A continuously updated list of most popular Malaysian Facebook Pages, ranked by total Likes:

Most Popular Facebook Pages in Malaysia

Rank	Facebook Pages	Company	Total Likes
1	Upin & Ipin hit children animation series	Les' Copaque Production Sdn Bhd
2	Maaduu free to watch Korean dramas and pop videos	PlayTV Asia Sdn Bhd
3	AirAsia Southeast Asia's largest no-frills carrier	AirAsia Bhd
4	McDonald's Malaysia fast-food restaurant chain	Golden Arches Restaurants Sdn Bhd
5	Hot FM popular Malay radio station	Media Prima Bhd
6	iluvislam.com Islamic media site	ILI dot com
7	TV3 leading free-to-air TV station in Malaysia	Media Prima Bhd
8	Golden Screen Cinemas Malaysia's leading cinema chain	Golden Screen Cinemas Sdn Bhd
9	Pizza Hut Malaysia pizza restaurant chain	Pizza Hut Restaurants Sdn Bhd
10	Berita Harian Online Bahasa Malaysia daily newspaper	Berita Harian Sdn Bhd
11	MOLPoints virtual currency to buy Facebook Credits and more	MOLPoints AccessPortal Sdn Bhd
12	Sharing media site for youth	Web Idea
13	Malaysia Airlines Malaysian national carrier	Malaysian Airline System Bhd
14	CIMB Malaysia 2nd largest commercial bank in Malaysia	CIMB Bank Bhd
15	Mudah.my online marketplace	Mudah.my Sdn Bhd
16	Imam Muda reality TV format with Islamic teachings	Astro Entertainment Sdn Bhd
17	Oh! Media web and advertising company	Oh! Media Network
18	Harian Metro first afternoon Bahasa Malaysia newspaper	Harian Metro Sdn Bhd
19	BlackBerry Malaysia popular smartphone in Malaysia	Research In Motion
20	DiGi Youths youth community curated by DiGi	DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd
21	Remaja teen magazine	Kumpulan Karangkraf Sdn Bhd
22	Maxis leading mobile services provider	Maxis Bhd
23	DiGi Telecommunications Malaysia's 3rd largest cellular network provider	DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd
24	Nike Football Malaysia leading sportswear company	Nike Sales (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
25	Kit Kat Malaysia chocolate-coated wafer confection	Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd
26	Astro satellite TV service provider	MEASAT Broadcast Network Systems Sdn Bhd
27	Super Dancer Online Extreme online game	CiB Net Station Sdn Bhd
28	Gempak Starz Malay-language info-comics magazine provider	Gempak Starz Sdn Bhd
29	KFC Malaysia fast food restaurant chain	KFC Holdings (Malaysia) Bhd
30	Hotlink cellular prepaid service	Maxis Bhd
31	Hitz.fm English radio station	Airtime Management and Programming Sdn Bhd
32	Big Apple Donuts & Coffee local doughnuts chain	Big Apple Interasia Sdn Bhd
33	United International Pictures Malaysia leading film distribution company	United International Pictures Sdn Bhd
34	BeautieQQ Fashion women fashions online store	BeautieQQ Fashion Sdn Bhd
35	Sony Ericsson Malaysia mobile phone maker	Sony Ericsson Sdn Bhd
36	Canon Camera (Malaysia) leading camera brand in Malaysia	Canon Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd
37	Majalah Solusi Islamic magazine	Telaga Biru Sdn Bhd
38	HarakahDaily political newspaper	Telesign Communications Sdn Bhd
39	Pa&Ma parenting magazine	Kumpulan Karangkraf Sdn Bhd
