BRTI Expects to Deploy Messaging Indonesia Before End of 2013

The push to deliver an Indonesian mobile messaging solution by the Indonesian Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (BRTI) continues amid collaborations by local telcos with foreign messaging companies. Temporarily dubbed Messaging Indonesia, the effort is expected to reduce consumer reliance on foreign services. BRTI is working with three major mobile carriers to develop this service.

IndoTelko reports that BRTI committee member Ridwan M. Effendi is adamant that the application will be ready before the end of the year although currently the team is still working to overcome both the commercial implementation as well as the interoperability issues that arise from cross-network deployment. “Anything’s possible. Even cross platform money transfer is possible, it’s merely about intent”, he said. “If Messaging Indonesia is realized, carriers will benefit because routing will occur locally so the cost expended will not be so great”.

With foreign apps and services, data connection travels outside of the country and carriers have to pay for the use of those data pipes. By keeping data traffic local, the associated cost can be reduced significantly. On the other hand, by running this service, all data will be subject to Indonesian laws and the government will be able to gain access to the channel if it sees a reason to perform such checks. This is one of the concerns that were brought up against the government’s insistence to have companies like BlackBerry and Google set up servers located within the country. The refusal of both companies to comply so far is supported by others in the industry citing legal, business and practical reasons.

Asked about the launch of the service, Effendi is optimistic, saying, “there’s progress from each routine meeting. It’s possible to launch it this year”.

Axis head of marketing Daniel Horan recently told DailySocial that an effort like this is rife with issues and that the company’s focus is on collaborating with existing services. While it may seem like a there’s a conflict of interest on Horan’s part, all other Indonesian telcos also have data package agreements with foreign messaging companies.

Axis currently has deals with Skype, Viber, KakaoTalk, Line, and others to allow subscribers to purchase messaging oriented data packages which will allow them unmetered data access to the services even after the monthly quota has been reached. The Viber partnership with Axis was signed at the Mobile World Conference earlier this year and is available to customers signed up to any of the Axis Pro data plans.

It remains to be seen whether a cross-carrier collaboration will deliver a service that is not only as comprehensive as existing messaging apps but also as easy to use and as attractive so as to gain widespread acceptance among mobile consumers across the country. Additionally, being an app may limit the adoption of such a service in a country with 70% feature phone mobile share unless all of the major features are also applicable for these devices as well.

This mobile channel is brought to you by Samsung Developer Competition 2013. SDC ’13 is an app competition for Android apps that leverage Samsung’s mobile technologies. For more information please visit http://techne.dailysocial.net/sdc

Something about green and white with communication…

Something about green and white with communication apps.

Screenshot by Yoga Nandiwardhana

BlackBerry Messenger to be Available on iOS and Android. What’s in it for BlackBerry?

During BlackBerry Live, CEO Thorsten Heins announced the availability of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) for iOS and Android this coming summer. To use the free BBM service will require iOS 6 or Android 4.0. Aside from being multi platform, BlackBerry will also introduce BBM Channels which acts as special channels for brands and celebrities to interact with their fans.

According to BlackBerry’s official blog post, BBM users on IOS and Android will be able to participate in real time chats, multi-person chats, share voice notes, and use the groups feature.

This was a surprising development even though it had been subject of previous discussions because BBM had until now been an exclusive messaging platform for BlackBerry. What does the company expect by opening its most popular service to competing platforms? Doesn’t this stop consumers from having to purchase a BlackBerry and simply use their existing iOS or Android device if they need to use BBM?

There’s a number of reasons we can think of but I think that BlackBerry wants to remain the main preference for BlackBerry users to interact with people using other mobile platforms as other messaging services continue their onslaught. BlackBerry claims there are more than 60 million BBM users. This number doesn’t seem to be that many when compared to the number of users on WhatsApp, WeChat, Line, and KakaoTalk.

As a pioneer in the field of IP-based mobile messaging apps, BlackBerry certainly would like to remain relevant and expects to have more consumers using the service, including those not on BlackBerry.

