Japanese Social Game Publisher Cygames Has Over 20 Million Total Users

Very happy holidays: Cygames is a subsidiary of CyberAgent

Japanese game developer Cygames (a CyberAgent subsidiary) has announced today that its social games portfolio has amassed more than 20 million registered users since the company came into being back in May of 2011.

As you may know, Cygames is the developer behind the wildly popular card battle game Rage of Bahamut, perhaps the most globally successful mobile game export put forth by any Japanese company on a smartphone. Of the 20 million registered users that Cygames is boasting of today, about half of those come from Bahamut alone, as the game passed 10 million users worldwide just a few days before Christmas.

The folks over at Gamebiz.jp point out that Cygames had 2.6 billion yen (almost $30 million) in net income in the fiscal year ended September 2012, which is a pretty astronomical growth metric for such a young company.

As you may recall, DeNA (TYO:2432) – who distributes Rage of Bahamut on its Mobage platform – saw enough promise in Cygames this past year to buy up a 20 percent stake in the company for the price of $92 million.

Cygames will certainly be a hot company to watch moving forward in the new year, so stay tuned to even more fun mobile games from them!

The post Japanese Social Game Publisher Cygames Has Over 20 Million Total Users appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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Myth: You need to be on Microsoft technology stack to be a part of the Microsoft Azure Accelerator

The Microsoft Accelerator will take in 50 new startups in 2013 through various batches and is inviting applications for its second batch. Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure (India) is a 4-month program aimed at helping early stage startups doing big things in Cloud, Internet, and Mobile. Microsoft will provide a state-of-the-art workspace, elite mentors from the industry, and all the tools we think you will need to create the most successful startup.

The Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure was announced in India last July and had taken in 11 startups for its first batch. The Bangalore based accelerator is the second the software giant has opened under its banner since the launch of its accelerator in Israel last March (read our interview with Accelerator CEO, Mukund Mohan).

During the program, Microsoft offers startups with office space, design, PR resources, mentors and other facilities. They also track the evolution of early stage startups closely using in house tools.

One of the myths around Microsoft Accelerator is that the startup needs to be on Microsoft stack to apply for the accelerator. Actually not. 

Pradeep Banavara of Microsoft talks about the biggest myth:

Plus, Microsoft Accelerator doesn’t take any stake in the incubated startups and importantly, does not retain IP developed during the program. The IP developed by a participating company is retained by the company.

How are the startups selected?

For us, it’s first about the team. Because of this reason, we’re less likely to accept single founder companies. The best things you can do to strengthen your application are:

• Round out your team with business, technical, and other necessary skills
• Make progress on your prototype or product and reference it in the application
• Show us you’ve really thought about your business and have done something about it

Watch this video where the jury members talk about the accelerator process

Timeline:

- Application Deadline: Jan 15, 2013.

- Application Link.

- Face to Face Interviews: Jan 30, 2013.

- Selection Announcement: Feb 1, 2013.

- Batch begins: Mar 1, 2013.

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Recommended read

A look at 11 startups selected for Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure Program

THE Incubator and Accelerator List in India

Disclaimer: Microsoft is a sponsor on NextBigWhat.

Related posts:

1. Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure launched in India
2. Microsoft Acclerator India to nearly double intake in 2013, is inviting applications for second batch
3. A look at 11 startups selected for Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure Program

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Asia’s top venture capitalists predict what’s in store for 2013

As the year 2013 kicks off, startups, companies and venture capital firms set new expectations and goals. What exactly does 2013 promise? We spoke to some of the more prominent venture capitalist around the region to find out their outlook for the new year.

Amit Anand (Singapore): What 2013 means for the various Southeast Asia ecosystems

Amit Anand is the Founder and Managing Partner of Jungle Ventures, a Singapore based pan Asian early stage fund for Jungle Venture. The fund also recently launched a new US$10M super angel fund, collaborating with the prestigious 500Startups. Some of Jungle Ventures’ portfolio include Cinemacraft, DocDoc and travelmob.

Amit is also the Vice Chairman for Business Angel Network South East Asia (BANSEA).

Here’s what Amit has to say about 2013:

“Ecosystems such as Singapore and Indonesia are most likely to orbit into next stage of maturity or die trying. The next few years are VERY critical to the region as some of the seed stage experiments will come of age and teams will have to demonstrate long term viability of their businesses. On the other hand, newer ecosystems such as Thailand will get on the seed stage radar so it maybe a good time for entrepreneurs that are looking for seed funding to consider Thailand as their base. It is also a decent home market. Watch out for Australia though! If given the right access to Southeast Asia markets, there are highly potent startup teams bubbling down under!

VC’s, especially local ones, that open themselves to taking early risks may find great pickings in the bridge to Series A segment. Not all startups will reach the desired milestones for Series A convincingly and it would take an expert eye to pick early winners irrespective. Unfortunately, there are only a handful of funds that have the wherewithal and mindset to do that. We are very upbeat about that stage of investments.

Though not publicly disclosed there are many startups in Singapore (and the region) that are hovering around the $100m mark. It will be interesting to see if they consider exiting or have the vision and execution prowress to THINK BIGGER and be the first Billion dollar digital enterprise from here!  Eitherways, stories such as Bubblemotion, mig33, PropertyGuru, Viki, Reebonz will end up teaching us a lot and one should closely watch them for the next few years.”

