This morning, Facebook released an upgrade (version 3.2 to 3.2.1) for its iPhone app:

In the latest version 3.2.1, I can no longer see friends’ check-ins (as shown above). Instead, I see this:

Facebook not going all Places yet originally appeared on GreyReview on August 20, 2010.

About 66% of the Facebook population in Asia (or a total of 57,115,340) reside in the southeast Asian countries – Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Laos, Cambodia.

Social Games in Asia Now, let’s take a stab in estimating the size of Facebook social games economy in Asia, using the total Facebook users in Asia (Table above). It is reported that 50% of Facebook users are playing social games. So, out of the total of 86 million Facebook users in Asia, 43 million are playing social games.

According to these articles on Playdom and Zynga, the percentage of social game spenders is between 1% and 2%. Let’s assume 1.5% of total social gamers are paying for virtual good; there are a total of 645,448 users paying for virtual goods.

To estimate the ‘value’ of the virtual goods economy, let’s assume each of the ‘spending’ social gamers spends USD10 a month (Playdom estimated USD20 per user per month). So, the total spending on virtual goods by Facebook users in Asia is USD 6,454,484 a month or USD 77,453,808 a year!

A Summary of Facebook Social Games Spending in Asia

Facebook Virtual Economy: How much Facebook users in Asia are spending on social games? originally appeared on GreyReview on August 10, 2010.

CIMB claimed its Twitter account has been hijacked. If true, CIMB needs to re-look at its password policy. For CIMB, its inability to safeguard its own online presence can send a disturbing signal, considering CIMB is one of the largest commercial banks in Malaysia. BUT, can this be just an unfortunate mis-tweeting mishap?

CIMB Bank tweets cock, blames hijacker originally appeared on GreyReview on July 31, 2010.

.. Twitter for the germination of real-time stream and Facebook for the mutation of online privacy.

Twitter and Facebook, the two petri dishes of web 2.0… originally appeared on GreyReview on July 19, 2010.

Old version

New version

Twitter’s New Follower email notification facelift originally appeared on GreyReview on July 16, 2010.

Credits, the official virtual currency on Facebook, enables the purchase of gifts and virtual goods for games and applications on Facebook platform. Popular games like Farmville, Millionaire City, Hotel City, Petville, Bejeweled Blitz, Hotel City, Barn Buddy, Likeness and hundreds other games and applications are already accepting Facebook Credits (up-to-date list of games here). There are over 200 million unique Facebook users playing games each month. Soon, these social gamers can buy Credits using MOLPoints. And they can reload the MOLPoints through MOL’s network of over 500,000 physical (e.g. 7-Eleven, cybercafes, bookstores), online banking and mobile payment channels, in over 80 countries.

“The relationship with Facebook demonstrates MOL’s growing role as a leading payment provider for social networking sites in Asia, especially in our core countries of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and India,” said Ganesh Kumar Bangah, group chief executive officer for MOL Global.

He added, “Over the last few quarters, we have seen a double-digit increase in payment transactions and payment volume. This partnership continues MOL’s momentum to build the largest end-to-end content, distribution and commerce network in Asia.”

According to Vaughan Smith, director of business and corporate development at Facebook, “working with MOL means we can offer the benefits of Facebook Credits to millions of people in Asia using a payment system that is already widely used and trusted. We’re investing in the long-term future of Facebook Credits and we view this agreement as a major opportunity to broaden the availability of a simple, unified currency that can be used in games and applications across Facebook.”

Currently, Facebook users can purchase Facebook Credits using credit cards and Paypal. However, they can also earn Credits via other means, such as drinking a Slurpee.

In Asia, the availability of physical channels to pay for Credits can further spur the virtual goods economy on Facebook. The 18-to-24 is the largest age group in most Asian countries – Indonesia, Philippines, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam among others. Many in the age group don’t own a credit card. Also, Asian gamers are spending big money and today, the virtual goods market in Asia is worth $7 billion!

