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wo leading Asian tech companies are looking to capitalize on the Indonesian market’s zest for social networking this year, targeting to net at least 8 million local users for their products and services by the end of 2012.

Sean Zhang, Asia-Pacific director of Tencent Mobile Global, said that they planned to launch their products in the local market next month.

Tencent runs China’s largest instant messenger service (IM), QQ, which had 711.7 million active users as of September 2011. The company also operates the web portal qq.com.

“Actually, the first thing for us this year is to introduce our QQ Browser and Qute,” Zhang said.

Zhang added that the company’s browser and its Qute messaging application would be “totally” cross-platform, as the products would be available for a variety of mobile phones, ranging from smartphones using the Android operating system to feature phones using Java.

He added that the QQ Browser would even allow users of lower-end feature phones to surf the Internet, while Qute would allow mobile phone users to message each other regardless of the model of their phones.

Only a few mobile instant messenger programs are in wide use in Indonesia, led by the popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) program, which supports messaging between BlackBerry smartphone users only.

Zhang added that Tencent was wanted to collaborate with local partners to ensure its products were usable by different mobile phone models.

“We try to cooperate with operators to provide very cost-effective products to end-users. There will be a data plan for the QQ Browser and Qute, so it will be very easy for users to use.”

Zhang added that the data traffic generated by the products would translate into revenue for operators.

Mobile operators have created data plans to launch products in the market before.

Indonesia’s largest mobile operator, Telkomsel, has a social networking and chatting package which allows users unlimited access to Facebook for just Rp 1,000 (11 US cents) a day.

Zhang added that Tencent wanted to cooperate with handset manufacturers to pre-install its products on mobile phones and also wanted to work with content providers to supply localized content for its browser and messenger software. “We are trying to launch a localized product in Indonesia. The first thing is to make it available in Indonesian,” Zhang said.

Cooperating with operators, handset manufacturers for pre-installed applications and content providers was also the strategy chosen by Gree, Japan’s number-one mobile social game provider.

As of April, Gree had more than 140 million users and 500 games on its network. The company partnered with Tencent and recently acquired US-based game platform OpenFeint for US$104 million.

Noritaka Kobayashi, Gree vice president for business development, said that the firm was looking for an opportunity to invest in Indonesia’s social-gaming business.

“We are looking for good game developers, because Gree is about social data services through games,” Kobayashi said.

The company would use US$1 billion from its 2011-2012 profits to finance overall investments, although the company had yet to produce a specific investment plan for Indonesia, Kobayashi added.

Gree has held discussions with several companies, he said, including operators and handset manufacturers, to introduce and monetize their products in Indonesia.

“We offer revenue-sharing generated by our content with operators. Operators have a huge number of subscribers and they have operator billings we can take advantage of to secure some money,” he told The
Jakarta Post.

Although accessing the social mobile games is free, users have to pay for upgrades, such as better weapons or clothing for their characters.

Similarly, Tencent plans to monetize its products by selling premium versions of the free versions of its basic games.

However, games from Gree could only be used on smartphones running Apple’s iOS and of Google’s Android operating systems, Kobayashi said.

Both firms said they were eager to enter the Indonesian market because its large population had a strong penchant for social networking online. After all, the nation ranks as one of the top five users of Facebook and Twitter.

“China is very big. It has the biggest population but Indonesia is the fourth-largest and has 40 million active Facebook users,” Zhang said.

“Those are the reasons people are here. Indonesia has the population and the habit of going to the Internet by mobile. Indonesia is also building to serve better [mobile] content beyond Facebook and Twitter.”

Zhang added that the company forecasted generating 8 million users in Indonesia by this year. “The number is around 20 million for the Asian market.”

Meanwhile, Kobyashi pegged Gree’s global target for customers at 1 billion. “But in Indonesia, targets depend on the smartphone spread. Maybe at least 10 to 20 million in three years.”