Adrian Venzyl (Thailand): We are very bullish on verticals with a direct path to monetization

Adrian Venzyl is the cofounder and CEO of Thailand based Ardent Capital. Ardent Capital has founded, grown and successfully exited a range of companies, primarily in the internet sector in SE Asia, but also in the US and Australia. Some of these successful exits include Ensogo, Dealkeren, Admax Network, and NewMediaPlus.

Adrian spent ten years with Blumberg Capital in San Francisco (most recently as CTO for this $100M early stage digital media focused fund, where he was also CEO of two portfolio companies).

Here’s what Adrian has to say about 2013:

“We are very bullish on verticals with a direct path to monetization. These include travel, beauty, parenting/kids et cetera. We particularly like those that can reduce customer acquisition cost, and drive engagement, by having a social community layer of some sort (comments, likes, photos). We are not seeing as much traction as you’d expect for general, non differentiated commerce sites (eg Amazon.com clones).  This is due to a lack of clear messaging, non-competitive pricing, customer service issues, and international competition.

The other big area is enabling platforms, such as creative payment solutions and gamification.  These unlock purchase behavior, and drive greater engagement. We’ve made a couple of bets across the above areas, including Burufly.com (social travel) and gamification (Playbasis). From a trend’s perspective, we still see way too many point solutions, that will never grow into real substantial businesses.  This trend is actually being driven by all the incubators, angel money, and government money becoming available.  Overall none of us will ever complain that there is too much money available to help startups,  but what money is available should go to real businesses, not a 20th copy of a copy of a 3 year old US business model.

These businesses won’t get Series A funding, which is disheartening for the entrepreneur, and makes the startup space look like a poor career choice.  As a group we need to help smart entrepreneurs think big, and build real businesses, and avoid the trap and attraction of quick but small point solution businesses. Overall the growth in the startup scene the last 12 months has been absolutely tremendous, with some really high quality incubators and training programs coming into the region. For example, we’ve seen more tech focused co-working spaces in Thailand in 2012 than all the years prior. And this trend should continue throughout the region. Fun year ahead.”

Jamie Lin (Taiwan): Web Gaming will start to overtake traditional Online Gaming, Facebook will continue it’s dominance, and ecommerce will continue to be bullish.

Jamie is the Founding Partner of appWorks Ventures, a US$ 11M Super Angel Fund located in Taipei, Taiwan with a focus on the mobile and consumer internet space. appWorks runs an incubator program, inspired by Y-Combinator, that has helped more than 120 startups.

During his life as an entrepreneur, Jamie co-founded Social Sauce, which is behind travel social network Sosauce.com and web 3D game production house Muse Games. Prior to that, he co-founded Intumit, the leader in Chinese search engine technologies, and Hotcool.com, a build-to-order online PC retailer, among other things.

Here’s what Jamie has to say about 2013:

“In terms of gaming, I think we’re going to see Web Gaming starting to overtake traditional Online Gaming (which requires downloads) in some countries this year.  Though still small compared to Web Gaming and Online Gaming, Mobile (/App) Gaming is also gonna become a major battle field this year.

In terms of advertising, Facebook is going to become even bigger this year and might even challenge Google’s dominance in some countries.  Real-Time Bidding will slowly start to get going also in some countries.

In terms of e commerce, I think it will generally grow 20-50% in most countries but that is an area where different countries really have very different standings.”

Jeffrey Paine (Singapore): Mobile will be big

Jeffrey is the founding partner of Golden Gate Ventures, which recently teamed up with Singapore based JFDI to fund and support digital startups. Jeffrey is also the director for Founders Institute Singapore.

Here’s what Jeffrey has to say about 2013:

“Mobile will be big – in education, personal health, and commerce.

Personalization may come sooner than we think as well.”

Hugh Mason and Wong Meng Weng (Singapore): Health and Education is ready to be disrupted.

Hugh and Meng is no stranger to the startup community in Singapore. They run JFDI.Asia, one of Singapore’s latest and very successful accelerator programme.

JFDI.Asia ran their first bootcamp earlier this year together with SingTel Innov8 which graduated 11 startups, with more than 60 percent of the startups succeed in securing S$500,000 to S$700,000 funding at the end of the program.

Here’s what Hugh has to say about 2013:

“Maybe I can give a couple of different spins on that. First up, here’s a rough top 10 domains in descending order of popularity from the teams that applied to us this year: Marketing, Content, E-commerce, Education, Analytics, CRM, Games, Health, Finance, Business Intelligence.

As for which of those will succeed … our experience is that Asia’s different to, say, the USA because rolling out across this region is harder than say the US, there’s a common currency, legal structures etc. Here in Asia the only organizations that really span the many cultures and countries in our neighbourhood are the multinationals. So JFDI.Asia is building close links with a number of multinational partners that can offer market intelligence and channels to market for our start-ups, to help them scale. Success, in terms of building a really big business here in Asia might turn out not to be about focusing on a particular market vertical but rather on the partnerships that can help to scale across this vast region.

