Asia’s first digital
Ventures
TEAM
Based in Tokyo, John is a Co-Founder and the CEO of DFR.
Prior to DFR, John had a long career in the entertainment industry in Asia, including servicing as a Vice President of EMI Music Inc., Senior General Manager of the Virgin label in Japan, Vice President of International Marketing and A&R at EMI Music Asia, and Director of International Marketing at Sony Music Entertainment.
John graduated from UCLA, having also attended the International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo.
Based in Shanghai, Rick is a Co-Founder and the COO of DFR.
Prior to DFR, Rick had a long career in technology in Asia, including serving as General Manager of Asia for InfoGear Technology Corporation (acquired by Cisco in 2000), managing the System Software and Developer Relations groups for Apple Computer Asia, and as one of the first employees of the localization company Pacifitech Corporation in Japan.
Rick graduated from UCLA with honors, having also attended Nagoya University in Japan and Yonsei University in Korea.
Based in Shanghai, Gonz is the CFO of DFR, having joined the group in 2010.
Prior to DFR, Gonz had a long career in finance and business development, including various positions in the investment banking divisions of Citigroup and William Blair, investment manager for Electra Partners, and as founder and director of a seed investment fund in Europe working closely with start-ups.
Gonz graduated from Washington and Lee University with honors, and received his MBA from INSEAD.
Based in Shanghai, Jack is the CTO of DFR, having joined the in 2011.
Prior to DFR, Jack was most recently CTO of Spil Games Asia, responsible for development, design, and maintenance of the platform’s China architecture, several high level technology positions in Chinese and international companies including Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and WSN. He has led and managed large development teams in several areas including e-commerce, m-commerce, and gaming.
Jack graduated from South West University of Science and Technology.
Based in Shanghai, Ran is the Marketing Manager of DFR, having joined the team in 2012.
Prior to DFR, Ran worked in consulting and corporate investigation. She also has experience working in international trading, specializing in businesses with Africa.
Ran graduated from Williams College, MA with degrees in Mathematics, Political Science and Gender and Sexualities Studies.
Based in Shanghai, Merve is a Business Development Manager of DFR, having joined the group in 2013.
Prior to DFR, Merve spent 4 years in financial markets working with European and Middle Eastern investors at Credit Suisse and Credit Agricole. She has worked closely with various international funds and has an in-depth understanding of emerging markets and business models.
Merve graduated from Bilkent University with honors, and received her MBA from INSEAD.
Based in Tokyo, John is a Co-Founder and the CEO of DFR.
Prior to DFR, John had a long career in the entertainment industry in Asia, including servicing as a Vice President of EMI Music Inc., Senior General Manager of the Virgin label in Japan, Vice President of International Marketing and A&R at EMI Music Asia, and Director of International Marketing at Sony Music Entertainment.
John graduated from UCLA, having also attended the International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo.
Based in Shanghai, Rick is a Co-Founder and the COO of DFR.
Prior to DFR, Rick had a long career in technology in Asia, including serving as General Manager of Asia for InfoGear Technology Corporation (acquired by Cisco in 2000), managing the System Software and Developer Relations groups for Apple Computer Asia, and as one of the first employees of the localization company Pacifitech Corporation in Japan.
Rick graduated from UCLA with honors, having also attended Nagoya University in Japan and Yonsei University in Korea.
Based in Shanghai, Gonz is the CFO of DFR, having joined the group in 2010.
Prior to DFR, Gonz had a long career in finance and business development, including various positions in the investment banking divisions of Citigroup and William Blair, investment manager for Electra Partners, and as founder and director of a seed investment fund in Europe working closely with start-ups.
Gonz graduated from Washington and Lee University with honors, and received his MBA from INSEAD.
Based in Shanghai, Jack is the CTO of DFR, having joined the in 2011.
Prior to DFR, Jack was most recently CTO of Spil Games Asia, responsible for development, design, and maintenance of the platform’s China architecture, several high level technology positions in Chinese and international companies including Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and WSN. He has led and managed large development teams in several areas including e-commerce, m-commerce, and gaming.