The question is, what good does it do for BlackBerry if it’s gets to be used by more consumers? BlackBerry might want to prove that its servers can handle the load or are even better compared to its competitors in delivering real time messages. The question is whether BlackBerry ail monetize the service if it becomes more popular.

With the free service, there’s no revenue from BlackBerry Internet Service from BlackBerry 10 nor from BBM apps on other platforms, so one thing that crosses the mind is an in-app purchase scheme such as stickers, themes, or additional features which might draw interest to purchase them.

The Verge says that while it’s interesting, the idea of multi platform BBM is too late because Android and iOS already dominate and alternative apps to BBM is plentiful. Personally I see that outside of the United States, such as in England, Asia, and South America, BBM is still relevant and those are the markets that BlackBerry is after.

In Indonesia, consumers are already moving towards another apps and platforms. Whether BBM apps will receive a positive acceptance can be seen from the list of popular apps on the App Store and Google Plat. Of course, the choice is now on the consumers’ hands, not on BlackBerry, which was still the messaging champion three years ago with its exclusive service.

[Image from The Verge]

This mobile channel is brought to you by Samsung Developer Competition 2013. SDC ’13 is an app competition for Android apps that leverage Samsung’s mobile technologies. For more information please visit http://techne.dailysocial.net/sdc

The Messaging Conundrum

Ask any smartphone-wielding Indonesian about their messaging apps and they would most likely say a combination of two, maybe three apps, aside from SMS, the usage of which had been in serious decline over the past year. WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger, and Line tend to be the top three messaging apps mentioned by Indonesians. Although people do actively use other messaging apps, they are not as prominent on people’s minds.

For most people, WhatsApp and BlackBerry Messenger are still the two dominant messaging apps. While the Asian apps are seen as more playful and casual thanks to the image that their marketing campaigns had been pushing, these two apps are more businesslike and preferred in the workplace.

Microsoft’s Skype is also another one that’s widely accepted in workplaces but most people consider Skype as a video or audio conference tool instead of a text messaging app. Even though Microsoft recently rolled MSN Messenger into Skype, it still remains to be seen whether former MSN members will embrace it.

When communicating with different groups of people however, in recent times it has become a juggling act in managing several different applications and services. One group may prefer the use of one app while others are fans of another app. Certain individuals might also prefer a completely different channel of communication. All this diversity is forcing people to download and sign up to several different apps and services just to maintain communications.

There hasn’t been a prior point in history in which people are so immediately connected through so many different ways yet still face difficulties in deciding which communication channels to use. Some people are reluctant to give away their mobile phone numbers while others insist on traditional means. Some insist on emails, others may not find email practical.

Those with private phone numbers would rule out apps which rely on phone numbers such as Viber and WhatsApp. Those who are on Path, Line or KakaoTalk may keep their profiles private. Google+ can be an issue for those with multiple Gmail or Google Apps email addresses while WeChat is still not popular outside of China. Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime are limited to iOS and OS X devices and still have issues that make the experience less pleasant.

With the rise of all these messaging apps and the eventual outcome of having them as full fledged social networks or platforms, it doesn’t seem like things are becoming easier. On the other hand, the separation of communications channels can make it more practical for people to manage their contacts as they are more likely to immediately know where to look for archives of past conversations with certain people.

These past few years, dozens of companies have been built to launch purpose-built messaging services despite the fact that general messaging apps also serve similar functions. Niches are carved, functions highlighted, features added in, all in the name of doing things differently. Of course, people happily embrace any new service but there’s seemingly little loyalty to each because it’s so easy to switch between these apps and they still serve the same basic purpose.

Ultimately, is having one messaging app more manageable than having several different ones that work in slightly different ways and used by different groups of people? All signs seem to favor people preferring to have different apps, at least for the time being. So which messaging apps do you use?

This mobile channel is brought to you by Samsung Developer Competition 2013. SDC ’13 is an app competition for Android apps that leverage Samsung’s mobile technologies. For more information please visit http://techne.dailysocial.net/sdc

McCann CEO: Older Messaging Apps Don’t Create Deep Connections

WhatsApp. Line. KakaoTalk. WeChat. Skype. BlackBerry Messenger. Path. iMessage. Facebook. These are just a few of the currently popular messaging apps. It’s inevitable that people will have to use more than one of these apps to contact different groups of people, adding to the complexity of communications, thanks to the different features each company has chosen to highlight, but the newer apps are getting more love from mobile consumers.

