FEATURES THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

Speech Debelle scoops top Mercury Music Prize The rap artist can expect a big boost in record sales following win

By Mark Beech Bloomberg

peech Debelle was the surprise Among acts boosted by a Mercury winner last night of the 2009 Prize were rapper Dizzee Rascal (real S Barclaycard Mercury Prize for the name Dylan Mills), who won in 2003 for best British album of the year. Boy in Da Corner, and Badly Drawn Boy Rap artist Debelle, 26, won with (aka Damon Gough), the 2000 winner for her debut Speech Therapy, which was The Hour of Bewilderbeast, both on the released in June. She beat more highly independent XL Recordings label. Winners of and nominees tipped entries by Florence and the Last year’s winner was Elbow’s The for the 2009 �M�������������ercury Prize�, Machine and Kasabian. With this pick, Seldom Seen Kid (Fiction Records) clockwise from above: the Mercury judges continued their — the sales of which surged sevenfold Speech Debelle; Florence habit of making unexpected decisions, on the news. Klaxons won in 2007 with Welch of Florence and the also bypassing acclaimed records by La Myths of the Near Future (Polydor). Machine; Led Bib; La Roux; Roux, Glasvegas, Friendly Fires and Bat Previous hit albums that were Sweet Billy Pilgrim; and for Lashes. nominated for the Mercury Prize but Natasha Khan of Bat for “I feel so good, it feels better than failed to win include Robbie Williams’s Lashes.  photos: AGENCIES I imagined,” Debelle, from south Life Thru a Lens in 1998, when the London, told reporters after her victory. award went to Bring It On by Gomez, “Hopefully people will hear this album and OK Computer by Radiohead in and realize they don’t have to make 1997, beaten by Roni Size/Reprazent’s music that sounds the same: They can New Forms. make music that sounds good.” “Speech Debelle can look forward The Mercury Music Prize shortlist (with odds from bookmaker William Hill): The Mercury Prize, awarded annually to a big surge in interest, and the sales since 1992, is now sponsored by that come with that,” Martin Talbot, Florence and the Machine, Lungs (11/4 favorite) Barclaycard, which has taken over from the Official Charts Company managing the Nationwide Building Society. The director, said in an e-mailed release. “It Kasabian, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (7/2) prize has often been given to new or is one of the least established albums in Speech Debelle, Speech Therapy (7/2) non-commercial acts, and pits different the history of the Mercurys and an album Bat for Lashes, Two Suns (7/1) genres against one another, ranging from which still has great potential.” The Horrors, Primary Colours (7/1) folk and jazz to hard rock. The winner Speech Therapy, on the Big Dada Lisa Hannigan, Sea Sew (10/1) receives a prize of US$33,000, although label, has sold fewer than 3,000 copies Friendly Fires, Friendly Fires (10/11) the boost from album sales can be worth since its release, half of which came La Roux, La Roux (10/1) much more. since it was shortlisted seven weeks ago. Glasvegas, Glasvegas (14/1) The award, judged by critics and Debelle has never reached the Official The Invisible, The Invisible (33/1) industry figures, focuses on the music Singles or Albums charts, although this Sweet Billy Pilgrim, Twice Born Men (33/1) — it doesn’t take into account sales, is set to change over the coming weeks, Led Bib, Sensible Shoes (33/1) source: bloomberg media exposure or live performances. Talbot said.

[ t e c h n o l o g y ] Asian social networking sites profit from virtual money

The din of virtual sales on Asia’s most popular social network Web sites has been noticed in the West, where industry players are struggling to generate revenue

