Japan Digest: Social gaming market to double, dream-controlling app, and more

(1) The Nomura Research Institute says that Japan’s social gaming market will likely be worth 393.5 billion yen (US$5.1 billion) in fiscal year 2016, roughly doubling in size when compared with 2011.

(2) Ad agency Hakuhodo’s Future Technology Works department has come up with a new app that controls your dreams. The Yumemiru (translated as ‘see the dream’) app lets users select different scenarios to dream about. It influences your dreams while you snooze by broadcasting sounds. Read more

Indonesia Digest: Kompas invests in Urbanesia.com, Metro TV Android app, and more

(1) PT Kompas CyberMedia, the company behind Kompas.com, announced an investment in city directory startup Urbanesia.com.

(2) Metro TV officially announced (via Twitter) that they have released a mobile application for Android platform and it is available for free on Android Market. Read more

Japan Digest: App to curb protruding nostril hairs, Cave focuses on social games, and more

(1) Chololi lets anyone send a pre-written notification to the offending hairy culprit anonymously via their email. “For all you people who are thoughtful and in a difficult position, we give you Chololi the deputy service for notification about nostril hairs” explains the site.

(2) Following a disappointing financial report, Japanese video game maker Cave announced it will focus more on social games going forward. The company has an 18-year old history and is especially famous for its shoot’em ups aimed at a hardcore gamer audience.

(3) Golgo 13, a Japanese cult manga from the 1960s, is getting the social game treatment. DeNA announced it has launched a social “battle RPG” of the same name on Mobage for Japanese feature phones. Meanwhile, DeNA also announced that Sega has chosen Mobage to launch the online version of the super-successful (and pretty awesome) mobile RPG Kingdom Conquest. Read more

China Digest: CIC acquired, Yunyun by ex-Googlers, and more

(1) Kantar Media acquires leading Chinese social business intelligence agency CIC.

(2) Yunyun’s social search merges websites, question-and-answer (Q&A), and Weibo (microblog) results. It is a Chinese social search startup by a team of ex-Googlers.

(3) Sina has been failing to find a sustainable business model (enterprise Weibo, gaming, etc.), none of which have been proven to work. The company should get back to basics: advertising.

(4) One thing Sina Weibo will definitely not do is challenge Tencent’s dominance. Social games, like so much else on the Chinese Internet, belong to Tencent.

(5) Weixin by Tencent will turn into a universally accessible messenger, similar to another famous Chinese product: QQ instant messenger, also by Tencent. So why would one company push two products with such overlapping functionality?

(5) Erin Holaday Ziegler of the public relations department at the University of Kentucky (UK) shared about how they approached using Chinese social media channels like Sina Weibo and Renren.

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Indonesia Digest: MyTrans application by CT Group, Sedapur.com new payment method, and more

(1) After acquiring Detik, Trans Corp, a subsidiary of CT Group, has gone straight into the digital world by launching MyTrans, a digital content application.

(2) Online food delivery service, Sedapur.com, is now providing a new payment method via KlikBCA. Read more

Japan Digest: MySpace Japan office will close, ChuChu playlist matchmaker, and more

(1) It’s not a big surprise: MySpace Japan will close its office early this year, according to Japanese news site IT Media. According to the report, MySpace US will manage the Japanese version starting February 1, 2012.

(2) The ChuChu (meaning kiss kiss) Tune app is a “playlist match maker” that hooks up two musically likeminded individuals. Designed to “test out the chemistry between 2 iPhone users”, the app is available in English and Japanese.

(3) DeNA announced it has entered a strategic partnership with the Alibaba group, specifically Alibaba Cloud Computing (AliCloud).

(4) GREE added yet another payment method for virtual and avatar-related items in Japan. Starting last month, players using GREE on smartphones can pay via PayPal.

(5) According to Gamebiz, the social soccer card game, Konami’s J-League Dream Eleven, has just hit one million registered players.

(6) Tokyo-based social gaming company Klab is going international. KLab Cyscorpions is the name of the subsidiary that was launched in Singapore and will handle international smartphone game development for Klab in the future. Moreover, Klab is entering the venture capital business. The company’s newly launched subsidiary Klab Ventures has announced it will establish a VC firm together with major Japanese VC SBI Investment last December. In another news, Klab has ported its soccer-themed social game Captain Tsubasa to GREE.

(7) Fired up by healthy sales numbers last quarter, Konami is continuing to churn out social games: the company announced BE-BOP-HIGHSCHOOL for Mobage on feature phones.

(8) Tecmo Koei is now counting a total of five million registered players for their social games offered on GREE, Mobage, and Yahoo Mobage.