On CampaignAsia, CEO of McCann Worldgroup Singapore, Ben Lightfoot said, “People now want platforms which help them increase the quality of their relationships, to create deeper emotional connections with those closest to them”. McCann Worldgroup is the agency that handles Line’s campaign in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Lightfoot’s comment implies that the older messaging apps do not bring out such sentiments from their users. Those apps have mostly been very task oriented and less personal which does not entice people to keep using them beyond what is absolutely necessary, whereas the new generation of apps help create that bond.

Some time ago we wondered which text messaging apps will storm the market and grab the lion’s share. The names we mentioned back then were Facebook, iMessage, Google+, WhatsApp, mig33, and Skype. How different the landscape is today. Asian messaging apps are grabbing all the headlines these days and there’s been very few, if any, innovations launched on the older, more popular services. Today’s landscape is all about mobile messaging and the Asian apps are rolling with the punches.

Gmail for iOS gets an update which links the app directly to…

Gmail for iOS gets an update which links the app directly to other Google apps, keeping user navigations within the Google sandbox. There’s a reason why the iOS versions of Google’s apps are better on iOS than Android.

Google doesn’t need to get iOS users to switch to Android. Google needs to make its iOS apps really compelling, far better than competing apps to get iOS users to use them, and when that threshold has been crossed, link them all up to keep everything inside Google.

The embrace, extend, extinguish principle is well and truly in effect.

Apps Foundry lands US$2.42M series B funding

Apps Foundry, a mobile application developer in Singapore and Indonesia, has just announced its S$3 million series B funding.

Apps Foundry, which is best known for its SCOOP smartphone and tablet eReader application, has just raised a S$3 million (US$2.42 million) series B funding. The new funding round is invested by Indonesia’s largest media group Kompas Gramedia, through its Digital Group’s subsidiary, PT Gramedia Digital. Kompas Gramedia runs Indonesian news website Kompas.com as well as Kompas Daily, one of the country’s largest-circulation newspapers.

“This strategic investment will strengthen our already leading position in Indonesia e-publishing industry. The money will be used to extend our presence regionally, develop new products and improve our services to current users. We have a rapid expansion plan in Asia – and our immediate target will be to strengthen our presence in ASEAN countries.” – Willson Cuaca, CEO of Apps Foundry

Read also: Thai e-publishing platform Ookbee inks partnership with Indonesian SCOOP

The investment by Kompas Gramedia is also strategically motivated. Through the investment, magazine publishers and daily newspapers that have a partnership with Kompas daily will join Apps Foundry’s SCOOP e-publishing platform. This means that over 10,000 e-book titles from 7 Gramedia Book Publishers can now be downloaded through SCOOP. Founded in 2010, Apps Foundry now has a team of 30 people in Singapore and Indonesia. Its flagship product, SCOOP, currently supports over 20,000 editions of magazines, books and newspapers in print replica form. SCOOP currently delivers over 1.8 million e-publications annually worldwide. The SCOOP newsstand application has been downloaded to over 650,000 devices such as mobile phones and tablets, with 210,000 monthly active users.

Prior to its series B investment, Apps Foundry has also managed to raise funding from Gobi Partners and Mitsui Global Investments (MGI).

Late last year, we have also seen SCOOP partnering with Thailand e-publishing platform Ookbee. The partnership between Ookbee and SCOOP was announced shortly after their funding announcement of US$2 million at a US$8 million valuation.

Read also: Thailand ebook store Ookbee raises US$2M at US$8M valuation

The post Apps Foundry lands US$2.42M series B funding appeared first on e27.

The Kakao story: Rising from the ashes of failure and being lean

Sirgoo Lee, CEO of Kakao Corporation, shared what made KakaoTalk a hit messaging platform in Korea and its rapid expansion.

Born from two failures, KakaoTalk was created by Brian Kim and his founding team as their “killer application.” Having built two web applications that have failed, Buru.com (social bookmarking serice, 2009) and Wisia.com (social ranking service, 2008), the appearance of the smartphone came at the right time for the company, then named iWILAB, to revive its efforts in the application space. According to CEO Sirgoo Lee, the team threw away all the code for the web service and decided to do something called “application service.”

With just four people, KakaoTalk was created in two months. Sirgoo shared that they have since tried to keep to the “4 by 2” spirit where they aim to create something with the least amount of resources in the shortest amount of time. The reason was, when they were building web services, the team focused on creating products that had no flaws, and that is why they failed. KakaoTalk taught them to release products as quickly as possible and to continuously improve the product.

Read also: Chat wars continue: KakaoTalk hits 10M downloads in Japan

KakaoTalk currently has 86 million registered users, with 70 percent of them in Korea, 29 million daily users and send 4.8 billion messages daily. In 2012, the company reported revenues of US$42 million and had its first profitable year in six years, pulling in US$6.5 million in profits. The company’s main revenue stream is its platform and ads.

Kakao currently has 360 employees. Sirgoo explained that when KakaoTalk began to distribute games through its platform, no one believed that it would work because they did not understand why people messaging each other would want to play games together. Today, KakaoTalk has proven the model with eight of the Top 10 Google Play games being Kakao games. Using the case study of the Anipang Game, Sirgoo shared that it had 20 million downloads, 10 million daily active users and a maximum concurrent users of three million, all because of the power of the social graph.

Sirgoo said that that is the power of the KakaoTalk platform, using the power of the social graph. He said, “Games are just the beginning. With the social graph, with the social function, you can also stimulate growth in digital content like books, musics and movies. You can also stimulate growth in e-commerce by allowing users to show their friends what they have bought.” Sirgoo also mentioned that Kakao is in the process of creating a music service.

During his session, Sirgoo also revealed a more “community” side of Kakao where it is looking to build up the technology community. He mentioned that the company has a target to hit one million profit-making partners within three years. As KakaoTalk is a service, Sirgoo knows the importance of understanding the local businesses and culture in order to provide what users want. Like its partnership with Yahoo! Japan, Kakao is looking to work with local players and content providers in other countries.

As Akira Morikawa, CEO of LINE was also present, moderator Gen Miyazawa of Yahoo! Japan managed to get the two rivals talking. An interesting comment from Akira was that LINE’s timeline is not as heavily used as KakaoTalk’s. Sirgoo also admits that Kakao, being a smaller company, had lots to learn especially in global strategy from LINE.

Read also: Bringing the global market on LINE

Kakao accelerating the adoption of games

The post The Kakao story: Rising from the ashes of failure and being lean appeared first on e27.

Indonesians just love to chat

Indonesians just love to chat

Custom T-Shirt Startup Tees Introduces Affiliate Program and Opens API Access

Tees, Aria Rajasa’s latest custom t-shirt startup, has officially announced its API availability as well as an affiliate program. Built upon the knowledge and opportunities gained from his previous startup Gantibaju.com, Tees lets anyone design, print and sell t-shirts without having to place bulk orders.

“The affiliate program is being introduced to allow those who would like to sell merchandise from Tees without having to design them themselves”, Rajasa said in a press release. “They can simply select the products that they like and refer them to others using a link to earn a commission”, he added.

As with any affiliate links, the unique affiliate code is tacked on to the end of the referring URL and is used to identify the individual affiliate who will then earn a commission based on the purchases made through that link. Payment to affiliates are made on a monthly basis based on the total sales made via the unique links.

Tees also allow software developers to create apps through the use of its API which will serve as store fronts for Tees. Purchases made through the apps will earn the developer a commission similar to the affiliates program. Currently there are two apps already taking advantage of this, one is NekoTees on Windows Phone and the other is Praktees on iOS, both made by Indonesian developers.

Both apps allow people to browse through Tees’ entire catalog, search particular designs, designers, themes, or stores, mark designs as favorites, place designs on shopping carts, and most importantly, make purchases.