Malaysian Payments Company MOL Global Snaps Up Friendster

We heard reports that Friendster was going to shopping itself to an Asian technology company but tonight, the news was released that MOL Global, a Malaysian payments company, has purchased social network Friendster. The full press release is below. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed but we’ve heard that the purchase price is around $100 million.
Friendster, which was founded in 2001, has raised over $45 million in venture capital to date, and is sitting on some potentially lucrative IP. The acquisition makes sense because while Friendster is no longer hot in the U.S., it’s most definitely still has members in the Asia/Pacific region. The social network, which just rolled out a much-needed redesign, appointed Richard Kimber as its new CEO, who used to head Sales and Operations in South East Asia for Google.

MOL Global and Friendster already had a partnership power the payments ecosystem of the Friendster Wallet and its payments platform.
MOL Retail and Payment Channels and Leading Online Social Network Combine to Form Massive Content Distribution and E-commerce Platform in Asia for Over 100 Million Users
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ — MOL Global Pte. Ltd. (”MOL Global”), an affiliate of leading online payment solutions provider MOL AccessPortal Berhad (”MOL”), and Friendster, Inc. (”Friendster”), the operator of a top global web site based on traffic and a leading social network in Asia, announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement under which MOL Global will acquire 100% of Friendster. The principal shareholder of MOL is Tan Sri Vincent Tan, the Chairman and CEO of Berjaya Corporation Berhad, a leading, diversified Malaysian conglomerate that has annual revenues in excess of US$1.8 billion. Following the acquisition, the operations of MOL and Friendster will be combined to create Asia’s largest end-to-end content, distribution and commerce network, pairing MOL’s offline retail channel partners and payment platform with Friendster’s large online footprint, social network and user community in Asia.

“The merger with Friendster will continue to transform the social networking industry, combining a highly intuitive and successful social media site and online marketing channel with an integrated payment platform and content network which includes games, goods, gifts, music and video. We are creating a unique company that will be well positioned to provide content to a huge, regional user base, here in Southeast Asia,” said Ganesh Kumar Bangah, president and chief executive officer of MOL.
MOL uses the leverage of a network of over 500,000 physical and virtual payment channels across 75 countries worldwide to collect payments for content and services. Its core markets are Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and India. MOL has relationships with over 70 online game publishers that have a suite of over 200 online game titles. It also has partnerships with music, movie and video content owners and distributors across the region.
“Friendster and MOL are both industry pioneers and are close partners. This combination is a natural progression of our relationship and will be an industry-changing event,” said Richard Kimber, chief executive officer at Friendster. “The new combined entity gives Friendster the kind of financial backing, retail distribution, and e-commerce infrastructure that will enable us to accelerate our strategy and create a locally relevant, fun experience for our users in Asia, both on and offline.”

In 2003, Friendster pioneered social networking, and today is a leading web site in Asia, with over 75 million registered users and over 90 percent of daily traffic coming from the region. Asian youths have embraced Friendster and use it as their primary means of connecting to and keeping in touch with friends, self-expression, sharing content and news with friends, and as a source of entertainment. Friendster users also enjoy local music, gifting, photo sharing, online games, and using Friendster on their mobile devices. All of these are incorporated in Friendster’s product suite and will be further developed over time with MOL, specifically with Asian youths in mind.
Friendster and MOL entered a global partnership in October of this year where MOL was appointed to provide an integrated payments platform, as a foundation for The Friendster Wallet and The Friendster Gift Shop, for Friendster’s users. The new combined entity will now build upon that initial set of products to deliver a content distribution network and e-commerce platform, enabling a wide array of content to be distributed to Friendster’s community and monetize via micro-transactions using MOL’s payment platform. MOL will use the leverage of its physical distribution networks to localize and extend the online reach of social networking in Southeast Asia to the physical world through Tan Sri Vincent Tan’s substantial assets across Malaysia and the region, including retail franchises in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia such as Starbucks, 7-Eleven, Borders, Krispy Kreme, Wendy’s and Papa John’s Pizza, just to name a few.
Friendster recently launched a new brand and web site packed with new features representing a significant milestone in the company’s history and further signifying the company’s evolution to focus on the Asian youth market. The notable changes include a new fun-centric brand, and a redesigned web site with a focus on local relevance, fun and simplicity.
The combined entity will maintain offices in various locations, around the world, including Mountain View, CA (USA), the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Ganesh Kumar Bangah will become the Group Chief Executive Officer of the combined entity while Richard Kimber will become the Non-Executive Chairman.

The world's most expensive and cheapest McDonald's

Monday Starters - By Soo Ewe Jin

AS if Iceland does not have enough problems, McDonald’s has just announced the closure of its three restaurants there and said it has no plans to return.

Apparently, most of the ingredients used by McDonald’s in this crisis-hit country are imported from Germany and the franchise holder would have to raise prices by at least 20% to produce an acceptable profit.

The story was important enough to make it to the front page of the Financial Times on Oct 27.

According to the report, for McDonald’s to stay profitable in Iceland, the Big Mac there would have to be priced above US$5.75, which is what it costs in Switzerland, home to the most expensive Big Mac, according to the Big Mac index.

The Big Mac index is published by The Economist as an informal way of measuring the purchasing power parity (PPP) between two currencies and provides a test of the extent to which market exchange rates result in goods costing the same in different countries.

You can get a good exposition of how this index works, including its limitations, by referring to Tan Sri Dr Lin See Yan’s column on July 25 entitled “Burgernomics and the ringgit”.

Since this column is not into heavy economic stuff, I was more interested to find out where the most expensive and cheapest Big Macs are to be found.

As of February this year, the most expensive burgers were in Norway (US$5.79), Switzerland (US$5.60), Denmark (US$5.07), Sweden (US$4.58) and Eurozone (US$4.38).

Now, here’s the interesting part. According to the same index, Malaysia (US$1.70) actually ranks No 1 among the five most affordable Big Macs, ahead of Hong Kong (US$1.71), China (US$1.83), Thailand (US$1.86) and Sri Lanka (US$1.95).

To be frank, I am not a real fan of fast food but when I am overseas and am at a loss as to what to eat, it is quite comforting to be able to step into a McDonald’s, KFC or Pizza Hut outlet, and order familiar items.

We also have to understand why some of our overseas friends do not like to be too adventurous with our wide array of Malaysian hawker fare, especially when they are on a short trip. There’s nothing worse than having to repeatedly run to the toilet because their stomachs are not accustomed to our delicious, spicy stuff.

Still on the same subject, I am trying to figure out why the fast-food joints are increasing the number of their 24-hour outlets.

In my neighbourhood, they compete with the Syeds and other 24-hour teh tarik outlets, and for the life of me, I cannot imagine anyone preferring a snack plate of original recipe chicken over a piping hot bowl of sup kambing in the hours after midnight, or a Big Mac over the Ramly burger sold at the roadside stall.

But they have obviously done their research, and I suppose my preferences are fast being overtaken by more global taste buds. That may well impact on the Burgernomics figures eventually, since prices are determined to a large extent by supply and demand.

I like to think that I’m doing my bit to keep Malaysia in the top ranking for most affordable Big Macs – by sticking to my teh tarik and roti canai during EPL matches.

·Deputy executive editor Soo Ewe Jin continues to wonder why Iceland is greener than Greenland while Greenland is more covered in snow than Iceland.

ADOI BREAKING NEWS

MOBILE INTERNET SET TO TAKE OFF IN MALAYSIA: NIELSEN TECHNOLOGY FEATURES TOP WISH LIST FOR PHONE USERS
http://www.adoimagazine.com/newhome/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3825&catid=1&Itemid=5

MALAYSIA RECORDS 13% GROWTH IN ADVERTISING IN 2008!
http://www.adoimagazine.com/newhome/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3841&catid=1&Itemid=5

MOBILE INTERNET SET TO TAKE OFF IN MALAYSIA

MOBILE INTERNET SET TO TAKE OFF IN MALAYSIA: NIELSEN TECHNOLOGY FEATURES TOP WISH LIST FOR PHONE USERS

KUALA LUMPUR: Mobile Internet in Malaysia is set to surge with more than half a million regular users currently, and more subscribers setting their sights on this ‘musthave’ technology feature for their next mobile phone, a new Mobile Insights Report from leading international market research firm, The Nielsen Company has revealed.

“Generally it is males who tend to score higher on wanting emerging technology features in their handsets, but when it comes to mobile Internet, both genders are equal. This shows that this emerging technology is fast gaining mainstream acceptance,” according to Vinod Paul, Consumer Research Director of The Nielsen Company, Malaysia who oversaw the survey. The findings emerged from Nielsen’s Malaysia Mobile Insights Report, the largest syndicated survey of its kind conducted on the Malaysia Telecommunications (Telco) market covering over 3,000 subscribers in Peninsula and East Malaysia. The survey measures the mobile landscape in terms of brand performance, reported market share, purchasing habits, reported usage and preference as well as satisfaction and loyalty for Telco operators and handset devices among Malaysian citizens, expats and migrant workers.

