Thailand
“Getting Investment for Your Game Company or Project in Asia"


Industry Expert Speaker

Mr. O Thongsrinoon
Head of Game Business
Sanook Online
& President
Thai Games Software Association

Mr. Thongsrinoon is Head of Game Business for Sanook Online and Director and former Studio Head for Studio Nocturne.  Mr. Thongsrinoon past accomplishments included building a world-class business support center and bringing to market industry’s first SME-grade e-commerce service for EarthLink Network, Inc., the third largest ISP
(Internet Service Provider) in the United States.
    

Later he joined LAUNCH Media, Inc., the world's number one online music destination, as Director for Product Management. At LAUNCH, Mr. Thongsrinoon is responsible for putting together commercialization strategy for Launch.com.  He also helped to improve LAUNCH's revenue streams and profit margin through optimized project development cycle, creation of turnkey solutions, and automated tools for Sales and Marketing departments. LAUNCH was acquired by Yahoo! at the end of 2000 and rebranded as Yahoo! Music.

He went on to co-found POPidols and worked as the company’s CEO.  POPidols is considered one of South Asia’s leading Digital Media company. He’s instrumental in revolutionizing mobile content industry by gaining exclusive contract for Thailand from BMG, EMI, Sony, Warner, and Universal Music.  In 2005, POPidols became the first Thai software company to be able to use IP as collateral and received support from NIA (National Innovation Agency) and SME Bank for “Good Innovation Zero Interest” program.  As Studio Head at Studio Nocturne, he’s instrumental in acquiring Nintendo and Apple licenses for the company. The company also once again set precedent by becoming the first game company in Thailand to get grant from NIA for its prototype. He’s also in charge of negotiating what at the time was Thai game studio’s first A-level contract with EIDOS for the company’s Nintendo DS title.

After Studio Nocturne, Mr. Thongsrinoon went on to join Sanook Online, Thailand’s #1 web portal, as Head of Game Business. He also served on the Board for TAM (Thailand Animation Multimedia) and Digital Content Committee for SIPA (Software Industry Promotion Agency). He's also the founding member and current president of for TGA (Thailand Game Software Industry Association).  Mr. Thongsrinoon is also a frequent guest lecturer, speaker and chair at various local universities and regional forums on the subject of digital media and game. He was selected as one of the four inspirational people for DTAC and Nokia i.Award Competition.

Session Description
The bottom line is that it is much tougher to raise fund or get investments for IP-based (intellectual property) business in Asia than the US and Western Europe. Your chance of success starts with knowing the difference between DCF and MP3! OT shares his experience of having successfully raised funds twice; one for this company and one for a game’s project. Now, he's gone over to the dark side and is part of a company looking to make investments in digital media, IT and game’s business. For this session, you can get two perspectives for the price of one (although heavier on the former)!