Catching up With Mig33

When talking about the mobile text messaging space, it's easy to forget about Singapore-based mig33, which operates primarily in countries like Indonesia, India, and Bangladesh, running mostly on feature phones. More than half of its 65 million members are in Indonesia. While it is a global network, its popularity in Indonesia means that many of its offline events are also meant for Indonesians.

Mig33 started before the modern age of smartphones. Launched in 2005, it has so far managed to raise over $32 million in venture capital according to CrunchBase. Its primary backers are Accel Partners and Redpoint Ventures who have been involved in mig33's three funding rounds.

Recently we caught up with Kiki Rizki, mig33's global head of public relations and country manager for Indonesia, to get some more idea as to how mig33 is doing as it faces competition from the likes of Line, WeChat, and KakaoTalk.

With nearly 40 million users in the country, mig33 is arguably the second most popular social network or platform after Facebook. The service grew significantly among feature phone users but with the growth in smartphone adoption in Indonesia and around the world, it is making moves into the smartphone category. Other than Java apps, apps for Opera mini and Windows Mobile 5 and 6, mig33 is also available on Android as well as BlackBerry.

Rizki mentioned in passing that they are preparing for all smartphone platforms but declined to provide details so perhaps we can assume that in light of incoming competitors, mig33 may have plans to expand to the more premium segment of the mobile market.

"Indonesia to date is still the biggest market for mig33 in terms of market size and contributes approximately 50% of the overall activities from chat, virtual gifting and includes monetary.  Our other important markets are Nepal, Syria, Bangladesh and India", said Rizki.

Rizki proudly told the story of an Indonesian domestic worker in Hong Kong who manages to earn enough money selling mig33 credits that she could afford to resign from her job and pursue higher education. She also spoke in awe of a Surabaya woman who earns over $100,000 a year selling mig33 credits.

Mig33's revenue comes from its virtual goods and games. To purchase them, members have to acquire credits which are available from a number of partners or merchants who buy credits in bulk from mig33 and resell them to regular users who spend on average $3 a month. For the sake of comparison, the Indonesian average revenue per prepaid mobile user is roughly $4, so mig33 is actually earning at around the same level per paying member as the mobile telcos.

In terms of activity, Rizki said that more than half of mig33 users spend up to five hours per day on the network while over a quarter spend more than six hours a day. By any measure that is a significant time spent on site and shows that the members are very engaged within mig33. The biggest time sinks in the network are chatting and playing games according to Rizki.

The most popular games on mig33 are Monster Fantasia and Costume Fantasia. Monster Fantasia is a card battle in which you assume the role of a monster tamer trying to save the world from out-of-control monsters. Costume Fantasia, also developed by Nijibox, was launched in July 2012 and Rizki said that it's the second most popular game on mig33.

In January mig33 flew eight of its Indonesian members to Miami to watch Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen in concert as a prize for winning the mig33 Fanatik competition in which participants must show their enthusiasm for either singers in a 90 second video.

As for the impending competition from the likes of Line, Kakao, and WeChat, Rizki said that mig33 is focused on delivering the best experience for its members. For now, it seems that mig33 serves a different market to those other services despite offering similar features, but down the line, they may cross paths and that would make for an even more interesting mobile scene especially in Indonesia.