Singapore-based TheMobileGamer (TMG) has secured its second round of funding at S$1 million (US$819,000) solely led by One97MobilityFund. This takes the total amount of investment to S$1.5 million with Innosight Ventures as its first investor.

TheMobileGamer creates mobile games that run on Kotagames.com (best viewed on mobile browser) and also other mobile platforms like mig33’s mobile social network. I spoke to the CEO and founder of TheMobileGamer, Alvin Yap, who says that the company is profitable so far. But the current profit level isn’t what Yap was expecting, revealing that he took additional funds hoping to scale TMG’s business further. The key is of course to produce more quality games for its users.

TMG currently has more than 500,000 users across two games. With the new investment, we can expect TMG to develop and release more mobile games very soon.

“We will be using this investment to produce 10 more [mobile game] titles this year and to acquire more than 2.5 million users,” said Yap.

Alvin Yap, CEO and founder of TMG

TMG currently has three games at Kotagames.com: Club Wars Advance, Trade Wars, and its latest release, Monster Fight. These games can be played on any mobile browser, similar to the games we see in Japan (like Kaito Royale).

Some of you might recall that One97MobilityFund is also an investor of Singapore-based TenCube who was acquired by McAfee mid last year. Yap revealed that there were several entities who were looking to invest but eventually picked One97MobilityFund as they share the same vision and understanding for TMG. He explained:

Getting investment is good but we’re even more excited that this current financing comes at a time when TMG is getting more traction than ever. We are extremely optimistic over our prospects going forward and this investment allows us to move fast and become the market leader for mobile social games in SEA.

The post Singapore’s TMG Raises S$1 Million From One97 Mobility Fund appeared first on Tech in Asia.

TMG, or TheMobileGamer, creates mobile social games that run on Kotagames.com such as Club Wars Advance, Trade Wars and Mobile Fight. Last month, we reported that Singapore-based TMG raised $1 million in funding from the One97 Mobility Fund. We got in touch with founder Alvin Yap, regarding his plan to expand to Indonesia by opening an office in Jakarta.

TMG received s$1 million from One97 communication, what made you accept the investment from them?

We found Vijay, founder of One97 to be a seasoned and outstanding entrepreneur we want to work with. One97 also gives us access to the Indian market should the opportunity arise

Can you give us some recent stats regarding TMG?

We’re pushing towards 1 million users this month. We just launched a new game called Love & Sacrifice which is like a romantic RPG. Stay tuned for a primer which we will be releasing at the end of the month for more info.

How big is the TMG team right now?

Seven on the team in Singapore, growing to ten this year.

[We’re also] starting a six-man team in Jakarta. Management will be a big thing. We’re in Jakarta half the time and it makes things easier.

Who do you see as your current rival? And how do you stay ahead of them?

Developers targeting our specific markets are few but more are coming as we pioneer and show the potential. There is no trick, you just got to be faster and better.

What is your opinion about start-up scene in South East Asia, or specifically in Indonesia?

There is definitely a lot of potential. It will be interesting to see if the crisis in the US gives this region an unexpected boost. When the Lehman Brothers crisis came, South East Asia was not as affected as other regions and in some cases even showed growth. We’re still really early in days of tech ventures, so tread with caution.

What is your target by the end of the year for TMG?

[We want] to be the market leader for mobile social games in South East Asia.

[Photo: e27]

The post TheMobileGamer on Asia and its Plan for Indonesia [INTERVIEW] appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Last month's Founders Drinks: We talk about how founders can use social media for user acquisition

Update: Lichi Wu, director of biz dev at Chalkboard, will take Bernard’s place. Made changes to Chris Ismael’s profile. Unfortunately, Alvin Yap can’t join us for the session. But we’ll have a friend from DeNA joining us at Founders Drinks.

Mobile is huge. We all know that, and that is why we wanted this month’s Founders Drinks to focus on mobile apps — particularly on usability, design, and monetization. These are the elements (trade-offs) which start-ups going on mobile have to balance.

The topic is pretty big, so we decided to drop the start-up sharing session to allow more time to expand the panel discussion. Depending on the questions asked by our audience, the discussions will focus on the following topics:

• Mobile design and its relationship with user experience

• Mobile app design and usability across different platforms and geographical locations

• Trends in mobile (i.e Augmented reality as a feature)

• Panelists’ experience in the mobile industry

• Various ways to monetize your apps

On a related note, Stanford University has an interesting lecture video on these topics. You can watch it here.

Our Panelists

Together with our pals at e27, we have brought together thought leaders from across the mobile space to discuss these topics. They are, in alphabetical order:

• Alfred Siew, Founder of Techgoondu and UNWIRED Conference

• Alvin Yap, Founder of TMG who recently raised SGD$1 million from One97 Mobility Fund

• Lichi Wu, director of biz dev at Chalkboard. Chalkboard is a location-based deals network with a presence in Southeast Asia and U.S.

• Chris Chandler, VP of Business Development at mig33. mig33 is a mobile social network with 50+ million users across Asia.

• Chris Ismael, Windows Phone developer/Nokia Developer Manager. He was previously a developer Evangelist at Microsoft for four years.

• Sanjay Shivkumar, Co-founder of Replaid, the start-up behind the popular Summon Auntie mobile app

Event Details

• Date: September 27, 2011 (Tuesday)

• Time: 7 – 9pm (Registration starts at 6.30pm)

• Venue: Amazon Web Services, Capital Square, 23 Church Street, #10-01, 049481 Singapore

• Food and beer provided too.

See you there!

Sponsors

Special thanks to Amazon web services and Chalkboard for supporting this month’s Founders Drinks.

The post This Month’s Founders Drinks is on Usability, Design, and Monetization of Mobile Apps appeared first on Tech in Asia.

This post is a part of our coverage of Startups in Asia (Singapore), Penn Olson’s first tech conference. Our full coverage of the event can be found here, for our RSS feed, click here.

Summary

Nicholas Aaron Khoo (from CNET Asia) is the moderator, chatting with Zaki Mahomed (Game Ventures), Alvin Yap (TMG), Sanjay (Replaid), and Bernard Leong (Chalkboard)

Liveblog

#11:09: And a last few observations: Zaki says that the Singaporean government is awesome in the way it frees startups from worrying about annoying details, allowing them to focus on the team/product, etc. Alvin concurs: it’s a lot easier in Singapore, full of people who can go global, speaking English and Mandarin. Plus, Singapore has a great standing in the region.