These are the personal picks from Meng Wong: Travel, health, education, monetization of mobile social media.”

Eddie Chau (Singapore): Multi layered big data analytics and cloud will be serious contenders

Eddie Chau is the founding partner of TNF Ventures, which recently funded travel startup Flocations and finance startup TradeHero. Prior to this, Eddie Chau is also the CEO of Brandtology, which was acquired by Media Monitors.

Eddie is also the cofounder of V-Key, a mobile security company which recently raised a $4M series A funding.

Here’s what Eddie has to say about 2013:

“Multi-layered big data analytics (data sources can be from social, demographic, mobile etc) will be seriously considered by more organisations, including government, financial, as well as FMCGs. This is for them to gain intelligence/competitive edge and most importantly to get closer to their clients and to understand their behaviours

More will move to Cloud and the management of the cloud will be a big issue and presents a lot of opportunities.”

Stuart B Richardson (Australia): AdTech, eCommerce, Social Media Marketing Tools, ‘Internet of Things’.

Stuart is the founder of Australia’s early-stage technology venture capital investment firm, Adventure Capital. He is also the cofounder of York Butter Factory, one of the premier coworking/incubator spaces in Australia with over 50 high-potential seed-stage companies in residence within a year of commencing operations. 

On top of that, he is also the founding investor of breakout technology businesses Axiflux and 121cast. Stuart also advises numerous entrepreneurs and their early-stage technology businesses.

Here’s what Stuart has to say about 2013:

“In terms of hot-spots for activity, I think the following are worthy of attention:

• AdTech – battle for dominance in the DSP / RTB market – and especially mobile ads in Asia
• eCommerce (less so in Australia due to structural and potential regulatory issues)
• Social Media marketing tools
• Hard technology & the emergence of the ‘internet of things’ (ie. Axiflux & Ninja Blocks)

I think we’re also going to see a lot of consolidation and commoditisation in the Startup sector as the knowledge proliferates and cost of launching a startup continues to plummet. All the whilst the scale costs are rapidly increasing as channels to market become more crowded.  This will be Asia’s own Series A Crunch.”

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8villages Empowers Farmers Using Mobile Tech, Eyes Expansion in 2013

Southeast Asian startup 8villages, a mobile social network for smallhold farmers, started in Indonesia in January 2012 as a new way for farmers to buy and sell using a mobile device. Since then it has pivoted into an information and experience-sharing platform for these farmers. 8villages CEO Mathieu Le Bras recently told us a little about the startup’s progress, and its upcoming plans in 2013 which involve working together with telcos in Southeast Asia.

Growing up among farmers in the countryside of France, he noticed that in contrast to his own country, the agricultural sector in developing countries still doesn’t have any efficient information flow between farmers and other agriculture stakeholders. This includes things like changes in food prices, weather forecast, crop demands, and other valuable information that could help the farmers to have better decision making tools when growing their crops. The hope is that the farmers can thereby earn more money if they are armed with this kind of information.

8villages’ product comes in the form of a mobile phone subscription service called LISA (Farmers’ Information Service). By subscribing to LISA, users will be put into corresponding community groups based on their crops and location. Inside that group, users will get daily SMS tips from 8villages and trending local user-generated content. Users will also be able to ask their own questions and get them answered either by other farmers, or by agricultural experts from 8villages’ partners. This all works without the need for an internet connection.

The startup also has a partnership with Bogor’s Farming Institute (IPB), international organizations, and the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture. Basically, the three partners help provide the aforementioned experts as well as the practice of sustainable agriculture.

The team chose Indonesia for this pilot project because they saw that the country’s farming ecosystem is homogenous, meaning that the diverse regions have similar plantations of rice, fruits, and vegetables. Mathieu points out that India in the other hand, is very different. The farming ecosystems in the country’s north and south differ when it comes to the crops planted there. Furthermore Indonesians are highly social, including people outside its cities. Indonesians in the rural areas love to talk to their neighbors, discuss their crops, compare their achievements, and even brag about stuff. Those are great traits to support 8villages’ user-generated community groups.

From sewonartspace.org

At the moment, the startup charges a weekly fee of IDR 2,000 (21 cents) for every community group to which the user subscribes. There are around 1,000 users with 62 community group types so far. Mathieu said that they are going to change the business model into a freemium one in the near future. That will enable farmers to receive more information for free and would charge those who would want to share certain information to the community, such as commercial interests. He sees that there are around 44 million farmers in Indonesia, all of whom are potential users of LISA. The number can grow up to 80 million in the country if other family members in this sector are also counted.

A bridge to business

8villages has two models to earn revenue. The first one is from the subscription fee, while the second one involves providing services to agricultural businesses. 8villages will become a communication bridge between farmers and larger agricultural companies in the latter model. This can help businesses strengthen their brands’ image. 8villages could also sell its users’ insights to those businesses. Mathieu said that they now have one multinational agriculture company which has already signed up to 8villages’ service.

