Net

Web 2.0 Over and Out?

An interesting observation by EarlyStageVC is suggesting that Web 2.0 is over and out by pointing out the dramatically falling traffic among three pure web 2.0 plays : Techcrunch, Gigaom, and Technorati. Although a lot can be questioned regarding Alexa ratings' accuracy, the all show a similar falloff in reach compared to their Q4 peaks.

I don't know if this really is interesting or not, expect perhaps for Techcrunch, Gigaom and Technorati. However, judging from my own reading habits, I actually stopped following the three named properties quite some time ago now. I just don't find them interesting anymore. I would definitely put Gigaom before Techcrunch in terms of quality and depth, but still I feel they are lost the edge.

Likewise, I have noticed that Technorati is not picking up blog pings like Google Blog search and is seriously falling after in picking up blog posts in general. It's a pity, because I really like David, Tantek and Peter. Perhaps it really is an indication of a general falloff.

Anyway, wether or not web 2.0 is over and out or not does not really matter. What matters is that innovation continues - and it will and have always done. What is really good will in the end survive, the rest will contribute to the innovation wave but eventually enter the dreaded "Dead pool".

Technorati Tags: Alexa, Technorati, Techcrunch, Gigaom, Technorati, Web 2.0

Hyundai & Locate Three Strangers Contest

Hyundai is running quite a cool Mash+Seek contest to promote a new Elantra. 16 people have been picket and split into four groups. The contestants then have to locate three other people in their teams - with only a quarter face as a lead. The first team of four to find each other wins a new Elantra each. Cool. Adverlab thinks that this is a very good way to do consumer-generated content since people have to make themselves visible through blogs, Craighslists, Goolgle Adsense - you name. I agree.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Hyundai, Mash+Seek, Mash+seek, Locate Three Strangers

Joined Plymedia's Advisory Board

I am very delighted to announce that I just joined Plymedia's Advisory Board. Plymedia is a great Israeli start-up and behind the super cool site BubblePly , that let's you add bubbles, callouts', sub-titles, links,  - you name it, to any video you like and share it with the world.

The viral power of BubblyPly is staggering. People are uploading their videos, or adding bubble's, comments and links to other people videos on YouTube and other video sharing sites. Naturally most people like to turn videos more into more funny and entertaining by adding all kinds of comments. But it has also become very popular for people to translate videos and create sub-titles to foreign language movies as well.

Another interesting usage of the Ply's (that is what the bubbles or video layers are called) is for educational purposes. Personally I love the concept and can easily see how this will become very popular. As with all user-generated stuff, the users will show us best the way for how BubblePly should be used.

Plymedia was founded by Ben Enosh (serial entrepreneur, and amongst other things, co-founded Cyota Inc - an Internet security company that was sold last year to RSA for $145 million) Yuval Klein, David Markowitz, Yoni Silberberg and Miki Dotan. I was first introduced to them by Gil Dibner from Genesis Partners and was really impressed by their product, great team and vision.

Although the Online video space is getting really crowded, I believe that PlyMedia has a very good chance turn this into something very exciting.

Business model? Advertising my friends - advertising! I can definitely see how advertisers could flock to this..

And by the way, Plymedia is raising financing, so if you are a interested - feel free to get in touch with me to learn more.

Tags: Plymedia, BubblePly, YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, Video, Genesis Partners, VC, Venture Capital ,  Israel , Start-ups

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

A Conversation With Chinese Users

The Focus group panel, a permanent panel at any Piper Jaffray conference was especially interesting since this time the discussion was with young Chinese users as opposed to US teens.

Key Points:

• Favorite activities seems to be to download movies and mp3's
• Baidu is the favorite search engine mainly because of mp3's
• Google is considered "better" in terms of quality
• Prefer to download movies that are either Asian or European (French!) not Hollywood movies..
• Cannot consider to pay for any content. Especially not for music or movies
• But, are very willing to pay for ringtones, virtual items, avatars etc - One girl even paid to get a doctor to heal her sick QQ pet...
• All users bought online
• All used Alipay to pay for goods online - some cash on delivery

What I found most interesting was they all freely and openly spoke about that as soon as they wanted content forbidden by the government - they went Online to get it. Nobody seemed to be the least concerned with saying that openly. This is what I have been saying over and over: young people in China are not concerned or worried about saying what they want - no one is being arrested for a statement like the above... Censorship is something being practised by all governments, organizations, corporations and even Editors of the "free press" all over the world. It just comes in different colors and shapes..

