Mobile social network mig33 to be pre-installed on 12 handset brands in Indonesia and India

Mobile social network mig33, with over 55 million registered members globally, has today announced that it has signed agreements for its app to be pre-installed on 12 more handset brands in India and Indonesia.

These include Skybee, TiPhone, Lexus Mobile, HT Mobile, Ktouch, SPC, Polytron, and MOVI in Indonesia; and Lemon Mobile, Beetel, Swingtel, and Zen Mobile, which join Olive Telecom, in India. The agreements are set to increase the Singapore-based company’s reach in those countries.

These handsets brands, according to research, are part of a large Chinese mobile handset ecosystem, which consists of many smaller outfits that are competing with giants like Samsung, HTC, and Nokia. These “no-name” phones are popular in emerging markets in Asia, and particularly India.

In addition, it is working with mobile platform and application framework developer General Mobile (G-Mobi) to develop a version of the app on the Maui Runtime Environment (MRE) Platform.

The collaboration with G-Mobi means that a version of the mig33 app will be made available on a new generation of low-cost devices in emerging markets, which are mig33’s main focus.

A report states that users from Blangladesh, South Africa, Indonesia and Nepal are the most prolific buyers of virtual goods on the fun-focused social network, which incorporates gamified elements like levels and badges, as well as third party games, avatars, and virtual gifts.

They recently launched a new mini-blog feature within their social network, which enables users to type 140-character messages to their friends, very much like Twitter.

“Today’s news is all about reach and opportunity,” said Steven Goh, mig33 co-founder and CEO (read interview). “The next wave of mig33’s growth will come from the relationships we’re forging with Asian handset brands and, to an even greater extent, with the firms that develop the handset architecture.”

Started in 2005, mig33 is backed by Silicon Valley venture firms Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and DCM, GREE, and many others. Since its inception, it has always focused on emerging markets by creating their app on Java, which allows it to run on feature phones.