With a population of 27 million people, Malaysia sits as one of the most progressive tech communities in Asia. From the beginning of the first web boom Government policy has driven the development of hi-tech zones to drive home grown tech development and to create a hi-tech export industry.
While much of the emphasis in Malaysia has been on tech as opposed to the web, initiatives such as a MSC Malaysia Cybercenter offer web development companies first class infrastructure and support without the restricts often faced in other parts of Asia.
In developing its own distinct 2.0 culture though, Malaysia faces challenges created in part by its own prosperity; most educated Malaysians in the middle and upper classes speak English (with some Manglish thrown in for good measure), means that Western 2.0 services have a strong local presence, where as countries such as Indonesia (our Focus post here ) local firms often have an advantage due to lower rates of English literacy.
There’s a lot of interesting things going on in Malaysia, and we’ll miss some decent services in this list. If you can suggest any more feel free to leave a comment with short description and a link.
What they say :
Tumpang is a Malay word for pooling – like car-pooling, or pooling of resources. At Tumpang, you will in fact be pooling your resources with other users to get the best deals. It’s really about getting a bulk discount. Tumpang helps you save by letting you buy in bulk. If a mobile phone costs USD 300, 10 units of the same may cost only USD 250. Tumpang facilitates this bulk buy letting you ‘tumpang’ an item with other Tumpang users. In short, you Gather, Buy and Save!
In use : a group buying/ discount service with a wide range of goods. Smart, modern ecommerce tapping the crowd for a greater deal Nuffnang
What they say : Nuffnang.com is Asia’s first and leading blog advertising community. Our online platform allows advertisers to serve graphic or video based advertisements onto the thousands of local blogs that are signed up with us.
In use : Advertising network that is regularly appearing in the blogopshere. Also has a presence in Singapore
Pacmee
What they say : Pacmee is a social networking website. It offers useful, easy-to-use and affordable Personalisation, Advertisement and Communication (PAC) tools. MyShoutOut is the first in a series of these tools. It is currently available for Maxis postpaid and Hotlink prepaid users in Malaysia only.
In use : every country should have its own Twitter style site, although this one seems to be limited to certain ISPs.
Adverlets
They say: Advertlets.com is an Asian blog/weblog advertising network that offers the remarkably sensible proposition of targeted, unintrusive advertising that benefits the online advertising and blogger community, as well as their readers. Bloggers get better advertising that is relevant to their readers, and advertisers make their advertising dollars and their message count.
In use: Another advertising network that is popping up around the blogosphere.
The Digg Clones I wont write these all up individually, but not only does Malaysia have a number of Digg clones, one of them resides on Digg.com.my:
Layann (Digg.com.my) Rock Your Vote Innit
Web 2.0 Entrepreneur has a great guide to getting startup funding in Malaysia here, and I couldn’t write a post about Malaysia without linking to perhaps the countries most famous blogger internationally LiewCF.
I found the spreadsheet below on a sharing site so I’m not sure where it originated, but it gives a good run down on the challenges facing Malaysia startups and the different services that are popular locally.
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