While much of the emphasis in Malaysia has been on tech as opposed to the web, initiatives such as a MSC Malaysia Cybercenter offer web development companies first class infrastructure and support without the restricts often faced in other parts of Asia.

In developing its own distinct 2.0 culture though, Malaysia faces challenges created in part by its own prosperity; most educated Malaysians in the middle and upper classes speak English (with some Manglish thrown in for good measure), means that Western 2.0 services have a strong local presence, where as countries such as Indonesia (our Focus post here) local firms often have an advantage due to lower rates of English literacy.

There’s a lot of interesting things going on in Malaysia, and we’ll miss some decent services in this list. If you can suggest any more feel free to leave a comment with short description and a link.

Tumpang

What they say:

Tumpang is a Malay word for pooling – like car-pooling, or pooling of resources. At Tumpang, you will in fact be pooling your resources with other users to get the best deals. It’s really about getting a bulk discount. Tumpang helps you save by letting you buy in bulk. If a mobile phone costs USD 300, 10 units of the same may cost only USD 250. Tumpang facilitates this bulk buy letting you ‘tumpang’ an item with other Tumpang users. In short, you Gather, Buy and Save!

In use:
a group buying/ discount service with a wide range of goods. Smart, modern ecommerce tapping the crowd for a greater deal

Nuffnang

What they say:
Nuffnang.com is Asia’s first and leading blog advertising community. Our online platform allows advertisers to serve graphic or video based advertisements onto the thousands of local blogs that are signed up with us.

In use:
Advertising network that is regularly appearing in the blogopshere. Also has a presence in Singapore

Pacmee

What they say:
Pacmee is a social networking website. It offers useful, easy-to-use and affordable Personalisation, Advertisement and Communication (PAC) tools. MyShoutOut is the first in a series of these tools. It is currently available for Maxis postpaid and Hotlink prepaid users in Malaysia only.

In use:
every country should have its own Twitter style site, although this one seems to be limited to certain ISPs.

Adverlets

They say:
Advertlets.com is an Asian blog/weblog advertising network that offers the remarkably sensible proposition of targeted, unintrusive advertising that benefits the online advertising and blogger community, as well as their readers. Bloggers get better advertising that is relevant to their readers, and advertisers make their advertising dollars and their message count.

In use:
Another advertising network that is popping up around the blogosphere.

The Digg Clones
I wont write these all up individually, but not only does Malaysia have a number of Digg clones, one of them resides on Digg.com.my:

Layann (Digg.com.my)
Rock Your Vote
Innit

Web 2.0 Entrepreneur has a great guide to getting startup funding in Malaysia here, and I couldn’t write a post about Malaysia without linking to perhaps the countries most famous blogger internationally LiewCF.

I found the spreadsheet below on a sharing site so I’m not sure where it originated, but it gives a good run down on the challenges facing Malaysia startups and the different services that are popular locally.

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Related posts:

1. Focus On Asia: Indonesian Startups
2. Focus On Asia: Call For Startup Submissions
3. So Malaysia Thinks Blocking a Website Can Silence an Opposition

Indonesia is a country that isn’t well understood in the West. After years of one party rule, Indonesia has emerged as the largest Muslim democracy in the world (234 million people) and a slow opening up of the local economy has seen an emergent middle class. Internet penetration in Indonesia is growing, but still only totals 20 million users, not helped in the least by Indonesia’s geography of 17,508 islands of which around 6,000 are inhabited.

Here’s some of the startups and 2.0 services making their presence felt in Indonesia.


Moodmill

What they say:

Moodmill is a social mood management website. It’s a personal mood management, a log, a quick ‘n easy website for managing and sharing your short logs with your contacts.

In use:
Moodmill is a Twitter hybrid that combineds short messaging with social networking style mood statements. A professional service that has come to the attention of sites such as ReadWriteWeb.

Layartancap

What they say:

“Layartcancap.com is a video streaming website located in IIX (Indonesia Internet eXchange) so can be faster access for Indonesia users.”

In use:
Layartcancap is Indonesia’s version of YouTube. The site may not be as well designed as American services, but it serves the local community well.

Kronologger

Not available in English, Kronologger states on its logo “Indonesia’s microblogging service.” Simply this is an Indonesian Twitter with a smart design and decent local user base.

Fupei

An Indonesian social network similar to MySpace, but localized.

There are probably more Indonesian startups, and if you know of any, please feel free to comment. The last word from the English language Jakarta Post:

These new developments indicate that Indonesian local content has grown rapidly. And since all content is placed with local hosting providers, of course it can save Internet bandwidth significantly.

Despite the fact that the Indonesia’s Web 2.0 services are mostly cloned off international service models, the potential exists to develop and explore them for the local market.

It’s not easy to create truly original services in this field, and the real competition lies in creating an appropriate business model and in attracting the community.

Related posts:

1. Focus On Asia: Malaysia 2.0
2. Focus On Asia: Call For Startup Submissions
3. Why we shouldn’t trust social media startups

China and Japan tend to get most of the attention in the region, but there are some amazing people and startups who get lost in the noise. If you’ve got a startup you’d like to put forward, fill in our contact form and include any info you’d like us to look at, and be sure to note where you are located.

Related posts:

1. Focus On Asia: Indonesian Startups
2. Focus On Asia: Malaysia 2.0
3. Reader Poll: Do you want us to regularly cover startup job cuts?