HTC Malaysia first, HTC Singapore next — Bernard Leong, CTO and co-founder of Chalkboard told us that his team has sealed a deal with HTC Singapore to include its location-based deal widget on all HTC EVO 3D handsets in the country. The widget will be pre-installed into the firmware as a default app for all HTC EVO 3D users in Singapore. While I have always called Chalkboard a location-based ad platform, it seems to me that calling it a location-based deals platform sounds more apt. Essentially, what users are getting is ...
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Aug 10 2011
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Rumor: LivingSocial to Bring its Group Buy Site to China
Rumors are swirling around China’s e-commerce industry that the US firm LivingSocial is in talks to buy into the group buy site MiQi.cn in a bid to enter the Chinese market. MiQi is a cosmetics-oriented daily deals site. LivingSocial, which is second to Groupon in this sector in the US, has yet to make a move in mainland China. The rumor, as reported by Chinese tech site Donews, sees LivingSocial seeking to enter the country in some way with MiQi. MiQi CEO, Ma Qiang, has publicly denied that he’d sell out the ...
Aug 9 2011
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Rakuten China Launches a Group Buy Portal, With 50 Big-Name Brands
Rakuten China, a joint venture between Baidu and the Japanese e-commerce giant, has today rolled out a brand-oriented group shopping portal. The new group buy mall - take a look here - features deals on popular brands such as Adidas, Nike, Dior, Nokia, and Apple. In total, 50 brands are on-board with Rakuten’s group shopping site. Some brands even get their own mini-site boutique, such as Pepsi’s. China’s newest Groupon clone has some heavy-hitting potential in this sector - it’s a formal joint-venture between Japan’s number one e-commerce site and China’s ...
Aug 8 2011
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InMobi and Sprout Aim To Be “The Standard for HTML5 Rich Media Content Production”
As we reported last week, InMobi has acquired U.S-based Sprout for improved HTML5 ad offerings to go alongside its own current ad network. We were curious to hear how InMobi and Sprout would work together and so we sent an inquiry to the folks at InMobi. We got a reply from Sally Wuu, the head of marketing in Southeast Asia, who shared more details about the integration between InMobi and Sprout. Sally tells us: InMobi will integrate Sprout technology into their ad network operations and vice versa. Each company will also continue to ...
Aug 7 2011
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How Did You Become An Entrepreneur?
Every entrepreneur has a different story and started their journey for different reasons. Some of us became entrepreneurs because we have a strong passion to change things and solve problems. Others are forced in, simply because there weren’t any jobs available on the market. My journey as an entrepreneur started when I was about ten years of age. Back then, at elementary school, I was getting just SGD$0.50 per day as an allowance. My family was poor and I didn’t have the cheek to ask for more. To survive, I shared food ...
Aug 8 2011
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Ka-Ching! Aktiv Digital To Sell RockYou Ads in Southeast Asia
Update: "RockYou offers a lot more than the standard IAB ads and this agreement spans all of RockYou’s inventory including the brand experience and custom social game advertising options," says a Aktiv Digital rep. Unfortunately, they can't share with us the revenue share details. Heh. Singapore based Aktiv Digital has landed a big deal. It’s an agreement that allows it to sell IAB display advertising and interactive video products spaces on behalf of RockYou, a popular social gaming company in the U.S. You might recall RockYou as the creator of Zoo World ...
Aug 5 2011
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Sina Qing Gets iPhone App, Boasts of 1 Million+ Users
Sina is today saying that its Tumblr-like light blogging site Qing - which is tied to its Weibo microblogging platform - now has just over one million users, a mere two weeks after it came out of private beta. Sina Qing also got its own iPhone app earlier this week (pictured below), with an Android version already in the works. (Here's the app if you want to check it out). In addition, a mobile version of the site has come to life - at qing.weibo.com - in the form of a ...
Aug 4 2011
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After Buying 40% of Yambook Maker, Is a Baidu E-Reader Coming?
Reports say that Baidu has bought up 40 percent of digital books and e-reader maker Fan Shu in a deal believed to be worth 47.6 million RMB (US$ 7.4 million). The buy-up, when it’s confirmed, raises the intriguing prospect of Baidu, China’s biggest search engine, branding Fan Shu’s Yambook e-reader (pictured above) as its own, and tying it to Baidu’s Wenku books portal. It’d be a move reminiscent of Amazon with its Kindle. Wenku is one of Baidu’s newest sections; it sells digital books for download or reading online. Back in ...
Aug 3 2011
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Start-up Gives You Discounts If You Book Restaurants Online
Restaurant owners have trouble filling up empty tables; customers want discounts. So the trick here is simple: Give the customers discounts if they reserve a restaurant space online — now everyone is happy! Simply put, Singapore-based start-up, Gastro Couture mashes both the online reservation and discount concepts into one. Users pay SGD$7 to reserve a space through the service and in return, they will get 20 to 30 percent discounts in the restaurant. Not a bad deal! It’s smart because it discourages the kind of idiot who makes reservations but doesn’t ever ...
Aug 2 2011
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E-Commerce Site 360Buy.com Snaps Up New COO, a Former Baidu VP
Chinese e-commerce site 360Buy has managed to snap up some new talent as its COO, in the shape of former Baidu senior vice-president, Shen Hao-yu (pictured above). The appointment was made official today by a 360Buy.com spokesperson. Mr Shen left Baidu on July 8th for apparent “personal reasons,” though it now transpires that wasn’t quite the case. Shen had been instrumental to Baidu CEO Robin Li in implementing its advertising platform, and his departure was quite a blow to the search engine giant. Earlier today a 360Buy rep said: 360Buy is ...
Aug 2 2011
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Who Has More Likes? Buzzref Wants To Track and Compare Facebook Pages
Tracking Facebook pages can be very handy for marketers. That is why a group of social media marketers created BuzzRef to help brands track, measure, and compare their Facebook page effort against their competitors. The idea was triggered because the founders experienced demand first-hand from their social media agency clients. Not only are they required to run the campaigns, they are also expected to measure and compare performance with competitors. “We are required to provide detailed reporting for the pages which we manage as well as for the competition. To solve ...
Aug 1 2011
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Dangdang.com CEO Slams “Incompetent” American Investors, Squares Up to 360Buy.com
The CEO of Chinese e-commerce site DangDang.com (NYSE: DANG), Li Guo-qing, recently spoke out about his competitors and the volatility of his company’s stock, saying most American investors are “incompetent.” DangDang.com has had something of a rollercoaster ride since its December US IPO - rising to $36 shortly after its New York debut, and crashing down to $9.84 at about the time of Mr Li’s video interview with Sina’s finance portal. Today as I write it stands at $11.30. In the interview - which has come to light today after an excellent ...
Taiwan’s EZTABLE Raises $1.5 Million in Series A Round, Heads to Mainland China
Feb 9, 2012
VCotton Wants to Knock Your Socks Off. And Sell You New Ones
Feb 8, 2012
Agate Studio Wants to Make the World Happier With Games
Feb 8, 2012
CyberAgent Ventures Invests in Vietnamese Music Service
Feb 7, 2012
Perx’s ‘Chop Mob’ Helps Coffee Bean Increase 50% in Transaction
Feb 8, 2012