Product Innovation; Global and Domestic Expansion Fuel Growth

SINGAPORE, January 26, 2012 - Buddy Media, the social enterprise software of choice for

Product Innovation; Global and Domestic Expansion Fuel GrowthSINGAPORE, January 26, 2012 – Buddy Media, the social enterprise software of choice foreight of the world’s top ten global advertisers, today announced record growth for 2011,fueled by winning more than 300 new customers, including some of the world’s mostrecognizable global brands such as Citibank, IBM, Volvo, New York Life, Yoplait, and theNational Football League.

Buddy Media has doubled in size, from just over 100 employees in January 2011 to more

than 225 globally today. The company scaled aggressively to meet demand and in 2011

opened new offices in London, San Francisco and Singapore. Buddy Media will also

move to a new 65,000 square foot space in New York’s SoHo neighborhood in February

2012.

Additional significant milestones for Buddy Media in 2011 include:

• Increased revenue by 2.5X.

• Increased monthly software licensing fees by 250% on average for the top 20

Buddy Media customers. Increased monthly software licensing fees for all Buddy

Media customers by 24% on average, indicating brands and agencies are

expanding to use of multiple Buddy Media products.

• Expanded user base of the Buddy Media social marketing suite to more than 91

countries.

• Named the only social marketing software company to be a ranked a “best”

vendor in all categories among 41 competitors according to analyst firm

Gleanster.

• Named a charter member of the developer programs for LinkedIn and Google+,

making Buddy Media the only company to be named a charter partner for both

these networks and Facebook.

• Expanded Buddy Media University, the largest certification program in the social

software space. More than 2,600 students participated in 2011.

• Acquired social commerce and analytics company Spinback, and integrated

the technology in less than four months — ConversionBuddy gives customers the

ability to tie social programs directly to sales and conversions.

• Launched a strategic partnership with comScore to help brands and agencies

measure and maximize the value of their social marketing programs.

• Launched ReachBuddy, which gives customers the ability to create social

content for any website or blog.

According to comScore, social networking is the most popular online activity worldwide,

accounting for nearly 1 in every 5 minutes spent online globally in October 2011. As

brands continue to look for ways to leverage social activity, in 2012, Buddy Media will

add new features, functionality and products providing new options for customers. In

addition, Buddy Media has moved to a product release schedule of three major releases

per year, in which the company will launch significant new innovations.

“Over the course of 2011, Buddy Media remained intensely focused on building,

supporting and selling the best social media marketing software on the market. This

intense focus is the cause of all of these massive results,” said Buddy Media founder and

CEO Michael Lazerow. “I’m incredibly happy with Buddy Media’s product innovation

and global expansion; it is the social marketing software of choice for the world’s largest

brands and agencies to power their connections in this new, social world. The numbers

speak for themselves and I’m excited for the rest of 2012, as the best is yet to come.”

The Buddy Media product suite consists of four core products:

• PROFILEBUDDY: Easily create and deploy content inside social networks.

• CONVERSATIONBUDDY: Manage two-way communications on social networks –

Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

• REACHBUDDY: Use social hooks to create and deploy content across the open

web.

• CONVERSIONBUDDY: Analyze how social media drives sales and conversions.

About Buddy Media

Buddy Media is the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world’s top ten global

advertisers, empowering them to build and maintain relationships with their consumers in a

connections-based world. The Buddy Media social marketing suite helps brands build powerful

connections globally with its scalable, secure architecture and data-driven customer insights from

initial point of contact through point of purchase. Buddy Media is the most award winning social

enterprise software company, winning the prestigious TechCrunch “Crunchie” Award for Best

Enterprise application, named to the Advertising Age 2011 “Digital A-list,” and CEO and Founder

Michael Lazerow was selected as 2011 New York Entrepreneur of the Year® by Ernst and Young.

For more information, visit http://www.buddymedia.com.

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Sphere Exhibits Pte Ltd and IDG Enterprise, the US-based technology, media, events and research company, have agreed to move DEMO Asia  to February 2012 from November 2011 based on the interest and increased enquiries received from potential participants, exhibitors and sponsors over the last few months.

This extension gives promising start-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators more time to gear up and prepare for Asia’s premier launch pad for new and emerging technologies.

DEMO Asia will now be held on February 29 to March 2, 2012 at Matrix@Biopolis in Singapore.

It will offer Asia’s brightest innovators and budding entrepreneurs the unique opportunity to debut, pitch and showcase breakthrough ideas and products to corporate acquirers, media, venture capitalists, angel investors and strategic partners.

Launched in 1991, DEMO is the global launch pad for emerging technologies and is held twice a year in the United States.

It comprises conferences, pitches and networking sessions for a specially invited group of companies to launch their products for the first time to an audience made up of angel investors, venture capitalists, corporate developers and acquirers, government agencies, universities and research institutes.

Singapore is the second country in Asia to host a DEMO event after China.

Sphere Exhibits will produce DEMO Asia with DEMO’s existing co-producers IDG Enterprise and strategic partner Venture Beat, a portal that reports the latest news, trends and developments on innovation and technology.