Sanjay says the city state is very efficient, plus the food rocks. While Bernard adds that “the government is always on your side” and allows you to bypass bureaucratic issues that way down teams in other countries.

And that’s a wrap! Thanks for following the chat.

#11:05: A final question from the floor here at Startups in Asia: how would you allocate funds if you’re investing in some team? Zaki says you need to look at people first, and how tenacious they are. Alvin says it comes down to investing in the entrepreneur who’s most energetic in market because that can give its product traction, which is insanely important.

#11:02: What would Alvin do differently if he could go back in time (a question from Twitter)…? He says you need to learn and get your ass kicked everyday, and he wishes he realised that earlier. That might’ve helped him to work faster and get deals done.

On a final note, Zaki chips in to say that speed truly is of the essence, and when you look back you’ll often regret not having done more. So, he says, learn to move as fast as you can, and to delegate more.

#11:01: Bernard says that entrepreneurs need two distinct support groups: an understanding family, and mentors. Friends, though, can often be more of a hassle, putting peer pressure on you to earn more or be in a more traditional job.

#10:55: Nic the moderator next asks about surviving in the local market. Bernard says that Singapore can be used as a test market in which you grow through a few hundred or thousand users, and then you can scale from there, reaching out to thousands of business, such as going next to Kuala Lumpur, which is the way that his Chalkboard company did it.

Alvin says that the city state gives you the chance to learn, and, yes, to test. With such a high smartphone penetration, it’s an opportunity to be the number one in the market, especially as you might understand them better. “Focus on what you can be number one at,” he adds.

#10:52: TMG’s Alvin reckons that some substandard ideas get funded, and they then take up talent. “I don’t think we’ll see the results of these grants soon,” says Alvin as it’s about aiding with a startup’s experience. It’s sort of giving out money – SG$50,000 – to get your ass kicked. But that’s a good think, says Alvin. It strengthens the scene as a whole.

#10:51: Reminder: Nic is clutching an iPad so that he can pick up questions from around the world on Twitter. Ask away with the hashtag #startupasia.

#10:47: “Is the government doing to much or too little?” asks the moderator, Nicolas. Sanjay says that the government is “creating unnecessary competition” with its involvement in grants to entrepreneurs, and its causing a “talent crunch” that makes it too tough to hire people.

Bernand is more keen on what the state is doing to help startups, saying that it’s a huge boost. But a problem could be that startups turn into “zombies” that don’t know when they’re failing, while continuing to eat up taxpayer’s funds.

#10:44: “You need to get more ambitious,” and bring people from around the world to Singapore to work for you says Zaki, referencing a new game coming up from Game Ventures. And so Singapore is well placed to be international and, by extension, quite ambitious as well.

#10:38: What are the challenges related to starting up in Singapore? Alvin says that “you need to be global or regional from day one” which is not easy. Plus, not so many peeps here want to work in startups.

The post Discussion Panel: Starting up in Singapore: the Good and the Bad [LIVEBLOG] appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Building games on Facebook or even Sina Weibo can bring you plenty of users. But TheMobileGamer (TMG) has found success by planting its games on mig33’s 60 million user-strong social platform.

Its latest game is SuperSlank, a role-playing-game (RPG) that is playable using feature phones. Within two weeks, SuperSlank became so popular among mig33 users that it saw more than 300,000 gamers already hooked.

The gameplay is simple but extremely social. As a hero, you are tasked to bring peace to the Blue Island that has fallen to the bad guys. There are five maps to explore and gamers can invite friends to defeat the monsters as a team. TMG recommends at least five friends within a team for total gameplay enjoyment. Man, that seriously feels like World of Warcraft raiding on feature phones… Like many games on mig33, SuperSlank monetizes through sales of virtual items and special power-ups.

The name SuperSlank is inspired by Slank, a rock ‘n’ roll group in Indonesia who uses mig33 to engage with its fans. mig33 recently rolled out its miniblog (which works similar to Weibo) to help make fan engagement an easier task.

The huge boom in the SuperSlank user count is due to Slank’s large fan base. We also understand that there will be more collaborations between mig33 and Slank. I mean, why not? It helps boost games, user numbers, and thus revenue. Celebrities certainly are effective in bringing in new users sometimes!

The post TMG’s SuperSlank Hits Over 300,000 Gamers On mig33 in 2 Weeks appeared first on Tech in Asia.

If you pay attention to startups in Singapore and Indonesia, you have probably heard about The Mobile Gamer (TMG), a startup that builds mobile games on platforms like mig33, as well as, Kotagames, TMG’s very own platform.

CEO and founder of TMG Alvin Yap revealed that his company has so far attracted three million users across all platform and services. Out of those users, 300,000 are monthly active users generating a whopping 100 million page views per month. The service’s growth rate is at a staggering 100x in a year since December 2010 when TMG started to focus on building mobile games. TMG also claims to be the number one game developer on mig33, with ten times more users than an average game developer on the platform.

So far, TMG has partnered with Telkomsel, Indosat, and XL in Indonesia to distribute its games. In the Philippines, TMG has partnered with Smart and Globe. The Singapore-based mobile game startup, which not long ago received funding from One97, is also looking at other emerging markets like India, Thailand, and Vietnam. Building HTML5-based games is also in its pipeline. When I asked about this year’s goals, Alvin shared that his primary focus is still on developing a world-class platform and at the same time cementing TMG’s footing in India and Indonesia.

Although user growth has been pretty awesome, Alvin admits that TMG isn’t yet profitable. But he added that his team is “clocking fantastic monetization metrics.”

As a Singapore-based company TMG has traveled around Asia to expand its reach and market. I personally admire what TMG has achieved. Seriously, Alvin is one of the few Singaporean entrepreneurs who understands the potential of Asia. Most Singapore-based startups are still living the Silicon Valley dream. There’s nothing wrong with that, but sometimes opportunities are just right under your nose.

Alvin shares a key takeaway from his experience:

Being a Singapore startup forces us to think global from day one. It isn’t easy but definitely not impossible as well. Key points are to be humble, to recognize that nobody gives a shit about you, and work with good local partners to make it happen.

The post TMG Boasts 3 Million Users, 100x Growth in a Year appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Alvin Yap, CEO and founder of TMG

Readers may recall when we discussed feature phone business opportunities in Indonesia with Andy Zain. Continuing that discussion, we spoke with Alvin Yap, the founder and CEO of mobile gaming developer TMG and KotaGames, about the monetizing strategy and opportunity from the feature phone market in Indonesia. Here’s what he had to say.