UPDATES
(1) Signing of strategic partnership between MOL Global and Facebook

(2) Official press release

Coming soon: Facebook Credits available at retail stores in Asia originally appeared on GreyReview on July 8, 2010.

Here are the top Asian cities*, in term of registered people:

1. Bengaluru, India
2. Chennai, India
3. Jakarta, Indonesia
4. New Delhi, India
5. Tokyo, Japan
6. Makati City, Philippines
7. Mumbai, India
8. Silom, Thailand
9. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
10. Singapore
11. Hyderabad, India
12. Chandigarh, India
13. Roppongi, Japan
14. Thiruvananthapuram, India
15. Nagpur, India
16. Udaipur, India
17. Taipei City, Taiwan
18. Lahore, Pakistan

* only cities with confirmed venues are listed.

Social Media Day Meetups, worldwide

Social Media Day 2010 in Asia originally appeared on GreyReview on June 30, 2010.

I’ve tried to connect my Twitter and Facebook accounts but got this error message “… Facebook has blocked your ability to allow this application to look up your friends. Twitter has requested that Facebook remove the block” (see below). Is this yet another sign of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg paying too much attention on Twitter?

Is Facebook blocking Twitter application? originally appeared on GreyReview on June 24, 2010.

The 1st Generation Tweet consists of status update, date/time and source of tweet:

The introduction of Twitter Places (and soon-to-release multiple-author function) leads to the 2nd Generation Tweet, which consists of status update, date/time, source of tweet, geotag, and possibly, who wrote the tweet.

Twitter increasing information payload of tweets originally appeared on GreyReview on June 15, 2010.

…We do have a plan for creating commercial accounts.. especially for organizations and companies really want to know how my tweets doing? Am I effectively using the product to reach my constituents, if I’m a politician. Or sell more shoes if I’m an online retailer? Or just am I getting the words out?

We want to do is to create this commercial account that essentially provide a few different things. This is in testing right now, with a few hundred different organizations and companies. Some of the features that would be an analytic dashboard, something that really tells you a lot about… how many people are clicking on a link that I sent out in my last tweet, how many people are re-tweeting it, starring it. The dashboard basically gives you visibility into your success of using Twitter.

Another feature that we included in that is the ability to have multiple authors on one Twitter account. So, if you’re a company like Starbucks, you want twelve people updating the feeds, you can allow that. You’ll see at the bottom which employee wrote the tweet.

Things like that are coming and it actually feathers in very nicely with the Promoted Tweets platform because obviously, if you going to pay for Promoted Tweets, you going to want to know how they are doing, so you either spend more money or spend less money, accordingly.

Excerpt of Biz Stone’s interview:

In the interview, Biz mentioned two features of its commercial accounts – analytic and multiple-author. Twitter’s acquisition of Smallthought (maker of Trendly) on June 10 2010 further strengthen its analytic capabilities. For multiple-author functionality, we can already see it in action on official Twitter page (see screenshot below):

Goodbye, CoTweet and HootSuite?

Twitter already showcasing its Multiple-Author functionality originally appeared on GreyReview on June 15, 2010.

Asian countries already represented in CitID are Brunei, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Cities are Bandar Seri Begawan, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Duri, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Osaka, Takasaki, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Yangon, Malolos City, Manila, Singapore, and Bangkok. Globally, the project has garnered at least one contribution from every continent. Next targets are all countries, all capitals and all cities represented.

To find out more how to submit your artistic interpretation of your city, click here. Selected works will be published in the upcoming CitID book. Below are the artworks/logos of Honoured Asian Cities in CitID, to date:

Brunei: Bandar Seri Bagawan

China: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

China: Shenzhen

Indonesia: Duri

Indonesia: Jakarta

Indonesia: Yogyakarta

Japan: Osaka

Japan: Takasaki

Japan: Tokyo

Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur

Myanmar: Yangon

Philippines: Malolos CIty

Philippines: Manila

Singapore

Thailand: Bangkok

User-Generated Identities of Asian Cities in CitID originally appeared on GreyReview on June 15, 2010.