This event is supported by IDA, MDA, A*STAR, SPRING Singapore, Singapore Venture Capital Association and Business Angel Network South East Asia.

As the latest addition to the highly successful DEMO conference in the United States, the DEMO Asia event promises an exciting event line-up that will showcase Asian innovation and entrepreneurship at its finest.

These include DEMO Asia Conference Hand-picked and specially selected companies will deliver their six-minute pitches to potential investors and buyers to garner their buy-in and interest.

There will also be presentations and panel discussions from leading industry players and experts on cloud, social media, consumer, and enterprise  technologies made during the conference.

One-on-One Discussion Panel During the one-on-one discussions, the movers and shakers from successful start-ups and past DEMO alumni members will be present to offer their insights and success stories. Jeff Clavier, the Founder and Managing Partner of SoftTech VC, one of the most active seed stage

investors in Web 2.0 start-ups, will share his thoughts on the growing angel investing environment in Silicon Valley today.

Showcase Your Best Startups Country Pavilions Asian countries will be invited to showcase their homegrown fast-rising companies as part of

the DEMO Asia Startup Expo.

The Startup Expo is the ideal platform that brings together companies in web, mobile, cloud, enterprise, social media and consumer technologies from

across the region, where participants can network and form strategic partnerships.

It will also feature several DEMO alumni companies from the United States.

Mr Chua Wee Phong, Executive Director of Sphere Exhibits, said: “We are committed to the success of the first-ever DEMO Asia in Singapore. Hence, we made sure that it imbibed DEMO’s signature features while catering to Asian entrepreneurs and innovators.

By expanding and beefing up the programme, we are providing promising start ups and entrepreneurs more avenues to tap into the resources, expertise and network to enable them to showcase their innovative ideas to a global audience.”

“With Asia’s business resilience driving global growth in the next few decades, we are excited to be an active proponent in driving innovation and growth in the region with the DEMO Asia platform,” he added.

In November, the DEMO Asia Innovation Tour will visit the key Asian cities of Jakarta, Indonesia and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to search for the most  innovative ideas and products that can be showcased at DEMO Asia.   Shortlisted applicants will be screened by a DEMO Asia judging panel.

There will also be a similar audition held in Singapore from November 8-10 at the newly launched Block 71, located at the Mediapolis Phase  0 at Ayer Rajah.  In this closed-door session, 20 companies will be screened and the shortlisted applicants will be given five minutes to present to a DEMO Asia judging panel.

All successful companies that are chosen by the DEMO Asia judging panel will have the opportunity to do their pitch to venture capitalists, investors and the media at the DEMO Asia event.

DEMO Asia will also be introducing the DEMO Asia Scholarship Program which offers partial scholarship for bootstrapped companies, angel-funded  companies and full scholarships targeted at universities and research institutions.

Upon selection, deserving companies will be awarded scholarships to launch their products.

The DEMO Asia Innovation Tour is organised in conjunction with partners such as venture capitalists from the respective host cities.

Corporate partners interested in co-hosting the DEMO Asia Innovation Tour can contact the organizers at tellmemore@DEMO.asia.

Registration for DEMO Asia is now open for startups keen to launch their products and participate in the conference.

For more information, they can visit the DEMO Asia website at www.DEMO.asia.

NOKIA has launched its long-awaited first Windows 7 smartphones, hoping to claw back market share it has lost in the smartphone race to chief rivals, Apple, Samsung and Google.

With price tags of $560 and $360, the Lumia 800 and 710 are based on Microsoft’s operating system and come eight months after Nokia and the computing giant said they were hitching up.

Lumia 800, with Carl Zeiss optics and 16GB of internal memory, will be available in selected European countries in November, including France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and Britain.

It will be sold in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the year end.

Lumia 710, with a 1.4 GHz processor, navigational applications and Nokia Music a free, mobile music streaming app will first be available in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan toward the end of the year.

The company’s share price jumped almost 3 per cent in an otherwise depressed market on the Helsinki Stock Exchange but settled, closing almost unchanged at ($6.68).

Nokia, which claims 1.3 billion daily users, has been the world’s biggest handset maker since 1998, selling 432 million devices last year – more than its three closest rivals combined.

Worse still, Nokia’s sales in the more lucrative smartphone market crashed 39 per cent in the third quarter as it continued to be squeezed in the low end by Asian manufacturers like ZTE and in the high end by the iPhone, Research in Motion’s Blackberry, Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Taiwan-based HTC Corp.

The iPhone has set the standard for smartphones among many design-conscious consumers and the Blackberry has been the favourite of the corporate set.

Google’s Android software has emerged as the choice for phone makers that want to challenge the iPhone.

Samsung and HTC – snapping at Nokia’s heels for third place in topend smartphones behind the iPhone and Samsung – are the biggest users of the Android platform.

Nokia is still operating Symbian software, older than Apple’s software and considered clumsy by many, although it has been upgraded.

