Philippines telecom operator Globe has partnered with Singapore counterpart SingTel to bring MyAppsMall, a cross-platform mobile app store, to Globe prepaid and postpaid subscribers in the Philippines, reported ABS-CBN.

The app store contains over 20,000 free and paid apps, which includes categories like games, social networks, Internet browsers, lifestyle, news, entertainment, and more. The app can be accessed via a web browser on both PC and mobile.

Being cross-platform, the app store contains content for Android, Symbian, Java, and BlackBerry devices. It serves as an additional platform for developers, especially Filipino ones, to create, distribute, and monetize their apps internationally.

SingTel has made the app store available outside the Philippines.

Customers of Globe and other SingTel affiliates can pay for content via operator billing, which means expenses incurred on the app store are charged directly to their monthly mobile bill.

Network subscribers outside the SingTel Group can still buy content from the app store, but they’ll have to use their credit cards.

MyAppsMall is billed as an initiative to promote Filipino talent to the international market by giving them an extra distribution channel for their works. In crowded marketplaces like Apple’s App Store and Android’s Marketplace, it can be hard for new app developers to get their content noticed.

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When: Friday, 25th November 2011
Time: 2pm-5pm
Where: IDC Asia Project Lab, Block 20, Level 3/53 , School of Enginnering, 21 Tampines Ave 1 Singapore 529757 (Map)
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SingTel, Singapore’s largest telco company, has acquired the intellectual property rights to Singapore-based OrSiSo‘s flagship social media dashboard for an undisclosed sum. The app aims to organize and simplify the user’s online social life.

“We have been working with Singtel for 2 years, developing different social apps (all based on aggregation) and some social business intelligence tools. In the end they choose to buy the IP so that they can build it further internally,” says OrSiSo founder and CEO Thorben Linneberg, who broke the news to us.

It’s unclear what role Thorben and his team will play in future development, although it seems likely they will work closely with SingTel. OrSiSo has put up a brief note on their website, stating that their free app is no longer available as a download at the moment.

OrSiSo is designed to make managing multiple social network accounts easier by converging them into one place. It allows users to merge their friends’ identities from various networks, and also intelligently filters updates according to levels of closeness.

Incorporated in 2008, the company has since received about US$400,000 in angel funding. Prior to starting his company, Thorben, a Denmark native, has worked for a number of years in the mobile internet and wireless technology fields.

To find out more about Thorben, his company, and the product, check out our interview with him, as well as this video interview done by INSEAD Knowledge in 2009:

Other features of the service include: Email notifications for new or unpaid bills, downloadable PDF bills, and limitless archive for bills. Through the service, users can also request service providers to stop sending them paper bills.

Currently, you can view digital bills from StarHub, M1, SingTel, SingPower, and NUSS in Singapore; Maxis, Digi, TNB and Astro in Malaysia; and Optus, 3Mobile and CityLink in Australia. The company says more billers will be added in 2011.

“As part of Blk71, MDA and SingTel Innov8, the corporate venture arm of the SingTel Group, have signed a Memorandum-of-Understanding (MOU) to provide funding and create a dynamic environment for start-ups. Under the MOU, both parties will make joint Calls-for-Proposals (CFPs) which will provide successful start-ups with up to S$50,000 of initial seed funding and opportunities for follow-on funding of S$200,000 or more. MDA and SingTel Innov8 will also co-sponsor activities such as industry speaking engagements, workshops and networking events. To support these initiatives, MDA and SingTel Innov8 will commit an initial sum of up to S$2 million each over three years.

NUS Enterprise will leverage its experience and networks as an incubator to manage the Blk71 incubation space.”

Image Credit: .Fabio.

(Check out our past coverage and interview with 2359 Media.)

Singapore, Jan. 10, 2011 – 2359 Media, a local leading mobile marketing provider, today announced the closing of its Series-A investment round of $1 million, accelerating plans for expansion to the US market.

SingTel Innov8, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SingTel Group, led the round, making it the first investment by the corporate venture capital fund since its launch in September 2010. In addition to its investment in 2359 Media, the two companies have agreed to work together on projects of mutual interest that will bring value to their customers. NUS Enterprise also participated in this investment round.

Founded in 2009, 2359 Media is looking to further the development of their core product, MobDis, as well as expand its distribution to the US market within the next quarter. MobDis is an HTML5-based mobile advertisement creation platform that allows marketers and designers to rapidly create, publish and share engaging mobile advertisements. 2359 Media received its initial funding from the Young Entrepreneurs Scheme for Start-Ups (Yes! Start-ups), a funding scheme initiated by SPRING Singapore and was incubated under NUS Enterprise Incubator.

“This investment represents a major milestone for 2359 Media as we make the transition from a promising early-stage technology startup into a commercial enterprise facing a growing global mobile advertising market,” said 2359 Media Co-founder Zhou Wen Han. “We are very excited as this proves the value MobDis brings in terms of innovating the way brands advertise on mobile.” The company has already begun hiring for a new office in US, scheduled to be operational by March 2011.

Plans for expansion to the US market is but a first step in the overall strategy to provide MobDis a global reach. “We look forward to achieving our vision of connecting brands and organizations to consumers whenever and wherever they are, by leveraging on the reach and infrastructure of our investors to help accelerate growth and solidify our presence in the global mobile advertising space,” said 2359 Media Co-founder Wong Hong Ting. “We welcome SingTel Innov8 and NUS Enterprise in supporting the business and providing the opportunity to push MobDis to overseas markets.”

About MobDis
MobDis is an HTML5-based platform made for marketers and designers, which allows users to create mobile web apps without the need to code. With an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface, users can create and publish a mobile advertising microsite within minutes of their first interaction with the platform without needing to download or install any software or plugins.

About 2359 Media
2359 Media aims to jumpstart the mobile web revolution by empowering anyone and everyone with MobDis, an HTML5-based platform that helps users create, publish and share rich media mobile sites on their own. With MobDis, our users can extend their reach and enhance user experience by engaging their audiences through rich interactive content on all mobile platforms.

Working with companies that include SingTel Singapore, Volkswagen Singapore, Far East Organization, TechCrunch, MediaCorp and the Media Development Authority of Singapore, 2359 Media aims to fuel mobile-based and location-aware content consumption worldwide.

You can find the SuperDeals tab on the front page of inSing.com when you enter the portal.

There are at least 15 daily deal sites in Singapore, with Beeconomic having just been bought over by Groupon. Food community site, HungryGoWhere also recently launched their own daily deals site, HungryDeals.

SingTel Digital Media CEO, Varsha Rao is an investor in Foound.

Singtel Group (the big mothership) has created a SGD 200m (USD 150m) venture fund, Innov8, to invest in technologies and solutions that help them along the way “to transform itself from a traditional telecommunications provider to become a leading multimedia and ICT solutions provider”.

In its press release, Singtel speaks of many potential collaborations with government agencies, funds and developers on the ground to come.

Singtel i.luminate 2010 is poised to be Asia’s Largest Business Innovations Forum. It will be the largest gathering of industry movers and shakers, entrepreneurs, developers and business leaders from around the world. Participants can expect to gain insights from influential and respected industry practitioners and discover innovations that will help their organisations advance.