There aren’t a lot of competitors in this area, but one of the biggest might be the Nokia Life tools. This Nokia feature enables people living in emerging markets to receive a wide range of information – including information about the agriculture sector. Mathieu explained that LISA has two differences compared with Nokia Life. First, LISA is mostly user-generated, where people not only receive information, but can also ask things; while Nokia Life implements only company-generated information. Secondly, LISA’s usage isn’t restricted to a particular device. Also, while there are NGOs and public projects that run in India and Kenya, there aren’t other players yet in Indonesia.

In the year ahead

Sanny Gaddafi, the CTO of 8villages

Andy Zain, one of the advisors of 8vilages

2012 was the year in which 8villages built its product and team. Mathieu noted that it was particularly challenging for him to find and gather the right people with suitable skill sets to address agricultural issues using technology. But finally he achieved just that and formed a lean nine-person team. Well-known local startup players like Sanny Gaddafi (pictured above, left), whose startups consist of several social networks like Fupei.com and SixReps.com, became the CTO; and Andy Zain (pictured above, right), the director of Jakarta Founders Institute and founder of the Mobile Monday Indonesia, became one of the advisors. We know that Andy is a big believer in feature phones in emerging markets, so it’s not a big surprise to see him involved here.

In the coming months, Mathieu plans to strike a deal with telecommunication operators in Indonesia, and he will also discuss with operators in the Philippines and Vietnam about similar possible partnerships. He’s going to start the expansion plans to the Philippines this year, while Vietnam’s expansion plans might need to wait until 2014. At the moment he has a Java-based feature phone app being developed jointly with two handset manufacturers in Indonesia.

8villages has completed its seed funding round with angel investors from the mobile technology space and agriculture in Indonesia, Singapore, and the US. The startup plans to raise a larger round in the second half of this year. The team strives to continue learning and understanding its users’ needs, which include both farmers and agricultural companies.

The post 8villages Empowers Farmers Using Mobile Tech, Eyes Expansion in 2013 appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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What Mobile App Developers need to know about the Chinese App Market

China has 390 million mobile internet users.  As per the latest numbers from Umeng 2012 Q3 (a Beijing based mobile analytics company), Chinese users have purchased 200M iPhone and android smartphones.  So it’s no surprise that developers have a huge potential in China and there lies ahead lots of opportunities and challenges for Western developers who want to enter this market.

China’s mobile ad market

China has about 20-25 local ad networks, the mobile ad market in China is still in its infancy stages. Many of the local mobile ad network use illegal ways like brush ranking to boost downloads in the app store. Local ad network lure advertisers with the promise of delivering conversion rates as high as 50%. As per latest news, Apple is now penalizing app developers who use such means of artificially boosting their ranking. Many of the top gaming apps have been removed off the app store.

Free Apps vs Paid Apps

Well, Chinese hate to buy an app upfront, those that buy an app may be hardcore gamers, or may have read or heard good reviews of the app.  But once a Chinese user installs an app and likes it, he/she will spend millions of dollars in the game in the form of in-app purchases. The freemium model is widely adopted by many app developers. According to smartphone analyst Distimo, 72% of Apple’s Store purchases come from in-app transactions.

Chinese are Heavy App Users

Chinese are heavy app users, 55% of the app users spend longer than 1 hour/ day.  While most countries have increased their time spent within the app from 300- 500% over the past year, China has jumped ahead by 870%. (Even more than US consumers)

Chinese App Market (Source: Ad China research)

China :Second largest App Economy

With its heavy app usage, China has moved up the ranks to become the world’s second largest App economy.  China now ranks second behind the US. But in terms of revenue generated from apps, China is the 8^th, this is due to app piracy and copycat apps available on Jail broken handsets. This will now change soon with the Government body MIIT to now start regulating China’s app market and mobile application industry at large.

iOS Trends in China

Most of the Top Apps in the iTunes Store are from Western Developers.

As per the data from AppAnnie, Fruit Ninja-  Half Brick Studios is the #1 App in the App store followed by Google Maps. In fact 6 of top 10 apps are from Western developers. In the paid apps section 8 of the top 10 apps are from Western developers.

Gaming Apps Dominate

On the day of writing this article, 9 of the 10 paid apps and 7 of the 10 free apps fall in the “Games “category. Most of the Games category apps come from major players like Rovio and Half Brick Studios.  China is projected to have 192 million game players by the end of this year.

Android Market in China

The android market in China is fragmented with over 100 Android App Stores. Most of the handsets in China are shipped without the standard Google Play App store.  Most users download apps off these 3^rd party app stores like Gfan, Hi Market or just install the apk files off the web. Due to lack of Google billing framework in China, most in app purchases happen through Telco billing or local payment gateways. The best way one can promote your App though advertising is to use an .apk file.

Even though 60% of the smartphone users are on Android, most app developers look to advertise their games on iOS. Android OS has very few takers.  Due to this and the abundant supply of android inventory, iOS commands a much higher premium CPC compared to Android.

Chinese App Market: Potential Challenges

In spite of the large market and huge revenue potential, as an app developer here are few things to watch out for.

