Mig33's Expansion in 2011

How often do you hear about mig33? mig33 is a platform which secretly have huge number of users in Indonesia, but honestly we've never used it at all. What exactly is interesting from mig33 that it has nearly 30 million registered users in Indonesia - the second largest after Facebook? Launched in 2003, mig33 has received funding from a number of investment companies, including those based in Silicon Valley such as Accel Partners and Redpoint Ventures.

We get an opportunity to talk with Kiki Rizki (Indonesia Country Manager) and Chris Chandler (VP Business Development, via Skype) in the office of mig33 in Kebon Sirih about a view interesting things that mig33 will accomplished in the year 2011.

The first question of course is how mig33 peak my interest, who has no friends in the real world that are using mig33, to want to use it? Chris Chandler said that the concept of mig33 is not merely like a messenger, just chatting with other mig33 users you already know. Try treating the mig33 as a chat room, where you'll meet new people in there. Find a topic you like and talk with people who have similar interests. It is exactly like mIRC which was popular in earlier times, you still remember those times, right?

Next, of course you know that mig33 users mostly use the feature from their phone. To the realm of smartphones, mig33 has penetrated Android because the products MTK that made in China has entered the market aggressively with the mid-to-low end target market in Indonesia. Mig33 team must choose Android because the regular segment produced by them have started to get an exposure from the Chinese Android phone. What about the other platform users? Since the Indonesian market is the most important (60% of mig33 users), the next course they will try to take other markets that were (and still) booming here, which is the BlackBerry. Mig33 will be present for the BlackBerry platform this year, and (possibly) catch up to other platform, according to the needs and company policies.

In addition to chatting, what else interesting in mig33? Kiki Rizki deftly explained about the game (gaming), which became the new prima donna. Currently, according to mig33, they users spent time for 45 minutes, most related with gaming. Also noted that according to statistics, mig33 users consisted of 63% male and 37% female, this is somewhat surprising because usually women that love to use chatting application. It could be that gaming is one of the key factors, in addition to the nature factors of chat rooms that tend to be anonymous so that women tend to be more reluctant to get acquainted and talk with others (strangers) compared with men. Because of the importance of gaming as an added value, mig33 will present a surprise to developers in July. What is it? Let just wait.

So what else needed by mig33 to continue growing in Indonesia? Mig33 will add a number of senior personnel as part of the "soldiers" to dominate the Indonesian market. They will manage the affairs of business development, marketing, sales, community and technical affairs. Mig33 will also enhance the technical team personnel in Indonesia, because most of the time technical team is at the center of mig33 office in Singapore, while the availability of local technical team is very important to know the local custom favored by the users of Indonesia.

In addition, mig33 is also willing to add a younger target demographic. The target age is 18-24 years old, users that are still in college or fresh graduates. For that, mig33 plans to add more game and increase the number of telecommunications companies’ partners in cooperation as a pre-loaded applications. If all goes well, it is not impossible mig33 will minimize the difference in number of users with Facebook in Indonesia and leave the other competitors.

I personally quite impressed with the exposure of mig33 for its expansion in the year 2011. How this regional company has had a very strong base in Indonesia. Not just a matter of a consumer, there are success stories on how a virtual credit has helped a number of mig33 users become millionaires. But it deserves its own story. Mig33 is an example of a company that is not solely focused on the upscale market alone, but also provides evidence that the mid-to-bottom market has a massive potential.