Nokia also introduced the MeeGo platform in its flagship N9 model launched last month.

While the West leads the world in terms of an attractive place for IT firms to work, more Asian nations are moving up the ladder.

According to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Asian economies are closing the gap on the West in terms of their IT competitiveness.

A study showed, as they strengthen copyright protection and implement regulatory reforms.

The US retained its position as the world’s most competitive IT industry this year, followed by Finland and Singapore.

Europe dominated the top 20 places in a competitiveness index, which was based on criteria such as foreign investment policies, infrastructure, enrollment in higher IT education, patent registries, copyright protection and access to capital.

However, seven Asian economies made it to the top 20 Singapore (3), Australia (8), Taiwan (13), Japan (16), New Zealand (18), South Korea (19) and Hong Kong (19) up from six in the previous survey in 2009.

Malaysia moved up 11 notches to 31st, while India climbed 10 places to 34th. Singapore advanced six paces.

Malaysia and India recorded the sharpest improvements among the 66 economies surveyed worldwide.

the current market turmoil and the 2008 financial crisis, which have adversely affected Western economies, have boosted Asia’s rise.

BSA is a global industry group that works for copyright protection and counts among its members some of the world’s biggest technology firms.

China was in 38th place in the global index, up one notch, but needs to improve its copyright protection environment.

Envivio showcased an extensive demonstration of video headend solutions to CommunicAsia 2011 which integrates content encoding, packaging, encryption and distribution in innovative ways to meet the requirements of multi-screen TV services.Envivo, a leading provider of live and on-demand multi-screen IP video processing and delivery solutions showed new techniques that help service providers minimize complexity as they build smart video headends that make TV without Boundaries possible for their subscribers.

The Envivio booth at CommunicAsia 2011 featured the first public demonstration in Asia of several new products including the Envivio Halo™ Network Media Processor (NMP), 4Caster™ C4 Gen III multi-screen encoder, and the Envivio Genesis™ universal,mezzanine output format. Envivio’s 4Caster encoders, Halo NMPs and the Genesis format together create a video delivery environment designed and optimized for multi-screen delivery.

“Multi-screen TV has rapidly evolved from future concept to required business practice for service providers worldwide,” said Envivio president and CEO Julien Signès. “Our latest solutions are highly optimized for launching ‘TV everywhere’ services that provide subscribers with fantastic video quality and high quality of experience on every device while providing the operator with the flexibility and scalability they need to compete.” The new Halo NMP enables operators to shift their content packaging and delivery processing to the edges of their existing video distribution infrastructure. Moving these operations makes it possible to add support for delivering high quality, protected video to new devices without altering the headend. Halo NMP complements existing broadcast infrastructure and simplifies distribution to the latest smartphones, tablets,connected TVs, and PCs.

Cyrille Berson, Product Manager, Envivio, when met up at their booth, emphasized their platform not only optimizes video delivery to multi screen from a uniform platform but helps save on capex at the same time. Their trial deployments have been with Telcos and Pay TV operators to date.

Halo lets operators take advantage of the Genesis universal output format to control the bandwidth demands multi-screen TV makes on backbone networks. Genesis merges the bit rates and resolutions needed to deliver adaptive streams for major standards and technologies into a single, efficient output format. The result is a  reduction of as much as 50 percent in the bandwidth demands multi-screen TV makes on valuable backbone resources.Video headends powered by the Envivio 4Caster C4 family of encoders provide support for the full spectrum of IPTV, Internet TV, Mobile TV, cable, satellite and terrestrial applications.

They enable operators to support the growing variety of formats needed to deliver video to any device at any time, including simultaneous video delivery from a single encoder to digital set-top boxes, connected TVs, PCs and Macs, as well as tablets and mobile screens.content universally enjoyable by all viewers, on any device, across any network, at any time. Now in its second decade of developing market-leading video convergence solutions, Envivio has amassed dozens of patents, pioneered video-over-IP methods,and led in the deployment of emerging standards and new technologies. Today Envivio solutions deliver millions of content streams to hundreds of different styles of mobile devices, set top boxes, and PC platforms, on behalf of content owners, telecom operators, cable and satellite companies and mobile service providers throughout the world. Deployment and support are backed by a global staff that is familiar with local technical, regulatory and market guidelines encountered around the world. Envivio is headquartered in South San Francisco, California and has offices worldwide including France, England, China, Singapore and Japan. Envivio is a registered trademark and 4Caster, Envivio Genesis and TV without Boundaries are trademarks of Envivio, Inc.

All trademarks used herein, whether recognized or not, are the properties of their respective companies.

Asia Pacific Correspondent : Rani Wemel

LTT Global Brands | 14 Jalan SS3/33, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor DE, Malaysia

T: 03-7877 7023

| F: 03-78777806 |

email: rani@LTTCOM.com / rani@techistan.com

CommunicAsia, Singapore, 21 June 2011 – Arantech a provider of Customer Experience Management (CEM) systems to communications service providers (CSPs) worldwide, announced today that StarHub has implemented the Arantech touchpoint™ product suite and openplatform ProAction solution. StarHub has implemented the integrated CEM system to improve the overall experience of its subscribers.