• Weak Intellectual Property laws in China. App piracy is prevalent.  Laws in China do not safeguard against innovative ideas.  As a solution if you’re a small app developer, consider partnering with larger companies.
• Slow 3G speeds in China: GPRS speeds in China are much slower compared to other Western countries. Designers should be careful to maximize speed of the app by keeping app designs relatively simple.
•  Experts suggest that Chinese users move quickly from one product to another and keep trying new apps,this holds both opportunities and challenges. Developers should make sure their apps are engaging and addictive.
• Competitive Landscape:  The number of app developers in China is literally doubling each year with developers seeking to make quick bucks in this fast growing ecosystem.

Summary

The China market’s growth is unique –as there is growth both at the user app adoption and the shipments of smartdevices. With a well-crafted and executed entry strategy there is enormous amount of money on the table. The recent success of Rovio, Half Brick Studios and Outfit7 will enthuse more western developers to look to the east.

[Guest article contributed by Tyrone Dsouza. Tyrone works for Inmobi as an Account Strategist and has spent considerable amount of time in the China market to help train and build the China business.]

Related posts:

1. Android market gets support for multiple APKs [What It Means For Developers]
2. Mobile browser war: Chinese UCWeb’s market share in India grows past 20%
3. Chinese mobile browser UCWeb becomes most downloaded mobile browser in India on Google Play

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Are Chinese Internet service providers quietly resisting propaganda and censorship?

Amid government censorship and controls, are Internet service providers in China actually resisting the propaganda authorities?

China is famous not only for its cultural heritage and newfound economic power. While the country boasts of the biggest number of Internet and mobile users to date, the so-called “Great Firewall of China” is also enforced to filter and control the flow of information both within the country’s borders and across — a practice that authorities say is meant to prevent illegal activities and to enforce its jurisdiction within geographic borders.

For instance, in recent news, we have learned that China is now enforcing a real-name requirement for any person accessing the Internet. Propaganda authorities are also quick to order the deletion of any Internet posting, censoring of keywords — or banning of entire accounts altogether — when the information is deemed sensitive or illegal. Both users and service providers usually have no recourse but to comply. Some enterprising individuals would usually resort to workarounds, which can include the use of VPNs, code-words, encryption, and the like.

Is Sina deliberately delaying its censorship?

But what’s quite surprising at this point is that some service providers seem to be employing some delaying tactics in filtering or censoring content, giving time for the message to spread out before being removed from the source.

Global Voices Online has shared a translation of a purported leak from a Sina Weibo employee, which tries to explain the rationale behind the company’s deletion of posts and accounts. According to the poster, this practice stems from the need to find a balance between providing a medium for users to voice out, while also complying with state regulations for content filtering.

“We need [Sina] Weibo to deliver voices. But a hand is manipulating us. Someone is doomed to be sacrifice[d] in this game. We live in a country full of special and sensitive barriers and we have to operate within a set of rules.”

Interestingly enough, the supposed employee suggests that Sina may be intentionally letting erring content slip out into a wider readership before it eventually pulls the plug.

“You guys keep posting messages like machines … You can see the messages before they are deleted, right? You still have your account functioning,  right? You are all experienced netizens, you know that the technology allows us to delete messages in a second. Please think carefully on this.”

There is no confirmation at this point, as how “genuine_Yu_Yang” is actually connected with Sina. But what’s clear at this point is that, indeed, information does get out to some extent, before being extinguished at the source. By then, the supposed “damage” would have been done. Content would have been re-tweeted or shared with tens of thousands of other users.

How should Internet-based businesses in China cope?

Service providers are in a difficult position, as Global Voices points out. Not only do enterprises have to think about delivering a good product and finding traction for their brand, they also need to go through painstaking efforts in ensuring they are not held liable for not enforcing adequate censorship measures. But of course, we know that adversity breeds innovation, and the absence of Facebook and Twitter in China, for one, has led to the popularity of home-grown services like Sina Weibo.

But looking at the bigger picture here, we may perhaps ask: will China ever tire of censoring the Internet in its home turf?

The bigger picture: information wants to be free

This was one of the main issues discussed in the contentious World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), in which the idea of tighter controls on Internet access was put on the table. Governments — such as China and Russia — wanted more control over the Internet, although a campaign backed by Google, Microsoft, and other major technology companies, as well as high-profile Internet personalities like Vint Cerf, have warned against the potential of such proposals to curtail Internet freedom, especially with regard to expression and flow of information.

The International Telecommunications Union, meanwhile, has argued that it only wants to ensure a level playing field, which is not dominated by companies in the U.S. “It is important to remember that when you talk of internet freedom, most people in the world cannot even access the internet. The internet is the rich world’s privilege and ITU wants to change that,” said ITU secretary general Dr. Hamadoun Touré.

The propaganda machine will remain in place in China. Tech in Asia is quite correct in pointing out that censorship practices are often successful in annoying users, and that perhaps businesses are complying with the letter, but not necessarily with the spirit, of the law when it comes to censorship.

Information wants to be free, after all. Could this be a sign that authorities in China are having difficulties controlling the flow of information, given the size of its Internet user base and the speed at which information spreads?

Featured Image Credits: VoA

The post Are Chinese Internet service providers quietly resisting propaganda and censorship? appeared first on e27.

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Are Chinese Internet service providers quietly resisting propaganda and censorship?

