Indonesian Brands Stay Away From Mobile Advertising Despite Market Size and Adoption of Smart Devices

Earlier this week Yahoo and Mindshare released a number of findings regarding the behaviors of Indonesian consumers as part of their wider research on ways for brands to embrace the increasingly mobile consumers in Asia Pacific. The research focuses on the fact that smart mobile devices are now central to the way many consumers live and shop but leaves out the majority of Indonesians who still use basic mobile phones. The study found that brands in Indonesia are still reluctant to make the jump to mobile and digital advertising, preferring to stick to traditional media instead.

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With 20 Million New Active Users, BBM is Off to a Strong Start

BlackBerry announced overnight that its recently released BBM apps for iOS and Android have gained 20 million active users in just one week, making the total 80 million including BlackBerry device customers. After reporting a million installs of its unauthorized Android app during the aborted launch day in September, the company has bounced back. Over the weekend it had removed the waiting list it originally imposed on consumers to manage the load on its servers, finally allowing anyone to sign up and use BBM on iOS or Android immediately.

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Google’s Motivation to Deploy WiFi Passport

Google obviously wants more consumers to go online so it can increase the use of its online service and Jakarta has been chosen as the initial trial city for its WiFi Passport program. Jakarta’s middle class and upwards residents are among the most connected in the world, often carrying multiple Internet enabled devices, mostly active on multiple social networks, yes including Google+, and always complain about terrible data connections from mobile network carriers. Perfect place as a test bed for WiFi Passport.

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Google is Looking to Boost Internet Usage by Trialling WiFi Hotspot Partnerships in Jakarta

On Sunday, The Next Web linked to a report from Google Operating System, a blog dedicated to uncovering all news about Google, on the trial of city-wide wireless Internet hotspot roll out by Google in Jakarta. Yes, it’s embarrassing when you’re outscooped of your own city’s news by a foreign blog. The trial allows Android users in Jakarta to enjoy fast Google-powered WiFi connection at a handful of spots in the city. Contrary to popular beliefs, WiFi hotspots in Jakarta are plenty but many are carrier-dependent, simply unreliable, or a pain to register to.

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Skybee CEO Pontus Sonnerstedt on Guvera, Music Streaming, and Connecting with Former Yahoo Colleagues

Guvera may have been made available to Indonesian music fans but the service has yet to be officially launched. As we reported previously, the Australian company got together with Indonesian mobile and digital services company Skybee to expand its market to Indonesia and Skybee in turn signed up a number of local partners to bring Guvera to consumers.

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Australian Music Streaming Service Guvera is Now Available in Indonesia

Guvera has quietly launched in Indonesia this past week. The Australian music streaming service was relaunched in Australia and the US on 16 October and apparently was made available in Indonesia as well. Unlike in Australia however, Guvera requires an almost immediate subscription service in Indonesia.

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Ohdio Co-Founder and CEO Yoga Nandiwardhana is Off to XL Axiata

Ohdio co-founder and CEO Yoga Nandiwardhana is stepping down from his role at the music streaming startup to return to the telco industry although he will be remaining on board as product advisor. Filling the spot will be co-founder Ario S. Tamat who will take over as interim chief executive effective immediately. Nandiwardhana informed DailySocial of the changes via email today.

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Twitter No Longer Delivers Direct Messages Containing Links to Most Websites [Updated]

Following the changes to direct message behavior that Twitter implemented the other day, the company has addressed concerns of potential spam by apparently banning the ability to send links to most websites within direct messages. Third party apps such as Tweetbot still indicate that messages that contain links are still being sent but they no longer show up in the messages list.

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Twitter is Allowing People to Receive Direct Messages from Followers

Twitter has apparently began a roll out a feature to allow people to receive direct messages from anyone who follows them. This was first brought up by businessman Jim Connolly who noticed the new settings option in his account on Tuesday. The revelation is creating a confusion among Twitter users, many of whom think that they can now send direct messages to anyone. News flash: They can’t.

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