Starting off with congrats to Mike Foong with his 4th kid, Myra Ines Foong, the TWIA crew is back to discuss the interesting stories that dominate the Asian mobile, web & tech landscape this week. While we look back at Open Web Asia Conference & Google Dev Fest in KL, we also discussed interesting stories covering from iPads selling out in Singapore to an Asian company called Bubble Motion funded by Sequoia and how it’s kicking ass in India. If you are not impressed, then the gaffe from MOL CEO, Ganesh Kumar Bangah on his rival OffGamers’ FB page surely hits the most entertaining story of the week in Asia.

• Congratulations from the TWIA crew to our fellow co-host Mike Foong & his spouse with their 4th kid Myra Ines Foong – and is she the first child with her own hashtag #babym4 and have her name crowdsourced via twitter?
• Past Events: Open Web Asia & Google Dev Fest in KL – What an exciting week and we have a lot of feedback coming from our live show asking us for a video version. If you have any thoughts, please let us know. We also talked about the Google Dev Fest that followed after Open Web Asia in KL. Also, we reveal the next possible dates & venues for the next Open Web Asia Conferences: Taiwan & Indonesia next year.
• AntennnaGate from Apple & iPad sales furore in SG: So, we skipped this issue relatively quickly and talked about how iPad sales were so fast and furious that Smithy did not manage to get one for himself.
• The story about Bubble Motion: Interesting Asia start-up in Singapore and funded by Sequoia Capital (the same one who funded Google) which have made headway with Bubbly in India.
• Japan tech going regional? : With the launch of an interesting app, Sekai Camera from Japan with none of us installing it, we discussed how Japan has lately focused its efforts towards China & Korea while also being the first destination for US start-ups to launch in Asia.
• The MOL CEO, Ganesh Kumar Bangah and his blunder with his now famous comment on his rival’s OffGamers’ FB page, “Too bad for you, this is social media.“. If you do not know by now, MOL is the company who acquired Friendster and made a deal to distribute Facebook credits in Southeast Asia.
• Upcoming Events: Asian Blogger & Social Media Conference next week, Social Media World Forum Asia & Accelerate by E27 both happening on 22-23 Sep.

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As a prominent Asian brand, HTC has been producing mobile handsets with three different platforms: Windows Mobile, Android & Qualcomm’s Brew OS. What is the roadmap and what may be the new phones coming out in the next quarter? With Melvin Chua, the country manager from HTC Singapore, we discussed all these issues together with the adoption of the various mobile platforms and whether the new explosion of Android handsets have an impact in the smart-phone market.

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As an Asian company, InMobi has made a lot of headway recently with their expansion from India to US, starting with a 2M fund for developers and a new investment series B round of 8M from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers & Sherpalo Ventures. Touted as an interesting independent ad-network by TechCrunch, InMobi is set to have an interesting trajectory. We have Emmanuel Allix from InMobi in Singapore to talk to us about the company, how they grow to reach 179 million consumers in over 108 countries through over 16 billion mobile ad impressions monthly in the past few years.

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It has been an exciting week for the Malaysia web/tech scene with the Open Web Asia – Southeast Asia conference happening in Kuala Lumpur on 13-14 July. The TWIA crew hosted a live show with Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) from TechCrunch & Brian Wong (@brian_wong) formerly from Digg and now followFormation as our guests. We touched on some hot topics with great seats about InMobi’s 8M fund-raising success, the feedback about the Open Web Asia Conference and interesting start-ups which caught our eye, how Asian start-ups should improve on their pitching so to attract investors (and Asian investors should be more harsh on feedback to the entrepreneurs here) and Serkan’s interesting prediction for Asian companies in the next few decades. A special treat for all our listeners that you can view the video of the live show here.

You can watch the This Week in Asia Live Show Video from Satoo.TV.


Photo credited to Shereen Shah: The panel comprising of (from the left) Bernard Leong, Daniel Cerventus, Serkan Toto, Brian Wong, Michael Smith Jr and Chew Lin Kay.

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myGengo is a Japanese start-up which deliver value for users to order cheap and high quality translations on the web. In our virtual studio, we have both co-founders, Robert Laing (@robert_laing) & Matthew Romaine (@quanza) telling us how the idea come about, the interesting features on myGengo and also the challenges in fundraising and setting up in Japan. We also hear how they manage to get Dave McClure to be their angel investor and their journey from the far east to Silicon Valley for fundraising this year, and finally wrap up with their future plans.

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Yes, Google vs China comes to a stunning conclusion with one side making a kow-tow, and the emergence of Groupon clones taking over Asia springing from China and Singapore. How will all these change the landscape of Asia? With Chew Lin taking the helm as the moderator for the first time, the TWIA crew examines the key issues which dominate Asia, with little quibbles over Microsoft’s dropping of Kin, Huawei putting Froyo onto their Chinese Android phones, Mixi making a minor Linkedin, Amazon’s acquisition of Woot and the major differences between e-commerce in Southeast Asia & East Asia.

• 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.

