KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – July 8, 2010 – MOL Global today announced a strategic partnership with Facebook that will make it significantly easier and more convenient for millions of people across Asia to purchase virtual goods in online games and applications on Facebook.

Under the agreement, MOL Global’s wholly owned subsidiary MOL AccessPortal will become a payment provider for Facebook Credits. That will enable Facebook members to buy Credits using MOLPoints on Facebook and on MOL’s website, MOL.Com.

In the coming months, Facebook users will be able to obtain Facebook Credits using MOL points purchased through MOL’s network of more than 500,000 outlets, which are mainly in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, India, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to outlets such as 7-Eleven stores and cybercafes, customers will be able to purchase Credits through MOL’s network of online banks in these countries.

Facebook and MOL will also offer co-branded gift cards at outlets in Malaysia and Singapore that can be redeemed for Facebook Credits.

The partnership makes purchasing Facebook Credits significantly more convenient in Asia, a region where consumers rely heavily on offline prepaid cards rather than credit cards to purchase digital goods and services.

“The relationship with Facebook demonstrates MOL’s growing role as a leading payment provider for social networking sites in Asia, especially in our core countries of Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and India,” said Ganesh Kumar Bangah, group chief executive officer for MOL Global. “Over the last few quarters, we have seen a double-digit increase in payment transactions and payment volume. This partnership continues MOL’s momentum to build the largest end-to-end content, distribution and commerce network in Asia.”

“Working with MOL means we can offer the benefits of Facebook Credits to millions of people in Asia using a payment system that is already widely used and trusted,” said Vaughan Smith, director of business and corporate development at Facebook. “We’re investing in the long-term future of Facebook Credits and we view this agreement as a major opportunity to broaden the availability of a simple, unified currency that can be used in games and applications across Facebook.”

Facebook Credits enable users to buy and spend virtual currency in more than 150 applications on Facebook from many leading developers, eliminating the frustration of having to enter payment details separately for each application. Every month, more than 70 percent of Facebook members engage with applications on Facebook Platform.

Note: you can follow the tweets at the hashtags #MMAF2010

Singapore, April 14, 2010 – The first day of the Mobile Marketing Association Forum Asia Pacific 2010 (MMAF) brought together some of the world’s largest brand and agencies to discuss the myriad possibilities of engaging consumers via the mobile medium.

Several themes emerged during the course of day one. Speakers expressed positive disposition towards the state of the mobile medium. Rajesh Jain, Founder-Chairman and Managing Director, Emergic Venture Capital Pte Ltd delivered the keynote, where he described the range of mobile channels and outlined some potential new areas for development.

The rest of the speakers took off from that starting point, looking at the tremendous growth in mobile over the last year or so, including the interesting but possibly anecdotal statistic that there are more mobile users (4.5 billion) than there are owners of toothbrushes (4.2 billion).

Speakers also shared different statistics to demonstrate the scope of growth in the mobile industry. There were over 850 million mobile payment transactions by 2009, and by 2020 there will be an estimated 10 billion mobile devices in use, more than one and a half times the population of the planet. More interestingly, when discussing mobile giving, it emerged that over 4 million users had used their mobile devices to donate money to Haiti, which accumulated to 41 million dollars. Different approaches to reaching customers were also discussed, from branded utility to location based advertising.

“The discussion today was very rich – pointing out characteristics of mobile communications, including their always-on nature, and the rich customer profiling that can be done, as well as, ways to use that to deliver marketing messages most effectively to customers,” observed Rohit Dadwal, Managing Director, APAC, Mobile Marketing Association.

The need for accurate metrics was a focal theme, even as Henry Stevens, Director of Media and Entertainment, GSM Association shared their pioneering efforts in the United Kingdom in the area of Mobile Media Metrics. The lack of consolidated standard for measurement didn’t stop growth in the mobile sphere, as several other speakers demonstrated with case studies, both globally and in the region.

Sean Rach, Director, Digital Media & Corporate Events, Prudential Corporation led the brand perspective, pointing out that marketers want relevance, reach, innovation and results and that it was up to the various parties in the mobile economy to demonstrate this. He rallied his colleagues to further collaboration and innovation, calling mobile the marketer’s secret weapon. And other speakers shared case studies from around the world, success stories from other markets, the benefits to be gained from SMS-based advertising efforts, as well demonstrating a couple of new platforms and technologies.

Day two of the event will see another exchange of knowledge revolving around brands and agencies.

About the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is the premier global non-profit trade association established to lead the growth of mobile marketing and its associated technologies. The MMA is an action-oriented organization designed to clear obstacles to market development, establish mobile media guidelines and best practices for sustainable growth, and evangelize the use of the mobile channel. The more than 700 member companies, representing over 40 countries around the globe, include all members of the mobile media ecosystem. The Mobile Marketing Association’s global headquarters are located in the United States and it has regional chapters, including North America (NA), Europe, Latin America (LATAM), Middle East & Africa (MEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) branches.

Entrepreneurs.my is involved in a new podcast called This Week in Asia or #TWIA
TWIA is a technology new podcast that covers top weekly technology and startup news around the continent of Asia.

So far guest involved in the show including

Mark Surman, executive director of Mozilla.org (listen here)
Joi Ito of Neoteny Labs, Digital Garage and early investor of Twitter Japan. (listen here)
and many more.

Starting now, we are going to syndicate TWIA over at Entrepreneurs.my and do remember to spread the world. Check it out at www.ThisWeekInAsia.net
or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Listen to the very first episode of TWIA

The overall winner for GIT Malaysia has been selected by the judges yesterday. The most viewed entry shall be determined by 11.59pm today. By tomorrow 5pm the winners for GIT Malaysia shall be announced.

In the mean time, be prepared for the global challenge, as it will be released on the 4th of November. This is where the big prize is e.g. Tickets to China (Plus Cash), Time with AirAsia X CEO, Porsche experience, White Water Ratfing and many more.
1) Form your team (new team)
2) Register your team in Malaysia (http://www.gitmy.blogspot.com/) and globally (http://wwww.unleashingideas.org/tournament/participate)
3) Learn as much as possible about GIT at a global level
4) 4th November start creating and then upload your video on youtube.
5) Send the link to us (git@alphacatalyst.com) and global organizers.

Azim Pawanchik

DreamHack is the world’s largest and most popular digital media festival. Situated in Sweden, DreamHack plays
host to thousands of gamers twice a year, numbering up to 12,782 attendees last winter. DreamHack has netted itself three Guinness World Records in 2004, 2006 and 2007 for being the largest Local Area Network (LAN) Party in the world. It is not a mere event where thousands of gamers gather for 4 days to play games together, but also to participate in anything one may do with computers, be it gaming, communication, programming, film, hardware, film, music, design and so on. DreamHack is also well-known for the numerous tournaments held at its premises which are open to all participants, and also proven very popular with professional gamers throughout Europe, and the world.

This year, on 24 and 25 October, Singapore will host the South East Asia qualifier for the Dreamhack Winter 2009.

Organised by the Colosseum and supported by the (Singapore) Cybersports & Online Gamers Association
(SCOGA), this event promises to be an exciting one. Mr. David Garpenstahl, the CEO/President of DreamHack
shares, “for the first time ever DreamHack is holding a qualifying tournament in Singapore. We are very pleased and honored to work together with Colosseum on this project…making it possible for youth of Singapore to travel, all the way to Sweden to represent their country and compete against teams and players from the whole world. This is certainly a very exiting and enriching adventure. We are looking forward to welcome the players to DreamHack in Sweden by the end of November. We wish all the luck to all the competitors.” The top teams from South East Asia will be competing for a 4days/ 3nights trip to Sweden, inclusive of accommodation to represent the region in DreamHack Winter 2009 finals.

The teams will be focused on qualifying for just these two games this year Counter-Strike 1.6 and Street Fighter IV.

