For those of you not wrapped up in the Olympics and the astounding total of bronze medals my home country of Canada is winning, there was lots of technology news this week — ranging from startup news to bigger internet players to regular folks like you and me.
Steven’s pick: Yelp-like Dianping.com Secures Over $60 Million in Funding
China’s biggest Yelp-style site has long since expanded into much more. It’s now also the country’s fourth-largest daily deals business. And with $60 million extra in its pocket this week, it’ll be pushing into m-commerce (i.e. mobile) even more.
One other new story that will see ramifications, I reckon, before the end of the year, is the acquisition of an IM startup by China’s young phone-maker, Xiaomi. We expect it’s the start of a bigger push into social, possibly by growing its group messaging app to be more like Apple’s Facetime.
Rick’s pick: Amid Flooding in Philippines, Rescue Information Circulates Online
It can be difficult to focus on technology news when there’s a crisis going on in other parts of the world. Massive flooding in the Philippines resulted in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, and the need for many to be rescued. And while communication was challenging, folks relied on Twitter, Storify, Google Docs and People Finder, and even created their own solutions like RescuePH.com in an effort to get people to safety.
Charlie’s pick: China’s Dark PR: Time to Say Goodbye to Paid Censorship
Once again I humbly pick one of my own articles for News of the Week. But I do think this is a big deal, because it has brought to light something that — as I’ve written before — is happening everywhere that does a big disservice to Chinese consumers. Hopefully Baidu’s high-profile handling will be enough to start a sort of sea change, and cause corrupt employees at other internet companies to reconsider selling their company’s integrity for a little extra money.
Willis’s pick: StreetFood Tycoon: Philippine-Made iOS Game Hits 2.7M Downloads
Dianping’s $60 million funding is big news. So is LINE camera’s monstrous growth of 10 million users in 117 days! But for this week, I pick Philippines’ StreetFood Tycoon game which has attracted 2.7 million downloads so far. I don’t claim to understand the tech ecosystem in Philippines. But 2.7 million downloads? That should be huge for a startup in a growing ecosystem. It’s evidence that startups in the Philippines can be really big as well. After all, Twitmusic could do it. So we should expect even more awesome startups from the Philippines in the near future, I hope!
Enricko’s Pick: China Mobile Donates $2.1 Million to Children with Heart Disease
I don’t know China Mobile very well (being based in Indonesia), but when I read this news it just made me feel good. Big props to China Mobile for doing that. Sure, it’s always interesting to see and report new developments and milestones in technology, but stories about how they can change the world for the better are always special.
Joshua’s pick: Line Camera Passes 10 Million Users in 117 Days, 3x Faster Than Instagram
Wow! That is what I’ve been saying looking at Line’s growth and strategy. Started as a messaging app with cute emoticons that attracts teens, its growth surpassed Facebook’s in its early days. Now, it has grown to so much more. One of its extra products on the Line platform is Line Camera which is growing faster than Instagram. As a Line user and blogger, I’m really interested to see how huge it can become globally – especially here in Indonesia.
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