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Entries tagged as Vinagame

Tuesday, August 19. 2008

Vietnamese Publishers Race for Alexa Ranking

After Vinagame's Zing.vn climbed on top of other long established news portal such as Vnexpress, Vietnamnet based on Alexa ranking, VnExpress started the war against Zing. Across ICT related forums, members discussed how Zing could surpass Vnexpress on Alexa. Even a news release from Vinagame-Zing stated Zing.vn was the top traffic site in Vietnam. Some stand alone sites of Vnexpress like Ngoisao.net (celebrity news) had aggregated back into vnexpress.net to boost traffics and Alexa ranking. The hardwork made Vnexpress.net back on top of Zing. But why those publishers wasting resources just to get a not so creditable ranking. If they can engage more readers, build better community, sell more advertising dollars to partners they can rank better with any rating agency.
What do you think if Myspace produced a news release said it had climbed over Facebook on Alexa ranking?

Posted by Jason at 12:50 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: Alexa, portal, Vinagame, VnExpress, zing

Thursday, August 7. 2008

A VC Investment Fairy Story

A popular local newspaper posted an article on VC investment in Vietnam questioning Vietnam can replicate China producing Internet billionaires. The article (in Vietnamese) mentioned how Vinagame got money from IDG Ventures Vietnam:
"It's been nearly three years already the Managing General Partner of IDG Ventures Vietnam still could not forget the scene Le Hong Minh, chairman of Vinagame brought the license of the MMORPG Swordman Online Game from China's Kingsoft to IDG Ventures Vietnam , to borrow US$ 50K to pay back to his friend that he borrowed to buy the license. IDG Ventures Vietnam agreed to invest US$ 1 million to become the largest shareholder of Vinagame. And now anyone could see how well Vinagame is growing."

If you can find a good license from China, go to VC firm and borrow money to make your dream come true, if you believe in what the newspaper said.

Posted by Jason at 11:52 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: IDG, venture capital, Vinagame

Sunday, December 9. 2007

Zing Angel, QQ Girl and Asian Softporn

Zing chat is a new instant messenger service provided by Vinagame which cloned from China's popular Tencent' QQ IM. In a Yahoo IM dominated country such as Vietnam, it is nearly a mission impossible for Vinagame to challenge the incumbent Yahoo IM. By spending bulk of advertising dollars both offline and online, flooding all local high traffic websites and BBSs (online forums), spiral spamming on Yahoo IM networks, Vinagame is trying to lure young teens to their cutie services. In search of virtual money information I came across an art icle on QQ coins and QQ girl which made me think of Zing Angel. First seen Zing Angels you would see Vietnamese cheerleaders of Victoria's Secret. In an Asian country where online dating is not popular as in Western nations, spending sometime chatting with webcam-equipped pretty girls could be a fun experience for local boys. With those tricks Vinagame could get good number of young guys trying out the services but I am questioning how it top the place of Yahoo IM. And we will wait whether those Angels ask guys for Zing coins to buy virtual items made by Vinagame in the near future.

Posted by Jason at 15:27 | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: IM, Vinagame

Wednesday, July 25. 2007

Why Vietnameses are So in Love with Swordsman Online MMOG

JX Online or Swordsman Online (SMO) is a martial art MMOG published by China's Kingsoft. Introduced in Vietnam by Vinagame in 2005, the game instantly became a big hit in online entertainment with millions of registered players. This put Vinagame on top of online game operators and made it the best company in IDGVV's portfolio. Even in China, the game was ranked 5th or 6th, left far behind WoW.
Looking into its unique context now. SMO game script based on famous Chinese novelist Jin Yong's fictions blended with the five elements philosophy. More than two decades ago, his fictions were Vietnamese kids' favourite books. Low living standard and closed culture made kids dream wandering the swordman life. In 2005 those adults could make their dream come true with SMO MMOG. Those late 20 and 30 something guys were eager to enter a sort of virtual world. Many players were first time MMOG users (estimated more than 60%). This is different from China scene, where 30 something people are more mature (higher living standard and accessed to outside world earlier), left MMOG playing to 15 - 25 year old gamers, who prefer international titles such as WoW, Legend of Mir II.
Furthermore, Swordsman Online is a 2D MMOG, so that office workers could play with low specs PC (easy penetration) and play many characters (roles) on the same PC at the same time. Now the life cycle of SMO is at downtrend, many hardcore gamers had tried some new titles but most players still stick with their dreams. Perhaps among those people many would play SMO as their only MMOG in the lifetime.
Hints: younger generation now like something more social, more human in social networks and virtual worlds. Player killing MMOG market segment is not as big as some game operators think.