StarHub is based in Singapore and it is the second largest wireless operator focused on the Island State. Singapore is one of the most developed and affluent markets in the Asia-Pacific region. Mobile penetration has reached 150 per cent, data usage is increasing and more than 60 per cent of the StarHub Mobile post-paid subscriber base has adopted smartphones.

Chan Kin Hung, Head, Products & Solutions, StarHub, explained: “In the highly competitive Singapore mobile market we deployed Arantech’s CEM to proactively identify customer issues, which allows us to respond to such issues in a timely and appropriate manner.”

He added: “We selected Arantech on the basis that its CEM tools would enable us to deliver an excellent customer experience and that the data extracted would be accessible to multiple departments within the organisation, from the network engineers to the customer service teams.”

Brian Carroll, CEO of Arantech, commented: “StarHub is a leading advocate of CEM and how it can be used to eliminate common problems associated with customer experience, such as dropped calls or badly configured handsets. StarHub is also aware of the value that CEM represents in terms of developing a better understanding of its subscriber base.”

Arantech touchpoint™ enables CSPs to gain an enhanced level of service visibility and a deeper insight into their subscribers experience of network services, allowing them to protect themselves from churn and ARPU decline. Arantech’s touchpoint™ CEM solution does this by building and storing real time experience customer metrics for every subscriber in the network, which are visualized through a set of rich user interfaces and business intelligence tools. Data analysis is typically restricted to network engineers and IT teams, Arantech’s openplatform ProAction, provides an interface that non-technical staff can use to capture, analyse and act upon events that impact on customer experience. This enables the operator to deal with network, service or device issues rapidly before the subscriber experiences any impairment in service delivery.

Arantech is attending the CommunicAsia conference in Singapore (21st – 24th June), the company will be located at stand No BN4 01.

About Arantech

Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Arantech supplies a suite of Customer Experience Management (CEM) software solutions and CEM consultancy services to help telecom operators derive maximum benefit from their existing network infrastructure, customer and service management systems. Arantech’s client base includes four of the six largest mobile operator groups in the world, serving in excess of 300 million mobile subscribers.

www.arantech.com
For more information, please contact:
Annette Rochford
Marketing Manager
Arantech
Tel: +353 1 210 0100
E-mail: arochford@arantech.com

Babel PR for Arantech
Matt Humphries or James Beattie
Tel: +44(0)207 434 5550
Email: arantech@babelpr.com

• Interactive, on-demand TV services and content available on different devices
• Complete Ericsson solution includes encoding, encrypting, publishing and delivering content and application
• Ericsson’s first managed services deal with a media company in Asia

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) recently announced that it has been selected by Singapore’s MediaCorp to enable and manage MediaCorp’s new over-the-top service via broadband connection to their customers. The contract is Ericsson’s first managed services deal with a media company in Asia and includes a broad range of Ericsson TV solutions that enable consumers to watch their video content at any time, anywhere, on a wide variety of devices.

MediaCorp is Singapore’s foremost media organization with seven television channels, 13 radio stations, as well as newspapers, magazines, movies, digital and out-of-home media. Its TV viewers comprise majority of the Singapore market and its Channel NewsAsia International, one of the first Asian-owned English news channels, has a pan-regional outreach.

On-demand and over-the-top TV solutions continue to grow in importance for media owners and broadcasters as consumer viewing habits change, creating desire for watching TV anywhere, at any time, on any device. In line with MediaCorp’s strategy, this deal supports a diversification of their business and helps build direct, interactive relationships with consumers. Ericsson will supply, integrate, manage and operate the complete end-to-end technical solution over a five-year period.
Lucas Chow, MediaCorp CEO says, “MediaCorp is pleased to have Ericsson as our solutions provider and partner, as we embark on this very important and strategic initiative. Together, we are confident in providing an unprecedented interactivity and innovation, by offering a suite of exciting services on multiple platforms to our local consumers. We will set the future direction of interactive TV in Singapore by riding on the next generation national broadband network, and herald a new era of TV experience.”
“We are excited to support MediaCorp in delivering their new interactive service,” says Fadi Pharaon, head of Ericsson Singapore and Brunei. “Ericsson will design, integrate and operate a customized solution for MediaCorp based on our portfolio of products, which will allow consumers to access content via specific set-top boxes, connected TVs, tablets, personal computers and mobile devices.”
Jan Wäreby, head of Sales and Marketing, Ericsson, says: “This contract marks the beginning of a new partnership between Ericsson and MediaCorp. It further demonstrates Ericsson’s leadership in the TV and managed services space, as well as our commitment to offer even more innovative solutions to our customers. We have the complete suite of building blocks needed to meet MediaCorp’s exact requirements regarding technology, as well as systems integration and managed services capabilities.”

About Ericsson

Ericsson is the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services. The company’s portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices. Ericsson is advancing its vision of being the “prime driver in an all-communicating world” through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 90,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 203.3 billion (USD 28.2 billion) in 2010. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York.

About MediaCorp

MediaCorp is Singapore’s leading media company with the most complete range of platforms, spanning television, radio, newspapers, magazines, movies, digital and out-of-home media. It pioneered the development of Singapore’s broadcasting industry, with the broadcast of Radio in 1936 and Television in 1963. Today, MediaCorp has over 50 products and brands in four languages (English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil), reaching out to all adults in Singapore every week.

Our industry firsts include the Digital Video Broadcast technology for outdoor digital television, and Asia’s first Digital Audio Broadcast radio service. Initiatives in the digital space include online classifieds, Internet TV-on-demand and High Definition TV broadcast.  MediaCorp is an active regional player through co-productions in TV dramas and movies, magazines publishing, as well as Channel NewsAsia International, one of the first Asian-owned English news channels.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) recently announced that it has been selected by Singapore’s MediaCorp to enable and manage MediaCorp’s new over-the-top service via broadband connection to their customers. The contract is Ericsson’s first managed services deal with a media company in Asia and includes a broad range of Ericsson TV solutions that enable consumers to watch their video content at any time, anywhere, on a wide variety of devices.

MediaCorp is Singapore’s foremost media organization with seven television channels, 13 radio stations, as well as newspapers, magazines, movies, digital and out-of-home media. Its TV viewers comprise majority of the Singapore market and its Channel NewsAsia International, one of the first Asian-owned English news channels, has a pan-regional outreach.

On-demand and over-the-top TV solutions continue to grow in importance for media owners and broadcasters as consumer viewing habits change, creating desire for watching TV anywhere, at any time, on any device. In line with MediaCorp’s strategy, this deal supports a diversification of their business and helps build direct, interactive relationships with consumers. Ericsson will supply, integrate, manage and operate the complete end-to-end technical solution over a five-year period.
Lucas Chow, MediaCorp CEO says, “MediaCorp is pleased to have Ericsson as our solutions provider and partner, as we embark on this very important and strategic initiative. Together, we are confident in providing an unprecedented interactivity and innovation, by offering a suite of exciting services on multiple platforms to our local consumers. We will set the future direction of interactive TV in Singapore by riding on the next generation national broadband network, and herald a new era of TV experience.”
“We are excited to support MediaCorp in delivering their new interactive service,” says Fadi Pharaon, head of Ericsson Singapore and Brunei. “Ericsson will design, integrate and operate a customized solution for MediaCorp based on our portfolio of products, which will allow consumers to access content via specific set-top boxes, connected TVs, tablets, personal computers and mobile devices.”
Jan Wäreby, head of Sales and Marketing, Ericsson, says: “This contract marks the beginning of a new partnership between Ericsson and MediaCorp. It further demonstrates Ericsson’s leadership in the TV and managed services space, as well as our commitment to offer even more innovative solutions to our customers. We have the complete suite of building blocks needed to meet MediaCorp’s exact requirements regarding technology, as well as systems integration and managed services capabilities.”

About Ericsson

Ericsson is the world’s leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services. The company’s portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices. Ericsson is advancing its vision of being the “prime driver in an all-communicating world” through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 90,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 203.3 billion (USD 28.2 billion) in 2010. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York.

About MediaCorp

MediaCorp is Singapore’s leading media company with the most complete range of platforms, spanning television, radio, newspapers, magazines, movies, digital and out-of-home media. It pioneered the development of Singapore’s broadcasting industry, with the broadcast of Radio in 1936 and Television in 1963. Today, MediaCorp has over 50 products and brands in four languages (English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil), reaching out to all adults in Singapore every week.

Our industry firsts include the Digital Video Broadcast technology for outdoor digital television, and Asia’s first Digital Audio Broadcast radio service. Initiatives in the digital space include online classifieds, Internet TV-on-demand and High Definition TV broadcast.  MediaCorp is an active regional player through co-productions in TV dramas and movies, magazines publishing, as well as Channel NewsAsia International, one of the first Asian-owned English news channels.

Our financial and strategic relationships in the region since 2007 include a venture with Indonesia’s most integrated media company PT Media Nusantara Citra and its parent, Global Mediacom, and International Media Corporation in Vietnam, set up to develop and produce television entertainment and economic news content. Winner of numerous international awards and accolades including Asia Television’s Broadcaster of the Year, MediaCorp’s vision is to become Asia’s top media company, delivering valued content to the world.  For more information, please visit mediacorp.sg

Our financial and strategic relationships in the region since 2007 include a venture with Indonesia’s most integrated media company PT Media Nusantara Citra and its parent, Global Mediacom, and International Media Corporation in Vietnam, set up to develop and produce television entertainment and economic news content. Winner of numerous international awards and accolades including Asia Television’s Broadcaster of the Year, MediaCorp’s vision is to become Asia’s top media company, delivering valued content to the world.  For more information, please visit mediacorp.sg

By Asia Pacific Correspondent : Rani Wemel
LTT Global Brands | 14 Jalan SS3/33, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor DE, Malaysia
T: 03-7877 7023 | F: 03-78777806 |
rani@LTTCOM.com / rani@techistan.com

Suzanne Bowen: Welcome to the DIDX podcast where we bring you the expertise and innovations among leaders around the world in telecommunications, mobile, broadband connectivity, social networking and social media. Meet Peter Yang in Singapore. He is an Asterisk developer for the Android mobile application MPhoneGG and other services.

