Skip to main content
VentureBeat Homepage
  • Events
  • GamesBeat
  • Data Pipeline
  • Transform 2022
  • Account Settings
  • Log Out
  • Become a Member
  • Sign In

VentureBeat Homepage

VentureBeat

  • AR/VR
  • Big Data
  • Cloud
  • Commerce
  • DataDecisionMakers
  • Dev
  • Enterprise
  • Entrepreneur
  • Marketing
  • Media
  • Mobile
  • Security
  • Social
  • Transportation

Follow

follow us on Twitter follow us on Facebook follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS

The Machine

  • AI
  • Machine Learning
  • Computer Vision
  • Natural Language Processing
  • Robotic Process Automation

Follow

Follow us on RSS

GamesBeat

  • Games
  • Esports
  • PC Gaming

Follow

follow us on Twitter Follow us on RSS

Events

  • Upcoming
  • Media Partner
  • Webinars

General

  • Newsletters
  • Got a news tip?
  • Advertise
  • Press Releases
  • Guest Posts
  • Contribute to DataDecisionMakers
  • Deals
  • Data Pipeline
  • Jobs
  • VB Lab
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Join the VentureBeat Community

Free: Join the VentureBeat Community for access to 3 premium posts and unlimited videos per month.

Learn More

Sign up with your business e-mail to continue with ticket purchase

Please wait...

Share

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • VentureBeat Homepage
  • Newsletters
  • Events

Social mobile platform Mig33 raises $8.9M from Japan’s Gree and Indonesian entrepreneur

Dean Takahashi
November 8, 2010 10:30 AM
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn

Did you miss a session from GamesBeat Summit 2022? All sessions are available to stream now. Learn more. 


Mobile social networking service Mig33 has raised $8.9 million in a third round of funding.

Indonesian telecom entrepreneur Pak Sugiono Wiyono Sugialam and Japan’s Gree led the round. Sugiono is a well-known regional entrepreneur with ties to telecom retailers with lots of outlets in Indonesia. Gree, meanwhile, is a mobile social game portal and game developer with a market value of $2.5 billion. The choice of investors makes sense because Mig33 moved from Silicon Valley to Singapore as part of a plan to bring its service to developing parts of Asia.

The company will use the money to expand its growth as a social entertainment service on mobile phones. Mig33 is making a big bet that such services will be popular not only on smartphones such as the iPhone, but also on old-fashioned feature phones that are selling by the tens of millions in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and other developing regions. In these “mobile first” markets, users are buying cell phones as their primary computing devices. So they use them not only for calls, but also for a variety of services, including social networking, entertainment and games. Mig33 is riding on that trend, Sugiono said.

The company has more than 40 million registered users for its service, which started out as a way to make inexpensive voice-over-the-internet-protocol (VOIP) calls over cell phones. Now it has evolved into a social networking service where users chat with friends and send virtual gifts to each other or play games.

While the cell phone market has been driven by the sale of hardware, Sugiono believes that services will come to the forefront soon. That’s why it makes sense to invest in a services company such as Mig33, he said.

Last week, Mig33 launched a game developer program to attract more cell phone games to its platform. Mei Lin Ng, co-founder and vice president of marketing at Mig33, said in an interview that users in the emerging markets where Mig33 is strong are already enthusiastically playing games. To boost the activity, the company is creating a formal platform so that users can play each other in multiplayer games, pursue challenges in games, and view leaderboards.

Throughout 2010, Mig33 has been making a big push to create social entertainment on its mobile platform, which comes with a payment platform. The company has launched more than 1,000 virtual goods, items for avatars (virtual characters), and games. The members of Mig33’s network currently buy about 4 million virtual gifts per month and exchange nearly 1 billion Mig33 messages every day. Mig33’s competitors include China’s Tencent, which operates the huge QQ social chat network, and Japan’s DeNA, a mobile social gaming company. Mig33 hopes to get a jump on those companies, which have been focused on dominating their own market while Mig33 has focused on mobile-first markets such as Indonesia, India, and South Africa.

“Mig33’s goal is to replicate the East Asian social networking service model to the rest of the world,” said Steven Goh, the company’s chief executive and co-founder. “The partnerships we’ve established today will be strategic in helping us consolidate our lead in emerging Asia as we tap these big, underserved markets.”

Besides Gree and Sugiono, other investors include Accel partners, Redpoint Ventures and DCM. To date, Mig33 has raised more than $34 million since its launch in 2005.

GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Learn more about membership.

Author
Dean Takahashi
Topics
Business GamesBeat Mobile

GamesBeat Summit 2022 On-Demand Library

Head over to our on-demand library to view sessions from the live event and rewatch your favorite sessions from our virtual days.

Watch Now

Transform 2022

Join AI and data leaders for insightful talks and exciting networking opportunities in-person July 19 and virtually July 20-28.

Register Now

Join forces with VentureBeat at our upcoming AI & data events

Sponsor VB Events
  • VentureBeat Homepage
  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on RSS
  • VB Lab
  • Newsletters
  • Events
  • Special Issue
  • Product Comparisons
  • Jobs
  • About
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

© 2022 VentureBeat. All rights reserved.

×

We may collect cookies and other personal information from your interaction with our website. For more information on the categories of personal information we collect and the purposes we use them for, please view our Notice at Collection.