40	Watsons Malaysia health and beauty store chain	Watsons Personal Care Stores (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
41	Firefly Airlines budget carrier by MAS	FireFly Sdn Bhd
42	UFun video contents sharing Page	Shine Cloud Studio
43	Padini Holdings largest fashion retailer in Malaysia	Padini Holdings Bhd
44	BoBoiBoy Malaysian animation series on Disney Channel SEA	Animonsta Studios Sdn Bhd
45	Home Ideas wall stickers online store	San De Bayu Sdn Bhd
46	Everyone Connects broadband lifestyle community by TM	Telekom Malaysia Bhd
47	Mingguan Wanita magazine for women	Kumpulan Karangkraf Sdn Bhd
48	Adidas Malaysia sportswear brand	adidas Malaysia Sdn Bhd
49	Sunway Pyramid shopping mall	Sunway Pyramid Sdn Bhd
50	Babymanja Fans Club online & retail baby store	Manjaku Sdn Bhd
51	Avalon sarees online store	Avalon Sarees
52	AXE Malaysia male grooming brand	Unilever (M) Holdings Sdn Bhd
53	7-Eleven Malaysia convenience store	7-Eleven Malaysia Sdn Bhd
54	Mobile9 portal to share, download mobile contents	Mobile9.com
55	Nestle Drumstick ice cream	Nestle Products Sdn Bhd
56	Xpax mobile prepaid service	Celcom Axiata Bhd
57	Sushi King sushi restaurant chain	Sushi King Sdn Bhd
58	PetsMore.com Malaysia largest pets store chain	Pets More Sdn Bhd
59	U.O.X. mobile prepaid plan for youth, 18 to 25 years of age	Celcom Axiata Bhd
60	IKEA Malaysia international home products company	IKEA Malaysia
61	KongSi action Bahasa Malaysia movie	Metrowealth Pictures Sdn Bhd
62	Murai entertainment news portal	Digital Five Sdn Bhd
63	MMOG.asia online game publisher	MyCNX (M) Holdings Sdn Bhd
64	GAP Malaysia clothing retailer	GAP Malaysia
65	Zouk Club KL entertainment outlet	Zouk Club Sdn Bhd
66	Revive isotonic drink	Permanis Sdn Bhd
67	Sony Malaysia consumer electronics	Sony (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
68	Guinness Malaysia popular Irish dry stout	Guinness Anchor Bhd
69	Lelong.my leading auction site	Interbase Resources Sdn Bhd
70	S.O.X. mobile prepaid plan for youth, 12 to 18 years of age	Celcom Axiata Bhd
71	TM Rewards customer loyalty programme	Telekom Malaysia Bhd
72	Machines Apple reseller	Machines Sdn Bhd
73	Action City toy store chain	Big Box International Sdn Bhd
74	Racing Boy motorcycles accessories brand	Meng Kah Auto Parts Trading Sdn Bhd
75	Milo Fuze popular chocolate and malt drink	Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd
76	Funtora deals site	Atom Media Sdn Bhd
77	Twisties Malaysia snack food product	Kraft Malaysia Sdn Bhd
78	Pavilion KL shopping mall in Bukit Bintang area	Urusharta Cemerlang Sdn Bhd
79	Maggi Malaysia instant noodles	Nestle Malaysia Bhd
80	Sinar Harian Malay-language newspaper	Kumpulan Karangkraf Sdn Bhd
81	Resorts World Genting casinos operator	Resorts World Bhd
82	15Malaysia socio-political short films	Pete Teo / Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd
83	MHI TV3 Malay-language morning talk show	Media Prima Bhd
84	Secret Recipe Malaysia lifestyle cafe chain, popular for its cheese cakes	Secret Recipe Cakes & Cafe Sdn Bhd
85	Puma Malaysia sportswear	PUMA Sports Goods Sdn Bhd
86	Awan Dania TV drama series	Nusantara Seni Karya Sdn Bhd