Can you monetize in the feature phone industry?

We found out that we monetize better than [social games provider] Zynga. Zynga monetizes about 1.2 percent of its monthly active users (MAU). Over the last thirty days, if we look at the monetizable users, we [monetize] anything from 20 to 25 percent. So that’s about 20 times higher than what Zynga does.

Of course in our market, users have less money to spend compared to Zynga’s market. Zynga’s average revenue per daily active users (ARPDAU) is about 0.046, ours is about 0.038. So we’re about 22 percent lower than Zynga. But because we monetize 20 [times] more people, we are actually higher in terms of revenue potential compared to Zynga. For more information you can refer to our online [data] (pictured below). So can we monetize? Hell yeah we can monetize.

What are some of the key reasons behind that?

With feature phone users, they have less money to spend, but they are more willing to spend. But why?

Number one, unlike you and I, they have no access to TVs, and to regular internet services. For you and I, when we see a game that we have to pay for, we immediately stop playing it. Why? Because we have a lot of other options. Instead of Warcraft, we can play Starcraft. Instead of Cooking Mama, we can play Diner Dash. We can play anything we want, we have so many options. Instead of paying for songs, we can download them for free, instead of watching a movie of $2, we can stream it online. But for regular feature phone users, where majority of the market does not have this privilege. That is why they are more willing to pay.

Number two is because it’s cultural. They are not internet service users, they don’t have the notion that everything is free on the mobile web, they don’t have that notion. So they’ve been so accustomed over the last couple of years paying for content, paying for SMS subscription, paying for horoscope, paying for everything. So this is a common thing for them, they need to pay for content. There are people like us who are used to getting things for free, why should we need to pay for this? I will never pay anything online before because I know that if I look hard enough, I will find these things.

Does this apply specifically to Indonesia?

[This applies] in all new markets, in all emerging markets, where there’s a big income divide. Where you have the elite, and the majority of the market. In majority of the market where they don’t have regular internet access. Where they’re not educated in terms of internet access, you will see the same situation. I would say that this is a common denominator in all emerging markets: Indonesia, Thailand, India.

How much money are feature phone users usually willing to spend?

For us, we sell virtual credits for anywhere from five cents (IDR 500) all the way up to a dollar (IDR 10,000). You will never see Zynga doing these types of things, for them the starting price maybe is from $5 (IDR 50,000). So we are pricing our group at a denomination that users can actually afford. But if you go to many services, they’ll think that this [the pricing scheme] is too small.

For regular mobile users, at any one point at a time, their total credit is less than 80 cents (IDR 8,000). So if you charge anything more than a dollar, then good luck.

How do you reach these users?

We work a lot with telcos. Telcos serve the biggest paying service for first time internet mobile users. By working with [telcos], we get visibility and users get to know who you are. There’s a fair amount of word of mouth as well. That’s why we’re not active on online blogs, we’re not so active on email marketing, or online media because it doesn’t work for us. Our target doesn’t live there.

We work together with handset manufacturers like OEM, Nexian, Nokia, Opera Mini. We work with stakeholders from the mass marketplace, but we don’t work so much with Apple because our target market doesn’t use Apple.

If we had to pick a handset manufacturer to work with, who would it be? Nokia for sure. It still commands the biggest market share for mobile feature phone. If we have to work with browsers, we don’t work with Mozilla, because our users don’t know about Firefox, but they know what Opera Mini is, that is why we work with Opera.

How do you get the visibility from that cooperation?

It can be anything, maybe when working with telco, then naturally if they go to the telco website or when they try to find services they will see KotaGames. Or if you work with a browser, then they will see you from the speed dial. So that’s how we get user visibility, that’s how you know about our service. Sometimes we do SMS marketing, sometimes for example on certain Nexian devices, you will see us on its bookmark whenever you go to its apps section.

What should a company do if they want to partner with telcos too?

Everybody’s open to partnership. I think the challenge is how you can derive value. They are not easy to work with, because many people I think don’t understand how telcos achieve their needs. Because so many people want to work with telco, so naturally it is very competitive. Not everybody will get [to] work with telco, but you just have to know how to position yourself and how to be different than the other guy.

It also helps to have a personal and long lasting business relationship with them, we’ve been in the industry [for] about two or three years, so we know several people, and it helps when getting in touch with the telco. For fresh companies, it could be difficult because you will not understand the internal dynamic.

What do telcos want?

Everybody wants revenue, so you need to have a service that can monetize. Every telco wants reduced churn. If you have a service that helps a user stay with a particular telco, then you will be very valuable, and they will want you because a telco earn money by the number of subscribers.

How many feature phone are online? Who are they?

There are around 180 million mobile users in the market with maybe 30 to 40 million mobile internet users because it is still so new to the users. And this is a good thing because the 30 million can grow to 80, 90, 100 million as we go on.

If you look at Singapore’s emerging market, most users were early internet mobile users. While in Indonesia it’s still in an educational process. One fundamental point is that [Indonesian] users do not want mobile internet, but they want services. They don’t give a shit about what the mobile internet is, but they want Facebook and they play games. But they don’t know that that it’s all mobile internet. That is why telcos have been very intelligent in selling Facebook packages, Twitter packages, Kotagames packages. Because users don’t understand the mobile internet, but they understand services.

I don’t know the exact mobile internet demographic, I know that [the majority] are definitely between 15 to 29, and they are 70 percent male. Why? The early adopters of technology, they are males. How many technology magazines do you see catering to female? What is the probability of you seeing a hot girl on a cover of tech magazine compared to a hot guy? Almost exclusively you see more of a hot girl, because the target market is men. So technology early adopters are almost [all] men. Beyond 29, they are more difficult to change, because they are not open to new stuff.

On the future phone market

Regarding the future of phone industry, Alvin said that in three to five years, he believes that Android will start to take over, but even when that time arrives, feature phones would still be in the market to the tune of 30 to 40 percent. Feature phones will get smarter until one day there will be a blur on the distinction between smartphones and so called dumb phones — we eventually will just have phones.

Alvin explained that just because Android devices will get cheaper, it doesn’t mean that people will automatically have $20 (IDR 200,000) to spend on apps. Their usual income will still be the same. This will then cause the smartphone users’ ARPU (average revenue per user) to balance out. So there will still be a divide between the elite and the majority in the future smartphone market.

By the way, TMG is now hiring. For more details you can take a look at the slides below.

[Picture source: akuinginhijau.org]

The post Alvin Yap Talks about Monetizing the Feature Phone Industry [INTERVIEW] appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Singapore’s largest telco has invested $1.46 million in TheMobileGamer (TMG) for 35.54 percent equity. That puts TMG’s valuation at about $4.1 million.

For those who aren’t familiar with the company, TMG is a Singapore-based startup that builds mobile games for feature phones on platforms like mig33 and Kotagames, TMG’s very own mobile gaming platform. Earlier in March, TMG boasted over three million users growing at a rate of 100x in a year. On a per month basis, TMG has 300,000 monthly active users generating a whopping 100 million pages views. Its users are mainly from big markets such as Indonesia and India.

While most folks have the impression that the feature phone market can’t be monetized, TMG’s data seems to prove otherwise. In his latest interview with us, Alvin gave us a comparison between Zynga and his company:

Zynga’s average revenue per daily active users (ARPDAU) is about 0.046, ours is about 0.038. So we’re about 22 percent lower than Zynga. But because we monetize 20 [times] more people, we are actually higher in terms of revenue potential compared to Zynga.

TMG’s monetization method is pretty similar with most gaming companies. They sell virtual goods but a different approach has to be taken in emerging markets. He explains:

For us, we sell virtual credits for anywhere from five cents (IDR 500) all the way up to a dollar (IDR 10,000). You will never see Zynga doing these types of things, for them the starting price maybe is from $5 (IDR 50,000). So we are pricing our group at a denomination that users can actually afford.

Update: Alvin also elaborates on what Singtel can do for TMG:

We believe Singtel can help TMG with preferred relationships to its affiliates in the region and also preferential access to billing, customer relationships, etc. […] We plan to go on to be the market leader of social gaming for emerging markets, starting from Indo, SEA, India.

TheMobileGamer is one of the few Singapore-based startups to have gained traction by aiming for bigger overseas markets. So this deal with SingTel is very good news for Alvin and company. Congrats!

The post SingTel Invests $1.46 Million in TheMobileGamer appeared first on Tech in Asia.

After all the coffee, snacks, and code-crunching that more than 600 developers went through at the 24-hour hackathon at Startup Asia Bandung, came the highly-anticipated demo day. All the developers had the chance to present their products to the 11 challenge sponsors, and the top teams then did a 90-second pitch in front of the whole audience – and our judges – at the Startup Arena segment.

And here are the winners for the Startup Asia Bandung Hackathon in each of the many API-oriented challenges that were set:

East Ventures Alpha, Tiket, and Softlayer Challenges

Aqsath Rasyid, Azby Luthfan, Tito Daniswara, and Puja Pramudya (Team 6) impressively became the only team to win three sponsor challenges: ones from East Ventures Alpha, Tiket, and Softlayer. So we’ve grouped those three challenges here. The team built a Windows 8 app [Updated: correction!] for collaborative trip planning.

Lazada Challenge

There were two winners of the Lazada challenge, which tasked teams with building a Lazada Indonesia native design for Blackberry.

• 1st winner: Bilhasry Ramadhony (Team 38).
• 2nd winner: Basytyan Kardinal Pratama, Lailatuzzahro, Lutfiah Hayati, Aonillah, and Jade Marsha Pricillia (Team 13).

GEPI Challenge

The idea behind the GEPI challenge was a bit different to all the others – to fight piracy using any kind of mobile app and platform. The winners for this unique challenge were Lugas Adhi Prasetyo, Aulia Ahmad Nur Utomo, Setyo Artanto, and Aprianto Dwi Atmaji (Team 33). They built a ‘spot the differences’ Windows Phone game called “KW12.” The game tells a story about a burglar who stole and copied different kinds of products, and the police must now uncover which products are genuine and which are fake.

Teamie Challenge

William Sanjaya, Indri Yunita, and Chandra (Team 54) won this education-oriened challenge. They built a Blackberry app that enables users to create and learn through flashcards. An honorable mention goes to Takdir, Amir, Ana, Vendi, Fahmi, and Bayu from Team 35 who were really close to winning this challenge.

Sent.Ly Challenge

Deni Lukmanul Hakim, acting as a one-man team, won this challenge with his web-based app. He made GroupsBe, which enables users to better control their mailing lists by doing things like controlling the messages they want to receive.

SixReps Challenge

Team 32, which consists of Walesa Danto, Arif Setiawan, Dian Hadiana, and Widhian Bramantya won this challenge with their mobile app called “BodyGuide.” The app will help suggest and schedule the kind of workout that you need, based on your body height and weight.

DeNA Challenge

DeNA chose Annas Armanto’s and Hendra Gunawan’s (Team 41) Android zombie game as the winners of this challenge. Uniquely, you need to unleash some rapid finger swiping actions to kill each of the zombies. Toshihiko Suyama from DeNA thought that the swiping concept was really interesting.

Cacoo Challenge

Tri Sundara chose to undergo six challenges alone at the Hackathon, in the end winning one of them, which is the Cacoo challenge. He built an Android app to help people play Futsal together. The app allows the user to invite people to play together, and to also work on the team formation and strategy using the Cacoo API.

Softlayer Challenge

There were three winning teams for the Softlayer challenge. The challenge required the participants to develop products using Softlayer’s infrastructure.

• 1st winner: Yudhi Karunia Surtan, Bramantyo Dony Aribowo, Dwi Priyohutomo, and Ferdhi Adrian (Team 4).
• Runners-up: Deni Rohimat, Daeng Rosanda, Ibnu Sina Wardy, Rahadian Ahmad, and M. Ray Rizaly (Team 106) and the same Team 6 that won both the Tiket and East Ventures Alpha challenges.

Kotagames Challenge

Kotagames gave away three Macbook Airs as prizes to three teams yesterday. The winning teams made interesting feature phone games, they are: “Battle of The Bands” by Team 20, “Tatao” by Team 31, and a historical game to fight off the invaders from Indonesia made by Team 39.

Team 20 consists of Ecky Putrady and Dimas Tri Ciputra. The four-man team of Jason Christian, Ericko Yaputro, Thomas Simpson, and Michael Setiawan Suhardjono formed Team 31. Vicky Falurrahman, Dennis Adriansyah, Supradi Sitepu, and Damas Nawanda made up Team 39.

