Chitchat FT fired over Pokemon

Pokemon GO-obsessed Australian executive sacked by his Singaporean property firm after calling the country 'f*****g s**t' for not having the game yet

• Australian man Sonny Truyen posted a vile Facebook rant about Singapore
  
• He called Singapore a f*****g s*** country for not having Pokemon GO
  
• Mr Truyen started work as a vice president for digital marketing at 99.co
  
• The property development firm sacked Mr Truyen just a day after the post

By Cindy Tran for Daily Mail Australia
Published: 00:25 GMT, 12 July 2016 | Updated: 12:29 GMT, 12 July 2016

An Australian expat has been sacked by a property development company after posting a vile rant on social media about Pokemon GO being unavailable in Singapore.

Sonny Truyen, who worked as a vice president for digital marketing at the Singaporean-based firm 99.co, vented his frustration against the country after the popular Nintendo game was recently released in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States.

Pokémon Go is the latest mobile game that encourages players to use their smartphones' GPS and back-facing cameras to catch virtual Pokémon at real-world locations.

However, the Melbourne man who is living in Singapore was far from impressed after he discovered the game had not been released in the country yet.

'You can't f*****g catch Pokemon in this piece of f*****g s*** country,' he wrote on Facebook over the weekend.

Australian man Sonny Truyen (pictured), who works in Singapore, has been sacked after posting a vile rant on Facebook over the weekend

The Melbourne man vented his frustration on Facebook after the game was yet to be available in Singapore

The expat vented his frustration on social media over the Nintendo game not being unavailable in Singapore

WHAT IS POKEMON GO?

Pokémon Go is a mobile game that encourages players to use their smartphones' GPS and back-facing cameras to catch virtual Pokémon in real-world locations.

The Pokémon Company is a media franchise which was created in 1995 centered on fictional creatures called Pokémon, which humans – known as Pokémon trainers – can catch and train to battle each other for sport.

The post triggered a heated exchange with a Singaporean woman, who told Mr Truyen to leave the country because 'we don't need rude people here'.

Screenshots of the conversation were quickly shared by a user on the local forum fuckwarezone, prompting the company to terminate Mr Truyen's employment contract.

On Sunday evening, 99.co's CEO Darius Cheung issued an apology in a statement and confirmed that Mr Truyen had only started work with the company about a week ago as an SEO specialist.

Players use their smartphones to track and catch virtual Pokémon characters at real-world locations

Pokémon Go players have been strolling the streets in search of the characters (Pikachu is pictured at the Sydney Opera House)

Property development company 99.co has issued an apology on its website after Mr Truyen was sacked

'Sonny, an SEO specialist, has only started consulting for us for a week before the incident happened,' Mr Cheung said in a statement on the company's website.

'We are a proud Singaporean company and do not condone such language or behaviour, hence we have since terminated his engagement once the incident came to light.

'I apologise on behalf of 99.co, we pride ourselves to be a principled company that celebrates values like diversity and equality.

'We take responsibility for the public behaviour of any employee or consultant affiliated with us as a reflection of the company.'

Mr Truyen has since spoken out following the incident, telling Mashable it was a 'very big error in judgement to negatively label an entire country over Pokemon.
'It was very wrong of me to rage like that,' he added.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Sonny Truyen and 99.co for comment.

http://brandinginasia.com/iprice-group-loses-sonny-truyen-99-co/

Alive said:

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What a fucking rude and arrogant Australian.

This is quite the routine for such launches for anything that requires real time server demand. They launched in US and Aus/NZ as they are not in the same time zone and to see if the game picks up and the demand load on the server. The demand had shot up unexpectedly and the servers are crashing by the hour. They have therefore delayed the launch for Europe, Asia, Japanese, Canada etc.

Nothing to do with English language and any other garbage that people throw out. Apple also has a major say as it cannot clash with their own launches.

JHolmesJr said:

Why is it not here yet?

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someone is obviously gleaning from speculation in the media and talking through the arse again.

the "prototype" or first test software is written with japs in mind and it's in japanese. it is based on the outdated original pokeman red. this new game was tested and still being tested in japan starting q1 this year. limited number of users in japan get to battle pokemon critters outside subway stations not just catch them. server capacities in japan are and have been more than ready for mass use. they have been playing massive online social games from their phones way before the u.s. know how to pronounce "farmville". however for public safety, civic hysteria, and quality of experience issues, they are holding back the release in japan until further field trials show otherwise that all 3 above will not be severely impacted. for example, the image granularity of poke stops in the u.s. launch will disappoint jap users as they are low quality snapshots from google's streetview. jap users in japan will demand a hd shot and more helpful reading info on that stop.

there's adequate server power in canada as server farms coincide with u.s. time zones and cloud-share with u.s. data centers, but it is not launched there yet as the u.s. alone is adequate and an important market (the most important) for a north american launch. and why not since niantic is a spin-off of google and based in sf. plus the fact that glanurality and precision of mapping on trials, paths, markers and dirt roads in the vast expanse and wilderness of canada in no man's land are lacking - scant info and quality of experience issue.

u.k. and europe in general - there are vast server farms in scandinavia built by google and the game can be hosted on the google cloud (as google is still invested in niantic with shares) but the same 3 main issues facing japan have to be considered and consulted with each country's authorities. not that they really need permission and sign off's, but that they are being conscious of bad consequences, backfire and public chaos - a jap trademark.

niantic is working on a chinese version, but it is not ready yet as the chinese language does pose a challenge as many new names and nicknames of objects, critters, poke stops, etc. have to be creatively and correctly adapted. there's also traditional vs. simplified and meanings in hk/tw are not totally the same as in the prc. it's on the backburner. it's not just a simple translation when the game interacts with player much through textual instructions and suggestions. those who play the game will understand.

apparently you have someone who doesn't know shit about the game trying to teach the shitmaster how to shit.

It was not his first post that got him sacked which is basically a rant and quite normal. It was his subsequent posts which were nasty and uncalled for. It would have been difficult for the company which has gone to the market for funding and gathered some impressive partners including a FB founder. It was an obvious decision.

ginfreely said:

What a fucking rude and arrogant Australian.

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actually he quite good at his job...1 week only and he got a lot more people searching for 99.co

Yes, he certainly created more hits for them, got the CEO on the pedestal. Ad agencies know full well that controversy generates publicity and for a relatively unknown entity any publicity is good publicity.

50000 said:

actually he quite good at his job...1 week only and he got a lot more people searching for 99.co

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