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The Social Networking Conference serves as a pioneering forum in the Philippineswhere the latest trends on Web 2.0 applications, business models, revenueopportunities, challenges, and its evolution will be discussed.
The Social Networking and eBusiness Conference is an event geared towards companieswhich wants to see the potential of social networks for advertising, word of mouth,and reaching out to users with big social networks for collaboration, current,start-up and upcoming players in the social networking industry who would like togain insight and share perspective as to how this industry is evolving; internetusers who are interested to find out how this dynamic space will change in theyears to come.
The organizers of this conference are Fiera de Manila (www.fmi.com.ph, telephonenumber 8960639, 8960637, email: fiera@info.com.ph) and Digitalfilipino Club(www.e-commercephilippine s.com).
Featured speakers to be presented in the conference are --- Gregory "Greg"Kittelson is the Co-Founder and President of GrooveNet, a virtual world socialnetwork in the Philippines. He is also the co-founder and head of businessdevelopment for Mobius (Digital Media Exchange). Earlier on, he was the head ofsales and marketing for FBM Software.
GrooveNet is considered as the first virtual world set-up in the Philippines. Theservice will turn 2 years old this June and it has over 100,000 members in thePhilippines and thousands more Filipino members abroad, according to Gregory "Greg"Kittelson, co-founder and president of the company. "Initially, we launched withvery simple profile pages and There (virtual world). Since then we have added manycompelling features such as our GrooveNet Music & Lyrics player and a music widgetto add to other social networking sites. Early this year we also converted ourentire profile pages into Adobe Flex, which is a better technology. We hostedeyeball parties in Metro Manila so our members can meet in person and get to knowone another."
GrooveNet has its own virtual currency, Therebucks. This can be used to buy itemsitems in their virtual world and be able to buy physical goods like roses in thefuture.
Greg shared that 90% of GrooveNet traffic is from the Philippines. "Generally, ourmembers are Filipinos interested in meeting other people and are interested inmusic, night life, and even travel."
Like any community site, one major challenge is maintaining an active base of loyalusers in your community. Greg recognizes that the growth of Facebook and a fewother social networks has its effects to other players. "However, we are able tocombat this with localized content, such as local music and lyrics and night life.For example, you will never see Bamboo or Cueshe on the front pages or music pagesof Friendster, Facebook or MySpace. Nor will you see the latest parties happeningin Makati or the Fort on those sites either. However, you will see Filipino bandsand parties all over the GrooveNet site. Our eyeball parties also keep our membersloyal, as they offer a medium for them to finally get to meet and partake in nightlife and other social activities together."
Greg is optimistic on the potential of virtual worlds in the Philippines.Companies, sooner or later, may have to use this as a new venue to reach out totarget markets. "I think we are just scratching the surface with virtual worlds,not just in the Philippines but around the globe. They are becoming more and morepopular as people go online and the internet infrastructure improves. Virtualworlds are a great way to market, interact and even learn about your targetmarket."
Another speaker in the conference is -- Giovanni Bacareza, Director for BusinessDevelopment of Chikka Asia Inc. Experienced executive in international businessmanagement and operations, Giovanni Bacareza is responsible for identifying andseizing business opportunities in the North and South America, and also manages thecompany's operations in the said region.
Prior to his post at Chikka, he was vice president of Manila-based Ajonet HoldingsInc., an investment holding company where he was involved in P&L management,strategic planning, and technology development in both large multinationals andsmall startups.
According to Gio, Chikka has a revolutionary project that would require partnershipwith web 2.0 and social network developers. "We have a revenue model designed forthem. This new development keeps me busy in looking for developers, whethercompanies or individuals."
Chikka has one of the biggest social network not only in the Philippines butworldwide also. Its social network is based in its community of 40 million buddiesusing Chikka's messaging application.
Gio believes there's money to be made on the community besides text andadvertising. "We're opening up our platform for the developer community to playaround similar to Google Open Social and Facebook. The difference we have is that(1) we have other revenue models for developers than just ads: we got messaging,content, subscription services and (2) we provide the bridge to the mobile world." The Chikka platform is still in the process of completing its APIs anddocumentation. "The first developers we work with, we will handle closely on a1-to-1 manner. They will help us shape the platform. When we are ready to open thesandbox, then we unleash it."
Another speaker is -- Hans A. Koch, a co-Founder and Search Division President ofsyndeo::media. He handled more than two dozen clients serving various search engineand Internet marketing needs. Prior to this, he worked as a sales and search enginemarketing specialist for Pandora Squared. Hans Koch will share experiences onmarketing and communications campaign done through social networking and itspositive results.
With Web 2.0 applications and tools, social networking and user-generated contentin advertising and gaming community are alternative venue for advertisers topromote their products and services through various e-games. JC Medina, Director ofNew Media for Level UP! Games will be presenting interesting and exciting casestudies and new business models that work in the games market.
For more details of this conference, please call 8960639, 8960637, email:fiera@info.com.ph, visit web sites:http://www.socialnetwor kphilippines.blogspot.com, http://www.fmi.com.ph
