Upstage at Forbes Indonesia’s event: Media and Digital Forum in Grand Hyatt Jakarta, Steve Christian, CEO and co-founder of KapanLagi group announced (the word that he chose is “merged”) with Fimela Group. Both parties doesn’t specify into numbers or any details.

KapanLagi group is celebrating its 11th year anniversary this year and has in fact built an integrated media group with portfolio such as: KapanLagi.com, Merdeka.com (news portal), Bola.net (soccer site), Vemale.com (women site), and Otosia.com (automotive site) - for an extensive post about KapanLagi, see TechinAsia. While Fimela group has three sites including Fimela.com, Muvila.com (movie site), and Sooperboy.com (men site). With this announcement, all Fimela Group’s sites will be under KapanLagi group.

Steve Christian said on stage that its portfolio actually addresses mass market and low to middle class but Fimela Group...

I just browsed Tech in Asia, and found this article “5 Reasons Why WhatsApp Can’t Be Number One in Indonesia”. Which I think is an argument that is debatable or not strong enough, at least in my point of view.

[Disclosure: I used to work for KakaoTalk as Community Manager for Indonesia]

To start it off, at my post before: Messenger as a Platform: It’s a War, Not a Battle, I wrote that WhatsApp is number one in Indonesia in terms of active users (according to OnDevice Research, although Nielsen said differently I believe that WhatsApp has eclipsed Blackberry Messenger as more and more users are “upgrading” their smartphone), and I believe it has the stronghold to keep up with the rest of the messengers, moreover now that it was bought by Facebook for $19 billion.

Before I go on to put out my argument, do read this post by Sequoia regarding the acquisition, if you haven’t already.

The...

I should say it is the best year yet of my life so far (been saying that three times back-to-back from 2011, 2012, and now 2013) - this year I get to travel to quite a lot of places and meet a lot of new friends. Started my own initiative, and get interviewed by Bloomberg Indonesia. Not bad, I guess?

January

Had a blast NYE and then followed by New Year’s BBQ.

My I Got a Boy album arrived

Helped Touchten’s Cute Kill covered

Flood is all over Jakarta

Submitted my thesis

February

Chinese New Year!

Valentine’s Day date with my dad.

Sister going back to Taiwan after spending a month of holiday.

US Visa approved!

KakaoTalk Indonesia team celebrating Jude’s birthday

Press Conference of KakaoTalk - “Media Play Day”

March

XL & KakaoTalk Event at Central Park

Attended Music Bank Live in Jakarta

Valentcia Trifonia’s Birthday

Interviewed by Kis FM Jakarta

Exhibition at Jakarta...

Merry Christmas to all of you. I really hope Christmas can have a great positive effect for all of us ending this great year and to start an even better 2014. With that said, I really want this post to remind us, not just when we are celebrating Christmas, but also each and every day.

Do Not Worry (Matthew 6:25-34)

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor...

The World Cup is imminent with 2014 just a couple of weeks away. And with the [World Cup 2014 draw](www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/10498863/World-Cup-2014-draw-live.html) just happened, here is my reaction and perhaps, a prediction.

Group A: Brazil, Cameroon, Mexico, Croatia

Interesting group, but since Brazil is the host, they would most likely top the group. The question would be, who will follow Brazil to the next round? Led by Eto'o, Cameroon used to be a dark horse, but I’d say they will end last and the 2nd position will be up for grab between Mexico and Croatia - though European teams usually won’t do well in South American nations.

Group B: Spain, Chile, Australia, Netherlands

The second group of death in terms of the teams inside. Spain vs Netherlands will be one of the must-watch games of the tournament and might be the decider as well, also if you can’t...

Disclosure: I used to work for KakaoTalk as a Community Manager in Indonesia.

Few days ago, Minh from Tech in Asia posted an article that said chat apps are not fighting a battle, and that they can co-exist. I’d say yes, they can co-exist, but do they want to? Nope, I don’t think so, especially when you have a platform strategy and want to be a platform to do a lot of things on top of your messenger’s userbase.

For example, Kakao is being used by more than 90% of smartphone users in South Korea. If someone wants to buy a phone, they will ask for KakaoTalk and the sight of people using KakaoTalk are everywhere in the subway. This has been leveraged by Kakao to build things on top of it, with games as a natural expansion. Kakao has recorded $311 million in revenue just the first half of this year on its games, why? How? Platform play

If Kakao controls South Korea, at the other side...

Just done watching the second installment of Hunger Games, Catching Fire. Had a huge expectation as it has great reviews among my peers. Was a bit doubtful since it has so many details, that it will be hard to leave anything out.

I came out with a 8/10 rating. It wasn’t exceptional, but it does capture some of my imagination when I read the book. Sam Claflin who played Finnick is great, and Jena Malone is a bit too pretty for the role. Anyways, since I read the book, I do have to point out two details that are important, especially for those who haven’t read the book.

• First: Katniss supposed to meet Bonnie and Twill who’s on the run from District 8 and on their way to District 13. This is important, as it hints out that District 13 isn’t dead, and also that the uprising is actually happening as they speak.

• Second: Plutarch, the game master for this Quarter Quell, supposed to show his...