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No, Twitter may not get acquired anytime soon, but its clones certainly are: now Korean search and online gaming giant Naver has acquired Me2Day, a microblogging service, Web 2.0 Asia reports. The deal is valued at about $2 million (2.2 billion KRW). Me2Day beta-launched in 2007, per CNET Asia, and hadn't raised funding outside of some angel investments. Naver, a division of NHN Corp., will integrate the microblogging features within its various portals and sites.
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Three gaming related deals in Asia:
-- Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) has increased its presence in Korea, after buying the mobile gaming arm of Hands-On earlier this year: it has now bought J2MSoft, a Korean developer of PC and online games. J2M develops free-to-play online games that are monetized through micro-transactions and ads, including RayCity, TAAN, and Debut. EA plans to use J2M developers for developing games for Asian markets. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and while valuations are not yet complete, EA does not expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial results in fiscal 2009. More details in release.
-- And in China, Shanda (NSDQ: SNDA), the big online gaming portal, has made two investments: it has invested undisclosed amounts in two online gaming community operators, Shanghai Wei Lai and Shanghai Cai Qu. Shanghai Wei Lai offers titles such as "Travian" and "OGAME," while Shanghai Cai Qu offers the casual game title "Ge Zi Ke." More details in release.
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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 Back in October we noted that Time Warner-owned Warner Bros. was still hopeful of reclaiming some lost ground in the broadband-rich-but-piracy-ridden Korean movie market by releasing films on demand two weeks before their DVD release. It was hopeful even in the face of Sony, Paramount, Universal, Buena Vista and 20th Century Fox having shuttered domestic operations due to lagging sales.
Now a month later, Warner has changed its mind completely: it is getting out of the business of distributing DVDs, and in the coming weeks, it will sell licensing rights to a local company, which will take over the distribution of its movies, reports the WSJ.
DVD sales in the country have fallen to an estimated $285 million this year from $673 million in 2002, and a survey conducted by the Korean Film Council a year ago found that 47 percent of Korean Internet users have downloaded films through file-sharing sites, averaging 54.5 films a year. The Korean government has previously promised to shut down P2P and pirate/film storage sites, but it still has an unsigned free-trade agreement with the U.S.
Meanwhile, Warner is moving onto other Asian markets, and just last week announced that it would become the first Hollywood major to start selling VOD in China for less than the cost of a pirated DVD.
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Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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 Lifetime Networks is expanding its casual gaming with the acquisition of South Korean dress-up site Roiworld for an undisclosed amount and the simultaneous launch of Lifetime Games Studio Korea. Lifetime, a 50-50 joint venture of Hearst and The Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company, plans to launch a U.S. version of Roiworld.com in early 2009. The site mixes "casual" virtual worlds, user-generated content and social networking with fashion. Lifetime says the Korean version had 2.8 million uniques and 117 million page views in September, with visitors averaging 50 minutes a month. At the same time, Lifetime is investing further in casual gaming by launching Lifetime Games Studio Korea with headquarters in Seoul and a San Francisco office focused on biz dev, technology and sales. Lots more after the jump...
Roiworld founder Kiseo Kim will head the new studio as CEO, extending Roiworld and developing new games. Kris Soumas, head of Lifetime Games, adds the new venture to her portfolio. Plans call for integrated ad packages and micro-transaction technology, in addition to more social networking.
It's the company's second digital acquisition. The first was ParentsClick in August for a price we reported at about $10 million. But gaming already plays a significant role for Lifetime, with Lifetime Games as the leading content section for myLifetime.com. Lifetime partners with RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) on casual online and downloadable games from Real Arcade, promoting titles and sharing revenue. Lifetime Games also has published its own games with partners. Downloadable game sales were up 100 percent for 2007 over 2006 and the company says growth is still strong in 2008.
A promo of the upcoming site should go live this morning. Tag line: Dress Up Games Are About To Grow Up. Lifetime promises 1,000-plus "fashion and style" games. It's all about digital escapism, giving women an excuse to play with virtual "paper dolls" and share the results. The same kind of games could be used to promote Lifetime shows—giving the Army Wives makeovers, for instance—but Soumas says that's not the initial intent.
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Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon & Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. Register now!
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You're reading it here first ... Lifetime Networks is expanding its casual gaming with the acquisition of South Korean dress-up site Roiworld for an undisclosed amount and the simultaneous launch of Lifetime Games Studio Korea. Lifetime, a 50-50 joint venture of Hearst and The Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company, plans to launch a U.S. version of Roiworld.com in early 2009. The site mixes "casual" virtual worlds, user-generated content and social networking with fashion. Lifetime says the Korean version had 2.8 million uniques and 117 million page views in September, with visitors averaging 50 minutes a month.