(9) Tokyo-based Index has announced the launch of MissionGate, which is “France’s first social gaming” platform, according to the company.

(10) Facebook Japan now boasts over 6 million registered users, if you believe the newest data coming from social media analytics service Socialbakers. To be more concrete, Facebook counts 6,267,540 registered Japanese members – again, according to Socialbakers.

(11) Social games on Facebook aren’t a big topic in Japan at the moment, but Zynga Japan announced it has translated one of the parent company’s biggest hits, Empires & Allies, into Japanese.

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Indonesia Digest: Bandung Digital Valley launch, Tiket.com mobile site, and more

(1) Telkom Bandung Indonesia has officially launched the Bandung Digital Valley (BDV), which is located in the R & D Centre of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom).

(2) Tiket.com has launched its mobile site for smartphones and tablet users, although it still lacks a more inclusive range of payment methods. Instead of providing mobile apps tailored for different kinds of mobile devices, Tiket has smartly chosen a mobile website catering to those looking to purchase movie tickets.

(3) Android market share has grown fivefold from the beginning of 2011 to reach 29% of total smartphone ownership by October 2011, claims Alven Desnecmen, head of Mobile Phone Marketing Department, Samsung Indonesia.

(4) The marketshare of iOS products in Indonesia is 10.06%. In Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, and Malaysia, iOS penetration reached more than 50%.

(5) Research in Motion and Indosat announced a collaboration that allows Indosat subscribers to purchase applications, themes, and games on the BlackBerry App World and pay for them through operator billing.

(6) Last month, Agate Studio held a press conference to officially launch two of their games, Smash Mania and Sexy Witch, both of which can be downloaded by Nokia phone owners on the Nokia Store.

(7) One of Indonesia’s biggest ecommerce sites, TokoBagus, recently revamp their website and even claimed better User Interface that got positive reviews from users. The revamp is based on feedback from 1.7 million members and 10 million monthly visitors, said the TokoBagus CEO.

(8) Similar to what Kaskus plans to do with its Forum Jual Beli, Female Daily intends to spin off its Market Plaza into a fully fledged e-commerce site.

(9) OngkosKirim is a price comparison service from various courier companies. It is a platform that provides integrated services for checking fares/tariffs, delivery status, and more from various Indonesian courier companies such as POS Indonesia, JNE, TIKI, Pahala, Wahana, etc.

(10) Gilkor can now assist you by finding discounts through various credit card providers. The web version of Gilkor has been available since the beginning of 2011, but recently they have launched their BlackBerry and Android applications.

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.

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South Korea Digest: GS Home Shopping investments, SoftBank Ventures invests in VCNC, and more

(1) GS Home Shopping invested in four startups from late 2010 and throughout 2011, totaling 6 billion won (US$5.2 M)

(2) SoftBank Ventures announced on the 22th December 2011 that it invested 1 billion won (US$ 900,000) in VCNC, a Korean startup. Founded last February by five people including CEO Park Jae-wook, who got a B.A. in electronic engineering from Seoul National University, VCNC (Value Creators & Company) developed ‘Between’, a social networking service for couples.

(3) The famous mobile messenger app ‘Kakao Talk‘ is suffering from the ‘Kakao Talk Jail’ issue. It constantly invites random people to the group chatting room, causing people to be annoyed by endless notifications.

(4) Group buying site Ticket Monster was renamed TMON. It started using top actor Gong Yu as its brand ambassador for its advertising campaign. Still ‘Ticket Monster’ remains the company’s corporate identity.

(5) Korea is chosen as the most app-crazed country per capita.

(6) The Korean Angel Investment Matching Fund is set to raise 10B won (US$8.6M). The fund will be used to boost growth momentum for startups. The Small and Medium Business Administration of Korea will back it up by start a support center for angel investment and offering more diverse incentives for angels.

This has been brought to you by SGE and OnSuccess. OnSuccess is a media enterprise for start-ups and ventures in Korea. OnSuccess introduces innovative Korean start-ups and ventures to people overseas through media partners and inspires readers by sharing interesting business ideas and trends from all over the world. Furthermore, OnSuccess holds various events, offering actual chances for Korean start-ups and ventures to meet other start-ups, venture business partners and investors abroad. They publish in both Korean and English.

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Malaysia Digest: Certified ICT professionals only, EU-Malaysia Biomass Entrepreneurs Nurturing Program, and more

Here are some interesting startup news snippets from Malaysia, not only in its capital, Kuala Lumpur, but also other startup hubs such as Penang, Malacca, and many more. Read more

China Digest: China’s IT industry closing in on US, Beijing Govt’s microblog real name registration, and more

Here are some startup news snippets from China, not only in its capital, Beijing, but also other startup hubs such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, and many more. Read more