87	SilkyTrend online store for women apparels	SilkyTrend Enterprise
88	100PLUS Outdo Yourself isotonic drink	Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd
89	Hard Rock Hotel Penang a luxury resort in Penang Island	HPL Hotels & Resorts
90	Pantene Malaysia shampoo brand	Procter & Gamble (M) Sdn Bhd
91	Hennessy Malaysia cognac maker	Moet Hennessy Diageo Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
92	MyNewsHub Malay-language online news portal	Mynewsnet Sdn Bhd
93	NissanMalaysia automobile	Tan Chong Motor Holdings Berhad
94	Maybank Malaysia's largest bank	Malayan Banking Bhd
95	Sunsilk Malaysia shampoo brand	Unilever Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd
96	CornettoLove Wall's ice cream	Unilever (M) Sdn Bhd
97	AirAsiaGo online travel portal by AirAsia	AirAsia Bhd
98	Tune Talk mobile service provider	Tune Talk Sdn Bhd
99	Johnnie Walker Malaysia popular scotch whiskey brand	Moet Hennessy Diageo Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
100	Lollytot baby and children online gift store	Lollytot
101	Intel Malaysia world's leading chipmaker	Intel Electronics (M) Sdn Bhd
102	Nokia Malaysia mobile phones supplier	Nokia (M) Sdn Bhd
103	F.O.S clothing retail chain	F.O.S Clothing Co Sdn Bhd
104	Lipice Malaysia lip care products	Rohto-Mentholatum (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
105	Avon Malaysia beauty products	Avon Cosmetics (M) Sdn Bhd
106	Friends of MyEG Malaysia's e-government service provider	MyEG Services Bhd
107	OHBULAN! entertainment news	Driven Media Sdn Bhd
108	Silkygirl cosmetics	Alliance Cosmetics Sdn Bhd
109	Lancome Malaysia cosmetics brand	L'Oreal Malaysia Sdn Bhd
110	Generasi Hebat youth community by BRAND'S essence of chicken	Cerebos (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd
111	Lumix Club Lumix camera users in Malaysia	Panasonic Malaysia Sdn Bhd
112	BOH Tea Malaysia Malaysia’s largest producer of premium black teas	BOH Plantations Sdn Bhd
113	Ripcurl Malaysia surfing sportswear	Wicked Wave Sdn Bhd
114	F&N Fun beverages	Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd
115	BonusLink customer loyalty card	BonusKad Loyalty Sdn Bhd
116	Windows Malaysia OS by Microsoft	Microsoft Malaysia Sdn Bhd
117	Crocs Malaysia footwear brand	Kinderdijk Sdn Bhd
118	Yes 4G mobile Internet service provider	YTL Communications Sdn Bhd
119	My Clean and Clear facial products	Johnson & Johnson Sdn Bhd
120	Baskin Robbins Malaysia ice cream store chain	Golden Scoops Sdn Bhd
121	Shama Fashion House online women fashion boutique	Shama Fashion House
122	Ronasutra Mineral Makeup beauty products	Aurafine Marketing
123	Maybankard card products from Maybank	Maybank Bhd
124	Toshiba Regza Malaysia TV brand	Toshiba Sales & Services Sdn Bhd
125	Ed Hardy Malaysia clothing line inspired by Ed Hardy's famous tattoo designs	Ed Hardy Malaysia Sdn Bhd
126	BROS reusable water bottles brand	Living Wing Sdn Bhd
127	Haagen-Dazs Malaysia premium ice-cream	General Mills (M) Sdn Bhd
128	Proton Edar marketing unit of Proton	Proton Holdings Bhd
129	Michelin Malaysia tires maker	Michelin Malaysia Sdn Bhd
130	Gillette Malaysia men's grooming products	Gillette (M) Sdn Bhd

NOTES

• These Pages are created by businesses, local and foreign, to primarily engage with (there is a total of 12 million Facebook users in Malaysia.
• However, this List excludes public figures (i.e. Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad with over 1 million fans or Lisa Surihani with over 1.2 million fans) and non-business related Pages (i.e. No Mega Tower with over 200k fans).
• If there is a popular Malaysian Facebook Page missing from this Top 50 list, please recommend it in the Comments area below.

Updated: December 21 2011

Most Popular Facebook Pages in Malaysia originally appeared on GreyReview.com on November 4, 2010.

“My friend defriended me on Facebook”, he replied.

He elaborated further, saying that this friend, whom he had known since high school and whom he had been contact with on and off throughout the years (as opposed to regular contact) had one day decided to reduce his Facebook contacts to only those he often stayed in touch with, and since he only met up or talked with this guy once in a blue moon, he ended up in the dreaded “Defriended” list. And he wasn’t the only one. A few other school buddies also didn’t make the cut and were equally depressed.

I thought this was utterly ridiculous but sensing that his sadness was genuine, didn’t make a fuss about it. But seriously, getting depressed because you were removed from someone’s contact list on an online app?

Wishing for Wisdom of the Crowd?

This over-reliance on Facebook doesn’t just end there. Another friend of mine relies on Facebook for news feeds. I’m not talking about entertainment news or gadget releases, but rather on national and political news. I mean, we have evolved from having just mainstream media to having alternative media portals like Malaysiakini, The Malaysian Insider etc where we can expect to find balanced news reports but rather than refer to them, we rely on Facebook for news? Never mind if it’s an unsubstantiated report based on one person’s views… if it’s on Facebook it’s gotta be true, right? Sigh…

Have we truly evolved (or devolved) to the point where an online app actually controlled our lives?

I’m reminded of that scene in Pixar’s Wall-E, where our beloved robot is brought upon a ship where the remnants of humankind are depicted as complacent and obese, relying on automatons to ferry them around and feed them while they busy themselves IM’ing each other.

With our increasing over-reliance on apps like Facebook, is this the future we’re condemning ourselves to? It would appear to be so.

Are you the user or the app?

This is one of the critiques presented by Jaron Lanier in his book You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto, which is a collection of his Internet columns and postings where he directs most of his ire toward the “anonymous blog comments, vapid video pranks, and lightweight mashups” that flit through our browsers and Twitter feeds, and the “hive mind” in general. Having read it, I found it to be a passionate exploration of the state of the human/machine relationship from the perspective of someone intimately familiar with the subject (Lanier is considered a pioneer of virtual reality and an early star of Wired magazine).

On the issue of Facebook (and social networking, in general), Lanier writes “the only hope for social networking sites from a business point of view is for a magic formula to appear in which some method of violating privacy and dignity becomes acceptable.” How so definitely true. Of course, the sad part is that we the users are the ones allowing such violations in the first place. The case of Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, comes to mind.

Lanier further writes, “the real customer is the advertiser of the future, but this creature has yet to appear at the time this is being written. The whole artifice, the whole idea of fake friendship (emphasis is mine), is just bait laid by the lords of the clouds to lure hypothetical advertisers—we might call them messianic advertisers—who might someday show up”.

The only thing that would prevent this from becoming a reality is a little common sense. Facebook has its uses. It allows users to connect with other users through networks and groups of like-minded individuals. Heck, even world leaders use Facebook, and in those cases, Facebook does a good job in helping these people gauge the opinion of the public.

But common sense would tell us that this is just an application that we as users should manipulate, and not let it manipulate us. A little common sense would tell us to adjust your habits to make our time spent networking safer and more rewarding. Checking actual news feeds from reliable media sources rather than blindly accepting “news” sourced through Facebook or Twitter feeds would make us less susceptible to rumors. It’s not like one needs to actually open a honest-to-goodness printed newspaper to find out the latest happenings; you can easily find online news portals.

And Twitter was meant to update your “followers” of interesting developments you’ve encountered, not to tell everyone you just went to the grocery store to pick up some cabbage or that you just went to the bathroom for the fifth time today (you also tweeted about the previous four visits).

As Lanier pointed out in his book, with services such as Facebook, “life is turned into a database [following the] belief that computers can presently represent human thought or human relationships”, and notes that “algorithms don’t network people: people network people”.

Sadly, there are too many “mindless drones” out there who are oblivious to this concept; the same “mindless drones” who feel obligated to update their Facebook or tweet their current activity, no matter how droll they may be, as if their whole lives depended on it. These “mindless drones” are disconnected from their real-life social streams and rely on online apps for their daily interactions. And their numbers are increasing, thanks to the lack of common sense.

The groundwork for the future seen in Wall-E is being laid as we speak.

(Image credits: Jaron Lanier and Pixar)

How Facebook can turn you into mindless drones? originally appeared on GreyReview.com on October 21, 2010.

Last year, I particularly enjoyed trolling the exhibition area for startups, which featured 30 awesome startups – iTwin and SocialWok – both went on to be featured on TechCrunch50 2009; iTwin, one of TC50 Finalists and SocialWok, winner of Demopit – Malaysian startups (Elevyn and Foldees), and others include Klout, eJamming Audiio, Fame, Orsiso, ThoughtBuzz and PieceHunters. The Startup Pitches session was great too and last year’s featured 8 startups – Countspin (US), iTwin (Singapore), Frenzoo (Hong Kong), Human Network Labs (Singapore), Socialwok (Singapore), Genkii (Japan), among others.

Bigger, Better Unconference SIngapore 2009, a 1-day event; echelon 2010 is going to be a 2-day event and will have 40 speakers, 50 startups, 8 case studies, 6 panel discussions, 4 keynotes! Thought leaders are Dave McClure of Founders Fund, Noah Kagan of Gambit (payment solution for virtual currency), Rex Ng of 6waves (social games publisher), Bernard Leong of Chlkboard (mobile ads delivery system), Yong Ming Guang of Socialwok (business social networking for enterprises), David Zhao of Zumodrive, Gen Kanai of Mozilla, just to name a few.

echelon 2010 will be held at Matrix @Biopolis, Singapore from 01 to 02 June 2010. Book your ticket here.

Enter the Echelon starring cool web startups and thought leaders in Asia. Coming soon originally appeared on GreyReview.com on April 15, 2010.

Facebook marked its 6th anniversary on February 05 2010 with a population of 400 million users. On February 11 2010, the social network hit another milestone – more than 100 million people actively using Facebook on their mobile phones. Today, there are over 3 billion photos being uploaded to Facebook each month and more than 500,000 active applications on its Platform. And recently, FastCompany magazine named Facebook, as the World’s Most Innovative Company 2010.

These days, 70% of Facebook users are from outside US. In Asia, Facebook is fast becoming the one the region’s leading social networks. Indonesia has the fourth highest number of Facebook users in the world, after US, UK and Turkey. With 18.9 million users, Indonesia is well ahead of Philippines, the country with 10.5 million Facebook users (refer to table below). This is followed by India (6.8 million), Taiwan (5.8 million) and Malaysia (5.1 million). In terms of penetration rate, Hong Kong has the highest “Facebook users per country population” rate in Asia, at 39%, followed by Singapore (38%), Taiwan (25%), Malaysia (18%) and Philippines (11%). The total Facebook users in Asia is 59.6 million, or about 15% of the global Facebook population.

(UPDATE: The % of Facebook Users over Total Online Users to provide a much richer perspective on Facebook use in Asia. Based on the suggestion by Gen Kanai – see his comment below.)

In Asia, the two dominant age groups on Facebook are “18 – 24″ and “25 – 34″ (see Table below). The youthful “18 – 24″ age group is dominant in Indonesia, Philippines, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. In Pakistan, Vietnam and Bangladesh, the age group constituted more than half of the Facebook population in their respective country.

The “25 – 34″ is the dominant age group in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Korea and interestingly, these are all developed economies. In these developed economies, Facebook users above the age of 25 constitute more than half of the Facebook users population in each respective country. The reverse is true for the developing economies i.e. Indonesia, Philippines, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, where more than half of Facebook population is below the age of 24.

Facebook’s Asian engines of growth: College students in developing countries and working adults/professionals in developed countries. Some possible explanations: (a) youth population in developing nations is far more than the developed ones (in other words, developed nations with relatively aging population), and/or (b) working adults are more web 2.0-savvy in developed economies. What do you think?

All the above figures were extracted from Facebook Advertising page, over a period of two hours on March 01 2010. ¶ @zhiQ

Facebook in Asia: Total Users and Age Groups [Latest STATS] originally appeared on GreyReview.com on March 2, 2010.

Local Trends is a natural evolution for the Twitter’s Geotagging, which “attach a longitude and latitude to all of your tweets” and was released in August 2009. Prior to Twitter’s geotag APIs, there’s already an application (one of a handful) called TwitterLocal that filter tweets by location, by “caching all tweets with valid location.” Now, Twitter goes meta with Trending topics for each location.

With its API, Twitter is already making it easier for people to publish status and follow updates. To date, there are 50,000 apps have been developed around Twitter platform. These days, it’s about organizing and making sense of streams of chatters, rants, etc. Google’s goal is “to organize the world’s information to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” For Twitter, it’s about enabling the emergence of the real time web and now, organizing the real time web’s information and making them useful. ¶ @zhiQ

Twitter “Local Trends” Not Localized for Asia Yet originally appeared on GreyReview.com on January 27, 2010.

He also mentioned Twitter in 2006 is the “last time there has been a significant web application that comes along the social media space and captivated the whole world.” Interesting observation. Anyway, here are audio snippets from his keynote, accompanied by his slides.

Overview of Social Media landscape

What’s Hot, What’s Not

How many friends do you have?

Youth and Social Networks

Age Groups and Social Networks

Web Evolution

Maturing Social Networks

TechCrunch Quote

The Road Ahead for Social Networks

The Shifts

You can view Ian Stewart’s entire presentation slides here.

What’s Now, What’s Next for Social Networking: Ian Stewart, Friendster (with audio clips) originally appeared on GreyReview.com on September 25, 2009.

So, the call-for-action MUFORS website invites users to submit their pledges; be the change agent. Pledges can be made in the forms of text messages (SMS), photo or videos. Those who made the pledges are expected to honor them on September 09 2009, designated as Malaysians Unite for Road Safety day. This road safety campaign comes with social media ingredients – YouTube, Facebook, news feed, rating and poll.

As the time of this posting, MUFORS garnered over 99,000 pledges. And it’s unclear who’s behind this initiative and kudos to them. Anyway, go make your pledge today (I’ve just made mine).

UPDATE: This campaign started on August 18 2009 and supported by highway operator, PLUS and its partners. Thanks @feistyflo.

This Is NOT Your Plain Old Road Safety Campaign originally appeared on GreyReview.com on September 3, 2009.

Malaysians love Social Networking too

There are about 16 million Internet users in Malaysia and IDC Research projected Malaysian Internet users will reach 20.4 million by 2012. In March this year, the number of Facebook users in Malaysia surpassed the one million mark. Recently, a brief survey by YouthSays, Malaysia’s largest youth community website with over 160,000 members, showed 95% of a total of 900 respondents have Friendster’s account, 90% with Facebook and 38% with Twitter (This survey was presented at the recent Malaysian Media Congress 2009).

In Malaysia, the social networking penetration rate was 66.6% in December 2008 (see Table below), behind only to Singapore (74.3%) and South Korea (68%). See Table below.

In terms of Average Minutes Spent on Social Network(s) Per Visitor, Malaysia ranked second at 181.2 minutes after Korea (277.8 min) and ahead of Singapore (175.6 min), Hong Kong (127.7 min), India (110.4 min) and Japan (72.8 min).

Top Social Networks in Malaysia

Like elsewhere in the world, Facebook and Twitter are the superstars these days in Malaysia. Besides these two, what are the other popular social networks Malaysians spending their time these days? Alexa and Google Ad Planner can provide some answers. Alexa Traffic Rank measures website popularity and calculated using average daily visitors and pageviews over the past three months whereas Google Ad Planner is “based on an automated analysis of millions of search queries and site visits” and Unique Visitors refer to number of people visiting the site over a specific month.

