Net

Off to San Francisco

I'm off to San Francisco July 24 - August 1 for some very interesting meetings. If you want to meet up in the bay area the coming days please leave a voice mail on (650) 492 52 59 alternatively get me on skype or Twitter...

Piclens A Really Cool Way of Browsing Pictures

I have been following the guys from Cooliris for a bit more than a year now and today they came to see me and demonstrated their new product: Piclens. Piclens delivers an immersive and full-screen experience for viewing photos on the Web. By downloading a browser plugin, you can search and browser images from Google, Flickr, Yahoo, Friendster and more in full-screen theater like mode. I think it really rocks and totally changes the way images can be experienced on the Web. Download Piclens here!

Technorati Tags: piclens

Ideas for the Next Le Web 3

Here are some additional thoughts I have for the next Le Web 3.

1. Lifehacker competition
2. Virtual goods, world & economy panel/speakers
3. Bootstrapping - building the most effective and cheapest bootstrapping budget

Technorati Tags: bootstrapping, leweb3, lifehacking, Lifehacks, vgsummit2007, virtualworld

At the Virtual Goods Summit 2007

I am at the first Virtual Goods Summit taking place on Stanford Campus. Virtual worlds and good are really getting hot and here are some amazing facts:

• Tencent with the QQ IM brand in China has more than 254 unique million users & 28MM simultaneous users
• Neopets: 40 MM registered users and 750, 000 daily transactions
• Nexon: 3.5 MM registered users, virtual goods cost between $0.60-$1.00. People by functional & decorative items like a rainbow colored balloon to use in a game rather than that standard balloon because people don't want to be like all the others.
• Nexon users spend more money on virtual haircuts than on normal haircuts!
• Habbo Hotel sells more furniture than IKEA!

I am really happy that I decided to go here and skip the second day at Supernova. Virtual goods and worlds are going to be so huge - the fun has only got started.

Technorati Tags: Habbo Hotel, Neopets, Nexon, Virtual economy, Virtual worlds, puppy, puppy, QQ, Tencent, Vgsummit2007

Off to San Francisco & SuperNova 2007

I'm off to San Francisco (again) for a bunch of meetings and SuperNova 2007. I have a lot of interesting meetings lined up, amongst others: meetings with my two favorite platform providers: Facebook and the Twitter. I know most of my readers have lots of request for new features and improvements - dump them here and I'll make sure they reach the right people.

I will spend all Wednesday to Friday in San Francisco and will be in Palo Alto the rest of time (until 27th). I you wanna meet up please leave me a comment or just get in touch directly.

I will also try to post a daily video on Facebook so feel free to tune in from time to time. Also, don't forget to join The Maxthon Lovers group on Facebook. It's growing and would love to see you there as well. Oh, and don't forget to join the Le Web 3 group as well.

Maxthon also have a skin competition coming up soon for the 2.0 version with cool prices. If you want to create a cool skin and spread it to millions of users around the world and even have the chance to win the default position - please let me know. Start- ups and companies are also welcome!

Technorati Tags: Jaiku, Maxthon, leweb3, leweb3.1, Supernova2007, Twitter

Symi - A Mixture Between Traditional & Modern World

  Symi Harbor 
  Originally uploaded by Net

Last week I spend a couple of days on the beautiful Greek island Symi where my father has a little house. Symi i 2 hours off Rhodes by ferry and 40 minutes by hydrofoil.

As probably one of the most beautiful Greek islands, Symi is a mixture between the old & new world. What amazed me was how the majority of the local population still worked in old traditional professions and many of them dependent on the sea.

At the same time, Symi is full of Wifi equipped cafe's and more an more foreigners have started to settle in, at least part time.

The only locals that manages to get a decent education are those that move to Athens or Saloniki. However, the problem is that they usually don't move back to Symi since there is no suitable work for them. This is quite remarkable considering that Wifi is well spread on this little island that still needs to get its water supply by boat twice daily from neighboring Rhodes.

The Greek authorities should invest more efforts to promote Internet entreupreneurism to the people living on the Greek islands. Like this locals could still stay on Symi while running boarder-less businesses something that would raise the educational, professional level as well as attracting people from outside to settle down and invest in remote places like this.

Outsourcing My Life Part 3 - The RunCast

Here's the 3rd episode of Outsourcing my life. This time in RunCast formate. Very shaky but not stirred. Unfortunately the battery died halfway through in parallel with me reaching 90% of my heart capacity. Now I'm off to Rhodes and the greek island called Symi to focus and get things done. I'll be back with a new episode (GreekCast ?) later this week and some more thoughts about global entrepreneurship & ideas for Loic's Le Web 3.1.

Technorati Tags: Outsourcing, loiclemeur, netaneljacobsson, runcast, leweb3

Two great weeks in California & Phoenix

After two full weeks on the road it's finally time to head home to Israel again. It has been two great weeks starting out in San Francisco and the Web 2.0 Expo, followed by five days in Palo Alto and finally the CRV Leadership summit at Royal Palms Resort & Spa in Phoenix.

I think I summed up my views on Web 2.0 Expo before so I won't comment on that here. It is always so great to be in California, I get so much stuff done and have time to meet and hang-out with interesting entrepreneurs, venture capitalist and other great people. Although I try to spend a week a month in California, I must say that this time has been the best so far.

One of the highlights was hanging out with the Plymedia gang on Shabbath (for whom I am an Advisor) and especially hiking at Tiburun with Ben Enosh. It was a great day and I felt that I really made a new great friend. I also had time to meet new interesting entrepreneurs like Nik from Omnidrive, Yahya from Freewebs and others.

The best event was however the Charles River Ventures Leadership Summit at the Royal Palms Spa & Resorts in Phoenix, Arizona. What a great place! I wish I had brought my wife..This was the first time in five years that CRV had invited all their CEO's and founders from their portfolio companies and top speakers from various industries.

Against the backdrop of the Camelback mountains the event was very well planned and with a great lineup. I am really glad I decided to stay another week just to participate here. Besides all the portfolio companies people like Chris Sacca (Google), Evan Williams (Twitter), Andrew Baron (Rocketboom), Scoble, Michael Arrington, Om Malik, Ted Leonsis, Nathan Myhrvold (Intellectual Ventures & frmr Microsoft CTO), Prof. Yared Diamond (Pulitzer winner and author of "Collapse"), Larry Summers (frmr US Treasury Secretary), Matt Jacobson (Facebook), David Eckoff (VP Turner) and many more.

I particularly enjoyed chatting with Evan Williams (Twitter rocks!), Chris Sacca, Om Malik, Matt Jacobson, David Eckoff, Andrew Baron and David Sachs (Geni). Man! Geni is so good. Its going to become so big. David is a fantastic entrepreneur.

The event was really top quality in terms of speakers and participants but best of all - intimate enough for having quality time with each other. There was also time for desert hiking (see photo above with me & Bill Tai making the "m" Maxthon sign) lots of cactuses and a feeling of being beamed to Indian and cowboy land. Will post a separate CactusCast that I shot on the hike later.

I definitely learned a lot, met new friends and was inspired. Lot's of stuff on my mind now, new potential partnerships and new business ideas. Time to head home to wife and kids - I really miss them!

Technorati Tags: CRV, Freewebs, Geni, Larry Summers, Maxthon, Nathan Myhrvold, Plymedia, Rockeboom, Royal Palms Spa & Resort, Ted Leonsis, Twitter, Web2expo, Yared Diamond

Web 2.0 Expo Next Week

I am going to be at the Web 2.0 Expo in SF all next week and I am going to bring with me two developers from Maxthon as well to the show. My schedule is jammed packed but if you would like to meet up April 15-22 at the show or on Thursday/Friday in Palo Alto - please let me know.

Technorati Tags: Web2.0expo, Maxthon

Chinese-Jewish News

Danwei is pointing out that we have had a record month of Jewish-Chinese coverage in the western media. Since I am slowly but surely immersing more and more into China, and as an observant Jew, I find Chinese-Jewish relations very faschinating.

Here is a great video from the Sexy Beijing, about the opening of the first Mikveh in Beijing in modern times. And by the way, good news for all China visiting Jews! There is finally a kosher restaurant in Beijing !

Piper Jaffray Conference Day 2

Today I spend the day with knowledge hungry investment bankers, then participated in "Emerging Internet Companies" on behalf on Maxthon before running off to Maxthon's Headquarters for a sneak peak of a very new cool service and some upcoming product features. Looks great!

I also ran into a cool newly launched streetwear fashion clothes company just kicking-off here in China. Nice to meet with non-Internet related business people for a change ;). The name of the company is Eno , and the conversation with them certainly triggered some interesting ideas I want to explore...

Tomorrow, I have a breakfast meeting with a leading advertising agency am then off for a board meeting. Time is certainly running fast here and it's great to see so much activity in the Internet space. Before I head home I am going to pay a visit to HipiHi - the Chinese answer to Second Life. I got an invitation from them after I wrote a short post on them. Will certainly be a lot of fun. Bill Tail & Kaiser Kuo has promised to come along as well. Hopefully I will have time to shoot a short video from the visit - we'll see.

Finally, if you are looking for some new interesting investment oppertunity in China that are not related to the Internet. Digg deeper into alternative energy...it's getting very hot..

Technorati Tags: Altertnative engergy, Beijing, China, Eno, Fashion, Hipihi, China Investments, Second Life

Off to China & Piper Jaffray Conference

I'm off to China on Sunday for the Fourth Annual Piper Jaffray China Growth Conference, March 6-8 in Beijng. I will be a panelist on "Emerging Internet Companies" talking about Maxthon. Piper Jaffray is known for organizing top events (invitation only) and judging from past events - this one looks very promising indeed with a great line up.

It will be a great opportunity for networking and potential Maxthon deals. Top executives from Chinas major Internet , Wireless, Game and Technology companies will be there. I am in particular interested in the Chinese focus group conversation, since I many times wonder what makes Chinese Internet users tick'.

