Finding Mobile-Based Social Application in Asia that still persist? mig33 Keeps Going with XL Axiata

Serkan Toto, a Japan-based startup consultant and former TechCrunch contributor, said via his Twitter that the mobile-based social application targeted global market will fail. A very intriguing topic to discuss.

Personally, I think this is true for many things. Something that works in Asia or emerging market might not necessarily fit the needs of more-developed first-world countries. The third world mindset is surely different from North America and Western Europe countries. Rather than trying to conquer the western world, I see that the Asian market itself is quite large and the potential with China, India and Indonesia as a determinant.

mig33 for example, they continuously go by relying on the 50 million registered users. Almost all of their users live in Asia. We know that mig33 targeted market is feature phone (with an average price under USD 100) users. With 33 million registered users in Indonesia (although it was never clear how many active users), we certainly wouldn’t be surprised if the community under mig33 is a potential target market that makes various parties want to gain profit.

After no longer being tied to an exclusive contract with Indosat, mig33 is now successfully working with XL Axiata. XL will publish mig33 card starter pack containing mig33 free access, mig33 free credit and free calls between XL users who use this card. A part of it, this specific card user will get the cheap Internet access service for IDR 1/KB. The largest monetization source from mig33 users is credits purchase that can be used to buy trinkets in mig33 platform such as games gift and emoticons.

Targeting Indonesia market isn’t necessarily aiming the high-priced smartphone products with a limited market share. mig33 has proven that the low to middle segment also has enormous potential. I’m sure there is a similar service which hasn’t been detected and it can prove that the Asian market shouldn’t be underestimated. If this is able to gain profit in the big Asia market, why we should keep up with the “go global” jargon?