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Another consulting gig: mig33

Posted on September 22, 2011 by in Tech

Besides helping the Singapore-based video streaming company ViKi, I am now also assisting another interesting tech company [also based in Singapore, btw] as a consultant: mig33, a mobile social networking service.

The Jakarta Globe reports, Indonesia is now mig33’s largest market, accounting for over half of the service’s 47 million total users in 200 countries.  There are around 30 million mig33 users in  Indonesia now, according to CHIP Online.

They described themselves:

It was released in December of 2005 as the first global, mobile community, and has quickly spread around the world. Growing on the strength of user recommendations, and bringing the power of Internet to anyone with a mobile phone, more than 40 million users in over 200 countries have joined the mobile community. mig33 is estimated to be the most downloaded application for mobile phone worldwide.
How did we start … Drinking coffee

The concept for mig33 originated in a library coffee shop, as a way for teens to send text messages as much as they wanted, without the high costs of SMS, by using GPRS/data channel which commonly used to access the mobile Internet.

The company was founded on the belief that the rise of IP and wireless technologies would redefine the way people connect and build their relationships and communities. mig33 takes advantage of the shift in the telecommunications industry from managing and tariffing the network, to delivering customer services and value.

Today, mig33 has many additional features beyond just chat, and is a vibrant, mobile community that enables users to connect with friends, meet new people, exchange emoticon expressions, send virtual gifts, play games and have fun. It also connects members to other instant messengers like Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, MSN Messenger and AOL. The service is available to any mobile phone user and is optimized to work with more than 2,000 handsets that include most Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Blackberry handsets.

I met mig33 CEO Steven Goh while having a coffee at Orchard Central on June, he revealed a plan to launch a sub-project under Mig33 –and asking me to play a role as a consultant. I can’t disclose any further details on this project right now, but basically this new service is targeting Indonesian market.

I have been working closely with Wish Ronquillo, Director of Content and Creative Factory and Kiki Rizki, the Jakarta-based country manager for the company since last month, in preparing concepts and plans for the project. Will keep you posted.

18 interesting firsts on the Internet

Posted on March 9, 2010 by in Tech

Just discovered an interesting list, 18 first different things on the Internet [brief] history, thanks to the TechReaders site!

  1. The First Email: Ray Tomlinson sent first email and also made use of @ symbol in email addresses in 1971.
  2. The First Ever Domain Name: “symbolics.com” registered by computer manufacturer Symbolics (now obsolete) on 15th March 1985.
  3. The First SPAM Email Ever: Gary Thuerk sent spam email messages to 393 people on ARPANET on 3rd May 1978.
  4. The First Ever Mobile Phone with Internet Access Facility: Nokia 9000 Communicator (launched in 1996, Finland).
  5. The First Ever Website: Info.cern.ch which was launched in late 1990.
  6. The First Ever E-Commerce Website and Transaction: NetMarket that claims to process first ever secure transaction on the web on August 11, 1994.
  7. The First Ever Online Bank: Stanford Federal Credit Union that provides Online Internet Banking services to all of its customers in October, 1994.
  8. The First Ever Search Engine: WebCrawler.com which was launched in 1994.
  9. The First Ever Blog: Justin Halls is considered the first blogger who started a web diary in 1994. [The term webblog was introduced in 1997 which later led to “blog” in 1999].
  10. The First Ever Podcast: Dave Winer added audio content into the RSS feeds on January 11, 2001.
  11. The First Item Ever Sold on eBay: A broken laser pointer worth $14.83.
  12. The First Book Ever Sold on Amazon: Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought by Douglas Hofstadter [1995].
  13. The first edit on Wikipedia: Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder when doing a test edit with text “Hello, World!”
  14. The First Ever Video on YouTube: “Me at the Zoo” video put by the the cofounder of YouTube Jawed Karim on April 23, 2005.
  15. The First Ever Message on Twitter: It was a demonstration message with text “just setting up my twttr” by the creator of Twitter, Jack Dorsey on 21st March 2006.
  16. The First Ever Voice Chat Service: Rocket Messenger.
  17. The First Ever Website Hacked: Federal websites that included US Department of Justic, U.S. Air Force, CIA, and NASA in 1990.
  18. The First Ever Social Network Site: Friendster.com which was launched in 2002.