Dhingana is stepping up its efforts to monetize its streaming service for Indian music after it introduced video-roll advertising, initially for its iOS app only.

The company — which has offices in Pune, India, and Sunnyvale, California – launched its advertising platform in August 2012 and it also offer a paid-for subscription for those who prefer an ad-free experience. The company says that its new ‘Premium Video Advertising’ feature is targeted at brands looking to reach its music-loving users with “TV quality commercials”.

Companies are now able to run 10-30 second pre- or post-roll clips that are integrated into the app, taking the place of album cover art or anything else that is on-screen. Since Dhingana provides only audio, the ads are displayed when there is a pause in a user’s activity, meaning that they are likely to come into contact with the device’s screen.

That is designed to keep the listening experience unaffected, CEO Rohit Bhatia explains:

Video is one of the best forms of advertising, delivering two-to-four times higher performance over regular display banner ads on mobile devices. Our video ads are carefully integrated to be shown when the user is already engaged with our music for several minutes to maximize the impact for the advertising brand without compromising the listening experience.

Launching for iOS — both iPhone and iPad — the ads will come to the Android app soon, but, already, Dhingana has recruited a major name, Coke, to kick things off (update: Dhingana tells us that although Coca Cola is an advertiser, it hasn’t specifically agreed to video ads at this time).

The move to introduce more interactive advertising comes three months after the hiring of Bhatia, and the company is likely to have solicited the opinion and feedback of Gokul Rajaram, Facebook’s product director for advertising, who joined its advisory board last year.

Bhatia has a number of ambitious goals and, in his first interview as CEO, he told TNW that he wants to make the service compelling enough for its users to listen for 2 hours each day. That’s roughly 60 hours per month, and would some way ahead of Spotify, which logs an average of 15-20 hours per month per user.

“I’d like Dhingana users to wake up and go to bed with Dhingana music, using it all through the day,” he said.

Founded in 2007 by twin brothers Swapnil and Snehal Shinde, Dhingana offers more than 500,000 songs across 35 languages and claims a monthly active user base of more than 15 million. The service is available for iOS, Blackberry, Android, Symbian Windows Phone and via a Web-based player.

Dhingana raised a $7 million Series B round last year, and it competes with a number of Bollywood-focused streaming services, including Saavn and Times Internet-owned Gaana.

Headline image via scubabrett22 / Flickr

The adoption of smartphones continues to grow in Southeast Asia at breakneck speed, according to a new report from GfK which found smartphone sales across the region grew 61 percent over the past year.

The research firm found that consumers across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Cambodia spent $3.4 billion on more than 108 million smartphones. That’s an average cost of approximately $213 per device and, perhaps unsurprisingly given that figure, GfK found that Android was the dominant platform, accounting for 70 percent of smartphones sales — up from 50 percent last year.

There are some exceptions, however, as GfK’s Gerard Tan explains:

Growth in this region is primarily driven by affordable smartphones which averaged in the price range of $100 – 200. However, the rise of local brands in countries such as Philippines and Indonesia has resulted in the growing market share of those in the $50 – 100 price segment—the budget price range which bridges the transition from basic mobile phones to smartphones.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populated country, accounted for 37 percent of overall sales. However, the country punched below its weight on spending, accounting for just one quarter of the total revenue from smartphone sales during the twelve-month period.

That indicates that many Indonesia-based buyers opted for lower budget phones and — coupled with the fact that feature phone sales were also proportionally highest there — it demonstrates that the country is a little further behind the curve than the rest of the region.

There’s still plenty of progress to be made in general, since GfK found that feature phone sales were double that of smartphones. That is, however, some improvement on September, when the firm found that feature phones were selling at three times the volume of smartphones.

Unfortunately, the report is limited in geographical scope, and it doesn’t break out the figures by phone-makers; it would be interesting to see where BlackBerry — once dominant in the region — now sits. But, as it stands, the report provides an interesting insight into how emerging markets are embracing smartphones and Web-enabled devices.

Last week, data from IDC suggested Android accounts for 75 percent of all smartphone shipments. That means its impressive position in Southeast Asia is actually behind the global average.

Headline image via Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images

Chinese media outlets are today reporting the (quite incredible) story of a 28-year-old man who found his way home more than two decades after being abducted.

