The Product that Wowed Audience in CommunicAsia 2007
I now know what the buzz was all about when I attended CommunicAsia 2007 in Singapore Expo and saw the booth with the most number of people and suprisingly, this booth belongs to none other than a Malaysian company called Mor(f) Dynamics. The buzz was due to the cuteness of the character being promoted called Mojikan, a 3D Virtual Pet Instant Messenger software. I was unable to see the booth as there were too many people packing the 3X4m mini-booth but with a peek at their soft toys being given out free to the first few who signed up, even I find the character actually cute and likable.
Mojikan is a new virtual world that allows you to interact using a 3D Virtual Pet (the main attraction of the booth) using Moji Instant Messenger Client. However, the IM client allows you to log into your existing MSN, Yahoo, AOL and Jabber accounts so you don’t have to use other messengers. You can also install these pets as widgets on your blogs who will trawl your blogs and potray the emotions of the contents on your blog, just like in my personal blog. Just like Second Life, this virtual world has created its own virtual currency called ’sparx’ that allows users to buy clothes and toys for their Moji pets.
To add to that, with their Artificial Intelligence technology, this virtual pet would be able to understand your needs and likings and will be able to recommend relevant products. Hear a future in advertising here?
Yet, what pulls the crowd to this booth is the cuteness factor of the pet and not the high technology of AI and Natural Language Processing that allows the pet to be controlled by you so that it can understand you. Nonetheless, without its extensive features, it will not be able to have a sustaining croed. Thus, it has won its audiences both in first impression as well as long-lasting impact. All that is left now is to find out how much more this company can live up to its customers expectations who have registered excitedly to have this cute virtual pet running, crying and begging on their IM.
A down-to-earth commentary on mobile technology, internet and telecommunications from an employee working in a network operator in Asia. Feedback and proposals most welcomed.