Growing interest in local apps

by Goh Thean Eu

MORE local mobile applications (apps) are being downloaded by Maxis Bhd's customers as the group's effort to produce more local content is bearing fruit.

Currently, over 1,000 apps are downloaded via the Maxis network daily, and from that, about 10 per cent are local content.

"We saw (before) an imbalance between overseas and local content developers, now we are seeing the gap narrowing," said Maxis head of emerging products Navin Wathan.

Navin and Maxis chief executive officer Sandip Das were speaking to reporters during the Mobile Content Challenge recognition ceremony in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

"When we launched the campaign, we had about 50 local content developers taking part in the 1Store. Today, we have more than 150 developers. That's a very encouraging number," Navin said.Maxis has launched initiatives to spur the local content industry. A major one is the 1Store, which offers developers 100 per cent revenue share. This means the operator will not take any money earned by local content developers. However, this is only for apps developed and submitted before June 1 2011.

Maxis is confident that more Malaysians will develop mobile content.

"While the growth has been very positive, what's more important is the quality of the contents developed by these participants," Sandip said.

During the recognition ceremony, awards were given to past winners of the Mobile Content Challenge, including Daniel Choy, who formed a joint venture with Dhaka's biggest Internet service provider, Link3 Technologies Ltd.

Last year, the joint-venture company managed to record US$2.5 million (RM7.6 million) revenue.

Another winner was duo Mohd Yazid Mohd Jaafar and Ahmad Arsyad Aripin. They developed Menu Tonight, which allows users to share their planned meals of the day and recipes, as well as voting of best meal ideas.