At the same time, Lifetime is investing further in casual gaming by launching Lifetime Games Studio Korea with headquarters in Seoul and a San Francisco office focused on biz dev, technology and sales. Roiworld founder Kiseo Kim, will head the new studio as CEO, extending Roiworld and developing new games. Kris Soumas, head of Lifetime Games, adds the new venture to her portfolio. Plans call for integrated ad packages and micro-transaction technology, in addition to more social networking.
It's the company's second digital acquisition. The first was ParentsClick in August for a price we reported at about $10 million. But gaming already plays a significant role for Lifetime, with Lifetime Games as the leading content section for myLifetime.com. Lifetime partners with RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) on casual online and downloadable games from Real Arcade, promoting titles and sharing revenue. Lifetime Games also has published its own games with partners. Downloadable game sales were up 100 percent for 2007 over 2006 and the company says growth is still strong in 2008.
A promo of the upcoming site should go live this morning. Tag line: Dress Up Games Are About To Grow Up. Lifetime promises 1,000-plus "fashion and style" games. It's all about digital escapism, giving women an excuse to play with virtual "paper dolls" and share the results. The same kind of games could be used to promote Lifetime shows—giving the Army Wives makeovers, for instance—but Soumas says that's not the initial intent.
Related
Mark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon & Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. Register now!
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Even though Sony (NYSE: SNE), Paramount, Universal, Buena Vista and 20th Century Fox have all shuttered domestic operations in South Korea following years of sagging sales, Warner Bros. thinks it can reclaim some lost ground in the market by releasing films on demand two weeks before their DVD release. South Koreans are so accustomed to downloading films over peer-to-peer networks that it might be too little too late, but the studio is willing to give it a go before throwing in the towel it appears. Almost half of all people surveyed by the Korean Film Council said they've downloaded films online at least once, according to the company. Thomas Gewecke, president of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, calls South Korea, with its broad base of tech-savvy consumers, the ideal market to try something new.
But is it the DVD format that South Koreans have been increasingly avoiding for years or is it the price being charged for the copyrighted material? DVD sales in the country have fallen to an estimated $285 million this year from $673 million in 2002, The Korea Times reported last month. If Warner Bros. can re-gain some of that business through on-demand services, it will be a success by any measure, but there's a lot to suggest that South Koreans will shun prices charged by entertainment companies regardless of the format. Release.
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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 Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has bought Korea-based blogging software provider TNC, co-founder and co-CEO Chang Kim said in a blog post on Web20Asia.com (via Venturebeat). Terms weren't disclosed. The company's full name is Tatter and Company. Kim compares TNC to Matt Mullenweg's Automattic - "a company that develops a cool blogging platform" that's favored by "the nation's A-list bloggers and also works closely with the open source community."
She says Google views the acquisition as a way to build up its market share in Asia and Korea, where its presence is not dominant as it is in the west. Kim claims that TNC supplies blogging software and services to more than 400,000 users, including 65 of Korea's top 100 bloggers, as of the first half of 2007. It has received an unspecified amount of funding from Softbank Ventures' Ranger Fund. Chang, and her TNC co-founder/CEO Chester Roh, sold their previous blog service, Tistory, to Korean portal Daum. The company's newest blog tool is called Textcube.
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
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 Samsung Electronics is considering buying U.S. PC and mobile memory card maker SanDisk, according to a Korean online report (Google translation of the story here), and then later confirmed by the company. After the report came out, Samsung spokesperson said: "We are looking at various opportunities regarding SanDisk (NSDQ: SNDK), but nothing has been decided yet." The story said Samsung had hired J.P. Morgan as the banker for these negotiations.
Samsung is the world's top maker of NAND and DRAM flash chips and pays SanDisk about $353.8 million a year in licensing fees, and with this acquisition it is looking at reducing this expense, the story said. NAND flash memory is used in digital media gadgets such as cameras and music players, something SanDisk is strong in. DRAM chips are used mostly in PCs. SanDisk has been positioning itself as a consumer player in the digital media marketplace, and even launched a video-to-TV video service last year, though that closed down quickly. It does have the Sansa line of MP3 players (a distant iPod competitor), and in June acquired MusicGremlin, a maker of technology to deliver music over Wi-Fi, to integrate it within its next generation of its MP3 players. It has also been positioning its mobile memory chips as a content delivery system, and has a new-ish site called Wakeupyourphone to promote them.
In August there were rumors that in-storage drive maker Seagate might be interested in buying all or part of SanDisk, though nothing came out of it.
Related
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
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eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) is in talks to acquire a minority stake in GMarket, a South Korean online auctioneer. The talks are with Interpark Corp., the Korean portal that owns 37 percent of the company. A spokesperson from eBay told AP that there was no certainty a deal would be reached or that it would be approved by South Korean regulators—eBay already owns a South Korean competitor, the aptly named Internet Auction. No deal terms have been announced, although shares of NASDAQ-listed GMarket shot up over 14 percent on the news. In 2006, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) took a 10 percent stake in GMarket, so they're a beneficiary of this as well.
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