Startup Arena

Besides the sponsor challenges, we also held our trademark Startup Arena competition. This time, each finalist only had 90 seconds to pitch their products. In the end, everybody took more than 90 seconds to speak their mind on the stage, but we’re cool with that. Three winners were chosen by judges Andy Zain from the Jakarta Founder Institute, Hera Laxmi Devi S. from XL Axiata, and Toshihiko Suyama from DeNA. Here are the winners:

• 1st winner: Taisuke Oe (who flew all the way from Japan!), R. Alviyan, Jayadiars, and Juni Putra (Team 56). They built an Android game called “Finger Twisters.” The game’s title echoes the gameplay concept very much, as it’s a Twister game played with your fingers. Interestingly, this game is meant to help users to ‘touch hands’ with their potential significant others.
• 2nd winner: Edwin Lunando, Samuel Enrico Wijaya, Georgius Rinaldo, and Unggul Bhakti Muhammad (Team 28). They built an Android-based game called “Startup Story,” in which the users will build their startup with their friends in the game. Interestingly, this game also tried to tackle the GEPI challenge, where the users could opt to buy genuine or pirated products to run the company. The choice will then be automatically shared via social networks so that everyone will know what products you bought in the game.
• 3rd winner: Ecky Putrady and Dimas Tri Ciputra (Team 20). This is the same team that won the Macbook Air from the Kotagames challenge. So it was a good day for these guys.

Congratulations again to all the winners – we’re very proud of you! We would also like to send our warmest gratitude to all participants, spectators, crew members, judges, and media partners and sponsors for making the hacking experience even more awesome.

We hope to see you again at the next Startup Asia!

[Related: Hackathon at Startup Asia Bandung: 600 Developers, 128 teams, 24 Hours of Fun ]

Disclosure: East Ventures Alpha is an investor of Tech in Asia. See our ethics page for more information.

The post Startup Asia Bandung Hackathon: The Winners appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Big dreams, big targets: The Mobile Gamer (TMG), who boasted 3 million users when we heard from them earlier this year, is aiming to have 10 million users by the end of 2013. Co-founder Vincent Wang told me.

This lofty target comes after TMG raised US$1.46 million from SingTel which was announced about two months ago. SingTel could distribute TMG’s game content, with telco billing integration, across its subsidiaries to reach a total of 424 million subscribers. SingTel is also useful when it comes to having mobile-related experts who are within reach for advice. So far, it sounds like a sweet partnership.

Most smartphones users wouldn’t have much interest to play TMG’s games, which are for now built for feature phone users. But very soon TMG will introduce HTML5 games for smartphone users, possibly as soon as next month. Vincent told me users can expect about five HTML5 games to start. Most of the game titles are developed and crafted by game studios in U.S. and Europe, with more local game content to follow.

Its HTML5 games will be targeted at gamers in Singapore and Australia, while feature phone games will be targeted at countries including India, Indonesia, and Thailand. So far there are a total of 16 games on Kotagames, produced by studios including Konami, Adways, Nijibox, Plasma, and TMG itself.

Disclosure: TMG is an occasional advertiser on this site. Read more on our ethics page.

The post TMG Targets 10 Million Users By End of 2013 appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Singapore-based startup The Mobile Gamer (TMG) has come a long way since it was founded in December 2008. The initial idea for the company was far from what it has become today. The team started off making a Symbian app that provided free games for users and was monetized through advertising. That app proved enough to see them raise S$100,000 from a Singapore government program.

As Alvin and his founders aren’t tech-trained, they had to outsource the development work. Building it was tough, but monetizing the app was tougher. By 2009, TMG had four full-timers on board. The Symbian app idea wasn’t working so Alvin decided to change direction to making Appchemy, a “try before you buy” wrapper for games on Java phones.

For Appchemy, Alvin was working with companies in Indonesia like Telkomsel and Elasitas. The Appchemy idea saw them raise S$500,000 (US$430,000) from Innosight Ventures. However, the mobile market in Southeast Asia is very fragmented, which made a wrapper-style solution tough to scale. Plus, the massive number of mobile content providers in Indonesia also hampered Appchemy’s growth. Alvin told me that he didn’t think Appchemy could scale fast enough.

So in late 2010, TMG started to dabble in mobile browser-based games for feature phones. Alvin recalled that “from [his] understanding of the market, no one [was] actually doing it.” By quarter three of 2010, the first game, Club War was launched and it attracted a couple of thousand downloads. By quarter four 2010, another game, Monster Fight, was launched on mig33, a feature phone first mobile social network. Back then, mig33 had just started as a game platform, and it helped Monster Fight attract more than 1.5 million gamers to date.

Users were gushing in and TMG, naturally, decided to publish even more mobile games. It raised S$1 million ($807,000) in its second financing round, from One97. In 2011, TMG games were growing well on mig33. Besides mig33, TMG was also working with the region’s telcos to distribute its games. At a time when smartphones were booming hot across the world, Alvin said that wasn’t the case for Southeast Asia:

If feature phones cover 70 percent of Southeast Asia, we will meet the need to create relevant games content. If Southeast Asia has more smartphone users, we will switch.

(Also see: Monetizing the Feature Phone Industry)

In 2011, TMG was working on Kotagames as well, a mobile browser-based game platform. While publishing its own games on that platform, it also works with third-party developers including Konami, Nijibox, and Daylight Studio. Alvin always wanted a business with the potential to scale massively. A games platform was his answer. And 100 million users is Alvin’s goal.

To date, TMG has over 6 million gamers playing over 26 games. Kotagames has built up over two million users within just a couple of years. The fast growth attracted Softbank’s interest, as Alvin explains that the Japanese telco wanted to invest in a game company in Southeast Asia. SingTel was also interested, and in the end TMG raised over $1.4 million.

Alvin Yap, CEO and founder of TMG

The journey might seem smooth when it’s written up like this. But the brutal truth was that TMG, on several occasions, was going into a new month without having the money in the bank to pay for the month’s salaries. Life was tough but fulfilling.

Alvin’s advice for fellow entrepreneurs? Sleep more. He said:

Have at least six hours of sleep each day. It keeps you healthy and enables you to run the company better.

The post How The Mobile Gamer (TMG) Hustles For Growth in Southeast Asia appeared first on Tech in Asia.

Varhara is the newest title coming out of Singapore-based The Mobile Gamer that endeavors to tap into the lucrative mobile collectible card game genre. This comes of the back of record-breaking behemoths like Rage of the Bahamut which exceeded the 10 million user mark earlier this year and Puzzle & Dragons which attained a market cap of $15.1 billion in May, leading many to strive for similar success in the genre.

Launched on its proprietary KotaGames mobile social network, the game is steeped in a mixture of fantasy and medieval influences that revolve around acquiring units to wage endless battle in the world of Varhara. On a whole, its card game mechanics do not deviate much from the norm and are relatively easy to pick-up and understand.

Review:

Your main goal in Varhara is an endless pursuit of collectible cards to create the ultimate attack and defense card deck. These can be acquired in a variety of ways and further enhanced via a process of “merging”, a familiar option in other mobile collectible card games. Although the game is free to play, you can expect the traditional slew of in-app purchase options embedded within.

The bulk of your cards are obtained through a questing procedure that is somewhat reminiscent of a scaled down old school text adventure. Singular lines of text – “Found an entrance to a cave and a corpse of a traveler” describe your journey moving from one area to the next. Along the way, you pick up loot in the form of various cards that get added to your stable and gold coins that serve as currency for card merging. The whole process is a simple and straightforward one without you having to plan or strategize much. These cards collected from questing are normally weaker in status and will primarily be used to strengthen your better cards through the “merging” process.

As you are frequently attempting to bolster your deck with superior cards, the core monetization mechanic for Varhara offers a “Gacha” section, providing an opportunity to receive a randomized premium card with better stats. Everyone gets one free card per day while serious players can purchase the in-game currency to receive additional cards for a more well-rounded deck.

A limited pool of “command points” determines the amount of questing one can undertake at a single point in time. It took less than 30 minutes for mine to be fully replenished although the game provides the option of an instant top-up via in-app purchase for gamers who do not wish to wait.

Social Mechanics

To keep players vested within the realm of Varhara, a variation of events is conducted every 4-7 days like boss raids – a list of bosses spread across a range of difficulty levels are generated for players to combat, a PvP arena among players and a battle between entire factions across the game’s universe. The scores are tallied at the end and the participants are ranked by points with rewards being spread out from top to bottom. The game tries to encourage adding new friends using level-up bonuses for every new person invited to the list and the option to enlist their aid during boss fights while questing.

Outside of these special events, there exists the customary PvP arena. A list of other opponents scaled closely to your level is generated for you to pick from and the combat is simulated automatically by the system. This is the part where your attack deck comes into play and determines the outcome of the duel. Conversely, your defense deck is activated when another user initiates a battle with you. The victor is rewarded with the usual spoils like gold and experience. Similar to the questing mechanic, dueling is regulated by “valor points” that will deplete and can be replenished via an in-app purchase or a short wait for it to gradually refill.

Final Thoughts

As the saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Varhara is one such title that plays on obvious conventions of standard social collectible card games. Although it is not everyone’s cup of tea, fans of the genre and light users who do not want to be mired in deep strategy formulation will probably find the game an acceptable fit for them.

You can access Vahara through the KotaGames mobile social network after signing up an account there.

(Edited by Anh-Minh-Do)

Update: For greater accuracy on facts, we made minor changes to the fourth paragraph based on information we learned from Alvin Yap.

At the Founder Institute Singapore graduation event yesterday, TMGamer founder Alvin Yap dished out some practical advice to a room of hopefuls who are embarking on their own rollercoaster startup ride.

He’s been there before: After graduating from Founder Institute, his company, which distributes games to emerging markets, has gone through both triumphs and setbacks.

Last we heard from him, the company had about six million gamers playing over 26 games. It also raised $1.46 million from SingTel, Singapore’s largest telco.

Yet he recently had to execute a re-organization to focus the company on key projects which led to losing 40 percent of his workforce. As the CEO, it was a horrible decision that only he can make.

It’ll suck before you become successful.

Alvin shared three stumbling blocks founders will encounter:

1. Nasty relationships

Co-founder agreements are essential. Close relationships may turn toxic once you realize the company has outgrown them.

Ultimately, founders have one singular goal: to keep the company going until success comes to them. That means firing close friends if necessary.

2. Emotional stress and insecurity

What doesn’t kill you fucks you up mentally.

Before succeeding, you’ll wonder why you turned down that lucrative job and have no social life. Pressure aside, the biggest problem you’ll face is insecurity, wondering whether you have the goods to make it big.

“But only you are good enough to take the company to the next level. You’re the light that people turn to. If you’re not good enough, nobody else is,” he says.

3. Flat periods – really flat.

Startups will encounter the occasional spike from being TechCrunched, followed by long periods of stagnation. The key to dealing with this is to celebrate the small things.

Freebies for founders

In addition to the challenges, Alvin shared three things founders will get when starting up.

1. Balls of steel

Founder Institute’s founder Adeo Ressi once told Alvin that as long as you have money for next month’s salaries, it’s really okay. Founders go through shit that other people at their age won’t go through. That builds fortitude. Running a startup comes with a lot of close shaves.

Alvin himself only received investments at the last minute when his company was low in cash-flow. Twice.

2. You’ll get real friends

When everyone is leaving or badmouthing you, real friends will stay by your side. “They’re attracted to your craziness.”

3. Ride of a lifetime

While many entrepreneurs have failed, none of the people Alvin has spoken to would have chosen a different path.

Final thoughts from Alvin

• Nobody can truly teach you what to do. Being teachable is important, but so is taking advice without losing yourself. Ultimately, you know the company best, so there are certain decisions that only you can make.
• Take it one challenge at a time. You will faint if you know right away all the obstacles that will come your way. That’s why breaking down large goals down into smaller pieces helps.
• Have a fellowship of founders. “If there’s nobody who can truly replace you, at least have people who can understand you.”

(Edited by Steven Millward)

Update: Elaboration from Vichi Lestari about Indonesian labor law and whether companies are obliged to follow it.

Singapore startup TheMobileGamer (TMG) is going through a shake-up, and this was confirmed by CEO and co-founder Alvin Yap last week when he gave a talk at a Founder Institute Singapore event where media were invited. He said that the company, which distributes mobile games to emerging markets, had recently fired 40 percent of its workforce.

While startups often have to downsize due to unpredictable market conditions, this incident was unusual in how ex-employees ventured online to anonymously talk about TMG.

Former TMGers recount what happened

Tech in Asia spoke to three ex-employees on the condition of anonymity to verify the series of events. Their identities have been kept hidden for their protection.

In total, around 12 employees in Indonesia and between five to ten staff in Singapore were let go. Several other employees had resigned before the firings occurred.

One employee, who left the company voluntarily, did so because of his disappointment with TMG management. “I resigned because it is very hard to continue working with this situation.”

Prior to the termination, affected employees did not receive any notice and were in the middle of several company projects. We were told that there were no clear reasons given for the layoffs at that point in time, although the management had stated that they were done for “efficiency”.

Terminated employees were then given two to three days to pack their stuff and leave the office once their redundancy was made known. The management allegedly decided on the compensation package of two months’ salary and paid leave without any discussion with employees.

Affected individuals were then supposedly asked to gather on September 11, one day after Alvin spoke at the recent Founders Institute event in Singapore. That day, a “resignation” letter was shown to the fired staff. They were told that they must sign it in order to receive a compensation package and a recommendation letter for future employers.

One by one, terminated employees met Alvin and two other individuals in a conference room. They were told that the firing decisions were made in accordance with Singapore regulations because employees were contracted to a Singapore company.

Amongst other grievances, a common theme that emerged among ex-employees was the anger they felt at having to bear responsibility for the management’s alleged missteps.

“It all points to [Alvin's] initial decisions. At some point, TMG was losing its direction,” says one employee.

TMG’s CEO responds

In an official statement made to Tech in Asia by CEO Alvin Yap (full statement below), after the ex-employees’ claims were made known to him, he points out that the content of his routine sharing at the event was not meant to generate publicity nor was it an official statement towards TMG’s activities.

Explaining the rationale behind the firings, Yap says:

TMG is a startup and we are always learning. We recently had to undergo a major re-organization to focus on key projects while reducing investment in some low-impact ones; this unfortunately meant that some staff had to be laid off. This decision was difficult but necessary for TMG to fulfill its full potential.

Yap says that he understands and is “sorry for all who have been hurt by this decision,” adding that compensation has been given to affected individuals beyond the company’s legal obligations and to the best of its abilities.

“We are more than willing to help wherever we can to support them in securing new opportunities,” he says, “As the CEO of a startup, we often have to make unpopular and tough decisions like this. I am grateful to everybody who continues to believe and contribute to our vision. We will learn from this painful lesson to become better leaders and a better company.”

Unresolved questions

The sequence of events as narrated by ex-employees and Yap still leaves several questions unanswered.

According to Indonesian labor laws, employers and employees must meet to reach an amicable termination settlement.

If negotiations fail, employers may only fire staff after seeking approval from the labor courts, unless the employee was still under probation, or the employee has submitted a resignation request in writing under his or her own accord without any conditions.

There’s also the matter of appropriate compensation that companies should give to terminated employees. While the law clearly stipulates a time-based structure for payout, the situation is not clear-cut. It is also important to note that in the startup world, giving compensation to fired employees is uncommon.

According to Vichi Lestari, lawyer and partner at Jakarta-based Trias Consultant, regardless of whether foreign companies are registered in Indonesia or not, they are still bound by the country’s labor laws. However, she asks:

What kind of contract does the employee have with the company, and also what is the policy of the company itself? This will determine the basis of the rights of the employee.

Vichi points out that there are two kinds of employee arrangements: Permanent, and contractual basis with limited time frame. While permanent arrangements come with unpaid leave and severance package in accordance with Indonesian labor law, contractual ones do not have that guarantee.

Company policy also comes into play. Employees must observe whether a Singapore-based company, for example, has decided to abide by Singapore’s labor law, which does not guarantee severance payment. It is a norm for companies to follow the employment policy of its company of origin.

TMG has come a long way since it was founded in December 2008. Last year, it received an investment from SingTel and Softbank at an estimated post-money valuation of $7.5 million.

(Editing by Willis Wee, Steven Millward, and Paul Bischoff)

Unedited full statement from Alvin Yap:

I understand the contents of my routine sharing intended for a group of 50+ would-be entrepreneurs from Founder Institute has generated much comments and I’ll like to clarify that it was not meant to generate publicity nor is it an official statement towards any TMG activities.

TMG is a startup and we are always learning. We recently had to undergo a major re-org to focus on key projects while reducing investment in some low-impact ones; this unfortunately meant that some staff had to be laid off. This decision was difficult but necessary for TMG to fulfill its full potential.

I understand and am sorry for all who have been hurt by this decision. As a company we have compensated them beyond our legal obligations and to the best of our abilities; we are more than willing to help wherever we can to support them in securing new opportunities.

As CEO of a startup we often have to make unpopular and tough decisions like this. I am grateful to everybody who continues to believe and contribute to our vision. We will learn from this painful lesson to become better leaders and a better company.

SingTel announced today that it has acquired a 35.5% stake in Singapore-based TheMobileGamer (TMG), a startup that aggregates, distributes, licenses and develops mobile gaming software.

The shares were purchased  from the founders of TMG via SingTel Idea Factory, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SingTel. It also has the option of purchasing more than 11.4M in Series B preferred shares at USD 0.087 each.

SingTel also said that Japanese telco SoftBank will also acquire shares in TMG with the same terms. By the time the transaction is complete, SingTel and SoftBank will each hold a 41% stake in the company.

The Singapore telco has been performing a wave of acquisitions lately. Last week, it purchased New York City-based mobile company Pixable for  USD26.5M. That followed acquisitions of Eatability in Australia through Optus for USD 6.2M and HungryGoWhere for USD 9.4M (see Cheatsheet of SingTel acquisitions).

TMG was founded in 2008 by Alvin Yap. One of its products is KotaGames, a web-based mobile gaming service where users can play social games without any downloads or installations.

The company says that its games are played by 4 million users. Its titles can be found in social networks like mig33, a mobile community with over 50M users.

In 2010, the startup raised USD 500k in funding from Innosight Ventures. It followed that up with USD1M in second round funding from One97MobilityFund.

Read: Cheatsheet of tech acquisitions in Southeast Asia

Daryl Teo, vice president of product at TMG

An alumnus from the prestigious Raffles Institution and Raffles Junior College, 22-year-old Singaporean Daryl Teo was on a fast track towards a glittery, stable career.

Predictably, he was awarded an ACCA scholarship in 2011 for undergraduate studies in London, and was placed on a management pathway in finance. But he was not looking forward to it as a career.

If I look back on my last ten years, I would ask myself, ‘what would I have given back to society?’ I would have created a lot of wealth. But what other value am I adding?