At the age of five, while on his way his kindergarten in Guangan City, Sichuan Province, Luo Gang (not his birth-name) was abducted and taken 1,500 kilometers from home to Sanming, Fujian province.

There, he received a new set of parents and a new name, and later went on to graduate school, finish military service, and by all accounts, live a relatively normal life for the next 23 years. But he never forgot where he came from.

According to Luo, since the day of his capture, every night before bed he would remind himself of what his hometown of origin looked like. As his memories naturally faded with age, the one thing that stood out was a set of two bridges.

Last year, Luo visited a website that provides services for victims of abduction, and posted a roughly-drawn map of his hometown. About six months later, he received a message from a volunteer who told him that a couple in Guangan, Sichuan had lost a son 23 years ago.

With the matching timeline a promising start, Luo turned to the satellite view of Google Maps to see if the town looked familiar. To his astonishment, he found the exact set of bridges that had remained in his memory located in Yaojiaba, not far from Guangan.

What ensued was a tearful reunion with Luo’s birth family, during which he learned that his birth name was Huang Yun, and that he was the first born son among a family that included three younger sisters.

The story bears a strong resemblance to that of a man in Australia who rediscovered the family he had lost in India, which surfaced last autumn. Reports of this latest one remain unconfirmed, but since it puts a smile on our face, we’re sticking with it.

I’ll avoid talking about a tired meme that begins with an F, ends in an S, and the middle is “irstworldproblem.” But as many of us in the tech blogosphere associate crowdsourcing with dubious Kickstarter projects, and Google Maps with nights out on the town, Luo’s story is a potent reminder that the cool gadgets and tools we access every day shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Top image  via Justin Sullivan/Getty Images, second image via Nhaidu.com

There’s a change at the top at Facebook….in Japan, where the company has hired former McDonalds and Boston Consulting Group marketing exec Atsushi Iwashita as its new Managing Director.

The news is reported in Markezine — via Asiajin – although Iwashita, who was most recently CEO at brand consultancy firm Interbrand Japan, is still to update his LinkedIn profile to reflect his new role. The move comes at an interesting time for social networks in the country, as the top sites are refocusing their management to capture young audiences and double-down on mobile.

Local rival Mixi replaced its founder with a new (and notably very young) CEO on Monday. Now 30-year-old Yusuke Asakura will lead the company, becoming only the second CEO in Mixi’s 9-year history.

That change to inject more youth and appeal comes in response to Mixi’s continued decline and Facebook’s growth in Japan. Last September, Facebook overtook Mixi as it hit 15 million monthly active users in the country. That was a significant moment since Japan had been one of the few remaining markets where Facebook was not the dominant network.

Asiajin speculates that the two are near neck-and-neck right now, so there’s still all to play for in the lucrative market, where Twitter is actually the most popular social service (thanks to its simple and efficient mobile experience).

Locally developed messaging app Line has shown the kinds of revenues that social services can make in the country. A whopping 80 percent of the $58 million revenue it made in Q1 2013 came via Japan, and Mixi and Facebook will be aiming to grow their user base and presence on mobile in pursuit of a piece of that pie.

You can also add private social network Path to that list too.

The company launched its Asia-inspired Path 3.0 service, featuring stickers and virtual content popular in the continent, in March having appointed a general manager for Japan/Asia last year. Path has long said that Asia is its fastest growing region, with Japan and Korea two of its key markets.

Headline image via laughingsquid / Flickr

Sina, the firm behind China’s hugely popular Sina Weibo microblogging platform, announced improved financial results for Q1 2013 as increased revenue saw its net loss reduced to $13.2 million. That’s down from a loss of $13.7 million one year prior.

The company, which also operates a successful Internet portal business, recorded overall net revenue of $126.0 million, up from $106.2 million for the same period in 2012. Sina says advertising revenue jumped 20 percent year-on-year (to $94.3 million — within its forecast range), well non-advertising revenue was also up, rising 14 percent to $31.7 million (above its forecast).

Revenue was down on Q4 2012 ($139.1 million) when it posted a slim $2.4 million net profit. However, with Chinese New Year in February, Q1 2013 is traditionally a quieter time for Internet companies so some decrease was expected.

Sina Weibo has more than 400 million registered users and the service enjoys a large profile in China; though it is moderated, it is often a forum for dissent against the government and a platform for ‘free’(er) speech in China. Yet, the company has found it difficult to translate its success into monetization, particularly on mobile devices.

