Social networking sites in Asia received some mixed news last week, when Internet research firm GlobalWebIndex released a study of how social networks have performed in the region from Q2 2012 to Q4 2012.
Twitter has experienced tremendous growth among several countries in Asia Pacific, contributing significantly to its status as the fastest-rising social network in the world. Strong performances in Hong Kong, China and South Korea has helped it offset declines in Vietnam and Taiwan. Read more
SnapDish, a recipe sharing app designed by Japan-based Vuzz, announced today that it has launched on the Kindle Fire. It has also added supported for seven languages, bringing the total to 11.
The mobile social network is like an Instagram for food. Users can snap pictures of their home-cooked food with the app, beautify the photos, and share it with their friends. They can write down their recipes to accompany the pictures, and others can ‘like’ or comment on these food posts. Read more
Plurk, like Friendster, is a forgotten player in the long-drawn social network wars. But it has earned a resurgence of sorts lately, getting 1M daily active users and passing 8 billion ‘Plurks’, or status updates. While far from its peak of 100M visits a month, it still shows a lot of promise.
By demonstrating its potential for a second act, the Taiwan-headquartered Plurk has received a Series A round from WI Harper Group, which typically invests more than USD 5M in healthcare and technology companies. But according to TheNextWeb, the deal is in the seven digit range but no more than USD5M. Plurk made the announcement in a press release today. Read more
Babygram lets you share your baby's intimate moments with close family and friends.
There can be too much of a good thing. Baby photos on Facebook certainly qualify in this category. While parents are understandably proud of their kids and want to show them off to their friends, we live in a hyperconnected world where too much is shared. That includes every permutation of a photo, even blurry ones.
Babygram could save us from oversharing hell. Developed by Google Ventures funded startup Stickery, which is based in Singapore and California, Babygram is a private social network centered around babies and their immediate families. It is now available on iOS.
The app is part of a new wave of mobile social networks targeted at niche groups. There’s Path for those yearning more private online interactions, Between and LoveByte for couples, Burpple for food lovers, as well as GetGlue for those oriented towards movies and television.
While creating an “Instagram for _______” is certainly a hot startup idea, none of these companies have attained the breakout success of Dropbox, Airbnb, and yes, Facebook. But that hasn’t stopped Stickery from trying. Read more
The next time you go for a haircut, you may want to visit ZupaDo first.
The website, which launched today, is building a social network revolving around hair. It is an online meeting place to connect hair stylists and potential customers, and an avenue for the slightly hair-obsessed to share their latest looks, get tips, and receive recommendations.
It also has a ‘ZupaMatch’ feature, which recommends the right hair stylists or salons to match your hairstyle, gender, and age. The feature will become more useful when more hair professionals join the website, which currently has 17 stylists and 13 salons. The site is free to use for members and stylists. Read more
Company
Gushcloud aims to be the best place in the world for people to connect with brands meaningfully. It was founded in Singapore in 2011 and has a presence in Singapore, San Francisco, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Read more
Recognizing the importance language has in building and maintaining relationships, Path, a mobile-centric social network app, recently rolled out seven new languages: Dutch, Norwegian, Traditional Chinese, Thai, Bahasa Indonesian, Malay, and UK English. This adds on to the nine that are currently available: Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, French, Swedish, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
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Businesses must be aware of a fundamental truth about many social networks: They are built for people, not brands.
Creating a business profile page on Facebook serves no purpose if you can’t attract people to it with a compelling social media strategy. And that requires a lot of resources and patience.
As such, B2B businesses that don’t interest consumers are better off looking elsewhere. Cyfler might be one destination.
In essence, Cyfler is a B2B social network based in Singapore that connects one company to another. It sets itself apart from Facebook and LinkedIn by being designed from the ground up to help B2B companies get customers.
Putting it another way, it’s a web billboard (think Craigslist, but more visual) with social network features tacked on.
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There is an abundance of startups that are taking a stab at creating a popular social network for pets. While some, like Petizens, have folded, many others, like Uniteddogs, Pawsley, YouPet, PetZume, and Doggyspace, have yet to break out.
Perhaps the biggest one is New York startup Dogbook, started in 2007, which has 40,000 monthly active users on its Facebook app. That’s not a lot, considering the fact that there are 46 million dog owners in the US alone.
Obviously, none of the Western startups have met the stratospheric expectations of becoming a Facebook for pets. So it’s interesting that Singapore-based Aiiooo has decided to take a stab at it in 2012, when the luster of social networks have faded somewhat with Facebook’s bungled IPO.
But Aiiooo could yet succeed. Read more
Updated: 21th September 2011, 8:17pm Singapore time.
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.
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