At the just concluded ChinaJoy Expo 2011, Rovio Mobile Ltd. announced a slew of Angry Birds merchandises in China – namely, shoes, hat, bags and also, mooncakes (reported by a China-centric tech site M.I.C. Gadget). The Angry Birds creator will be using the mooncakes to celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (or Moon Festival) with Angry Birds fans in China. In addition, there will be a “Mid-Autumn Festival” theme edition on Angry Birds Season, which will be released in early September 2011 (Moon Festival falls on September 12th this year).

Angry Birds Mooncakes

Source: M.I.C. Gadgets

Mid-Autumn Festival Edition of Angry Birds Season

Source: M.I.C. Gadgets

Merchandising is part of Rovio’s strategies to monetize the millions of Angry Birds players community, across the globe. There are over 300 million Angry Birds downloads, worldwide and China is the world’s second largest market for Rovio. The company aims to further expand its user base in the world’s largest gaming market and is targetting to reach 100 million Angry Birds downloads in China by end of 2011.

Angry Birds Shoes

Source: M.I.C. Gadgets

Eat Angry Birds Mooncakes, Play Mid-Autumn Festival Theme Angry Birds Seasons originally appeared on GreyReview.com on August 1, 2011.

Roughly 90% of Google+ users are from outside the US. In the Asia region, the percentage of global Google+ population is around 6%.

1. Google+ has now more than 500,000 users in Asia.
2. Google’s other social network Orkut used to attract the Indian population in large numbers. Now, the Internet users in India are crazy about Google+. They constitutes more than half of the Google+ users in Asia. Globally, India comes in second after the US, in terms of total users. It is worth to note that India is also fast embracing Facebook. In this latest report, India registered 28% growth rate in Quarter 2 2011 and currently behind Indonesia, in term of total Facebook users.
3. About 78% of Asian Google+ users come from the top 5 countries – India, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan.

How these figures are derived? FindPeopleOnPlus Directory provides total users breakdown, by country. Currently, the Directory indexes over 4 million users. Based on the figures available on the website, the percentage of each country is calculated. The ‘official’ figure we got on Google+ total users is 10 million, although comScore already estimated 20 million users. To be conservative, I have used “10 million users” to calculate the number of users of each Asian country, based on the country percentage. It is assumed that the country percentage remains constant with the increase of total users.

Google+ in Asia: More than 500,000 Users and India Goes Google+ Crazy originally appeared on GreyReview.com on July 27, 2011.

China’s largest telecom equipment maker, Huawei today filed lawsuits in Germany, France, and Hungary against its competitor, ZTE Corporation for patent and copy right infringements. According to a press release, Huawei claims that ZTE is infringing a series of its patents relating to data card and LTE technologies and also, illegally using a Huawei-related trademark.

According to Huawei’s Chief Legal Officer, Dr. Song Liuping, “Huawei was compelled to initiate this action in order to protect our innovations and registered intellectual property in Europe. Our objective is to stop the illegal use of Huawei’s intellectual property and resolve this dispute through negotiation so that our technology is used in a lawful manner.”

Huawei serves 45 of the world’s largest 50 telecom operators. Recently, its rival ZTE announced its shift to the thriving smartphones market; aiming to become one of the world’s top three tablet producers and one of the world’s top-five maker of Android smartphones this year.

Both ZTE and Huawei are close competitors in the fourth generation mobile broadband implementation in Malaysia. Today, Malaysian telecommunications provider DiGi appoints ZTE Corporation, China’s second largest telecom equipment provider, for the deployment of LTE-ready network (Long Term Evolution, LTE). With the deployment, DiGi network can immediately achieve download speed of up to 42Mbps using HSPA+ and reach 4 times faster, once 4G spectrum becomes available.

Both WiMax broadband provider P1 and mobile telecommunication provider U Mobile Sdn Bhd already announced the appointment of ZTE for their LTE deployment. Two leading Malaysian mobile telecommunication Maxis and Celcom partner with Huawei.

Patent infringement lawsuit is relatively common in the technology sector. Recent example: Apple-Samsung lawsuits and Kodak vs Samsung, LG for mobile camera patent violations.

Full Press Release by Huawei on the lawsuits

Telecom maker giant Huawei sues rival ZTE for patent infringments originally appeared on GreyReview.com on April 28, 2011.

This year, a total of 180 nominations from 16 member economies for 16 categories. “From a small member base of 5 countries in the first International APICTA Awards, we have now grown to include 17 nations across the Asia-Pacific region, most recently adding Taiwan to our ranks,” said Sutee Satanasathapon, Chairman of APICTA. The 16 member economies of APICTA are Australia, Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Since it started in 2001, the awards programme has recognized and rewarded the innovation of numerous ICT companies across the Asia-Pacific region. Past APICTA winners have contributed to the regional ICT Industry with two such examples being:

• CyberPlanet Interactive Co. Ltd., 2004 Winner for Media and Entertainment, has become a public-listed company and expanded into China and Japan to become the largest console game developer in South East Asia
• Les’ Copaque, 2007 Winner for Best Start-up Company, is now rated as one of Malaysia’s foremost production and animation houses with its flagship animation series, Upin & Ipin with broadcast in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong and South Korea.

Malaysia won 4 Awards

There are a total of 29 Malaysian finalists for this year’s Awards, consisting of 24 companies, 3 universities and 2 schools. Winners are judged based on these criteria:

• Uniqueness
• Market potential / value for public
• Functionalities and features
• Quality and application of technology
• Presentation

In this year’s International APICTA Awards, a total of 4 Malaysian entries winning the following categories – Research and Development, Tourism and Hospitality, E-Learning, and E-Government. Singapore-based Ephone International Pte Ltd clinched two awards – Best E-Health and Best Start-up Company – for its product, EPI Life. Other notable winners are IP Payments Account Receivable Solution from Australia, which won the Financial Industry Applications category and Thai company, Geomove Co. Ltd. for their Sensor Service Grid application, which won the Tools & Infrastructure category.

Here’s the full list of winners:
Best of Research and Development: nuRF Wireless Sensor Network and Smart Wireless System – Free Alliance (Malaysia)

Best of Tourism and Hospitality: GDX Guest Services Management – FCS Computer Systems (Malaysia)

Best of E-Learning: Jayonik Convoy Dynamic Driving Simulator System – Jayonik MSC Sdn Bhd (Malaysia)

Best of e-Government: eKasih National Databank on Poverty – Implementation Coordination Unit, Prime Minister’s Department (Malaysia)

Best of Start-Up Companies / Best of e-Health: EPI Life – Ephone International Pte Ltd (Singapore)

Best of Financial Industry Application: IP Payments Account Receivables Solution – IP Payments Pty Ltd (Australia)

Best of Tools and Infrastructure: Sensor Service GRID – Geomove Co. Ltd (Thailand)

Best of New Media and Entertainment: Scoreless Music Suite – Scoreless Music Pte Ltd (Singapore)

Best of Communications: Smoov.me – Smoov Pte Ltd (Singapore)

Best of Security Application: iMatch Mobile – PCS Security Pte Ltd (Singapore)

Best of E-Inclusion and E-Community: Brain Fitness Gymnasium for the Ederly – The Hong Kong Society for the Aged (Hong Kong)

Best of E-Logistics and Supply Chain Management: NEOtrace – NEO Invention Co. Ltd. (Thailand)

Best of Industrial Application: Java Human Machine Interface Engine – Thales Australia (Australia)

Best of Secondary Student Project: My mom’s mobile phone as my sister’s tutor – Salman Al Fansi Full Day School (Indonesia)

Best of Tertiary Student Projects: Stereoscopic video generation from Monoscopic Video – City University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong)

APICTA Lifetime ICT Award

The evening also saw former Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad received a Lifetime ICT Achievement Award, for his contribution to the ICT industry. The MSC Malaysia is the brainchild of the Tun Mahathir.

Winners at the 10th International Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) 2010 originally appeared on GreyReview.com on October 17, 2010.

comScore reported the total global unique users of Twitter.com has reached 60 million. However, Fred Wilson argued that “Twitter ecosystem is about 3x Twitter.com.” Twitter ecosystem refers to all interactions with Twitter APIs, via the plethora of third-party Twitter apps i.e. Tweetdeck, bit.ly, Facebook, iPhone apps, etc. Wilson went on to summarize:

You can talk about Twitter.com and then you can talk about the Twitter ecosystem. One is a web site. The other is a fundamental part of the Internet infrastructure. And the latter is 3-5x bigger than the former and that delta is likely to grow even larger.

Let’s assume that Twitter ecosystem is 3-times the size of Twitter.com. With comScore’s 60 million unique visitors worldwide at Twitter.com, the Twitter ecosystem is estimated at 180 million. The total Twitter users across the globe (Twitter.com + Twitter ecosystem) is 240 million!

The table below weaves together Sycomos’ report, comScore’s estimate and Fred Wilson’s Twitter ecosystem. The “% Twitter Users” is derived from Sycomos’ report and the total Twitter users is based on 240 million users worldwide. Indonesia with 5.6 million users, followed by Japan (3.5 million) and India (2.3 million). Malaysia with 6th largest Twitter population in Asia with estimated 1.1 million users (and this is far, far, far more than my previous estimate of Twitter population in Malaysia). And the estimated total Twitter users in Asia is 18.6 million.

Asian Countries, by % of Twitter Users and Total Users

Mashup of figures from different reports to derive estimates potentially lead to inaccurate conclusions (different reports with different sets of assumptions and methodologies). However, Sysocomos’ “% of Twitter users” gives us some ideas on Twitter use across Asia. With the percentage, at least we can derive Twitter population size by country, using the conservative comScore’s 60 million, plus-ecosystem’s 240 million or any other estimates out there. ¶ @zhiQ

UPDATE April 20 2010: See the latest estimates of Twitter users in Asia here.