In an earnings call this morning, the company revealed that Weibo has almost 50 million active users per day, with more 75 percent logging into the service from their smartphone, as noted by the Wall Street Journal’s Paul Mozur.

Sina has come under significant pressure from Tencent‘s WeChat mobile messaging service, which has more than 300 million registered users, all but 40 million of whom are in China.

Chairman and CEO Charles Chao previously said WeChat was responsible for cutting the average user session on Weibo, but, on the call today, Sina said it had seen an increase in time spent on Weibo during the last quarter.

The company is betting on mobile commerce, after the Alibaba Group grabbed an 18 percent slice in the company for $586 million. The deal will see the two companies work on combined products to connect Alibaba’s numerous Web retail stores — including B2B Taobao and B2C Tmall — to Sina Weibo.

That tie-up is significant since Tencent is preparing to introduce e-commerce to WeChat, via an integration with its Tenpay service. Not only are Sina and Alibaba moving first as they explore the potential of social payments, but the sheer amount of data each has will be key for the future.

A statement from Chao explained more about the mobile push, and alliance with Alibaba.

As we start 2013, we are making good progress in transitioning from a PC-centric to a mobile-centric Internet company with new product launches and improved monetization.

In April, we formed a strategic alliance with Alibaba Group to catapult us into social commerce. By partnering with Alibaba, Weibo is well positioned to play a key role in the future of e-commerce, particularly in mobile commerce as we explore ways for our users to search, share and buy the goods and services of the millions of merchants on Taobao and Tmall.

Sina is forecasting Q2 2013 net revenue of between $143 million and $147 million: ”Advertising revenue to be between $117 million and $119 million, and non-GAAP non-advertising revenue to be between $26 million and $28 million,” according to a statement.

Previous earnings: SINA sees mixed Q4 2012 earnings with $139.1m in revenue, EPS of $0.03 as it updates its leadership

Image via

Youku Tudou, the Chinese online video company formed when its billion dollar merger closed last August, has missed estimates with its Q1 2013 financial report, despite consolidating some shared costs.

The company recorded a loss of RMB 1.42 ($0.23) per ADS, coming in under analyst expectation of a loss of 1.39 per ADS. That’s despite revenue surpassing estimates of RMB 510.49 million ($8.3 million).

Revenue for the three-month period was RMB 516.0 million ($83.1 million), which the company says is a 21 percent increase from the pro forma combined revenues that the companies made — while separate — in Q1 2012. The company reported Q1 2013 losses of RMB 232.5 million ($37.4 million), which is a 12 percent improvent on the combined RMB265.5 million ($42.7 million) posted during the same period last year.

The company also released new user metrics. It now has more than 100 million active monthly users, sees more than 170 million daily video views, with each user spending more than 70 minutes on the site.

One of the main reasons for the merger was to consolidate each company’s costs, for expenses such as bandwidth and content deals. In that respect, the RMB 161.0 million ($25.9 million) spent on bandwidth represented 31 percent of the consolidated net revenues. That’s an improvement on 43 percent pro forma in Q1 2012.

However, the cost of product development rose to RMB 56.8 million ($9.2 million) from RMB 48.1 million (US$7.7 million) a year prior; while general expenses rose to RMB 83.4 million ($13.4 million) from RMB 71.8 million ($11.6 million).

A statement from Victor Koo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Youku Tudou, read:

I am pleased with our progress. We are in the final phase of the merger integration process with Tudou and have completed the restructuring of our sales team in the first quarter. Our combined sales team is positively impacting demand and our increased scale is helping us to optimize our cost structure.

Dele Liu, President of Youku Tudou, furthered explained the firm would continue to focus on in-house, user-generated and licensed content for the service.

While these financial details provide an insight into the progress of the now-merged firm in the past year, the data that Q1 2013 is being compared to is taken from before the deal was announced. A more accurate picture of progress will come after August, when the previous year’s figures will take into account the business post-merger.

The company estimates net revenues of between RMB720 million and RMB770 million ($117 million and $125 million) in the next quarter. Consolidated advertising net revenues are estimated at between RMB700 million and RMB740 million ($114 million and $120 million).

Competition is about to get considerably tougher for Youku Tudou, following Baidu’s acquisition of PPS Video for $370 million.

Baidu claims that — in combining its iQiyi service with PPS — it is now China’s top video platform on mobile. However, data from Analysys — covering all devices — gives Youku-Tudou a 30.2 percent share of China’s online video market, followed by Sohu on 10.3 percent, iQiyi on 9.7 percent and PPS on 7.1 percent.

Headline image via Spencer Platt /Getty Images

Kakao, the South Korean company behind Kakao Talk, has continued its push to monetize its popular mobile messaging service after landing its first international ad partner, Tapjoy.

The deal marks Kakao’s first deal with a major ad space provider with global operations, thereby allowing Kakao to widen its international roster of advertisers.

The news come hot on the heels of the Seoul-based firm announcing a deal with IGAWorks, a Korea-based ad firm with international clients. Adding Tapjoy brings new, international opportunities for developers to make money from its fast-growing Kakao Games platform.

In 2012, Kakao reported earning an annual revenue of $42 million, and had its first profitable year, netting $6.5 million. Meanwhile, it’s Kakao Games platform, which launched only last year, has been a boon – the company tells us that its gaming arm itself is generating monthly revenue of approximately $40 million, and that the number of games since last November has increased fivefold to over 130 titles.

Amidst fierce competition in the Asian chat space, the deal with Tapjoy is just one of Kakao’s many recent efforts intended to broaden its influence. Yesterday, launched KakaoHome for Android, a FacebookHome-like launcher that puts Kakao at the center of the user experience. Earlier this month, Kakao announced it would collaborate with Evernote to integrate note-taking and sharing functionality into Kakao Talk, the company’s flagship messaging service.

While Kakao has yet to dominate the whole of Asia as it competes with like-minded messaging apps like Japan’s Line and China’s WeChat, it remains the preferred option for most South Koreas, and last month announced it had garnered 10 million downloads in Japan – a mere ten percent of that app’s global reach.

Related: With 110 million monthly users, Tapjoy connects its billionth device to its mobile advertising platform 

SingTel, a telecommunications company based in Singapore, has revealed plans to spend up to S$2 billion ($1.6 billion USD) to pursue what it describes as “strategic aquisitions” in the digital space over the next three years.

The announcement, spotted by ZDNet, emerged as part of a release today detailing the company’s performance for the fourth quarter and financial year ending on March 31, 2013. SingTel’s net profit dropped by 33 percent in the final three months to $868 million ($695.9 million USD), which the company blamed on a S$225 million ($180.3 million USD) loss accumulated after selling its 30 percent stake in Warid Telecom in January this year.

The Singapore-based group, which controls domestic operator SingTel and Optus in Australia, among others, also reported that its combined mobile customer base had increased by 9 percent, or 36.5 million, to 468 million over the same period.

“Excluding exceptional items, underlying net profit declined 2 percent to S$1 billion due to foreign currency movements and investments in network, spectrum and digital initiatives,” the company said.

SingTel says that it is facing “significant industry challenges” at the moment but wants to turnaround this decline by creating “next-generation growth engines” in the digital space.

This forms part of SingTel’s new transformation strategy, also outlined today. The new approach involves improving its core business by introducing “operational efficiencies” and a more competitive cost structure. SingTel will also try to introduce new “value propositions” for its mobile subscribers by improving the strength and quality of its network worldwide.

“Third, leveraging the Group’s asset to drive scale benefits,” the company added. “Fourth, creating innovative and differentiated digital services to enhance the core business and deliver new revenue streams.”

The $1.6 billion allocated today for the aforementioned “strategic acquisitions” shows that SingTel is prepared to spend big in order to return to financial growth.

SingTel experienced some small success in its fiscal third quarter, reporting “stable performance” across its businesses in Asia. Its total subscriber base increased by 9 percent annually to 473 million, but it couldn’t hide the fact that overall revenue had slipped 4.8 percent year-on-year to S$4.597 billion ($3.72 billion USD).

It’s unclear exactly what SingTel will be investing in with the $1.6 billion allocation announced today. Ms Chua Sock Koong, SingTel Group CEO hinted: “As the competitive boundaries between telcos and the internet world continue to blur, new opportunities are presenting themselves. Telcos able to seize the changes will thrive.

“We are confident we can grow in the enlarged ecosystem, while maintaining our leadership in the core business.”

