Boom time for Aussie mobile start-up

Australian mobile social networking export mig33 has appointed former Yahoo senior VP Steve Boom to the role of CEO, replacing co-founder Steven Goh.

Goh, a serial Australian entrepreneur who was also behind dotcom online trading company Sanford Securities, will retain an active executive role with the company as executive vice president and member of the board of directors.

The appointment signals the ramp up of mig33 from experimental social media start-up to fully fledged commercial entity. mig33 which was founded in Perth and is now based in Burlingame, California has raised over $10 million in VC Funding from Technology Venture Partners, Accel Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, and $13.5 million from Doll Capital Management and Series A investors. The social media application which allows users to email, send instant messages, create chat rooms, text, have profiles and share photos boasts more than 18 million users in over 200 countries. It uses an Australian developed integrated mobile download application that offers mobile users cheaper VoIP calls and data rates.

In November Mig33 launched a raft on new features including the ability to post status messages, personalize the service with different themes and communicate in six languages - English, Russian, Indonesian, Bengali, Hindi and Chinese. Co- founder and VP Mei Lin Ng said that the overall goal for the next phase of growth is to increase “engagement and stickiness”, which will foster higher ARPU on mig33’s services and mobile content. She added that as mig33's core users are from under developed countries which do not have fixed infrastructure, mig33 was in a comfortable position to weather the economic storm.

“Over the past three years, our company has taken a leadership position amongst mobile communities. Steve’s an outstanding and talented executive. I’m personally excited about working with him to take the company to the next level by creating an exciting and engaging experience for our customers and rewarding outcomes for our partners,” Goh added.

Boom brings over a decade of internet and mobile industry experience to mig33. A ten year veteran of Yahoo he was most recently senior vice president of Yahoo! Inc.’s Connected Life division, holding global responsibility for Yahoo!’s mobile business. Boom first joined Yahoo in London as an early member of the European management team, where he was responsible for building new business models and strategic alliances for Yahoo!’s European operations. Prior to that he was an attorney at Venture Law Group in Silicon Valley, where he advised internet and software start-ups such as WhoWhere?, Moai Technologies and Whistle Communications.

“mig33 has always been at the forefront in bringing the power of communications and community from the Internet to the mobile phone, I am excited to lead mig33 into the future and build on the incredible assets that Steven and the rest of the mig33 team have created,” Boom said

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