How did you decide to name the Droid VoIP service MPhoneGG?

Peter Yang: I do the mobile program for quite a long time. For the VoIP program, because the first character of the company website is ‘M’(messagingbay), I use
MPhone. The ‘GG’ basically comes from “Google”.

Actually, I have other program also. I have MPhoneBB for Blackberry.

Listen to the original podcast if you like.

Suzanne Bowen: That’s cool. That makes sense.

Peter Yang:  I also have for the VoIP program for the Web. It is called MPhoneWeb. I am working on a program for Apple IPhone. The name will be MPhoneAP.

All the programs are based on the same protocol and similar technology, but be translated to support different mobile OSs. Currently I have programs for Android phone, Blackberry, and Web.

Suzanne Bowen: That’s great, so … the only one I didn’t hear is Symbian. A lot of Nokia uses Symbian. Did I hear that, or do you plan that for the future?

Peter Yang: 

I have a special solution for Symbian phone also. As you know, Symbian already has some embedded SIP phone for Nokia, when you purchase
the phone.

The challenge is how to configure the SIP client to connect to the VoIP service providers’ system. In other words, how to set SIP client with VOIP providers’ parameters. This is what we have solved. We provide HTTP based service for VOIP companies to config SIP client. Basically, the VOIP service companies send necessary parameters (like IP address/port/username/password etc) to our system through HTTP API, our system will encode such parameters and send as very special binary SMS to Nokia phone. When the user receives SMS, they only need to save and then they can use VOIP service.

Suzanne Bowen: That was a good point about Symbian and Nokia. I used to have a Nokia e61i and a Nokia n71. They were wonderful phones and came with their own SIP clients.

You were describing how MPhoneGG works. Tell us more about how to download it and how to make it work.

Peter Yang: MphoneGG program is connected to Asterisk because Asterisk is a famous open source VoIP server. Many VoIP companies use Asterisk to do the
business. It’s free. Quality is very good.

For the MPhone products, all of them connect with Asterisk. I use IAX protocol to connect to the aAterisk.

Suzanne Bowen: I love that you brought this up. Peter, I had a conversation a couple years ago with some people from the Asterisk community and Digium. They felt concerned that Asterisk was really big and used widely in the Western Hemisphere but not so much in the East.

I said, “No, that’s crazy. You won’t believe the power that Asterisk is providing in the East. I’ve met those who use and develop with it in Malaysia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh … China … even.”

As you said .. Asterisk is the power behind the MPhoneGG. You just explained why.

Peter Yang: First, it is free. Second, it is very user-friendly. For engineer, it is very easy to set up. No high cost. Even the virtual machine … very small hardware.

Not expensive hardware to support the system. The maintenance is very easy. It is easy to run service with Asterisk.

Suzanne Bowen: Peter, since I am introducing you to a world of those who may download this MP3 to their iPhone, to their Android phone, or MP3 player, they will be curious about you. Tell us a little about your own professional history and your application developer history.

Peter Yang: A long time ago, I worked in Wireless Lab of Sun Microsystem which was acquired by Oracle two years ago. When I left, I started this company. I did many mobile and/or networking/database/Web etc programs. I have experienced many types of programming languages and different technologies. Like C/C++/ Java/Javascript/Object C etc , GWT/Wicket/Struts etc, Postgresql/MySQL etc. It is hard to list all of them.

Suzanne Bowen: That’s interesting. I appreciate your telling us about this. We’ll be meeting in person at CommunicAsia in Singapore. It is one of our favorite conferences. It’s in June. We have a booth there. Tell us where on the Internet the listeners can download the MPhoneGG and Apple app.

Peter Yang: 

For the MPhoneGG, we go to the Android market. Download through searching the program name. There are two programs. One is for the MPhoneGG. The other one is MPhoneGG demo. The demo version is free. The demo one can be used to connect to my server to feel the voice quality and can test whether the mobile device is supported. For MPhoneGG, you can use it to connect to your own VOIP provider and this is the reason small $ is charged.

The demo lets the user see how the program really works. The voice quality is very good. Very easy download.

Suzanne Bowen: I’ll be the first one to try this out on my HTC Android phone right after this podcast. My husband also has one, so we will both try it. Hundreds, maybe thousands listen to the podcasts at www.didx.net/podcast so you should be seeing a lot of downloads soon.

Do you want to share anything else before we close this talk?

How can people get in touch with you? Can they connect with you on Linkedin, Facebook or anything like that?

Peter Yang: I have Facebook. I will email you all the details later.

Suzanne Bowen: I appreciate this. It was a great talk.