Amid government censorship and controls, are Internet service providers in China actually resisting the propaganda authorities?

China is famous not only for its cultural heritage and newfound economic power. While the country boasts of the biggest number of Internet and mobile users to date, the so-called “Great Firewall of China” is also enforced to filter and control the flow of information both within the country’s borders and across — a practice that authorities say is meant to prevent illegal activities and to enforce its jurisdiction within geographic borders.

For instance, in recent news, we have learned that China is now enforcing a real-name requirement for any person accessing the Internet. Propaganda authorities are also quick to order the deletion of any Internet posting, censoring of keywords — or banning of entire accounts altogether — when the information is deemed sensitive or illegal. Both users and service providers usually have no recourse but to comply. Some enterprising individuals would usually resort to workarounds, which can include the use of VPNs, code-words, encryption, and the like.

Is Sina deliberately delaying its censorship?

But what’s quite surprising at this point is that some service providers seem to be employing some delaying tactics in filtering or censoring content, giving time for the message to spread out before being removed from the source.

Global Voices Online has shared a translation of a purported leak from a Sina Weibo employee, which tries to explain the rationale behind the company’s deletion of posts and accounts. According to the poster, this practice stems from the need to find a balance between providing a medium for users to voice out, while also complying with state regulations for content filtering.

“We need [Sina] Weibo to deliver voices. But a hand is manipulating us. Someone is doomed to be sacrifice[d] in this game. We live in a country full of special and sensitive barriers and we have to operate within a set of rules.”

Interestingly enough, the supposed employee suggests that Sina may be intentionally letting erring content slip out into a wider readership before it eventually pulls the plug.

“You guys keep posting messages like machines … You can see the messages before they are deleted, right? You still have your account functioning,  right? You are all experienced netizens, you know that the technology allows us to delete messages in a second. Please think carefully on this.”

There is no confirmation at this point, as how “genuine_Yu_Yang” is actually connected with Sina. But what’s clear at this point is that, indeed, information does get out to some extent, before being extinguished at the source. By then, the supposed “damage” would have been done. Content would have been re-tweeted or shared with tens of thousands of other users.

How should Internet-based businesses in China cope?

Service providers are in a difficult position, as Global Voices points out. Not only do enterprises have to think about delivering a good product and finding traction for their brand, they also need to go through painstaking efforts in ensuring they are not held liable for not enforcing adequate censorship measures. But of course, we know that adversity breeds innovation, and the absence of Facebook and Twitter in China, for one, has led to the popularity of home-grown services like Sina Weibo.

But looking at the bigger picture here, we may perhaps ask: will China ever tire of censoring the Internet in its home turf?

The bigger picture: information wants to be free

This was one of the main issues discussed in the contentious World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), in which the idea of tighter controls on Internet access was put on the table. Governments — such as China and Russia — wanted more control over the Internet, although a campaign backed by Google, Microsoft, and other major technology companies, as well as high-profile Internet personalities like Vint Cerf, have warned against the potential of such proposals to curtail Internet freedom, especially with regard to expression and flow of information.

The International Telecommunications Union, meanwhile, has argued that it only wants to ensure a level playing field, which is not dominated by companies in the U.S. “It is important to remember that when you talk of internet freedom, most people in the world cannot even access the internet. The internet is the rich world’s privilege and ITU wants to change that,” said ITU secretary general Dr. Hamadoun Touré.

The propaganda machine will remain in place in China. Tech in Asia is quite correct in pointing out that censorship practices are often successful in annoying users, and that perhaps businesses are complying with the letter, but not necessarily with the spirit, of the law when it comes to censorship.

Information wants to be free, after all. Could this be a sign that authorities in China are having difficulties controlling the flow of information, given the size of its Internet user base and the speed at which information spreads?

Featured Image Credits: VoA

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SupportBee, a help desk software aimed at startups and small companies, encourages an all-hands approach

SupportBee is a help desk software designed for simplicity and collaboration.

It is often said that startups should adopt an all-hands-on-deck approach to customer support. That is, while customer service is traditionally the domain of a dedicated team, startups are encouraged to get the entire staff involved, and that includes the founders.

The reason is simple: Startups at the discovery stage are still evaluating their hypotheses and figuring out their product. So, customer support doubles up as market research, which is why even product and marketing people, right up to the CEO, should be addressing customers’ problems themselves.

With this approach in mind, the team at SupportBee, an India and Vietnam based startup, have set out to build a help desk software that encourages everyone to get involved.

The web app does this with an innovative pricing structure. Unlike Zendesk and Freshdesk, which charge by agent, SupportBee charges by ticket volume instead. The fees are affordable, at USD 19 for 300 tickets a month after a 14-day free trial. This is aimed at encouraging whole teams to be engaged in problem solving.

The help desk software itself is designed to be simpler compared to its competitors, says Prateek Dayal, co-founder and CEO of Support Bee. There are no ticket states, no case IDs in customer replies, and so on. It is designed to work like email, meaning users can pick it up fairly quickly.

“The interface is super snappy and everything updates in real time to help users collaborate with their team members,” said Prateek.

Users can also browse customer history for context, initiate private discussion with team members, and integrate SupportBee with popular productivity apps like Campfire, Github, Pivotal, and Evernote. It even has an API to allow customers to customize their user experience.

