Pinterest continues its surge as it grows in the Asia Pacific region. The site has attracted millions of users in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The site faces a large host of competitors internationally, including a recently launched Chinese clone from Renren. The site seems to be surpassing all expectations — when will the growth taper off?
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Contrary to popular belief, almost all governments in the MENA region allow their citizens to access Facebook. After a long battle with its people, the Syrian government finally lifted its Facebook ban in February of 2011, which makes Iran the only country in the MENA region to have a ban on the social networking giant. Even though most countries in the region do not have a ban on Facebook, restrictions and limitations still exist through government, religion and culture.
Asia/Pacific region accounts from more than 70% of the worldwide revenue generated from virtual goods in 2010, according to a new report by In-Stats. Astounding as it may sound, the revenue share of Asia/Pacific has actually gone down during 2010 from being 81% of world virtual goods revenue in 2009.
This week, the South Korean Supreme Court made a ruling stating that online games’ virtual currency, or “cyber money”, can legally be exchanged for real world currency. The ruling also stated that transactions using this “cyber money” will be taxable.
Friendster has opened up some new offices in Asia, which makes sense seeing as the social network has a stronghold in the Asian countries–not the U.S. The company made a series of announcements this week regarding changes being made to Friendster, including new executives that have been brought on board, and a number of new partnerships aimed at further developing Friendster’s dominance in the Asia Pacific.
New office locations include Singapore and Sydney, Australia, which is where Friendster’s CEO Richard Kimber will be based along with the new hires for marketing and business development. Given its proximity to the Asia Pacific, it’s not entirely surprising to see Friendster establish central executives in Australia. The U.S. global headquarters, however, are now in Mountain View, CA, where some executives and cross-department employees will remain. Looking towards the rest of the year, Friendster has made it quite clear that it will be focusing a great deal of attention on the Asia offices, where at least 80% of the company’s new hires will be based.
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