Peter Yang: Thank you very much.

More information about Messaging Bay services:

MessagingBay has four Facebook groups:
1. Group: blackberry VOIP
2. Group: Android VOIP
3. Group: Web softphone
4. Group: Nokia Native SIP Phone

The website is www.messagingbay.com.

1. Global SMS(Short Text Message) Service. Peter have programmed the SMSC himself. It supports both SMPP client and server mode. In other words, they connect to their provider
through SMPP and their customers can connect to them through SMPP also.

2. In SMS industry, because not all service providers prefer to using SMPP connectivities, the system design does support HTTP based customization for connecting to /or provide
connectivity to customers through HTTP API.

3. Their SMS service API has three types of APIs. The first is the mostly using text message-sending API; the second is WAP push API; and the last is their special service -
Nokia SIP client configuration service.

4. Their SMS sevice covers almost all countries except Canada. Both USA and China are covered. These two countries are the two most difficult countries to cover. Most SMS service companies do not cover these two countries. Other countries are typically covered.

5. Voice related solutions and services:
a. GoogleOut solution. Similar to SkypeOut, this solution make it possible for VOIP companies to terminate voice call from Google Talk or Gmail. Eg, VOIP company
abc can ask their customers to use Google Talk/Gmail to make calls —>abc company gateway(my solution part) —> SIP/PSTN —>Normal Phone.

b. Asterisk based VOIP system. Normally, MessagingBay will customize for customers who need their own customized creative billing system etc.

c. MPhone software: MPhoneWEB/GG/BB. Others like AP/MS will come also.
At the beginning, MessagingBay was interested in providing a web phone which is small and can be embedded into browsers. Peter programmed MPhoneWEB based on three technologies(Javascript based UI, Java applet based network part and C based voice encoding/decoding). The program is quite successful with good quality (iLBC codec) and minimum size (about 250KB). This program can be used on both Mac and Windows and support IE, Firefox and Chrome. It was fairly simple to port MPhoneWEB to BlackBerry and Android devices. Next on the agenda is to port to iPhone and Win7 mobile.

The picture at the beginning is of PMS Asterisk gamer girls from the world of online gaming.

Credit theregister.co.uk on mobile commerce

M-Commerce World Summit 2011 will be held from 6 to 7 April 2011 in Singapore to discuss on strategies to profit from mobile financial services to the mass through developing strategic partnership and best business model.

Singapore (January 19, 2011) / —M-Commerce World Summit 2011 will be held from 6 to 7 April 2011 in Singapore. Highly-regarded speakers representing the mobile operators, banks, mobile transfer networks, mWallets and ‘interoperability hubs’, handset manufacturers, technology and equipment providers are invited to share their latest efforts in launching m-commerce services and the key challenges facing them at this summit.

The following key issues will be addressed in depth with necessary Real World

Case Studies:

• Overview of Current Global Market Trends and Developments for Mobile Financial Services

• Building Global Mobile Payment Infrastructure and Beyond

• A Future Direction for M-Commerce?  Assessing Strategic Opportunities at the Nexus of Social Networks and Mobile Value Transfers

• Profitable and Sustainable Business Models Available for Mobile Money Transfer and POS

• Commercial Opportunities and Challenges Facing the Banks in Offering Mobile Financial Services
• Mobile Banking and Payments Success from the Bank’s Point-of-View

• Building an Open Mobile Payments Ecosystem

• New Strategies to Capture the Mass Market for Mobile Money Transfer & Mobile Remittance
• Additional Revenue Generating Channels through Deployment of M-Payments

• Growth of International Mobile Commerce

• Mobile Banking – Consumer Behaviour and Adoption

• Case Study on IMPS (Instant Inter-bank transfer) by Union Bank of India

• Banking the ‘Unbanked’ & Microfinance Services

• Case Study on Globe’s Experience in Implementing GCASH

• Case Study on Dialog’s Experience in Launching Tradenet in Sri Lanka
• Case Study on Celcom’s Experience in Developing an Innovative M-Commerce Platform using Open API Concept

• Remittance Provider Case Study – Mobile Remittance in 2011

• NFC Technology Updates

• Mobile Handsets – What Are the Latest Technology Developments?

• Management Issues Concerning the Business and Technological Interfaces between Banks and Mobile Operators
• User-friendly and Secure Mobile Payments

Companies/organisations representing the M-Commerce Ecosystem will be speaking at this conference :