Based on the Table below, Facebook is the top social network in Malaysia, followed by YouTube and Friendster. Twitter is the 8th most popular social network in Malaysia.

Top Malaysian Social Networks

Despite the phenomenal popularity of Facebook, etc., there are a handful of Malaysian social networks offering localized contents and services. Some of the notable local social networks are Ruumz, eKawan, GoEatOut, Circles99, FriendX, eMeiMei and Pacmee.

So, how popular are these social networks? For a starter, these social networks are nowhere near global social network brands like Facebook and Friendster, in terms of Malaysian users. Launched in February 2009, Ruumz is today’s most popular Malaysia social network, followed by eKawan (social network for Malay-speaking community) and GoEatOut (dining guide-cum-social network). See Table below.

Discussion

Facebook is replacing Friendster as Malaysian top social network; Facebook outranked Friendster in Alexa and also, Facebook with more unique visitors from Malaysia compared Friendster (Google Ad Planner). However, according to a Friendster Summary Fact Sheet posted on TechCrunch, the social network boasted a total of 2.1 million active users in Malaysia compared to 1.1 million Facebook users in Malaysia.

Malaysians are using global social networks like Facebook, MySpace and Friendster compared to local social networks. Only a few countries are dominated by homegrown social networks, namely Mixi in Japan, Cyworld in Korea, QiQi in China, Cloob in Iran, Maktoob in Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Dubai, Kuwait), StudiVZ in Germany, Hyves in The Netherlands, iWiW in Hungary, Nasza-Klasa in Poland, and Vkontakte.ru in Russia.

How do these local social networks compete? Sites like Pacmee, Friendx, eKawan and eMeiMei tied its social networks to mobile services and deliver value-added services e.g. posting photo via MM and receive status updates via SMS.

Ruumz offers different blend of value-added services on its social network. For example, online music subscription, photo printing and photobook services. With its unique brand positioning and services, Ruumz can differentiate itself in the local social networking scene.

But will it be able to dent Facebook’s armor? Quite unlikely in short-term. Rather than competing head-on with the social network giants, local social networks can thrive by offering different social networking experiences. Facebook and Friendster, for example, are typically broad-based type social network and offer culturally relevant experience is probably not their strong suit. Herein lies the opportunity for Malaysian social networks.

And maybe Malaysian social networks can learn something from the ascendancy of Old Town White Coffee, a Malaysian-based coffee chain. Amidst the crowded marketplace dominated by global brands like Starbucks and Coffee Beans, Old Town able to differentiate its offerings and capture marketshare in Malaysia (and elsewhere in Asia).

Conclusion

This article offers a snapshot of social networking activities and the popular social networks in Malaysia. The leading social networks are Facebook, YouTube and Friendster whereas top Malaysian social networks are Ruumz, eKawan and GoEatOut. Local social networks provide diversity in the social networking landscape and offer choices to Malaysians. Possibly, local players can eventually offer more culturally relevant social networking experiences with localized contents and services.

Snapshot of Social Networking in Malaysia originally appeared on GreyReview.com on July 28, 2009.

Both using different tweeting styles. @ProtonExora is tweeting from first-person perspective (tweeting as Exora, the car) whereas @YouWillBeAmazed tweeting as third-person.