UPDATE Feb 20 2010: Based on Google, the estimated, unduplicated number of people who visited Twitter.com over a 1-month period:
1. Japan: 9.9 million users
2. Indonesia: 5.1 million
3. India: 4.2 million
4. South Korea: 1.5 million
5. Philippines: 1.3 million
6. Thailand: 910k
7. Malaysia: 910k
8. China: 680k
9. Singapore: 240k

Image from textually.org.

Twitter in Asia: Total Users, by Country originally appeared on GreyReview.com on January 26, 2010.

A recent New York Times article outlined the upside of global online games and described how Chinese game makers are expanding beyond China and outmaneuver industry’s heavyweights like Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard in the online space. The global online games set to explode, with revenue expected to reach $13 billion in 2010; China to capture more than 40% of the global online games market by 2011 (Samsung Securities). Typically, these online games are free to play; revenue mainly from micro transactions i.e. players buy weapons and accessories to advance faster to new levels. This is in contrast to the subscription model of the online games from Europe and United States. Chinese games makers are poised to benefit from the proliferation of broadband usage and slowly-but-surely shift toward online gaming.

Global Outlook, Local Flavors

Here’s a look at how a Chinese games being ‘exported’ to another country. Super Dance Online Extreme (SDO-X) is a Made-in-China online games. Its one of the most popular multiplayer casual online games in Malaysia, with over 150,000 unique active users. In Malaysia, the average number of users for a popular massively multiplayer online game is between 10,000 and 15,000; casual games with over 100,000 users are considered top-tier.

The game is published and localized by a Malaysian company, CiB Net Station Sdn Bhd. Besides Malaysia, CiB also publishes the game in Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. A publisher typically host online games locally and manage the infrastructure required for the operation of the games. Game creator granted them rights to publish the games in one or more countries by the game creator. Revenue-sharing is made between with the game creator and the publisher. Besides SDO-X, CiB Net Station also publish other online games like Crazy Shooter Online, Risk Your Life and TLBB and all are accessible from its integrated online games platform, CiB Mall Portal.

In Malaysia, its competitors are STEP, High Street 5 and Audition. To remain ‘fresh’ and interesting, new edition of the game is released every 3 to 4 months, with changes to its theme and accessories, among others. As a publisher of the games, CiB Net Station requests the game creator in China to localize and customize elements within SDO-X to fit the local markets.

The Gameplay

SDO-X is Guitar Hero for dancing. Players use keyboards to play (or USB dancing pad). Hitting the right notes, players earn points. Having hit a series of right notes (combo), the player earn bonus points. Skilled players can get clean full combination – meaning the player able to hit all the right notes. Below is a video of SDO-X players in action.

Similar to IRC environment, users can create public or private rooms. Anyone can access a public room, either to chat with others in the room or dance with others. Private rooms require password. Users range from 10 years old to 30 years old; the majority in the 16 to 23 years age bracket. Users can access the game from cybercafe or home with average time-of-play per user is 2 hours. In Malaysia, the game has recorded a concurrent users of more than 10,000.

Virtual Economy

Players can earn game points (CiB Points, or CP) by playing the games or purchase points from both virtual and physical distribution channels. On the Internet, users can buy the points via cibmall.net and also virtual points merchants like OffGamers, I1Game, ESA, Whoyo and Gogobase. Offline channels include 7-Eleven, Internet cafes, convenience stores and bookstores. There are over 2,000 selling points in Malaysia and over 100 in Singapore. Points can be used to buy accessories to beautify avatars (like suit and diamond ring) or buy tools like loud speaker (ability to broadcast messages across rooms).

Other than micro-transactions, it also undertake co-branding project with companies. SDO-X is one of the important components of the expansive, multi-dimensional branding campaign of Malaysian largest telcos, Telekom Malaysia, TM. The campaign, Everyone Connects, weaves itself into the SDO-X gaming experience. “This is the first time a song from a marketing campaign is included in the playlist of Super Dance Online,” said Danny Chang, Sales and Marketing Manager of CiB Net Station. “The TM campaign is a good example of a creative way to engage the online games community, specifically the SDO community.”

During the campaign period, the song is the default first song in the playlist. As part of its strategy to reach out to the teenagers and the early 20s, TM currently holding SDO-X Connecting Dancers Tournament 2009 in Klang Valley, Penang and Johor Baru. Finalists from each city will compete at the Everyone Connects Big Event, to held on November 21 2009 at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.

Conclusion

With the proliferation of broadband usage, online gaming will continue to grow across the globe. It is becoming the social lubricant among the Generation Digital. The popularity of social gaming on Facebook, for example, epitomizes the upside of online games. For companies, the online games environment offers an exciting and vibrant new marketing interface and in coming months, we will see more innovative marketers creatively engaging the online games community.

Game On: A Peek Into Online Games in China originally appeared on GreyReview.com on November 19, 2009.