The key to this success has been reach and diversity of content, according to the site’s managing editor, Alan Soon. I caught up with Alan at the WPP Stream conference in Thailand.

For reach, Yahoo “introduces the human element” by engaging prominent bloggers in each market. These bloggers, in turn, pull in second-tier bloggers. The result is a growing and closely-knit community of influencers.

Rather than build niche markets, however, Yahoo aims to make content as diverse as possible. Instead of just news headlines of the day, for example, Yahoo Southeast Asia follows the lead of the Huffington Post in writing about a wide range of topics.

Yahoo’s importance as a portal has had no small effect on its success as a news site, but it is still surprising that traditional media have not been able to dislodge Yahoo as the leading news site.

Any theories why?

Exploring the social media with three telcos on Twitter from JamiQ on Vimeo.

Launched by Saul Klein, Seedcamp is a micro-seed fund that invests in very early stage Internet technology companies that aim to change their  markets in a big way.

Seedcamp is committed to connecting entrepreneurs and the brightest mentors of the local and international technology scene.

Startups and mentors join together for a day of intense support, feedback and mentoring sessions. Companies are heavily encouraged to apply. Seedcamp is looking for small teams that have a prototype or early product developed and are looking to take the next steps.

Seedcamp has proven its model all over Europe over the last few years and are beginning to dabble in a few new markets – after South Africa in August, Seedcamp Singapore is the second Seedcamp event outside of Europe.

If you are the founders of a company – early stage internet technology companies looking to scale – consider applying!

(With Marketing magazine fighting Media magazine it can get somewhat confusing. Can someone please tell these guys to think up more creative titles for their publications?)

Founded out of Singapore by Randles in 2002, Marketing Magazine is intended to attract marketing, advertising and media professionals in Asia. The publication has opened up market-by-market using an online first strategy. If the online audience seems to justify the investment, they launch a publication, as they recently did in Hong Kong in 2007.

Media Magazine, published by industry giant Haymarket, just doesn’t match the ambitions of Marketing Magazine, Randles said.

“Their approach is pretty much one magazine for Asia, whereas we treat each country as a separate and parochial market,” Randles said. “When we go into one market, such as Singapore, we really focus on the needs of our target audience in that particular market.”

In the second video, Matt Eaton, editor of Marketing Magazine for Hong Kong, explains his editorial approach to the market.

Update from Eaton: Marketing will soon be audited in Hong Kong. They currently claim a print run of 9500 mags for Hong Kong and added another 1116 email addresses added in China this week to make for a total of 8500 e-newsletters going out each weekday in Hong Kong and China

Anyone from Media Magazine available for comment?

More on Randles’ market-entry strategy in a previous posting Justin Randles: 4 ways the Internet has changed niche publishing.

This is a further installment of my postings on English language publishing in Asia.

Newspapers may face crisis in Europe and the US, but the industry is booming in some Asian markets. Indian newspaper launches in recent months, for example, include Mail Today and Mint which aim for India’s emergent middle class.

NYT staffers may have some qualms. Singapore’s press freedom ranks below Nigeria and just ahead of Russia in the Reporters Sans Frontiers 2007 Press Freedom Index. The US State Department’s 2006 Human Rights Assessment said that Singapore’s “authoritarian style fostered an atmosphere inimical to free speech and a free press.” Many Americans also still remember the caning of Michael Fay.

How many NY Times copy editors will take up this offer to telecommute to Singapore?

—— Forwarded Message ——
From: Warren Fernandez Jude
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:50:15 +0800
Subject: Fw: and the misery continues…

Would you know anyone within the NYT who could help us put out the word that we would be happy to take on some copy-editors, which we are in dire need of.

Ideally, they would operate in our newsroom in Singapore, but we are open to the idea of some working in the US, as Paul Zach does.

Many thanks

Warren Fernandez
Deputy Editor
The Straits Times
Tel: 63195343/63195312
Fax: 63198274
email: warren (a t) sph.com.sg

Penny Low, one of the youngest women ever elected to the Singapore Parliament, speaks in this video about the Social Innovation Park in Singapore that she heads.

The SIP, as it is called, aims to cultivate and nurture Singapore’s social entrepreneurs.

While the world has never been so affluent and never had so much technology, many of our institutions remain anchored in the industrial era that began at the turn of the last century, Penny said. The old-style institutions look to help people by making decisions in board rooms rather than by working in the field directly with those affected by problems.

SIP, on the other hand, is founded in the belief people can be empowered to find their own solutions rather than relying on importing outside ideas.

The hope is for the 2.6 hectare Social Innovation Park to create a space to nurture and support such projects.

The idea is to give education to the general public, empowerment to aspiring social entrepreneurs and enhancement of social entrepreneur projects so that they can become scalable and replicable. The park itself will also have a strong bent towards ecology, operating on renewable energy.

As of this filming – during which I was somewhat distracted by a temperamental video camera – Penny was confident the park will have great impact.

Technorati Tags: Dalian, Davos, penny low, sip, social innovation park, WEF, World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders