• The Groupon Clones in Asia: With Groupon Clones springing up from China (400+ according to Gang Lu) and Singapore (about 4 according to E27 SG), how is the whole e-commerce fever hitting across the Asian landscape?
• Google vs China: The conclusion is that Google buckered down with an official blog release, but what are the next steps for the search engine giant to take on the Great Firewall of China? Is it with Froyo (Android 2.2) loaded with Huawei phones?
• Is Mixi creating a minor Linkedin: Are they going to back to their roots or are they running out of ideas?
• Microsoft drops Kin and what happens now?
• Quibbles on Amazon’s acquisition on Woot and the e-commerce market in Southeast Asia vs East Asia.
• Upcoming Events: Open Web Asia – Southeast Asia on 13 and 14 July (and you can use our promo code “TWIA” to register with 10% discount) & BlinkBl-nk on the 19 July.
• And one last thing: Chew Lin now has an official twitter account, @chewlink – please add her to show your support.

TWIA Panel Display Screen (taken by Farry Aprianto and tagged by Mohan Belani in Echelon 2010)

Editor’s Note: The sound quality is perfect after the first few minutes with some calibration from the start. Please bear with us. We will post pictures in this event once we receive them from the organizers.

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.

The Founder Institute has appointed Singapore-based venture advisory and investment firm Battle Ventures, who is partnered with iAxil, the venture accelerator arm of Ascendas, to jointly bring their programme to Singapore and Southeast Asia-based entrepreneurs.

Run by founders for founders, this unique mentoring program nurtures aspiring and current high-tech entrepreneurs and employs a unique, team-work oriented ecosystem to foster the establishment of new start-up ventures. The programme also allows a small amount of equity to be shared amongst all participants in the
companies formed – including the experienced mentors who help grow the new businesses.

“We have discovered a formula to help passionate founders create meaningful and enduring companies in different markets around the world,” says Adeo Ressi, CEO of TheFunded.com and the Founder Institute. “We leverage leading social science methods to identify top talent, and then we offer an intense start-up curriculum focused on teamwork and guidance from leading local and global CEOs. Our unique approach has allowed the Institute to scale almost ten times larger than comparable incubators or accelerators.”
“iAxil is committed to fostering a nurturing and vibrant start-up environment that is vital to spawning innovative high-tech start-ups with the global potential and appeal,” says Mr Tan Yew Chin, Director of iAxil and CEO of Ascendas Land (Singapore). “The iAxil team of senior incubator managers will combine their
business skills; domain expertise and start-up experience with our wide network of partners to help graduates from the Founder Institute Mentoring Programme jumpstart their ventures.”

During the semesters, local aspiring and current entrepreneurs can gain access to founders and CEOs of world-renown companies, such as Philip Kaplan, Co-Founder of Blippy, Jeff Stewart, Founder and CEO of Urgent Career, Pete Deemer, Co-Founder of Scrum Training Institute, Dr. KF Lai, Co-Founder and CEO of Buzzcity and Jared Morgenstern, Product Ninja of Facebook as mentors amongst others.

“One of the greatest problems facing local entrepreneurs is the lack of credible and experienced mentors to help guide and advise them,” said Jeffrey Paine, Managing Partner at Battle Ventures. “With this programme, our entrepreneurs now have access to founders who have successfully created and run multiple start-ups
themselves and who are best placed to advise them.”

Applications for early acceptance into the Singapore semester are due on February 15th, 2010, with the final application deadline on February 28th. Anyone starting a technology company or with a dream to launch an innovative business in Singapore is invited to apply at http://www.founderinstitute.com/apply/11.
The Singapore Founder Institute mentoring programme is administered by iAxil, and is supported by SPRING Singapore under the Incubator Development Programme (IDP).

• The Apple iPad: Who among us within the TWIA crew will buy it? We discuss how we felt about the product and the joys and disappointment accompanied with the announcement by Steve Jobs yesterday. An interesting point from Michael why Flash is not supported on Apple products.
• Founders’ Institute launched in Singapore: With Founders’ Institute decided to set up shop in Singapore. Michael also weighed in his opinions about the issue and discussed with the whole crew how the whole region will be affected by this sudden surge of incubators turning up in Singapore.
• Maxis setting up an apps store: Malaysia telco Maxis has set up an apps store for developers. We looked at the general trends of telcos trying to get into the apps stores bandwagon and chatted about the possible implications on the industry in general. One more thing, they are not telling us about how they are going to share profit with the developers.
• China denies involvement in Google cyberattacks: So, what’s next for Google China?