In the near future, the team will improve the help desk software’s mobile experience and introduce an analytics feature.

As is often the case in the enterprise software world, continuity is an important consideration for adopting any software. People trust Google Apps because well, Google made it. Flush with cash and billions in revenue, it’s not a company that will disappear overnight.

SupportBee, on the other hand, needs to prove that it’ll be around for at least a few years. The company does have an upside: It has around 40 paying companies so far. Some of its customers include iProperty, one of the top property sites in Asia; Milaap, a microfinance platform; and Fashionandyou.com, a private fashion sales site in India.

The revenue generated from these customers will enable the startup to sustain itself while it raises seed funding from investors in India, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It currently only has a USD 40K equity-free grant from Startup Chile.

The SupportBee team consists of a mix of entrepreneurial and technical talent. Co-founders Prateek and Nithya Rajaram had together co-founded Muziboo, a free music upload and sharing tool. Prateek himself is a developer, and at SupportBee, he is joined by Avinasha Shastry and Anh Do, also developers. Nithya, however, isn’t working on the startup full-time.

Their technical chops were on display recently when over a weekend, they created AboutMyBrowser, a simple tool that enables even the most technologically illiterate user to find out detailed information about their web browser and send it to customer support teams. The web tool went viral on HackerNews, attracting some 508 upvotes.

SupportBee's email-like interface.

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New PIP Camera App and its Wacky Special Effects Hit 2.5 Million iPhone Downloads

Your blogger and his cat get the PIP Camera treatment.

If you’ve seen your friends taking some wacky photos of themselves recently – as if they’re trapped in a glass, or set as a laptop’s wallpaper – then they’re probably using the new PIP Camera app. Launched last month on Android and iPhone, PIP Camera gives you a bunch of frames and scenes that work best with close-up photos of people (or animals).

The company behind this new photo-filter app is the same Chinese startup that makes FotoRus, the GIF-maker app that soared past 20 million downloads last November. Team member Hua Xue tells us that PIP Camera has seen 2.5 million downloads worldwide of its iOS version since it was launched two weeks ago. On January 5th that spiked to 550,000 downloads in just one day. It’s currently number one in the photo category in the iTunes Store in China, France, Mexico, and a few other countries.

PIP Camera is free for now on iPhone, but that’s only for a limited time. The startup will also “optimize the advertising” in a free version while also preparing in-app purchases for some extra virtual items.

The self-snapshot app comes with 23 “Pip-Styles” ready for use, plus a library where you can choose from over twenty other funky frames and effects:

The startup’s earlier FotoRus app also has these kinds of pic-in-pic (I guess that’s what “PIP” stands for) special effects, so the new app is basically spinning these off into a new app of its own. Of course, PIP Camera can also work for some kinds of landscape shots so long as there’s one interesting focal point to which you can apply the special effects.

In terms of social sharing, it so far supports Facebook, Twitter, Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo, and Renren. But Twitter sharing seems to be missing in the Android version, which might be a bug.

Get PIP Camera for iPhone; or for Android either on Google Play or an an APK file download.

The post New PIP Camera App and its Wacky Special Effects Hit 2.5 Million iPhone Downloads appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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From a college project to launching SHArP Edge, a startup focusing on digital education

A final year project at BITS Pilani led a few students to understand the problems and challenges faced by a large number of engineering students studying in India of being taught by ill-prepared teachers using ineffective teaching methodologies. This led the team to brainstorming and map out the technology based solutions available in the market for the engineering students even before they themselves had graduated.

Fast forward a few months the team started what is now called SHArP Edge, a multimedia based learning solution which helped engineering students with subjects and topics for which the pen-and-paper approach was turning out to be effective.

SHArP Edge initially began with creating content in-house catering to the universities and colleges only and offering their service via annual licenses. The response has been largely positive due to its content optimized for specific universities and early mover’s advantage.

After an institution gets onboard the team at SHArP Edge begins by installing a server with all of its content present in an encrypted manner and creating access accounts for individual teachers to help layout a lecture plan according to their teaching style.
It was then that they noticed a number of students approaching them for access to the content. In the earlier format, the licensees worked for the institutions only and students had no access to it post the class. So SHArP Edge began with loading all of its content on pendrives and began offering them to students for purchase for self paced learning. Currently they have content in place for the most popular engineering courses for years I & II.

SHArP Edge: Mentorship and Funding
From early on, BITS Pilani has been on board with the startups. The university has been aiding them with soft resources in the form of teacher expertise to help curate their content and optimize it according to the target universities’ curriculum.
The startup has a soft loan from the Department of Information Technology, Government of India to help grow organically and they were the winners of ET Power of Idea 2012.

SHArP Edge has partnered with a tablet manufacturer for an “engineering tab”, which would be a low cost device with their content bundled exclusively. The approach is similar to what is happening in K-12 right now, but due to the shared device nature of tablets it would make more sense for the cash strapped undergraduates.
Apart from that, the team is working in close association with a leading software giant to offer SHArP Edge content in the form of bundled education app for the Indian audiences.