Jack graduated from South West University of Science and Technology.
Based in Shanghai, Ran is the Marketing Manager of DFR, having joined the team in 2012.
Prior to DFR, Ran worked in consulting and corporate investigation. She also has experience working in international trading, specializing in businesses with Africa.
Ran graduated from Williams College, MA with degrees in Mathematics, Political Science and Gender and Sexualities Studies.
Based in Shanghai, Merve is a Business Development Manager of DFR, having joined the group in 2013.
Prior to DFR, Merve spent 4 years in financial markets working with European and Middle Eastern investors at Credit Suisse and Credit Agricole. She has worked closely with various international funds and has an in-depth understanding of emerging markets and business models.
Merve graduated from Bilkent University with honors, and received her MBA from INSEAD.
NEWS
Steve Mushero, ChinaNetCloud CEO, spoke at KPMG’s “The Changing Face of Commerce Insights” Forum 2013 in Shanghai as a panel speaker. He shared his insights on Cloud Computing, E-commerce, and the Chinese Internet with other panelists from across industry.
The forum focused on how innovation and technology is changing the way consumers and business interact. A lot of interesting information and insights was shared including how technology is increasingly playing an important and disruptive role in both the corporate and consumer world.
As an expert of Cloud Computing and the CEO of China’s largest server management company, Steve Mushero shared his own views on how the cloud can help customers meet their strategy and better support their business as they and their consumers move solidly into the 21st century.
Find the speech here and download the report of the presentations and discussions from the forum here.
The third interview of a 12 part series, Larry Weber, Chairman of Racepoint Group, interviews Alvin Graylin, CEO of mInfo, the leading Mobile Search Service in China providing natural language search services to users throughout China via SMS, WAP, IM and embedded client applet. He is also the founder of Guanxi Inc, a new location-based social discovery platform aimed at helping users interact with people and places and around them and connect more deeply with existing friends in their lives.
Find the interview here.
ChinaNetCloud announces installation, management and monitoring support for Hadoop, HDFS, and HBase. These related products are the key systems needed for 21st Century ‘Big Data’ and large-scale analytic, especially for games, e-commerce and advertising.
Mobile Now releases version 2.0 of DatouDatou with improved UX and new UI. Now DatouDatou has more filters, frames, stickers, and more fun.
Download it here.
DFR Asia Ltd., Asia’s first Digital Media Venture Studio, today announced that the company has closed its first round of outside equity financing. Investors included leading Asian network services and technology firm Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (NASDAQ:IIJI, TSE1:3774), entertainment industry leader On the Line, and other backers. Terms of the financing were not disclosed.
The funding will be used to expand DFR’s venture studio model for digital media in Asia. Under the globally emerging, post-incubator studio model for launching and growing new startup ventures, firms such as DFR who are expert in the startup lifecycle conceive, build, and assume ownership and execution responsibility for new ventures from inception. The studio approach stands in contrast to traditional incubators and accelerators, which typically support a much larger number of startup ventures with some combination of group training and “boot camp” programs, shared back office services, and limited initial seed financing for small minority equity stakes.
DFR is the first venture studio in the world to focus exclusively on digital media, and the first to be established in and for Asia—home to several of the world’s most dynamic and fastest growing digital media markets.
DFR will continue to be managed by long-time media and technology veterans John Possman and Rick Myers. With more than forty years of experience in key Asian markets between them, Possman and Myers have been investors in and backers of numerous digital media ventures seeing successful IPOs and trade sales across Asia.
“Our new backers bring serious additional horsepower to DFR’s venture studio model,” said John Possman, CEO of DFR. “The combination of their incredibly deep domain expertise together with new venture growth opportunity from DFR we believe is extremely powerful.”
Companies already launched by DFR across Asia under their studio model include new ventures in media metrics and analytics, online market research, in-store media, consumer data mining, online advertising, digital music services, and user engagement, among others.
