ThumbMOB launches mobile-first social network mig33

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Thursday, May 12, 2011

MANILA -- Social applications and games developer ThumbMOB Philippines Inc. launched mig33, the world's largest mobile-first community, in a trade event at the Filipinas Heritage Library last April 14.

With over 47 million users worldwide, more than one billion chat messages exchanged daily, and over four million virtual gifts purchased and given every month, mig33 offers a social entertainment platform targeted primarily at the so-called "feature phones" that dominate the mobile subscriber base of emerging economies.

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Modeled on successful East Asian social networking services such as Japan's GREE and China's Tencent QQ (now valued at USD$2.5 billion and $43 billion, respectively), mig33 differentiates itself by bringing mobile social networking and entertainment services to billions of consumers residing in rapidly growing mobile markets such as Indonesia, India, South Africa, the Middle East and the Philippines.

"We are very excited to launch in the Philippines," said mig33 CEO Steven Goh. "Mig33 has become the world's biggest mobile-first community by relentlessly focusing on entertainment and access - bringing the best stuff to the most people."

With over 85 million mobile subscribers and a mobile phone penetration rate of over 93 percent in the Philippines, the mobile entertainment multimedia market has been a burgeoning business. In fact, the Philippines' mobile multimedia market alone has been forecast to reach some US140 million by 2015 (IE Market Research, February 2011).

Mig33 brings the entertainment functionality of avatars, virtual gifts and games to this large feature phone market -- something ignored by the leading social networks.

MANILA. ThumbMOB CEO Patricia Mulles (left) and mig33 CEO Steven Goh (right) do the "thumbshake" to signify their partnership and commitment to deliver the best mobile social entertainment experience to Filipinos at the mig33 launch event held recently in Makati. (Contributed photo)

"Social networking has become a core part of our daily lives; it's become part of our daily conversation with our world... Yet for many Filipinos online -- particularly for the youth market, this is a conversation that stops as soon as they leave the internet cafe. This doesn't have to be the case," said ThumbMOB CEO Patricia Mulles.

"With its group messaging feature and its ability to communicate with all the popular chat and social media platforms available, mig33 offers a very convenient one - stop platform to keep in touch and enhance social relationships," she added.

ThumbMOB has localized the mig33 mobile app to make it more familiar and user-friendly to Filipinos. This is a Java (J2ME) version available for use by the majority of the phones in the country. The app can be downloaded from http://www.thumbmob-inc.com/ or point your phone browser to: http://m.thumbmob-inc.com.

"Stay tuned for further client release for other platforms, as well as more localized content, coming very soon," said ThumbMOB co-founder and head of Product Development, Jaime Ocampo (formerly Friendster's Head of Mobile for APAC). (PR)