By Brenda Goh Tsuri Star 2. The rest comes from purchases for acquire virtual currency from the sites to buy Reuters, SINGAPORE avatars on social networking sites. digital goods, game packages or upgrades. By selling an array of virtual products from The success of virtual sales on Asia’s most Though this model has taken off abroad, the avatar clothes to e-furniture, Asia’s social popular social networking sites is so impressive West still has a long way to go before it catches networking sites appear to have solved the that MySpace and Facebook are starting to up with Asia. conundrum of how to leverage big profits from reexamine the potential that virtual money Habbo, a social networking site for teenagers their extensive user bases. possesses to generate cold hard cash. owned by Finland’s Sulake Corporation, sells According to them, it’s simple: the money Qzone’s Tencent Holdings made over US$1 virtual clothes and furniture. Meanwhile, games might be virtual but the profits are all too real. billion last year with just 13 percent coming along the lines of Pet Society, which is available Chinese university student Tan Shengrong spends from advertising revenue. In contrast, Facebook on Facebook and allows users to raise virtual about US$2.90 per month purchasing outfits for and MySpace depend on advertising for the bulk pets, sell goods such as virtual pet accessories her pet penguin avatar or playing games at QQ, of their revenue. and e-food. an instant message portal on Qzone, China’s most The evolution of virtual money on social Playfish, creator of Pet Society and other popular social networking site. networking sites in Asia is partly due to a less social games, says it has 47 million active users It may not seem like a hefty sum, but every developed online advertising market, the state of per month playing its games. cent is money in the bank for Tencent Holdings, which has driven Asian Web businesses to seek With seven million or so inhabitants, the which owns Qzone and saw an 85 percent new ways to profit. virtual world Second Life offers a range of increase in its second quarter net profit this year Cultural issues are at play too. Gaming is e-wares for sale in Linden dollars. Some are compared to 2008, remarkable numbers in light popular among adults in Asia, whereas in the mundane and others are controversial, examples of the economic downturn. West the activity tends to be perceived as a being guns and virtual phalluses with price tags “They keep growing even though the children’s pastime. based on size. economy’s bad because they keep making East Asian societies are also very status Asia is also a playground for a diverse millions from cents from millions and millions conscious. Players are loath to be the only avatars spectrum of virtual business models, as An Internet cafe customer views the Web site of Qzone, a Chinese social networking site. Asians make up 80 percent of the of people,” said Benjamin Joffe, head of Internet without the latest gear and Asians are perhaps exemplified by the evolving rentals market. For global market for virtual products, says Internet consulting firm Plus Eight Star. photo: retuers consulting firm Plus Eight Star. more willing than their Western counterparts to example, Cyworld rents background skins of buy virtual products to update their avatars or popular South Korean baseball players for limited pointed to signs of a mass exodus from Facebook, MySpace’s recently-departed chief operating DIgging deep social space. periods of time. Such rentals drive repeat sales as disillusioned users leave due to privacy concerns officer Amit Kapur mentioned that the firm was From virtual clothes to e-pets, Asians spend Furthermore, while Asia’s social networking and tap into trends. or complaints of rampant commercialism. also interested in developing a payments and an estimated US$5 billion a year on virtual sites tend to be country specific, they have very Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace stands out virtual goods system. purchases via Web sites such as Qzone, Cyworld active user bases. LOST IN TRANSLATION among the major social networks in its ability Meanwhile, Internet entrepreneurs are coming in South Korea and mobile-phone based network Qzone had 228 million active user accounts The success of these East Asian sites contrasts to generate profits through advertising sales. to Asia to study innovative Web business models. Gree in Japan, according to Plus Eight Star. during the second quarter of this year, although sharply with the frustrations of the social However, the site is currently undergoing a In June, 32 venture capitalists and Internet That’s about 80 percent of the global market for it won’t give out monthly visitor figures. media market across the Pacific, where, despite major overhaul in the face of problematic entrepreneurs visited Japan and China under the virtual products, the company says. Meanwhile, Cyworld, which says that 90 percent immense popularity, Facebook and MySpace user metrics, and has ousted its CEO and fired banner “GeeksOnAPlane” to learn about local “Social networking is just a way to get of South Korea’s 20-somethings are members, have yet to fully harness the profit potential of hundreds of staff. success stories such as DeNA, video hosting Web people together, but if you want revenue you had 23 million unique visitors per month at the their massive user bases. Meanwhile, both Facebook and MySpace are site Tudou and gaming Web site PopCap. have to sell them something. What they found end of the first quarter of 2009. Facebook, the world’s biggest social eyeing the benefits of virtual money. Facebook, “They were all blown away even though some was that people were happy to pay for content Like their Western counterparts, Asian social networking site with close to 300 million visitors which sells virtual goods mainly in the form of them already knew about what was going on related to emotion, status and entertainment,” networking sites allow their users to chat, play per month, is on track to earn more than of Facebook gifts through a credit system, here,” said George Godula, founder of Shanghai- said Joffe. games and share photos. US$500 million in revenue this year, mostly from said in March that it was considering offering based consultancy group Web2Asia. “They [Asian About 80 percent of virtual sales in Asia come There is also some advertising, but the sites advertising, though its focus remains on expanding a common virtual currency to third-party social networking sites] are quite nimble at from items such as equipment for online games, a earn most of their revenues from their users. its user base rather than making money. application developers. finding out business models or ways of how to fitting example being rods for Gree’s fishing game Members are represented by avatars and can Nevertheless, a recent New York Times article At the Web 2.0 Summit late last year, make money,” he said.