Twitter Pages of @ProtonExora and @YouWillBeAmazed

Observations

1. @YouWillBeAmazed is a better conversationalist.
   • The ‘unofficial’ tweets are far more engaging and informative. Out of 8 updates so far, none of @ProtonExora tweets starts with ‘@’. For @YouWillBeAmazed, 43% of its total number of tweets start with ‘@’. It’s broadcast versus conversation
   • There’s nothing wrong of using Twitter as broadcast medium. The hugely popular @CNNbrk (and many others) are broadcastweets. But in the case of Proton Exora (as a newly launched product and new brand), conversation would be a better mode of engagement.
2. In the laissez-faire land of Twitter, any voice can be as loud as the ‘official’ one. Unless a brand ‘owner’ initiate and manage conversations on Twitter (or in any social networks), others will fill the void and potentially become the ‘official’ voice of the brand.
   • For example, Coca-Cola Facebook Page is not originally created by the sugar water company but by two ‘fans’, Dusty Sorg (an actor) and Michael Jedrzejewski (a writer). The Page attracted 3.3 million fans and became the top brand on Facebook Page. It is only second behind Barack Obama, in terms of Fans. Now, the Page is co-managed by Coca Cola and the Page creators.
   • Currently, @YouWillBeAmazed is doing a better job in evangelizing the Exora brand and engaging Followers; Proton can learn a lot from it.
3. Comparatively, @YouWillBeAmazed page is aesthetically more appealing than @ProtonExora. If it wasn’t for the tweet that says ‘technically’ i am not the official tweet for proton!, probably many would have thought @YouWillBeAmazed is official voice of Proton Exora on Twitter.
4. For Proton, Facebook Page trumped Twitter. Fans on Proton Exora Facebook Page are ‘engaging’ the brand. To date, the Page has over 900 fans. The Page is populated by Proton-contributed updates, videos and photos together with Fans-generated contents.
5. Lastly, both ‘real’ and ‘fake’ voices of Proton Exora need to craft better ‘bio’. With the omnipresence of URL shorteners in Twitterville, posting full Facebook Page URL looks amateurish.

Conclusion

For Proton, it seems relatively easier to assimilate Facebook Page into its brand-building infrastructure, compared to Twitter. On Facebook, fans can communicate among themselves around a brand. On Twitter, its true potential is realized once the brand starts to engage actively in conversations. It’s about building and nurturing emotional attachment to the company through conversations. And it is quite challenging to achieve such goal if companies perceive social media as short-term episodic bursts of campaigns.

Let’s continue the discourse

Is building and sustaining a community on Twitter is harder compared to on Facebook Page? In the Malaysian context, considering there are over a million Facebook users in Malaysia compared to significantly lesser number of Twitter users compared to only less than 100,000 users in Malaysia (more 77,000 with with #malaysia in WeFollow directory). Is number of Followers or Fans the right metric to measure the effectiveness of social web initiative? If no, what other aspects should we measure engagements on social web? Leave your thoughts here or let’s converse on Twitter @limyh.

One Brand, Two Voices on Twitter: A Case of Proton Exora originally appeared on GreyReview.com on May 5, 2009.

Let’s Continue the Discourse on Twitter

Social media is not an endgame but just a means to an end. It simply has be embedded within a company culture for it to realize its full potential. Do you agree with the above social media evolutionary path? At which stage is your company at now? Let’s chat on Twitter; find me @limyh.

Social Media and The Evolution Towards Simply Marketing originally appeared on GreyReview.com on March 17, 2009.

In addition to shoppers, Shoplette allows merchants to establish presence on its platform. Merchants can setup Shops to showcase their products. Similar to all items posted on Shoplette, community members can rate and comment on items posted by the merchants. Currently, there are over 200 Shops on Shoplette.

Flaunt It on Shoplette

With its recently launched Shopping Cart Service, merchants can now eCommerce-enabled their Shoplette Shops. Some of its key features are order taking, shopping cart for buyers, PayPal or credit card payment system and also, simple inventory control and order management features. Merchants will be charged US$15 per month for the use of the shopping cart service. Shoplette plans to introduce more pay-as-you-use services in coming months, as part of its monetization strategy.

Shoplette Social Ads?

Besides services, social ads is probably another potential income stream for Shoplette. Peek at any member’s profile page, you can see his/her purchases, preferences and ‘Wish List’ – a potential advertising goldmine. By harvesting the information, Shopholics can deliver more relevant and contextualized ads to members of its social network.

Shoplette is a flagship initiative by Mobrick Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based Web 2.0 technology firm founded by Shannon Low. Launched in May 2008, the site today has over 1200 registered members with over 3000 items posted on its platform.

Shopaholic-Generated Content on Shoplette originally appeared on GreyReview.com on March 11, 2009.