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About DFR Asia
Founded in 2008 by Asia media and technology veterans John Possman and Rick Myers, Shanghai-based DFR Asia Ltd. (www.dfra.com) is a digital media venture studio. Under their venture studio model, DFR conceives, builds, and assumes ownership and execution control for new ventures from inception. DFR is the first company in the world to deploy the emerging studio model in Asia, and the first venture studio dedicated exclusively to digital media.
Media Contact: Gonzalo Ferrero
Tel: +86 (0)21-6385-8880
Email: press@dfra.com
Ynos presents the fourth Hostess Club Weekender with Vampire Weekend. Hostess Club Weekender will be even more exciting, this coming February, 2013. Stay tuned for more details on the venue and ticket details! Our lineup promises a weekend of cool music with 10 artistes including acts from ultraista, Ra Ra Riot and more!
SHANGHAI, September 13, 2012 — ChinaNetCloud, China’s oldest Cloud Computing and Server Management Company, recently announced that company CEO Steve Mushero was honored as the 2012 Silicon Dragon Entrepreneur of Shanghai. Speaking at the awards ceremony on September 13 in Shanghai, Mr. Mushero shared his entrepreneurial experiences and ChinaNetCloud’s development story with other entrepreneurs from well-known Internet enterprises and venture capital firms including Xiaomi Technology, YY Inc., Steamboat Ventures, Qiming Venture and GGV Capital.
Mobile Now’s new app for Ford and Blue Hive launched just before Golden Week. It’s an Owner App for Sync® – Ford’s seamless voice activation technology. Owners are provided with an easy and interactive guide to key Sync features such as using their phones and playing music whilst they drive. It’s currently available in a selected number of Asian markets.
Gravity Group Releases Statistics of Major Concerts held in China in Sep 2012. Overall, 43 major live concerts were held in September by 40 artists across 21 different cities in China.
Invited by “ADMEN”, Patrick Pun, Chairman & CEO of NCG Group, composed an article titled, “Marketing Trend in the Digital Era”. Based on the research report released by NCG Research Department, Pun addressed that digital marketing, especially social marketing products, would inevitably gain more market share from traditional marketing side. He analyzed the constraints and limitations of traditional media and mainstream online media, and predicted that “first-hand deep quality consumer data” would be a critical element in the future digital marketing development. Pun further addressed that, with today’s internet ecosystem; brands and advertising agencies should carefully listen and interact with their targeted customers by analyzing/mining first-hand consumer data and better utilizing social marketing tools. Whether they pay sufficient attention on customers’ opinion, whether they could interact with their target customers through creative channels, and whether they could effectively generate the first-hand consumer data to analyze, control, and evaluate the process, will be keys for a successful digital marketing campaign.
Ynos announces the third edition of its weekend music extravaganza in Tokyo. After the success of the two previous editions, the Hostess Club Weekender will be bigger and better this coming November, taking place in Zepp DiverCity. Stay tune for the lineup announcement, which promises to be even more impressive yet. Tickets are on sale now.
The Shanghai Business Review interviewed ChinaNetCloud CEO Steve Mushero for their cover feature addressing cyber attacks, data theft, and the problems they cause businesses in China.
Mobile Now Group is pleased to announce that its new app Datoudatoutie, is available now for Free on iTunes. Using the japanese photobooth concept, DatouDatoutie is the best way to take, customize and share fantastic photos.
Gravity Group Asia presents highlights from the Chinese movie industry in 2011. Overall, consumers are continuing to frequent brick-and-mortar movie theaters as China’s box office revenues surpassed the $2 billion mark in 2011.
Working with Ogilvy & Mather, Pop Sigma launched Johnnie Walker campaign around star fashion designer Xander Zhou, crafting a campaign to promote whisky culture in China for the iconic Johnnie Walker brand.
CONTACT
Shanghai
in partnership with Gravity Group
Suite 508, Block C
700 Huangpi South Road
Shanghai 200021
China
Tokyo
in partnership with Two4Seven Entertainment
Seizan I #801
2-26-32 Minami Aoyama
Minato-ku Tokyo
Japan