Image Credit: ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/GettyImages

Chinese Internet giant Tencent, often ranked the third biggest Web firm on the planet, has announced Q1 2013 profit of RMB 4.04 million ($645 million), up 16.8 percent on the last quarter, from revenue of RMB 13.54 billion ($2.16 billion), up 11.5 percent on Q4 2012. Income came in ahead of analyst estimates of $3.75 billion.

Looking at those figures in an annual context, revenue is up 40.4 percent on Q1 2012, while the company’s profit increased by 37.1 percent on a year prior. Basic earnings per share were RMB2.204 ($0.36).

The lionshare of income came via value added services (RMB 10.66 billion ($1.70 billion), which grew 13.6 percent quarter-by-quarter and 28.6 percent year-on-year. Tencent’s online advertising business contracted by 10.3 percent on the previous quarter — bringing in RMB 849.5 million ($135.5 million), while its e-commerce efforts accounted for RMB 1.913 billion ($305.2 million), up 10.3 percent quarter-by-quarter.

In its ever extensive earnings report, Tencent says its WeChat mobile messaging service (known as Weixin in China) is at 194.4 million monthly active users, which represents 23.1 quarterly growth a whopping 228.4 percent rise in the past year. An estimated 40 million users are thought to be based overseas, with the remainder of the 300 million plus registered users located in China.

Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO, said growth has enabled Tencent to focus on the internationalization of WeChat:

During the first quarter of 2013, we saw broad-based growth in user engagement and revenue across our key activities. This growth has enabled us to fund investments in longer-term opportunities such as WeChat international user acquisition, online video content aggregation, and eCommerce footprint expansion, while maintaining a healthy expansion rate in earnings and cash flow.

The company is yet to monetize the WeChat service — which lets users send and receive free text messages and make voice calls — but it has previously committed to integrating its Paypal-like Tenpay system to encourage e-commerce. It is also thought to be considering a games platform, following the success of Korea’s KakaoTalk, which Tencent is an investor in.

Tencent makes no mention of specific upcoming plans, but its note to investors says it is “integrating new services into Weixin to explore emerging business opportunities” and “investing in user acquisition activities in international markets”.

In terms of other products: PC games platform Qzone record 611 million month active users — up 5.9 percent year-on-year and 1.4 percent quarterly, while its Tencent Weibo microblog — which so often plays second fiddle to Sina Weibo — recorded 81 million active users per day.

Rival Baidu has been busy bulking up its video service with the $370 million acquisition of PPS Video, and Tencent says its own video service “enjoyed significant year-on-year growth in users” in China, although it did not share precise figures.

Going into more detail on its value added services business, Tencent sees the potential for improvement, saying its base of paying users declined due to new metrics and, importantly, the growth in users going online smartphones. The company admits its offerings are fine tuned to PC-based users, and it is working on redeveloping its offer to appeal to smartphone-based users.

Headline image via faykwong / Flickr

Panasonic has strengthened its range of Android smartphones today with the ELUGA P-03E, a new handset with a 4.7-inch full HD display (1920×1080) and a 1.7 GHz Snapdragon quad-core processor.

The high-end device is just 10.9mm thick and leans on 2GB of RAM, coupled with 32GB of internal memory for downloading apps and multimedia content. It’s equipped with a 13.4-megapixel rear-facing camera, alongside a low-resolution 1.3-megapixel snapper on the front. It weighs roughly 146 grams and is powered by a 2600 mAh battery.

The ELUGA P-03E comes with a new “touch assist” feature which, similar to the Air Gestures found on the Samsung Galaxy S4, can detect swipes before the user has touched the screen. This proximity-sensitive touch screen can detect movements from up to 15mm away and is designed to stop users from selecting apps or menu options accidentally. For instance, if the user hovers over the camera menu or a supported app, the device will provide a description of the software before asking them to confirm the action.

Likewise, hovering over an image will show an enlarged preview, and it’s also possible to access a zoom slider through the Internet browser without using the traditional pinch-to-zoom gesture.

Panasonic says the ELUGA P-03E has a user interface built specifically for one-handed use. Swiping up from the bottom will bring the top half of the screen further down, making content and apps much more accessible. The size and position of the keyboard can also be adjusted to fit small hands, as well as the position of the padlock on the lockscreen.

The ELUGA P-03E is only available from the Japanese version of the Panasonic website, so it’s unclear whether this smartphone will ever see an international release. The product page says it will be released in late June, and pricing is yet to be confirmed.

Image Credit: TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA/AFP/Getty Images