Social Media Snippets

A fascinating resource

Barcamp Phnom Penh is setting a standard for Barcamps in Southeast Asia. Comparing a smaller, less developed nation like Cambodia to Thailand, Malaysia or even Singapore, it is astonishing to see how active and professional the IT-Community in Phnom Penh is.

Barcamp Phnom Penh still maintains the spirit of Barcamps as it should be (although the pressure from sponsors was a bit much this year), it is all about learning from each others, sharing information and - important as well, having fun.

With two days of many sessions, it's quite exhausting. But you will rarely see no smile in the faces of the participants. Also, there are always suprises, like the "How to build a Cambodian Spaceship" session, or "Developing for iPhone." I learned a lot from Chris Brown this year, who pointed out why Cambodia is a good place for start-ups: "You can dvelop and create the product for the whole world while having low-cost office rent, lower salaries and highly motivated young developers." I totally aggree with that.

There were many job offers I saw at the Barcamp. It reflects that there is already a small community of start-ups, and my wish is that Phnom Penh develops itself as a kind of a Silicon Valley of the region, where young creative people are working on the future of the Internet generation.

My advice for the next Barcamp is: Do it as before, maybe step back from to many sponsors, keep the spirit and have fun.

If you attended this year's BarCamp Phnom Penh, please tell us what you think; what don't like most and what you like less

Great blog post from another Asian Correspondent blogger Tharum Bun on Cambodia's emerging potential for start-ups.

Visit the link for thoughts from another event attendee.

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for 39.8 percent of all Internet users in the world. Europe comes next with 27.6 percent and North America’s share is 15.9 percent in the global internet audience. This is as per August 2010 data from Comscore. We already know that Asia will be a $80 bn market by 2015. 

Coming to the global market for Twitter reach, Indonesia, Japan, Philippines and Singapore are the four Asian countries which figure in the top 10 list for Twitter. Together these four Asian countries has a percent reach of 65 percent reach in the top 10 list.

via asiancorrespondent.com

Just a brief snapshot of an interesting post from fellow Asian Correspondent blogger Sriram Vladlamani. Unfortunately the graphics haven't come out properly so I recommend visiting the link for full data and analysis.

Insight into Thai telecom law & the 3G debacle

The whole purpose of this law is to enable private companies to become licensed telecommunication operators, without having to enter into a contract with a state enterprise (i.e. concession agreement).

However, as you can see from section 79 and 80 (posted below), every effort has been made (by CAT & TOT lobbyists) to ensure that TOT & CAT can continue to gain revenue from the private sector as before, for as long as the concession agreements remain valid. If liberalization was the real goal, all concession agreements should naturally have been declared null and void, and the private companies would have been permitted to apply for a license from the regulator instead.

It's a disaster, Thailand's long awaited 3G process is further delayed.

A guest contribution to my blog outlines how Thai law can allow such a ridiculously process of challenges to derail what is now a standard worldwide technology

A great video from an official Twitter staffer packed full of stats

Click to enlarge. Source: Deagol's AAPL model

The log chart above, produced by Daniel ("Deagol") Tello, shows the revenue stream from the iPad overtaking the Mac's -- much as the iPhone did three years earlier and the iPod did a few years before that.

Just think of the knock effects across the board...

Leading the rise of social group buying and deal-of-the-day sites worldwide is U.S.-based Groupon, which practically became a household name overnight. Now, here in Thailand, plenty of clones are starting to emerge to cater to the nation’s bargain hunters too.

With the market set to take off in a major way, we’ve put together a guide to the group-buying phenomenon and the sites that are leading the pack.

Should I be worried? I'm two weeks into an in-house social media marketing role...lol

To build upon its great start and be a long-term success Spotify needs to do three things:

1. Break through the 15-20 million user bar like Pandora did
2. Convert roughly 5 percent of its user base to premium offerings
3. Build a sustainable ad business that helps shoulder the cost of its free users

Juniper's Mark Mulligan wrote the above of online music Service Spotify last year, August 2009 to be precise.

So where is the service now?

[According to data from March 2010: so true figures may be higher] It has amassed a user base of 7 million with 3.5% paying for premium service.

Not bad progress at all but I too expected better for a proposition which is essentially free music using an extensive catelogue and easy user experience.

Seems to me, from a quick straw poll of friends/family in UK, that many of the target audience simply don't know about.

As Mulligan alluded in the piece the above extract is taken from, it won't kill iTunes but it offers a complimentary service. Enforcing this message could make a big difference.

This a huge topic but I hope Spotify 'makes it' as I love the service and the concept.