Staff Picks: 9 Top News Stories this Week in Tech in Asia

Money, murder, manga, and several other things that regrettably do not begin with “m” dominated this week’s Asia tech news. Plus, with hundreds of millions in the continent devoted to their social messaging apps, it’s no surprise that we also saw major developments from Line, KakaoTalk, and WeChat.

Willis’ pick: CocCoc: Russian-Financed Search Engine To Spend $100 Million to Beat Google in Vietnam

To invest $100 million in a local search engine is kinda bold. That’s what the Russians did for Vietnam’s CocCoc this week. It’s big news because this sort of investment hardly ever happens at the local level in Southeast Asia. That said, I don’t think it’s a silly investment either. Vietnam’s internet penetration is on the rise and from what I understood from Minh, our American-Vietnamese correspondent, CocCoc does serve Vietnamese users much better than Google. Plus, online search ads in Vietnam is probably worth more than $100 million.

Vanessa’s pick: Taiwanese Gamer Witnesses Murder in Internet Cafe, Keeps Playing Games in Bloodstained Clothes

I felt the need to share this piece of news on all my social networks due to the prevalence of Genovese syndrome in our society these days. How can anyone, especially in such close proximity, not give assistance or seek help when someone is being stabbed to death? It gets creepy when your gameplay takes precedence over someone’s life and it shows how screwed up her values are, doesn’t it?

Minh’s pick: VietnamWorks, Vietnam’s Top Online Recruitment Site, Gets Acquired By En-Japan

This is probably the biggest news in Vietnam for the week, especially considering that CareerBuilder bought VON in February in a similarly expansionist move. This means that the job recruitment scene in Vietnam is accelerating and it’s really nice to see some exits for companies in Vietnam. This will be inspiring for startups who want to make it big in the country and it’s confirmation that the Vietnamese market does have meat to it.

Emily’s pick: Line Enters E-Book Business With Line Manga

It’s really great to see messaging apps, like Line, venturing into new services. First it was games, and now it’s manga! I won’t say that it is exactly innovative, but it might be advantageous to tap into the pretty huge market of manga readers. It is also interesting to note that KakaoTalk also launched its new KakaoPage publishing platform which allows anyone to create and distribute content.

Enricko’s pick: No Funding, No Rich Daddy, Founder of M-Stars in Indonesia Started Up His Way

Another inspiring story written by Minghao about an Indonesian startup that made its exit, albeit a forced one. One big thing that everyone needs to remind themselves of is the dedication and hard work these founders must put in to get to the state they are in. M-Stars Group’s Joseph Edi Lumban Gaol had to borrow money from family to pay his employees in the early days and spent a lot of sleepless nights fretting over how to keep the company afloat. I have nothing but respect for the guy.

Charlie’s and Steven’s pick: Out of 300 Million Total, Tencent’s WeChat Has 40 Million Overseas Users

Charlie: I’ve been wondering for a while how many of WeChat’s 300 million users were overseas users, and now we know. Just getting to 40 million is an impressive accomplishment, but if Tencent can maintain this growth, I’ll be even more impressed – and, honestly, a little surprised.