The Singaporean representatives consist of Singapore’s legendary top Counter-Strike 1.6 team Clan Titans,
Singapore WCG 2009 champion, clan GameSense and top Street Fighter IV players, Pei Hoon and Ganguro. We
wish godspeed to our representatives on as they stand a chance to head to DreamHack 2009 for the glory of
Singapore.

Says Adrian Jay Lim, Operations Manager of Colosseum about the vision and objectives of this event,“The
Colosseum is very proud and honoured to be working with DreamHack and SCOGA on this historical milestone for gaming in Singapore and South East Asia. We look forward to strengthening the Gaming Community regionally and we hope to resurrect the older gaming communities that have since moved on from the gaming scene.”

“SCOGA is excited about Singapore having a part in the world’s biggest digital media festival bringing us one step closer to our association’s objectives of making Singapore a global leader in gaming and eSports”, says Kelvin Tan, co-founder of SCOGA.

About the Colosseum:
Strategically positioned within the heart of Singapore at Bugis lies Colosseum, an arena that promises to unleash your inner warrior. This digital battleground stands as one of Singapore’s largest gaming centre and it boasts 220 high performance gaming machines designed for the ultimate gaming experience.

If you’re game enough, take up the challenge and compete in front of hundreds of spectators. Witness matches between top players on a curved screen spanning more than 22 metres long, and pick up tips from the experts there.

Choose between Computer Gaming, Console Gaming and Board Gaming or all three in a private, conducive
environment.

The Colosseum’s goal is to become synonymous with professional gaming in Singapore and Southeast Asia, by
fostering strong relationships within the gaming community. Colosseum is poised to become South East Asia’s
premier venue bringing Singapore to new heights in the Cyber Gaming arena.

About SCOGA:
The (Singapore) Cybersports & Online Gamers Association (SCOGA) was registered in 2008 with the goal of
making Singapore a global leader in gaming and eSports, through positive engagements with local gaming
communities. The executive committee is made up of a group of local veteran managers, coaches, and competitive gamers. The association’s patron is Dr Yeo Ning Hong.

GEW 100 Days Press Release

It is weird to see this but the Ministry of Higher Education is organizing a career and entrepreneurship carnival.

According to the site.

Increasing unemployment in the country combined with the constant poor selection of appropriate courses by school leavers has become a troublesome trend which the nation must take note of as it is creating a vicious cycle and causing a poor absorption capacity into the job market

It is therefore important for all school leavers and young graduates as well as working professionals to have the necessary skill-set and expertise to obtain a position in any organization, as well as to excel in the career which they wish to pursue.

In an attempt to curb this situation, the organizing committee has chosen to hold the Karnival Kerjaya & Keusahawanan Graduan to provide job opportunities for fresh graduates, as well as course consultation for all school leavers to make the right choices in course selection.

Similarly the interest for entrepreneurship venture has risen among Malaysian public for the last few years.The challenge to get the right products and especially the right funding to kick start a business is a no easy job. It is about getting the right information on the numerous must-know facts on how to start a business. Therefore the efforts to promote entrepreneurship will have a great promise for improving the economic welfare of our nation.

The career part is pretty straight forward, however what sort of exhibitions will be there for an Entrepreneurship Carnival?

Based on past events, the booth will be mostly occupied by insurance and land banking carnival where students will be exposed to the “opportunity” of an entrepreneurship career by selling one of those stuff.
Either that there will be tonnes of companies selling their franchaise opportunity.

If you do want to attend, the details are as below:

Location : Putra World Trade Centre
Date: 15 to 17 of May 2009
Time: 10 am to 7pm
Registration : FREE

Here are some of the selected Talks that will be featured in this event.

15 May 11.00 am OPPORTUNITIES IN FRANCHISING – SHARULMIZAN BIN RAHMAT
PERBADANAN NASIONAL BERHAD (PNS)

16 May 3.00 pm ENTREPRENEURSHIP THROUGH LAND BANKING – ABD RAZAK ABD GHANI
WALTON INTERNATIONAL

Note: There rest of the Entrepreneurship talks will be on Franchising.

Althought is seem more like a career fair than what the title said. It is a good start for the ministry.

KUALA LUMPUR, 28th April 2009 – In conjunction with their 1-year anniversary of CIP Catalyst, Cradle Fund Sdn. Bhd. (CFSB) announced its first international collaboration on 28th April, 2009, with MentorSquare Advisors Ltd. (Bangalore) (MentorSquare). The MoU signing ceremony took place this morning in Mawar Room 1 of Hotel Equatorial, Kuala Lumpur, and was witnessed by Yang Berhormat Dato’ Wira Chor Chee Heung, Deputy Finance Minister 2, Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Mohd Sallehuddin Othman, Chairman of Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, En. Nazrin Hassan, Chief Executive Officer of Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, and Mr. Ravi Narayan, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of MentorSquare.

MentorSquare provides a platform which allows its users to have 24/7 access to international mentors of impeccable reputation in their own domains of expertise. With this collaboration, grant recipients under the Cradle Investment Programme (CIP), will now be able to seek advice and guidance from mentors worldwide and gain valuable international perspective and insights.

When asked about the decision in choosing MentorSquare, Nazrin Hassan, CEO of Cradle Fund replied, “It is not only eye-opening to these budding technopreneurs, but it’s also meant as the first step in inculcating a culture of networking for knowledge and of “internationalizing” our Cradle entrepreneurs, even while they’re still developing their prototypes. It is important that the thinking process on the business side starts and develops early, so that there will be fewer decision and execution mistakes.”

“We are confident that many will be more confident of striking into new markets once they have built up the networks and community in those countries, via the mentorship arrangements on MentorSquare. Rather than fish for them for market access – Cradle believes that the correct step is to provide them the tools, to teach them how to fish for knowledge, business and market access,” he added.

With MentorSquare as a new service provider, Cradle is looking forward to more value-added services and guidance to CIP entrepreneurs to help them succeed in their entrepreneurial endeavors. For further information about CIP and to apply for CIP grants, please visit www.cradle.com.my.

Malaysia Entrepreneurs together with its sister site youthentrepreneurs.my is inviting you to participate in a free talk brought to you by Leaderonomics Entrepreneur Academy (LEA).

This Talk will feature prominent speakers such as Roshan Thiran CEO of Leaderonomics, Michael Reyes of Money Tree and our contributor Aidan Chew winner of Nescafe Kick Start Season 1.

Topics that will be discuss ranging from leadership to profiting from chaos and choosing entrepreneurship as a career.

For more details visit their site at http://www.yep.my/events/

Note: MYE and YEM are supporting this program

We are pleased to announce, Gwendolyn Tan of Singapore will be taking on the position of Chief Editor for Malaysia Entrepreneurs(MyE). She is currently the Chief Editor of Singapore Entrepreneurs (SgE).

Her duties with MyE will officially start on 1st of May but according to Gwen, she can’t wait to start her work with Malaysia Entrepreneurs. She will be spending 4 days of her week over in KL to run day-to-day editorial and operational duties as we expand the team of Malaysia Entrepreneurs. At the same time she will still maintain the position of Chief Editor of SgE for the foreseeable future.

SgE founder, Bernard Leong and myself, Daniel CerVentus believe this is a great step in the right direction as there has been talks of merging SgE and MyE. Both sites have a great informal working relationship and by being the Chief Editor on both sides, Gwen will be able to better create synergies between Singapore and Malaysia entrepreneurs.

Due to recession, a lot of professionals are seeking to be entrepreneurs and it has caused MyE to grow rapidly. MyE sees a great need to import great talents like Gwen to grow the company. She brings with her a fantastic track record of helping SgE to establish itself as the top destination for entrepreneurship in Singapore.

When asked as to why she decided on working in Malaysia and with MyE, Gwen said ” I’m thinking of settling down in Malaysia someday because of my Peranakan heritage. Also the islands in Malaysia are really beautiful and looking forward to spend some time over there.”