Mobile Social Networking App get funded by strategic investors
By siliconindia   |   Saturday, 13 November 2010, 13:39 IST
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Bangalore: Mig33, a mobile based social networking service, has raised $8.9 million in Series C funding from strategic investors Trikomsel of Indonesia and GREE of Japan, reports Medianama. The mobile social networking app which had topped Bharti Airtel's App Store charts earlier this year will use the money to invest in application development for platforms like Mediatek, as well as Android since it is important as an emerging market, revealed Steven Goh, CEO of Mig33. The company will also enhance its operations in South East Asia and South Asia, after doing a background check on the local language types, local content and increasing local relevance; for expanding its user base and to make sure that it secures its position. Goh said that Mig33 will also spend on advertising in these markets. He was equivocal about the exact plans for investment in the India market. According to Goh, 40 percent of Mig33?s active user base is in South Asia and 45 percent in South East Asia. He also assured that Mig33 will allocate resources to match the footprint. It is an added advantage for Mig33 that Indonesia is its largest market and substantiates the investment from Sugiono Wiyono, who is the President Director and CEO of telecom retail distribution company PT Trikomsel Oke Tbk. Trikomsel also has a subsidiary which retails cell phones in Singapore. Mig33 has also raised money from GREE, assumed to be the leading social networking site in Japan, which has a focus on gaming. Mig33's mobile social networking is based on Gree's model, and lately rolled out its Game Developer Program, wherein it brought on board three partners for mobile games - South Africa based Blue Leaf Games, Singapore based social games co TheMobileGamer (TMG), and Kooky Panda, a Beijing-based developer of many socially connected Flash Lite games. Goh said that the company has no plans for expanding the service to a mature market like Japan and won't take on GREE hence but it is planning to expand on markets in South Asia, South East Asia and South Africa. Goh said that Mig33?s registered and active user base has grown by 50 percent in a year, and the daily activity has more than doubled in the last year. Existing Mig33 investors -ccel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and DCM also took part in this round of investment, taking the total investment in the company to $34 million since launch.

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