Another interesting insight that surfaced is the apparent disconnect between Malaysian Telco operators’ brand equity among customers and their actual market share, through an analysis of the Telco’s’ Brand Equity Indices (BEI), Nielsen’s leading management tool for measuring brand equity performance. (Chart 1) “The Nielsen BEI barometer gives Telcos a reality check. It is a very useful and powerful tool for operators, allowing them to benchmark their actual market shares against consumers’ perceptions and satisfaction levels and help identify existing gaps and implement effective marketing and operational strategies to align both aspects,” said Mr Paul (Nielsen’s BEI is calculated based on preference, recommendation of a brand and willingness to pay more for a brand).

According to the report, Maxis’ strong BEI share is reflected in its current dominance of the market, while Celcom is a key challenger, ranking the second most preferred brand. (Chart 2) “Celcom appears to be underleveragingits brand strength with consumers considering that the company currently outperforms Maxis on major network considerations such as network quality, coverage and pricing. It would also indicate that Maxis’ current market share over indexes on its present brand equity,” commented Paul. Digi, the third most preferred service network, appears to be slightly underleveraging its brand equity with consumers, but to a lesser degree than Celcom.

“We expect the launch of mobile number portability (MNP) to have a limited impact on subscribers in a mature market like Malaysia where any who are really unhappy with their service provider would have gradually moved to other networks even before now. However, it does mean that telcos cannot afford to rest on their laurels as their service levels will be placed under intense scrutiny. We foresee that telcos will have to step up their investments in customer relationship management (CRM) efforts as they face increasing competitive pressure in a level playing field to defend their market share, commented Paul.

The survey also shed light on the psychographic profile of users across key mobile phone brands. “Samsung’s profile skews towards users 35 years and above and is concentrated on Chinese. Nokia owners are more mass marketand tend to be prepaid users. Motorola users tend to be experimental, hence can be easily swayed. Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson lays claim to a very attractive profile of young and high spending postpaid users,” said Paul.

Source: (Adoi Breaking News)

How to become very rich in Malaysia

If you have ever wondered how to get rich in Malaysia – fabulously rich and very quickly at that – here’s a model that you might want to look at very closely. Not easy to do but if you do have a couple of projects in the bag, it will set you up for several lifetimes.

First you need connections – strong ones, the higher the better and if it goes right up to the top all the better. You need this because you need to convince the powers that be that your projects are good.

But you might ask if your projects are so good, why do you need connections? Why don’t you just go out and execute? Good questions, those. Here’s the answer - you need the state to give you something to do the deal that will help the nation.

Still can’t figure it out? See, it’s like this. You want to help the country, right? The country needs say a port. But you can’t build a port just like that. You need land to build a port. You tell the state or federal government you need land – cheap land, preferably free to build the port.

Or to take another example, you want to help the country by building a power plant. But look, you need land too and not only that you need the power to be sold. So you want an agreement – an iron-clad one to sell the power to Tenaga Nasional and to pass through all costs.

You see, that’s your reward as an entrepreneur – you get someone else to build the power plant, they guarantee the performance of the plant and someone else guarantees to buy your power and pay for all your costs. Nice deal? You bet. Billionaires have been made that way.

Or you may want to start an air hub. If you are persuasive enough, you can even convince the government to compulsorily acquire the land and sell it to you cheap. Once you have cheap land, lucrative contracts and concession agreements, the sky’s the limit.

Let’s take it a step further. If you want to realise the value of all of these things that you have and still keep control of them, it’s nice to have a listed company into which you can inject them. Inject one asset for shares and you gain control of the company.

And then inject others over the years for cash, taking the money out of the company. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too?

Do it right and get a flow of assets to inject in (you can do anything with discounted cash flow valuations – just change the discount rate, and presto, the value changes!), and you get a tidy flow of profits and cash into your personal accounts over the years. I mean a really tidy flow.

Just how much can you make this way, you ask? Why don’t you take a guess first? Did you say RM500mil? Guess again. RM1bil? How about five times that and you may be getting into the right order of magnitude.

One Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary actually made some RM4.5bil that way - actually more because he still controls the listed company. We are not saying he is the only one, which makes your chances of joining the ranks better – if you are connected to high places that is.

Source:
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/13/business/2795532&sec=business
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/12/13/business/2786964&sec=business