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The acquisition of Koprol by Yahoo is probably the most important tech event which rocked Southeast Asia this year. With the founders of Koprol, Fajar Budiprasetyo & Daniel Armanto together with our dear Smithy from Yahoo, we discussed the origins of Koprol (and how it was launched before FourSquare). We also found out how the founders built the mobile social network from zero to 100K users and the interesting features of Koprol before the fateful acquisition. In fact, we get an insider view behind the scenes on the day when the acquisition was announced. Finally, we hear how the founders and Smithy explain how the marriage between Yahoo & Koprol from their own perspectives and the future which lies ahead for Koprol.

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The TWIA crew in our virtual studio, sets off this week on two major events: CommunicAsia 2010 & Nokia Connection. With a flurry of talking points on the future direction of Nokia and how the mobile landscape is shaping up in Philippines similar to the Indonesian one, the crew also looked at how InMobi, the Indian mobile ad network is moving into the US and the usual Chinese sightings: TenCent to acquire Comsenz? and FourSquare is now banned in China.

• Event – CommunicAsia 2010: How have the exhibitions and conferences fare this year? Is the conference losing focus or becoming more and more diverse? The TWIA crew examines the annual event that rocked Asia this week.
• Event – Nokia Connection: The announcement of X5, X6 and N8 phones and the news that the C3 is completely sold out in Indonesia with delegates all over Southeast Asia and India turned up in Singapore for the event. We also examine how Nokia needs to step up the fight in the smart-phone space.
• Social, smartphones shaping Philippines mobile landscape: With the success of how the Indonesia mobile landscape, we review how the same business models and mobile usage are replicated in the Philippines.
• InMobi announces 2M Developer Fund: InMobi, the Indian mobile ad-network has finally stepped onto the shores of US with investments from KPCB, and open a new front to the Google-Admob vs Apple war. Will their independence and also the new developer fund change the mobile advertising landscape?
• Tencent to acquire Comsenz?: So, web 1.0 online BBS forums has been popular in China and is the top social networking service Tencent acquire or invest in this company?
• FourSquare banned in China: Yes, FourSquare has joined the list of banned services in China. We have inside stories on how people got a swarm badge in Tiananmen which led to the service being banned and not to mention, the emerging clones of FourSquare in China.
• Open Web Asia 2010 in Kuala Lumpur on 13 and 14 July and you can register with our own promo code: TWIA

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Recently, Singapore held the first APAC PyCon event, and one of the keynote speakers is Wesley Chun (@wescpy), who’s the author of Prentice Hall’s bestseller “Core Python Programming”. We sat down with Wesley in Google Singapore HQ and discuss on how he started writing Python programming books to help developers to learn the art, the new developments from Python 2 to 3 and his role in Google.

About Wesley J. Chun from Google: Wesley is the author of Prentice Hall’s bestseller ‘Core Python Programming‘, its video training course ‘Python Fundamentals’ and co-author of ‘Python Web Development with Django’. He is a software architect and developer advocate at Google and runs a consulting business called CyberWeb.

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Back to the studio after an exciting week from Echelon 2010 and the good news that we are recently mentioned on TechCrunch. Akky Akimoto, the founder of Asiajin.com is here with us this week as our special guest. The week could not have been better without Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 4 and another massive showdown between Apple & Google/Admob in mobile advertising. How do those events affect Asia? While Gree, Japan’s number 2 mobile social network is now casting its attention to US and China markets, how about Zynga who is turning their guns to India and China? If you think Google TV is really new, why not find out what has been happening between web and TV in Asia here, and finally, the Geeks on the Plane have declared Silicon Valley is just a state of mind & dying, is Asia really coming of age?

• This Week in Asia is featured on TechCrunch.
• Event this Week: Pycon APAC 2010
• Apple WWDC 2010: What have we? The new iPhone 4, the iOS 4 and Face Time, and oh yes, the juicy war that is brewing between Google/Admob and Apple on mobile advertising with their new terms and conditions on the developer agreement.
• Gree to expand to US & China: Japan’s number 2 mobile social network is now moving into China and US. Of course, we talked about how Gree entice its customers with a semi-naked avatar when they sign up the service.
• Zynga Enters Asia With Acquisition Of Gaming Startup XPD Media; Opens Office In Beijing: The creator of Farmville sets up an office in where social gaming has originated – China. With offices springing in India and China, is Zynga heading towards a global domination of social games through the iPhone and other devices?
• Yahoo! Japan Search Now Provides In-TV-Program Products Info: How Yahoo! has integrated their services into TV with Japan and Korea makes us ponder how it might match up against Google TV if it ever comes to Asia.
• Is Silicon Valley state of mind and dying: Is that really true? With the optimism expressed by the writers from TechCrunch and Geeks on the Plane, is the web/tech scene in Asia finally coming of age? We express some pessimism and cautionary tale while
• Upcoming Events: (a) CommunicAsia happening from 15 to 18 June 2010 next week in Singapore and (b) OpenWebAsia – Southeast Asia in Kuala Lumpur on 13 & 14 July

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