The education sector has seen a lot of activity in the past year with a number of startups trying to fill the void of the low quality of education in India. SHArP Edge’s approach and solution definitely merits attention, what remains to be seen how long it stands in the face of the massive open online courses offering grade A content for free.

Recommended Read : Why (Digital) Education is the new eCommerce
[Startups who want to get profiled on NextBigWhat should apply using this form.]

Related posts:

1. Yahoo India Education Launches Comprehensive College Listings With Crowd Sourced Ratings
2. NextLeap – Ease Your US Education Dreams With Scholarship Finder and More
3. Student Startup, WhatNextPlus Helps You Decide Which College to Attend

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Mobcast acquires online game developer Enter Crews for US$7M

Social gaming platform Mobcast acquires online gaming developer Enter Crews for US$7 million in order to expand into Asia.

On 7^th January, social gaming company Mobcast announced its acquisition of online gaming developer, Enter Crews for US$7 million. The acquisition is an all-stock deal that will take effect on 1^st February.

The arrangement of the deal will see all common stock exchanged at a rate of 1 (Enter Crews): 11.88 (Mobcast) shares. Preferred stock will be exchanged at 1 (Enter Crews): 41.72 (Mobcast). Mobcast will be issuing 279,404 new shares as part of the deal.

Enter Crews was founded in September 2009 and has offices in Japan, South Korea and Indonesia. B Dash Fund 1 Investment Limitted Partnership is the primary shareholder of Enter Crews. The game developer has popular titles such as Sangokushi Masters and Browser Ginga Taisen. Their users grew to about 300,000 in Japan and 170,000 in South Korea in just six months. Enter Crews has over 50 employees with about 70 percent of them coming from foreign countries such as South Korea, China, Indonesia, Canada and the United Kingdoms.

With its acquisition of Enter Crews, Mobcast will be looking to continue its expansion plans as mentioned in their 2012 third quarter earnings announcement. According to the company spokesperson, the first focus would be on the South Korean market with the aim of growing it to match its current Japanese market. This will be made more efficient with the acquisition of Enter Crews, as the company has seen rapid growth in South Korea and has software development infrastructure already in place. Mobcast will be pushing its sports games and will also look to eventually expand into the rest of Asia.

Despite being in a same space as larger competitors such as GREE and Mobage, which have passed the US$1 billion revenue mark, mobile platforms such as Mobcast and location-based platform COLOPL are making their mark as platforms to look out for.

Mobcast is a mobile gaming platform listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Mothers market (“Market of the High-Growth and Emerging Stocks”). The company mainly offers sports titles on its MobApro platform. In its 2012 third quarter report, Mobcast announced that it currently has 2.7 million users as of October 2012. Its revenues has grown from US$23 million in 2011 to US$40 million in 2012.

Source(s): Startup Dating

Image Credits: Enter Crews

 

The post Mobcast acquires online game developer Enter Crews for US$7M appeared first on e27.

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Mobcast acquires online game developer Enter Crews for US$7M

Social gaming platform Mobcast acquires online gaming developer Enter Crews for US$7 million in order to expand into Asia.

On 7^th January, social gaming company Mobcast announced its acquisition of online gaming developer, Enter Crews for US$7 million. The acquisition is an all-stock deal that will take effect on 1^st February.

The arrangement of the deal will see all common stock exchanged at a rate of 1 (Enter Crews): 11.88 (Mobcast) shares. Preferred stock will be exchanged at 1 (Enter Crews): 41.72 (Mobcast). Mobcast will be issuing 279,404 new shares as part of the deal.

Enter Crews was founded in September 2009 and has offices in Japan, South Korea and Indonesia. B Dash Fund 1 Investment Limitted Partnership is the primary shareholder of Enter Crews. The game developer has popular titles such as Sangokushi Masters and Browser Ginga Taisen. Their users grew to about 300,000 in Japan and 170,000 in South Korea in just six months. Enter Crews has over 50 employees with about 70 percent of them coming from foreign countries such as South Korea, China, Indonesia, Canada and the United Kingdoms.

With its acquisition of Enter Crews, Mobcast will be looking to continue its expansion plans as mentioned in their 2012 third quarter earnings announcement. According to the company spokesperson, the first focus would be on the South Korean market with the aim of growing it to match its current Japanese market. This will be made more efficient with the acquisition of Enter Crews, as the company has seen rapid growth in South Korea and has software development infrastructure already in place. Mobcast will be pushing its sports games and will also look to eventually expand into the rest of Asia.

Despite being in a same space as larger competitors such as GREE and Mobage, which have passed the US$1 billion revenue mark, mobile platforms such as Mobcast and location-based platform COLOPL are making their mark as platforms to look out for.

Mobcast is a mobile gaming platform listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Mothers market (“Market of the High-Growth and Emerging Stocks”). The company mainly offers sports titles on its MobApro platform. In its 2012 third quarter report, Mobcast announced that it currently has 2.7 million users as of October 2012. Its revenues has grown from US$23 million in 2011 to US$40 million in 2012.

Source(s): Startup Dating

Image Credits: Enter Crews

 

The post Mobcast acquires online game developer Enter Crews for US$7M appeared first on e27.

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