Posted by Jason at 20:05 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: game, Vinagame, virtual world

Monday, July 16. 2007

iShare - Indian Model Can Work in Vietnam

The leading India portal Rediff have launched iShare, a multimedia sharing site = YouTube + Flickr + Last.fm. This combination model seems fit into the large portal's expansion roadmap. Some online service companies in Vietnam are busy building big data centers and why not an option for the iShare equivalent. Instead of single service of sharing only video/music/photo, they can utilize the DC for the all in one services. FPT Online is quietly testing the file sharing Xiklo and rumors on Vinagame's music sharing/social networking services arise, who could be the next to make the iShare.portal.vn

Posted by Jason at 19:01 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: clone, FPT, portal, Vinagame

Thursday, June 14. 2007

Who Will Run Audition 2

Audition is a top hit dance MMO game with millions of teen users across Vietnam. Created by Korea's T3 Entertainment and operated by VTC Game Online, Audition came to Vietnam mid 2006 and instantly captured the heart and mind of teen girls hungering for online social entertainment. The success made other game service providers GSPs seeking similar titles after failure at launching fighting MMORPG (Swordsman Online excluded, another success story). Bad news for VTC from China: LineKong, an IDGVC backed game company has licensed Audition 2 from T3 Entertainment. LineKong founders are from Kingsoft that IDGVV brought Swordman Online to Vietnam then operated by IDGVV backed Vinagame. Unlike China scene, IDGVV will not have to look for new startup team since Vinagame is the largest on line GSP now. Can VTC release its in-house developed Audition 2 clone?

Posted by Jason at 21:41 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: clone, game, Vinagame, VTC

Thursday, April 26. 2007

Can Yobanbe Survive?

The leading Vietnamese game operator Vinagame launched a Yahoo360 clone yesterday. Yobanbe is planned to open beta April 23rd but delay to 25th due to fixing technical backend. Still some problems with forgot password and sign-up as account management shared with gamers data warehouse. Yobanbe even lures Yahoo360 users with import instructions as hot news. The reasons that Yobanbe could face hard future:

The brand name is not cool.
Launch date: just before long Holiday, Vietnamese people will take 6 days off until May 2nd and traveling is the top choice. Cyworld Vietnam was opened 10 days earlier.
Associate with hardcore gamers: Yahoo360 users are female dominated while Vinagame gamers are almost males.
Revenue model: what is revenue source for Yobanbe while Vinagame is used to collecting gamers' subscription fees.

Posted by Jason at 02:14 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: cyworld, social network, Vinagame, yahoo

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Frontpage

Entries tagged as Vinagame

Entries tagged as Vinagame

Tuesday, August 19. 2008

Vietnamese Publishers Race for Alexa Ranking

Thursday, August 7. 2008

A VC Investment Fairy Story

Sunday, December 9. 2007

Zing Angel, QQ Girl and Asian Softporn

Wednesday, July 25. 2007

Why Vietnameses are So in Love with Swordsman Online MMOG

Monday, July 16. 2007

iShare - Indian Model Can Work in Vietnam

Thursday, June 14. 2007

Who Will Run Audition 2

Thursday, April 26. 2007

Can Yobanbe Survive?

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