• Nitin Chittal, Vice President, Retail Banking-Alternate Channels, Axis Bank, India
• Frédéric Schepens, Executive Vice President, Strategic Business Development, Belgacom ICS, Belgium
• Salil Bhuvanadasan, Head-Mobile Money, CamGSM, Cambodia
• Ng Wei Ken, Head of MCommerce, Product Innovation, Celcom, Malaysia
• Mohammad Jakirul Islam, Project Coordinator- mCommerce, Citycell, Bangladesh
• Sandeep Lal, Managing Director Consumer Banking Group eBusiness, DBS Bank, Singapore
• Fariq Cader, Senior General Manager Mcomm, Dialog Axiata, Sri Lanka
• Richie Sison, Marketing Group Head of G-Xchange, Inc, Globe Telecom, Philippines
• Delwar Hossain Azad, Head, Financial Services, Grameenphone, Bangladesh
• Atsumasa Tochisako, President and Chief Executive Officer, Microfinance International Corporation (A KDDI Group Company)
• Kate Zilla-Bâ, COO, Mondato, USA
• Bharat Bhatia, Regional Director, India, SAARC and South East Asia, Motorola, India
• Chakaprani GK, Director – Emerging Markets, Nokia Financial Services, Nokia, India
• Yvonne Cheong, Vice President, Internet/Mobile Banking, OCBC, Singapore
• Tom Wills, Principal Consultant, Secure Strategies, USA
• Shankar Narayanan, President and Co-founder, Tagit, Singapore
• Dan Armstrong, Managing Consultant, Takashi Mobile / Co-Founder, Rabo Mobiel B.V., The Netherlands
• Arnab K. Biswas, Head-mCommerce, Tata Teleservices, India
• Vincent Kadar, CEO, Telepin Software, Canada
• Lalit Sinha, Deputy General Manager, DIT, Union Bank of India, India
• Gregg Marshall, VP of Business Development, Western Union

There will be a pre-conference workshop on 5 April 2011 with the title “Keeping the Hackers at bay without Putting Off Your Customers: A Primer on Usable M-Commerce Security” and a post-conference workshop on 8 April 2011 on “Bank-MNO Cooperation in the Mobile Money Ecosystem: Have We Moved Forward?”.

The summit website is : http://www.symphonyglobal.com/index.php/event/page/m-commerce_2011/overview

About Symphony Global

Symphony Global is a business media and consulting company that aims to provide the best networking platforms for global business connections.

All our events are research-driven with direct contacts with major industry stakeholders to ensure that they meet their needs and keep up to the industry trends and developments. SG Conferences offer you an unrivalled opportunity to network with your peers within your areas of business and ultimately develop the best business partnership for future business expansion. Our workshops and masterclasses provide an informative and interactive forum for developing latest techniques and skills.

Take advantage of SG services and products to keep up-to-date with the latest developments within your industry.

Visit http://www.symphonyglobal.com to join the conference as sponsor, exhibitor, or other type of participant.

22-23 SEPTEMBER 2010,SUNTEC SINGAPORE

Singapore – Accelerate 2010 is a two-day conference happening in Singapore.  It will host the largest gathering of solution providers and developers from around the world on 22 and 23 September 2010 in Singapore.  Accelerate 2010 is the ONLY conference that gives you the opportunity to access multiple Asia Pacific markets in one go.

To nominate an app from the top 50 apps go to http://www.e27.sg/top-50-apps/

For more information please visit http://accelerate.six.sg

About SingTel Innovation Exchange

In collaboration with IDA, IE Singapore and its partners, SingTel launched the SingTel Innovation Exchange (SiX), the most comprehensive industry partnership programme to accelerate the full life-cycle development of innovative business and consumer applications. SingTel aims to attract local and global developers, as well as commercialise their applications and promote them to more than 293 million mobile customers and millions of business customers in the region.

Software developers have access to resources like grid computing and technical consultancy from SingTel and its partners, which help to lower operational costs and shorten time-to-market. Developers of consumer mobile applications can offer their solutions via SingTel App Zone. This online platform for prepaid and postpaid mobile customers currently offers over 1300 innovative applications for a comprehensive range of devices, including Android-enabled handsets. Solutions include educational, multimedia, communications and lifestyle applications.

For more information on the SingTel Innovation Exchange, please visit http://six.sg

About e27

e27 is a community centric media and events organization dedicated to Internet startups and the technology ecosystem in Asia. Founded in 2006, e27 grew from organising grassroot unconference events for web enthusiasts, to spinning of echelon, a new series of events focused on bringing together the best minds in the consumer web and mobile space in Asia. With the aim of fostering entrepreneurship and spreading awareness, e27’s media arm focuses on discovering the latest innovation, reviewing products and cover events that impact the state of web and mobile sectors.

For more information on e27, please visit http://www.e27.sg/

About Neoteny Labs

Neoteny Labs manages an early-stage pan-Asian venture fund with an investment focus in Consumer Internet, Mobile and Consumer Hardware & Electronics Design startups operating across Asia and the Middle East. Its general partner is Joichi Ito, an early-stage investor in Twitter, Six Apart, Technorati, Flickr, SocialText, Dopplr, Last.fm, Rupture, Kongregate, etology, Fotopedia and other Internet companies.
For more information on Neoteny Labs, please visit http://www.neotenylabs.com/

By Asia Pacific Correspondent : Rani Wemel
LTT Global Brands | 14 Jalan SS3/33, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor DE, Malaysia
T: 03-7877 7023 | F: 03-78777806 |
rani@LTTCOM.com / rani@techistan.com