (as seen in the final slide below) is that average revenue is still dropping, although the average deal price is trending upwards (despite a jolt downwards in October).

FTuan will be familiar to regular readers, but it seems to be sliding down in everything except the average price of its sold deals.

Getting back onto the subject of 24Quan, you’ll notice from the blue bars that its large discounts – way above average – are causing lower than average deal prices. It’s presumably a deliberate strategy to try break into the top three.

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Hop on over to DaTaoTuan’s site for the full 30-slide presentation, which includes break-downs of the most popular kinds of services sold, and which parts of China have the best-quality deals.

[Source: DaTaoTuan’s blog]

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Latest Startup Jobs – 5 Dec

If you are reading SGEntrepreneurs, you are probably already partial to startups, perhaps having founded one yourself or are working in one.

If not, why not consider joining a dynamic startup to see for yourself what it is like working with just two other people in your entire company?

If you are looking for a job as a developer, programmer, or you want something in business development, sales, or perhaps you are a designer and looking for creative jobs, check out these newly listed open positions at these diverse startups.

System Analyst at Innovative Auction (Sold.sg)

Infrastructure Cloud Specialist at myHealth Sentinel (A Microsoft BizSpark startup!)

Sales Executives (Singapore & Malaysia) at Chalkboard

Web Application Developer at ViKi

Online Marketing Manager at Homely Stays

(Senior) Software Engineer at GamesMadeMe

node.js couchdb Architect/ Designer / Developer at Baby Carrot (A Microsoft BizSpark startup!)

Southeast Asia Market Expansion Project Intern: SG at Gopher

Finance/Legal Manager at Wildfire

Visit the portal for more job vacancies.

Dedicated at startups, a job listing at Triple Point Jobs can cost as low as $25 and together with our partner sites, we have combined monthly pageviews of 0.25 million that reach individuals who love code, beautiful design, innovative businesses and creative thinking. For a job seeker who wants to work in startups, this is a perfect tool to find that position that you’ve been looking for. It costs nothing to browse and apply for a position.

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Insights from Spil Games on Mobile and Gaming in Asia

Thanks to Serkan Toto (@serkantoto on Twitter) for pointing out this talk from Spil Games entitled The State of HTML5 Games in Asia. Of course this will be of interest for game developers with their sights set on Asia, but I thought there were a few key factoids in here worth sharing about the mobile market in general. Spil doesn’t mention sources for their numbers, but given that these metrics are critical for their own business, I’m inclined to trust them.

Perhaps most notable are the statistics given for mobile and 3G users in Asia. As we’ve stated many times, China’s mobile numbers are pretty well off the charts with 900 million mobile users. But China still has less 3G users than neighboring Japan (4 percent penetration in China versus ’97 or 98 percent’ in Japan) due to the difference in network infrastructure, which makes the two markets very different as Chen Qi explains in the talk.

They also touch on smartphone market share, and for Japan, this is a number I’ve been trying to find reliable figures on for a while. Again, I’m not sure of its source, but Spil says smartphone market share is about 10-15 percent, with over 10 million users in Japan.

Also of note was the comparison of DeNA’s ARPU in comparison to Facebook and Zynga. You’ll see in their slide that DeNA has an estimated 30 times more revenue per user than Facebook and 15 times more than Zynga. We can’t vouch for those numbers, but Japanese companies have always been good at milking money from mobile users.

But for all this and even more about mobile and gaming in Asia, be sure to check out the entire talk from Spil Games below, which runs about 43 minutes.

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Will We See a Baidu Yi Handset This Month?

The Dell Streak 5 - a contender for running Baidu Yi.

Damn, this is shaping up to be a competitive month for smartphones in China! First we had Xiaomi’s M1, which will finally be available to everyone on December 18. Then there were the rumors that we might see the iPhone 4s finally hit the China market this month. And now rumors are spreading that Dell may be offering a new handset of its own this month running Baidu’s new Android-based Baidu Yi mobile OS.

Baidu Yi was launched back in early fall but we have yet to see a handset paired with the OS. Shortly after its launch, rumors were swirling that Dell would offer the first Baidu Yi handset in November, and while it obviously missed that date, Seeking Alpha analyst Jiang Zhang thinks we can expect a Dell phone this month, and we suspect he’s right.

According to Jiang, the Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) handset should go for around 3,000 RMB ($470), which puts it in an interesting market space — cheaper than almost every major smartphone, but not quite as cheap as the upstart Xiaomi M1, which retails for 2,000 RMB ($312). But the real advantage of the device will be the Baidu Yi OS, which integrates with a variety of Baidu services millions of Chinese net users are already familiar with and using on a daily basis. That could be a huge draw, and it’s something no one else can offer.

When contacted, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) had no comment on the rumor that a Baidu Yi handset might hit the market this month. Nevertheless, we strongly suspect you’ll see a Dell handset this month, and in the year to come presumably other handset manufacturers will also begin offering their own handsets running Baidu Yi natively.

We’re looking forward to seeing what Dell’s come up with, and how Chinese mobile users respond to Baidu’s new mobile OS. We’ll be keeping an eye on this story and will be sure to let you know when the handset is officially announced.

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