Press play for a new era of gaming

• Competitive gaming in Southeast Asia is getting bumped up to a whole new level, thanks to a partnership between 500-backed grassroots gaming platform Esports Players League (ESPL) and gaming guild Yield Guild Games Southeast Asia (YGG SEA).
• Together, the two firms plan to expand to over 300,000 users in the region by 2023, while YGG SEA works towards creating the biggest and most sustainable Play-to-Earn (P2E) virtual economy in SEA.
• Under this collaboration, gamers from Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, and Thailand will be brought together to grow the P2E ecosystem.
• Stephanie Kuan, ESPL’s Chief Operating Officer said, “This relationship represents a unique opportunity for both ESPL and YGG SEA to establish bigger goals for the regional e-sports communities while keeping everyone engaged through content, partnerships, and tournaments. We believe the P2E system is geared towards providing opportunities for all parties involved, from developers to players, allowing this venture to act as a driving force to gather all communities and benefit as a whole.”
• She added that ESPL is currently working with Sky Mavis, the game publisher for Axie Infinity, on one of the biggest Axie Infinity tournaments for all NFT gaming enthusiasts in Malaysia.
• Read the full announcement in MARKETECH APAC.

The hatching of a new plan

• Trolls stand no chance against 500-backed social media platform Koo. The company introduced a new service on its app, an unusual feature it believes will inject credibility and trust among its users.
• It is the only social media platform in the world to allow users to voluntarily self-verify. A feature that is typically reserved for celebrities only on other platforms, anyone can do it on Koo in less than 30 seconds using their government-approved identity cards.
• In an interview with TechCrunch, Co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna said the feature is designed to improve the quality of discourse, adding that posts and comments from verified users may rank better on the platform eventually.
• But what about user privacy? Aprameya assured that user IDs will not be stored, protecting the startup from being compelled to share personal data with law enforcement agencies.
• To date, Koo operates in 10 Indian languages and has been downloaded over 30 million times.
• Read the full story in TechCrunch.

A critical time for learning

• 86% of parents believe their child missed out on learning social-emotional skills due to virtual learning. Are you one of them? 500-backed edtech startup Lingokids is bridging this gap by doubling down on the development of activities related to skills like emotional intelligence, empathy, and critical thinking.
• What makes Lingokids different from other learning apps out there? Founder and CEO Cristobal Viedma credits the startup’s success to its personalized curriculum developed by a team of early learning educators and kid edtech experts from companies like Hasbro, Disney, and Nickelodeon.
• He shared that its Playlearning™ approach taps into the fact that a child’s motivation and concentration increase when they are having fun.
• “Every child learns at a different pace and has their own learning style, so for example, at Lingokids we have built a proprietary recommendation system that recommends the best interactive learning games and activities for a child depending on their interests, age, completion rates, and which skills they need to reinforce,” he added. “We have also personalized our app so children can choose their own activities, giving them the opportunity to make choices and think for themselves, which is empowering for early learners.”
• Read the full interview in Forbes.