While his dreams of becoming a footballer didn’t go very far — he tried out at London club West Ham United but didn’t make the cut — Daryl ventured into starting a mobile development company in London, called IT oClock.

Social isolation

Things then started to get tricky. Realizing that he couldn’t stand being bound by a scholarship for three years, he broke his bond one year in and left university, incurring heavy financial costs in the process.

His parents, who own a middle-income four-room apartment, were upset to see their son give up a reliable career path. They had their own brush with entrepreneurship — sinking their savings into a horticultural business — but it got crushed by larger competitors, leaving his dad in debt. Friends too couldn’t understand his decision to become a founder, since they were corporate career climbers themselves.

He even witnessed his four-year relationship with his college sweetheart end because of how risky an entrepreneurial pursuit it was.

But buoyed by the success stories of founders whose companies got acquired, he dived in, thinking that starting a business would be easy. And for a while, it was.

Elation to depression

IT oClock’s most successful product was Betcha, a social betting app that allowed users to bet on anything and everything. It became a guerrilla hit amongst college kids in London despite being banned from Google Play due to users sometimes posting explicit content.

Seedy posts notwithstanding, Daryl saw the app as a way to encourage users to take up positive behavior like exercise or healthy dieting through peer motivation. In that respect, it’s similar to Lift, Runkeeper, and other quantified self apps with a social element.

The money started coming in. Football betting companies, for example, saw it as a goldmine of data which they could tap into to push their products to users. At one point, Betcha was raking in over £6,000 ($9,600) a month.

But the business had some fundamental problems. Last year, it got sued for breaching intellectual property laws. While the plaintiff did not own the specific codes, it did have a patent that resembled the behavioural analytics logic used by Betcha to recommend targeted ads (Editor: This paragraph was edited to better reflect the facts).

Daryl was given three options by the plaintiff: he could either pay £9,000 monthly in royalties, buy the patent outright, or surrender and allow the company to be acquired for a small sum.

Daryl settled for the third option because he realized Betcha was in an unwinnable position. It lacked a distinct trademark, and that meant it could not legally defend its brand against copycats. He says:

If you want to do a betting app, don’t have the word ‘bet’ on the name. Call it something else entirely.

As it turns out, there were already many apps in the market called Betcha, and the most prominent one was in trouble. It got shut down in the United States for breaking Washington’s gambling laws.

“So they spoiled the market, and we essentially went into a spoiled market,” he says.

Through a combination of his client work and the sale of the app, he did manage to clear his dad’s and his own debts. But losing Betcha drove him into depression for six months, and he shut himself out from the outside world.

My world crashed. I started to question myself. Have I really made a wrong choice?

Speaking to the successful people he knew, however, gave him some perspective. He learned that while these individuals did not plan their paths step by step, they do cast a realistic ten- or twenty- year vision of what they want to achieve.

He also came to some acceptance about the existence of doubters, even amongst his peers and family. While he believes there is still a stigma against entrepreneurs in Singapore, he says:

People were worried because they cared. I cannot force them to think like me. But I can build a successful case and then convince them to give me their vote of confidence.

With risky bets, limit the downside

Daryl is involved in many other activities beyond the tech startup world. Myanmar is big on his radar, and he is dabbling in property investments there and has even bought a mobile phone retail business in anticipation of a communications boom in the country.

Here’s where his past life in the finance industry intersects with his foray into tech startups: To lower risks in his high wire acts, he limits the downside by doing adequate research on trends and learning from the failures of others.

Significantly, he has stayed on at Singapore startup TheMobileGamer to be its vice president of product, despite the trouble that company been going through recently. He even turned down a job offer from a well-known startup with a sizable international presence.

While Daryl gave only vague hints about his current projects at TheMobileGamer, he did say that he is prepping the company’s first social Android app for launch in December 2013.

I love data and analytics. My daily grind includes making crazy excel spreadsheets and projecting DAUs for TMG.

Speaking of projections, Daryl’s holy grail is to start a company and help get it listed within ten years.

I want to be able to touch my users in some way and make their lives somewhat better.

Update: Headline was edited to better reflect the fact that Daryl Teo overcame depression.

(Editing by Paul Bischoff, Josh Horwitz, and Steven Millward)

Here you can find some interesting startup news from Indonesia, not only in its capital, Jakarta, but also other their tech startup hubs such as Yogyakarta, Medan, Surabaya, and many more. These listed news are taken from our partner, DailySocial, a leading blog on Indonesia’s tech startup scene.

(1) Singapore-based gaming company The Mobile Gamer (TMG) closes a series-A financing round of S$1 Million from India’s One97 Communications. With this financing round, TMG also plans to open up their Jakarta office and start hiring engineers to develop their games. This move shows their faith in the Indonesian gaming market, and for a good reason. “We are the biggest developer on mig33, which have over 27M users in Indonesia. We forecast that 70% of our total users/growth comes from Indonesia,” Alvin said to us via email.

(2) Minister of Communication and Informatics, Tifatul Sembiring states that the ministry haven’t blocked any sites after the official initiative announcement a few weeks ago, although they’re focused on blocking big sites like 4shared.

(3) A service manager and financial planning company called NgaturDuit working with Detik to provide financial facilities check-up.

(4) Not wanting to be beaten by the innovation of Sony Ericsson and Universitas Bunda Mulia (UBM)’s M-Campus, Telkomsel and Research in Motion (RIM) Indonesia as principal of BlackBerry announced Mobile Campus for Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH). The app is developed by Better-B and only took three months to be completed.

(5) Now there’s a local daily deals site from Surabaya called MurahRek.com. The name already carries the charm of its city of origin. MurahRek.com isn’t that different from other deals sites and the offerings are even similar (food, spa, restaurants, car wash, travel, etc.) and the discounts are quite attractive, ranging from 50% to 90%.

(6) Former Yahoo! Indonesia Country Editor Budi Putra and Jimmy Kembaren (also ex-Yahoo) announced their new project, and sure enough it’s a blog. Sort of.

(7) Jogjakarta based gaming company SoybeanSoft announced their strategic partnership with East Ventures. SoybeanSoft is a multiplatform game developer focusing on the local market such as ‘Hunter Story’, an action-RPG for the web, iOS and Android.

This has been brought to you by SGE and DailySocial. DailySocial is a blog that covers the Indonesian tech startup scene. They publish in both Indonesian and English.

Thank you to nordicfactory for the flag image.