Following the conference I am meeting with Maxthon Fan & supporter No 1: Kaiser Kuo, rockstar & Group Director at Ogilvy Interactive in China, followed by a Maxthon boardmeeting. It will be great to meet Bill Tai (CRV), David Zhang, Yuzhu (WI Harper), Jeff and Carol (Maxthon) again - just hope it will not be as cold as the last time..

If you want to meet up in Beijing please let me know, schedule is quite tight - but long is the night..;)

Who knows, maybe I even will have time to shoot some cool Beijing street scenes?

Technorati Tags: Beijing, China, Maxthon, Ogilvy

I Love University Campuses

Stanford University
Originally uploaded by Net.

There is something almost magical about wandering around University Campuses. Yesterday I took a long walk around the Stanford campus, something I always do when I am in Palo Alto.
I can't describe what it is, but I have always had this special feeling about university campuses. I have always love learning for the sake of learning, and always been a very curious type.

I used to love walking around Lund University campus in Sweden during my studies and spend hours just hanging around, inhaling the atmosphere and digging into course books not relevant at all to my own studies. Walking around Stanford just brings that feeling back.

Bob Marley used to sing " the power of philosophy flows through my head.." that is exactly what I feel walking around here. I'd love to be a fly on the wall in some philosophy, psychology, political science or business class here. Flying from lecture to lecture stimulating my curious intellect. Not for making another thesis, but just for the sake of learning... Am bored a weirdo or just are there others like me out there?

Technorati Tags: Stanford

Off to New York & San Francisco

I am off to AlwaysOn Media New York, 28-31 to meet with the disrupters of marketing, advertising, branding and PR. Will definitely be fun.  Not that I expect to hear anything new, but it looks like a great event and and a good place to catch up with friends, acquaintances and potential Maxthon partners. After that I continue to Palo Alto for partner meetings and some potential hires @ CRV. Finally finishing off with Tomas Wiesel Venture partners Tech2007 conference in San Francisco Feb 6-7. If you want to meet up please feel free to drop me a line or call me on my US cell 650 862 46 56.

Technorati Tags: AlwaysOn, AlwaysOn Media, CRV, Maxthon, Maxthon, Events, puppy, puppy, TWVP

Le Web 3, Politics & The Truth About Censorship

In the aftermath of the storm surrounding Le Web 3 it cannot be easy to be Loic Le Meur... More than 1000 bloggers, media people and techies looked forward to the follow-up of last years Les Blogs 2. After having survived a relatively good day 1, the menu being serviced on day two swept us all away. Or what do you say about Shimon Peres for breakfast, François Bayrou for dinner and finally Nicolas Sarkosy for dessert.... As an Israeli, I cannot say I was over excited about Peres sudden appearance. I cannot say I really share his political views but I have tremendous respect for the person. Anyway, it was a nice chit chat and words of wisdom was spoken. Peres even came forward and said hello to me (see image below with David Sifry, Simon Peres and me) and asked who I was which was a nice unexpected surprise. He asked if I was related to the Jacobsson's from Rechovot...;) It seems that the audience liked the fact that Peres appeared, although we all seemed confused about the relevance for the conference. Then is seemed to get out of hand with the presidential candidate François Bayrou and current minister presidential candidate, Nicolas Sarkosy. TV, radio and journalists were all over the place and it looked more like a presidential campaign.

A lot of people got really upset it seems. I personally didn't mind since it spiced up the other would-have-been-predicted conference. It is true that the schedule was totally re-arranged, speakers were interrupted and the panelist got too little time. So what? Big deal. I can understand that people felt like Loic went to far, and I can to a certain degree agree with that. However, the following public lynch was really an over reaction in my view. I know Loic and the team had worked really heard and I think they deserve better.

Having said that, I must add that I feel these type of conferences has lost their momentum (read: web 2.0 conference etc). Even the so-called unconferences have failed. Does this prove that blogs, Vlogs and the social media bag are already passe' ? Or perhaps everything that can be said about it has already been said?

I personally just regret that the China panel (once more like last year) never got passed the discussion about democracy and censorship. I know that there were people in the audience that really wanted to hear about what we can learn from the Internet in China. Talking about freedom of speech and censorship - I just learned that Sam Sethi was fired from Techcrunch UK for expressing his point of view. Shame!

Conclusion: you don't have to be a government to exercise censorship...Serves us all as a good lesson about freedom of speech in the "free" world.

My five cent for next event would be to hold a separate Les Politics - a focused event on social media and its role in politics (not joking). I also believe that the true place for discussions about blogs are on the Net alone. Perhaps some spontaneous gathering there and there for the social side. Personally I prefer to move these type of events to a much smaller bistro like setting. Good wine has the unique capacity to feed conversations - or at least make them more interesting..

Anyway, hang on in there Loic and ride out the storm. You are a nice guy and I enjoyed the show. Politicians and mainstream media disrupting the disruptors ;) It certainly added some spice to the soup. There are more important things in life....I think people really have over reacted. Good thing that we don't live in the Middle Ages anymore - I guess you would have been on your way to the guillotine by now then...One thing is sure, this Blogosphere is an uncontrolable animal...

Technorati Tags: puppy

CRV Entrepreneur Idol @ Stanford

There certainly was lot's of laughter and energy today at the Stanford Campus when 60 Stanford MBA students made their pitches to CRV on the CRV Entrepreneur Idol contest. As yet another creative idea from the guys at CRV. George, Bill and Susan let 56 Standford MBA students and potential entrepreneurs-to-be, pitch in 60 seconds. I watched in the background as George, Bill, Susan and Matt Marshall from VentureBeat listened to 56 pitches in 60 minutes...

Afterwards, George made a short presentation of CRV and its' new exciting initiative - QuickStart. Maxthon and Skyrider, was presented as two very exciting and promising companies in the CRV portofolio with a particularily explosive growth and potential.

After the presentation, 5 lucky pitchers where chosen by the panel. Two received honorary mention and collected $100 each. The remaining 3 pitched again in front of the whole audience, and the audience then voted for the best pitch by applause volume...(and it was high :)

The winner (image below) won $2000 and the other two each $1000 - not back for a 60 minutes appearance...Needless to say it was very funny, sort of Ido-meets-stand-up-meets-VC. You could really feel the excitement among the MBA students and you could see that George, Bill and Susan really enjoyed it too.

John Furrier and Valerie Cunningham from Podtech.Net made sure that it was all documented so tune into Podtech.Net for full video coverage on the event.

CRV is definitely disrupting the traditional VC business model and seem to be enjoying the ride too.

For me it was all clear after having watching 60 pitches. It is the way you frame your pitch that makes the big difference. Energy and
presence is king - just like in IDOL - but it obviously has to be accompanied by a good ideas too of course.

Thanks to George, Bill and Susan for dragging me along. You guys are winners!

See my Flickr for more pics of the event and others here. Susan Wu and Matt Marshall should soon have some posts up covering the event with more details.

Now I'm off to Mayfiels Holiday Party and tomorrow I will talking at Asian Ventures. Man I am jet lagged and the week has only just begun...

Technorati Tags: Bill Tai, Charles River Ventures, CRV, George Zachary, Podtechnet, Stanford, Susan Wu, Valerie Cunningham, VC, Venture Capital

Upcoming Events: Asian Ventures & Le Web 3

I have just barely been home for a week but it's time again for yet another trip. This time in the other direction, but under the same theme - China. I'm off to San Jose on Sunday to talk about Maxthon at Dow Jones Asian Ventures on Dec. 5th. It will be a good opportunity to meet with Chinese entrepreneurs and exchange experiences. Time permitting I will try to make some Vlogs with interesting companies.

After that I will be working out of Palo Alto for the rest of the week (we will probably be making a major announcement next week..) until Sunday, and then directly off to Paris to participate in a panel at Le Web 3, named " The Dragon's Web - What can we learn from the Internet in China?" Dec 11-12. Man I'm slowly turning slightly yellow...

Le Web 3 is going to be jammed packed with bloggers, media people, entrepreneurs and VCs. Many are old friends and familiar faces so its going to be a great opportunity to catch up. I must say I have neglected Europe lately...Looks like its going to be a great event. I will also keep an eye open for new interesting start-ups looking for funding and potential Maxthon partners.

BTW, if you are Chinese and read this, what do you think we can learn from the Internet in China?

If you want to meet up in Palo Alto 4–9 or in Paris 11-13, feel free to ping me.

After this trip I am going to take a break. Chanukah is knocking on the door..

Technorati Tags: Asian Ventures 2006, Blogging, China, CRV, Israel, Leweb3, Maxthon, Social Media, Venture Capital, Web 2.0

A Chat With Kaiser Kuo - Red Herring China

Click To Play

I just came back from a very cold Beijing and had the pleasure to meet up with an old Maxthon friend and fan - Kaiser Kuo, China Bureau Chief for Red Herring. Kaiser also co-founded China's first heavy metal band - Tang Dynasty and is still very active on the music scene with his new band, Spring and Autumn.

Kaiser talks about how his then 70-year old father introduced him to Maxthon, why he likes Maxthon and shows us his set up of Maxthon 2.0 Beta.

If you like the music and wants to get your hands on it - please let us know and we will connect you with Kaiser. I love the Chinese feel on his heavy metal.

Technorati Tags: China, Heavy Metal, Kaiser Kuo, Red Herring, Tang Dynasty, Vlog

I'm off to Beijing again on Sunday. I am starting to like China more and more even though koscher food it had to find..Besides a couple of intensive days of internal Maxthon meetings (and hopefully shoot some Vlogs with the Maxthon team in action). I also will our meet with and Vlog with our great friend Kaiser Kuo, Red Herring China Bureau Chief, and co-founder of Chinas first real heavy metal band - Tang Dynasty. Tangos, the editior of China Web2.0 Review is somebody I have wanted to meet up with for a long time to learn more about what is going on on the Chinese Web2.0 scene so that will be very interesting.

Time permitted I would love to see some serious Qi Gong Masters and Shaolin performances as well.

If you want to meet up in Beijing please let me know, if not there is always Asian Ventures 2006 in San Jose on December 5-6.

BTW, anybody that can recommend a really good online or CD - course in Chinese?

Technorati Tags: Asian Ventures 2006, Beijing, China, China Web2.0 Review, Kaiser Kuo, puppy, Qi Gong, Shaolin, Tang Dynasty, Vlog

We just came back from a wonderful vacation in north Israel and we are just about to throw ourselves into yet another Jewish holiday (and there are many this time of the year...). After that I am off to California again for a jammed packed 10 days. I will also kick off my career as a Vlogger there and participate on the Scoble Show among other things. Will definately be fun. I will take the oppertunity to ask Scoble for some hot Vlog advice. So if you are in the Palo Alto area and wanna meet up. Feel free to get in touch. 


Technorati Tags: Scoble Show, Podtechnet, PodTech, Maxthon

I read with great dissapointment that Boeing has decided to close its Connexion on December 30, 2006. This will affect all airlines  using their services meaning that we can say goodby to highspeed Internet connection on longhaul flights. This is really annoying.

The good news: From now on the service will be for free until it is discontinued..

Technorati Tags: Connexion, Boeing Connexion, high-speed in-flight internet

Update: Good news for us frequent travellers! You can now finally, bring toiletries etc with you on the plane according to TSA:

1. Travelers may now carry through security checkpoints travel-size toiletries (3 ounces or less) that fit comfortably in ONE, QUART-SIZE, clear plastic, zip-top bag.
2. After clearing security, travelers can now bring beverages and other items purchased in the secure boarding area on-board aircraft.

Finally I can rely on carry-on bags only. Let's just hope that is will stay like this.

Full list of permitted and prohibited items.

A few weeks I go I spend a few days in Hong Kong and among other things met with the guys at Bullpoo (see post) an interactive stocks community run by three Hong Kong based pals with Canadian connections. We discussed the difficulty to mingle with other Hong Kong entrepreneurs, so I suggested that they set up someting like Chinese Entrepreneurs or for Hong Kong releated entrepreneurs and start-ups.

Through Angus Lau, I just discovered a few other Hong Kong start-ups. In fact, one of the companies , Recruit.net, he mentions I actually met when I was talking at the Chinese Entrepreneurs club a month ago. I forgot they where based in Hong Kong too. So Bullpoo team, meet Recruit.net, EditGrid, aNobii and Angus, why don't you get together over a drink?

I had a couple of very good days in Beijing with the Maxthon team, some partner meetings and night out. Hong Kong will be my next destination where I will hook up with some entreprenuers and an active Maxthon plug-in developer hope to be able to Vlog that time permitting.

Abover is a picture of two happy WI Harper fellows from our evening out. Yuzhu Xiong , VP and Ping, Analyst.

After a cool evening with LundKenner partner and French entrepreneur Alain Revah (great guy & fellow brother), we ran into Francois Mazoudier, CEO for Speakanet at the K-Bar (cool place). Francois is a well know French entreprenuer that recently have relocated to Copenhagen to disrupt the PBX-business. 

Speakanet, is a virtual PBX service that can be delivered as a free web service or an application to the enterprises. With the virtual PBX service all calls to and from the enterprise are routed in the Service Provider’s mobile, IP or peer-to-peer network. This opens the enterprise market for Service Providers that otherwise are unable to provide telephony services to enterprises via a PBX or IP-PBX.

I think this company is going to shake the foundations of Ericsson, Alcatel and all the traditional gate keepers in the PBX -world.

Today I met wit Ian Hayward & Willem-Jan Schutte from Glaxstar at the LundKenner office in Copenhagen. Glaxstar is the biggest commercial developer of Firefox extensions and are responsible for the very successful Spread Firefox campaign. Ian & Willem are great guys and we have some very interesting projects to work on together ahead.

I’m off to Copenhagen for a couple of meetings with Morten & the LundKennner gang,then back to Israel for the weekend and off again to Beijing and Hong Kong for more Maxthon stuff. Things are really starting to get hot. Will report more from the road.

For all of you who have already got frustrated about the new airport security procedures – don’t worry it’s getting better. Ryanair has take it one step further. Via Shel (who for the first time blogs something worthwhile linking to). Loic also has an interesting story on airport security. What I really wonder is what does a woman with a breast implants do? Checks them in?

Update:

"An Israeli woman's breast implants saved her life when she was wounded in a Hizbollah rocket attack during Israel's war with the Lebanese group, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday. Doctors found shrapnel embedded in the silicone implants, just inches from the 24-year-old's heart. She was saved from death," said a spokesman for Nahariya Hospital in northern Israel. The woman has been released from hospital."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060815/od_nm/mideast_implants_dc

Kudos to Melvyn for this life saving tip.

Sometimes you just need to take a break from it all..I am back again from a 2 week long vacation to New York and a few days at the Niagara Falls. I promised I was not going to work or think about work on our vacation, but my wife caught me checking my emails on the Blackberry while cooling down at Battery Park. What can I say? It wount happen again? Anyway, with two small kids on the hands, the Blackberry has no chance. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Niagara Falls , August 2006

Aug 11, 2006 - 37 Photos

New York

Aug 6, 2006 - 63 Photos

After having circled the globe in 1 1/2 week : Israel – California – Beijing – Israel, I am now off for vacation for two weeks. I’ll be back after August 18th.

Bill Tai and Buddy Ling having fun at WangYou Media’s launch party of “Red Town” in Beijing. Buddy Ling is the co-founder and CEO WangYou Media, a Chinese media company focused on promoting user generated content. Bill sits on WangYou’s board for CRV as well as Maxthon.

Red Town is aimed to explore and promote super star amateur artists emerging out of its online platform. At the launch party, New Perfume band, consisting of four 21–year old-s that met 6 months ago through WangYou and was voted by the WangYou users for the bests act. The band apparently was offered a contract with one of the big US-based record labels, but turned it down and signed up with Red Town instead - since this is how music is best spread and promoted today.

This is a proof that the speaker from Sony at AlwaysOn in Stanford last week was wrong when he said that user generated music will never take off…Guess what, it is already happening in China…

You know that you have crossed too many time zones and date lines, when you are standing outside your hotel 6 am in the morning and wait for you pre-ordered taxi in Beijing 1 hour too early and wonder where it is…

Anyway, one green tea later and one blog post and I am out to face the Beijing traffic on the way to talk to Chinese Entrepreneurs & some Chinese journalists about Maxthon. 

After a great full-packed week, I am off to China for a Maxthon board meeting as well as speaking at Chinese Entrepreneurs, at the Capitol Club, Beijing. I am going to speak on the topic, " The Creation of Maxthon - Challenges and experiences in taking a small Chinese company global" together with my good friend Yuzhu Xiong, VP at WI Harper (Maxthon investor). I am really looking forward to meet up and mingle other Chinese Entrepreneurs (well, I am not really Chinese..). Will hopefully be able to share some experiences from this event later on next week.

If you are in Beijing on August 1st and want to come, please register here.

I just started to read The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman , NY Times "Foreign Affairs" columnist. Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the beginning of the twentieth century and is (so far) an excellent essay of the global village we are living in.

As I started to read the book, I realized that I am actually really living what Friedman is describing in this book. I am a Swede, living in Israel, running the business and global expansion of a Chinese company based in Beijing while spending a lot of time in the US...For me this is very so natural and self-evident that I don't even give it that much thought. That is, until I try to explain what I do to other people. Just take this trip as an example, I am actually circulating the globe totally on this trip. I flew in from Tel Aviv to LA (BTW, on EL AL’s first direct flight to LA), I will then continue to Beijing after a week and then return from Beijing to Tel Aviv a few days later just for the weekend before I take my family on vacation to New York 3 days later…Now, how global is that?

The world is definitely flattening more and more for every day that goes by, we see this in the media world, in the music industry, in retail, in product development etc. As I write this, I just saw that Nicklas & Janus has leaked a bit about their "Project Venice" to BusinessWeek. Once more, these guys - a Swede and an Estonian are at it again, leading a team of top software developers from a half a dozen cities around the world including New York, London and Venice. 

I think innovation got flat too...

Tags: Flat World Tags: Thomas Friedman Tags: Sweden Tags: Israel Tags: China Tags: Maxthon Tags: Globalization Tags: US Tags: Innovation Tags: Skype Tags: Project Venice

I'm off to Palo Alto (July 23-30) to participate as a panelist at AlwaysOn06 - Innovation Summit @ Stanford , followed by a number of meetings. I will then continue directly to Beijing for to see Maxthon's new offices in Beijing and to a  Maxthon board meeting.

While in Beijing I will speak at the Chinese Entrepreneurs (updated link should be available over the next couple of days) at the Capitol Club on August 1, organized by Ori Elraviv, CEO & co-founder of Dragon Ports.

Chinese Entrepreneurs is a non-profit professional organization focused on providing a platform to foster ideas and expand the movement of entrepreneurship in China. I will speak about the creation of Maxthon, challenges of taking a small Chinese company global and general thoughts and reflections as an entrepreneur.

Will definitely be very interesting to meet and learn from other China entrepreneurs about their experiences and challenges. I've been told that the event will be attended by representatives from the Chinese press so expect to see some coverage of it.

I must say it feels difficult to be away from Israel for such a long time during these difficult times, however we cannot let terror change our lives – the show has to go on.

Tags: Alwayson Tags: Alwayson06 Tags: Innovation Tags: Chinese Entrepreneurs Tags: Dragon Ports Tags:

Beijing Calling

I'm off to Beijing again on Sunday. I am starting to like China more and more even though koscher food it had to find..Besides a couple of intensive days of internal Maxthon meetings (and hopefully shoot some Vlogs with the Maxthon team in action). I also will our meet with and Vlog with our great friend Kaiser Kuo, Red Herring China Bureau Chief, and co-founder of Chinas first real heavy metal band - Tang Dynasty. Tangos, the editior of China Web2.0 Review is somebody I have wanted to meet up with for a long time to learn more about what is going on on the Chinese Web2.0 scene so that will be very interesting.

Time permitted I would love to see some serious Qi Gong Masters and Shaolin performances as well.

If you want to meet up in Beijing please let me know, if not there is always Asian Ventures 2006 in San Jose on December 5-6.

BTW, anybody that can recommend a really good online or CD - course in Chinese?

Technorati Tags: Asian Ventures 2006, Beijing, China, China Web2.0 Review, Kaiser Kuo, puppy, Qi Gong, Shaolin, Tang Dynasty, Vlog

California Dreaming Oct 15-24th

We just came back from a wonderful vacation in north Israel and we are just about to throw ourselves into yet another Jewish holiday (and there are many this time of the year...). After that I am off to California again for a jammed packed 10 days. I will also kick off my career as a Vlogger there and participate on the Scoble Show among other things. Will definately be fun. I will take the oppertunity to ask Scoble for some hot Vlog advice. So if you are in the Palo Alto area and wanna meet up. Feel free to get in touch. 


Technorati Tags: Scoble Show, Podtechnet, PodTech, Maxthon

Boeing Connexion: Good news & Bad News

I read with great dissapointment that Boeing has decided to close its Connexion on December 30, 2006. This will affect all airlines  using their services meaning that we can say goodby to highspeed Internet connection on longhaul flights. This is really annoying.

The good news: From now on the service will be for free until it is discontinued..

Technorati Tags: Connexion, Boeing Connexion, high-speed in-flight internet

What You Can & Cannot Take on Planes

Update: Good news for us frequent travellers! You can now finally, bring toiletries etc with you on the plane according to TSA:

1. Travelers may now carry through security checkpoints travel-size toiletries (3 ounces or less) that fit comfortably in ONE, QUART-SIZE, clear plastic, zip-top bag.
2. After clearing security, travelers can now bring beverages and other items purchased in the secure boarding area on-board aircraft.

Finally I can rely on carry-on bags only. Let's just hope that is will stay like this.

Full list of permitted and prohibited items.

Hong Kong Start-Ups

A few weeks I go I spend a few days in Hong Kong and among other things met with the guys at Bullpoo (see post) an interactive stocks community run by three Hong Kong based pals with Canadian connections. We discussed the difficulty to mingle with other Hong Kong entrepreneurs, so I suggested that they set up someting like Chinese Entrepreneurs or for Hong Kong releated entrepreneurs and start-ups.

Through Angus Lau, I just discovered a few other Hong Kong start-ups. In fact, one of the companies , Recruit.net, he mentions I actually met when I was talking at the Chinese Entrepreneurs club a month ago. I forgot they where based in Hong Kong too. So Bullpoo team, meet Recruit.net, EditGrid, aNobii and Angus, why don't you get together over a drink?

From Beijing To Hong Kong

I had a couple of very good days in Beijing with the Maxthon team, some partner meetings and night out. Hong Kong will be my next destination where I will hook up with some entreprenuers and an active Maxthon plug-in developer hope to be able to Vlog that time permitting.

Abover is a picture of two happy WI Harper fellows from our evening out. Yuzhu Xiong , VP and Ping, Analyst.

Speakanet - Enterprise Telephony Without A PBX

After a cool evening with LundKenner partner and French entrepreneur Alain Revah (great guy & fellow brother), we ran into Francois Mazoudier, CEO for Speakanet at the K-Bar (cool place). Francois is a well know French entreprenuer that recently have relocated to Copenhagen to disrupt the PBX-business. 

Speakanet, is a virtual PBX service that can be delivered as a free web service or an application to the enterprises. With the virtual PBX service all calls to and from the enterprise are routed in the Service Provider’s mobile, IP or peer-to-peer network. This opens the enterprise market for Service Providers that otherwise are unable to provide telephony services to enterprises via a PBX or IP-PBX.

I think this company is going to shake the foundations of Ericsson, Alcatel and all the traditional gate keepers in the PBX -world.

Meeting with Glaxstar

Today I met wit Ian Hayward & Willem-Jan Schutte from Glaxstar at the LundKenner office in Copenhagen. Glaxstar is the biggest commercial developer of Firefox extensions and are responsible for the very successful Spread Firefox campaign. Ian & Willem are great guys and we have some very interesting projects to work on together ahead.

Travelling (again)

I’m off to Copenhagen for a couple of meetings with Morten & the LundKennner gang,then back to Israel for the weekend and off again to Beijing and Hong Kong for more Maxthon stuff. Things are really starting to get hot. Will report more from the road.

New Airport Security Procedures at Ryanair

For all of you who have already got frustrated about the new airport security procedures – don’t worry it’s getting better. Ryanair has take it one step further. Via Shel (who for the first time blogs something worthwhile linking to). Loic also has an interesting story on airport security. What I really wonder is what does a woman with a breast implants do? Checks them in?

Update:

"An Israeli woman's breast implants saved her life when she was wounded in a Hizbollah rocket attack during Israel's war with the Lebanese group, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday. Doctors found shrapnel embedded in the silicone implants, just inches from the 24-year-old's heart. She was saved from death," said a spokesman for Nahariya Hospital in northern Israel. The woman has been released from hospital."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060815/od_nm/mideast_implants_dc

Kudos to Melvyn for this life saving tip.

Back in Business

Sometimes you just need to take a break from it all..I am back again from a 2 week long vacation to New York and a few days at the Niagara Falls. I promised I was not going to work or think about work on our vacation, but my wife caught me checking my emails on the Blackberry while cooling down at Battery Park. What can I say? It wount happen again? Anyway, with two small kids on the hands, the Blackberry has no chance. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Niagara Falls , August 2006

Aug 11, 2006 - 37 Photos

New York

Aug 6, 2006 - 63 Photos

Vacation

After having circled the globe in 1 1/2 week : Israel – California – Beijing – Israel, I am now off for vacation for two weeks. I’ll be back after August 18th.

WangYou Media Launches Red Town

Bill Tai and Buddy Ling having fun at WangYou Media’s launch party of “Red Town” in Beijing. Buddy Ling is the co-founder and CEO WangYou Media, a Chinese media company focused on promoting user generated content. Bill sits on WangYou’s board for CRV as well as Maxthon.

Red Town is aimed to explore and promote super star amateur artists emerging out of its online platform. At the launch party, New Perfume band, consisting of four 21–year old-s that met 6 months ago through WangYou and was voted by the WangYou users for the bests act. The band apparently was offered a contract with one of the big US-based record labels, but turned it down and signed up with Red Town instead - since this is how music is best spread and promoted today.

This is a proof that the speaker from Sony at AlwaysOn in Stanford last week was wrong when he said that user generated music will never take off…Guess what, it is already happening in China…

Sleepless in Beijing

You know that you have crossed too many time zones and date lines, when you are standing outside your hotel 6 am in the morning and wait for you pre-ordered taxi in Beijing 1 hour too early and wonder where it is…

Anyway, one green tea later and one blog post and I am out to face the Beijing traffic on the way to talk to Chinese Entrepreneurs & some Chinese journalists about Maxthon. 

Meeting with Chinese Entrepreneurs

After a great full-packed week, I am off to China for a Maxthon board meeting as well as speaking at Chinese Entrepreneurs, at the Capitol Club, Beijing. I am going to speak on the topic, " The Creation of Maxthon - Challenges and experiences in taking a small Chinese company global" together with my good friend Yuzhu Xiong, VP at WI Harper (Maxthon investor). I am really looking forward to meet up and mingle other Chinese Entrepreneurs (well, I am not really Chinese..). Will hopefully be able to share some experiences from this event later on next week.

If you are in Beijing on August 1st and want to come, please register here.

My World is Flat

I just started to read The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman , NY Times "Foreign Affairs" columnist. Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the beginning of the twentieth century and is (so far) an excellent essay of the global village we are living in.

As I started to read the book, I realized that I am actually really living what Friedman is describing in this book. I am a Swede, living in Israel, running the business and global expansion of a Chinese company based in Beijing while spending a lot of time in the US...For me this is very so natural and self-evident that I don't even give it that much thought. That is, until I try to explain what I do to other people. Just take this trip as an example, I am actually circulating the globe totally on this trip. I flew in from Tel Aviv to LA (BTW, on EL AL’s first direct flight to LA), I will then continue to Beijing after a week and then return from Beijing to Tel Aviv a few days later just for the weekend before I take my family on vacation to New York 3 days later…Now, how global is that?

The world is definitely flattening more and more for every day that goes by, we see this in the media world, in the music industry, in retail, in product development etc. As I write this, I just saw that Nicklas & Janus has leaked a bit about their "Project Venice" to BusinessWeek. Once more, these guys - a Swede and an Estonian are at it again, leading a team of top software developers from a half a dozen cities around the world including New York, London and Venice. 

I think innovation got flat too...

Tags: Flat World Tags: Thomas Friedman Tags: Sweden Tags: Israel Tags: China Tags: Maxthon Tags: Globalization Tags: US Tags: Innovation Tags: Skype Tags: Project Venice

Upcoming travel: Alwayson, Chinese Entrepreneurs & Maxthon

I'm off to Palo Alto (July 23-30) to participate as a panelist at AlwaysOn06 - Innovation Summit @ Stanford , followed by a number of meetings. I will then continue directly to Beijing for to see Maxthon's new offices in Beijing and to a  Maxthon board meeting.

While in Beijing I will speak at the Chinese Entrepreneurs (updated link should be available over the next couple of days) at the Capitol Club on August 1, organized by Ori Elraviv, CEO & co-founder of Dragon Ports.

Chinese Entrepreneurs is a non-profit professional organization focused on providing a platform to foster ideas and expand the movement of entrepreneurship in China. I will speak about the creation of Maxthon, challenges of taking a small Chinese company global and general thoughts and reflections as an entrepreneur.

Will definitely be very interesting to meet and learn from other China entrepreneurs about their experiences and challenges. I've been told that the event will be attended by representatives from the Chinese press so expect to see some coverage of it.

I must say it feels difficult to be away from Israel for such a long time during these difficult times, however we cannot let terror change our lives – the show has to go on.

Tags: Alwayson Tags: Alwayson06 Tags: Innovation Tags: Chinese Entrepreneurs Tags: Dragon Ports Tags: