Here in the Northeastern US, I’m being buried under feet of snow, and across Asia millions of people are returning home to celebrate the spring festival holiday. But the festivities this weekend didn’t seem to affect much this week, as we found all kinds of exciting information to share. So what was the biggest news this week? Here’s what we thought:
Steven’s pick: Xiaomi Confirms April Phone Launch in Hong Kong and Taiwan
China’s Xiaomi has only been in the phone business for about a year and a half, and it sold over seven million of its two models just in 2012. That was all just in mainland China. It’s very likely that the company’s first (sort of) overseas foray will be met with similar enthusiasm by smartphone buyers.
Charlie’s pick: Rumor: Qihoo CEO in Secret Meetings with Sogou CEO Over Partnership
Sure, it’s just a rumor right now, but what a juicy rumor it is. It also probably foreshadows bigger things on the horizon as it seems Zhou Hongyi has decided to forgo his other public disagreements and focus on trying to take down Robin Li and Baidu.
Minghao’s pick: Opera: Indonesia Now World’s 2nd Largest Market for Ad Impressions
This news will not come as a surprise for many; Indonesia is up and rising in terms of its mobile penetration rate and the number of smartphone users. With one language, Bahasa Indonesia, companies can sell to more than 200 million people. No wonder Indonesia is one of the top few destinations when companies wish to expand overseas.
Minh’s pick: China: US is Hacking Us, Not the Other Way Around
I just think this hacking debacle between China and US newspapers is hilarious. It underlines China’s deep paranoia. But it’s also got a serious note to it. Eric Schmidt, in his latest book, said that China’s hacking threatens the internets that we know today, and even hinted that this may lead to a future where we’ve got separated internets packaged by different governments. On one side we’d have an internet managed by more open governments like the USA and on the other side, more closed governments like China. I think hackers like Anonymous will just keep re-opening the Internet though. “Can’t stop the signal, Mal.”
Willis’s pick: Founding Story of MOL
Malaysian company MOL has been doing some great work in Southeast Asia. But it has been under the radar across the tech blogs. Click to learn more about how MOL was founded and how it hustled to become the largest payment company in Southeast Asia.
Enricko’s pick: Photo App Picmix Goes Viral and Passes 8 Million Users
This week has been a great one for Indonesia. Not only have we highlighted PicMix’s virality which saw the app reach eight million users in nine months, but we also saw Harpoen becoming the first Indonesian startup to win WSA Mobile Content. Indonesian startups can definitely compete globally.
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