Technorati Tags: Avatars, Baidu, China, Consumers, Download, Google, Movies, Mp3, Chinese Users, Users

China: The Portal Challengers (Video)

The first day of Piper Jaffrays's Annual Growth Conference is just over here in cold but sunny Beijing. The panel called "The portal Challengers" dealing with mainly video sites as a new and alternative destination sites as opposed to the big portals, was really interesting. CEOs of Tudou, Yoqoo.com and Mop (Oak Pacific Interactive) shared their view of the challenges and experiences of Chinas 150+ YouTube's.

Here are the main points:

• Running a video site is a very expensive business
• Nobody is really thinking of making any real revenues in the near future
• Local regulations makes running a similar business in the US look like a dream
• Main thing is to focus on users, build traffic and distinguish your self from all the other 150 sites..
• Download speed key factor
• Chinese users are opposed to YouTube uses are not really sharing videos with each other
• It is still very early days for video sharing sites in China - far away from being a major activity on the net
• Content is mainly of Asian character - not driven by user generated videos like in the US
• Most popular content is of "copyright challenging character"

In short still a long way to go before any of them are making any serious revenues from video content.

Technorati Tags: Piper Jaffray, YouTube, puppy, Tudou, Video, Yoqoo, YouTube

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

New Research:The User Revolution

Piper Jaffray just published a fat report called "The User Revolution: The New Advertising Ecosystem and The Rise of the Internet as a Mass Medium". Here are some of its key findings:

• We expect global online advertising revenue to reach $81.1 billion by 2011, representing a 21% CAGR (2006-2011).

• The User Revolution. The advertising world is going through a revolution, one that we call the "User Revolution" as it is happening primarily with the consumers, who are taking control of content consumption and branding. We believe this trend will cause a significant rise in prominence of the Internet as a major content consumption and marketing medium.

• "Communitainment." The Internet has increasingly become a principal medium for community, communication, and entertainment--three areas that have collided together and are impacting each other's growth--generating a new type of activity that we call communitainment.

• The Internet Is Mainstream. The Internet has become a mainstream media outlet that now rivals traditional media for reach and advertising dollars.

• Media Fragmentation. The proliferation of online and offline media outlets has resulted in shrinking television audiences and an increasingly fragmented media landscape.

• The Golden Search. We believe search continues to gain ground, driven by the rise of search as the New Portal, the increasing use of search in branding campaigns, and the local search opportunity.

• We believe Google's wide variety of non-search-related products creates a virtuous cycle of brand affinity that drives incremental search volume.

• Video Ads Could Drive The Next Wave. We believe Internet video ads could become a game changer for large brand advertisers, who are used to the 15- or 30-second TV commercial

• Internet Usage Patterns Are Changing. Portals maintain the highest reach, but the fastest growing category of destinations is communitainment sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

• Ad networks are experiencing increased demand due to increasing Internet fragmentation, desire for more targeted inventory, increasing usage of networks for branding, and increased site visibility.

• Agencies are rapidly evolving into more sophisticated, technology-savvy entities that combine best of breed offerings.

• Companies to watch: Google (and YouTube), Yahoo!, Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Microsoft, InterActive, Facebook, Craigslist, Brightcove, Yelp, SINA Corp., Baidu, aQuantive, ValueClick, 24/7 Media, Netflix, Wikipedia, MobiTV, Digg, and Hakia to be the most important players to watch.

Like my good friend Kaiser Kuo, Group Director for Digital Strategy, for Ogilvy China, mentions in this new (and great) blog " Ich bin ein Beijinger" : none of this should come as a surprise, but the report is full of eye-opening finding regarding the decline of TV viewing, changing viewing and decline of broadcast TV ad as percentage of total ad spend.

Kaiser who has a unique insight to China (and was very much responsible for Maxthon getting discovered and funded..) is confident that advertisers will flock to video ads and all the opportunities that are opening up for digital media advertising in China .However, he wonders how ready people really are for pre-roll commercials stuffed in to things they want to watch.

I tend to agree with Kaiser, although there is a fantastic opportunity for advertisers, the Internet savvy users might very well prefer to block ads if possible. This is something we have learned at Maxthon and seems to be especially true for Chinese Internet users. Al the sophisticated ad-blockers and filters that come pre-installed in Maxthon has definitely been one of the key driving factors for Maxthon success in China.

Anyway, next week I am flying down to Beijing again to talk on Piper Jaffrays Annual China Growth Conference on behalf of Maxthon. I will then have a chance not only to meet up with Safa and rest of the Piper Jaffray gang, but also to meet with Kaiser again and plot how we can deliver some interesting advertising opportunities together in China.

 

Thanks to Mark Pols for sending me this fat report!

Bonus: Video Interview with Kaiser I made just before he left the Red Herring.

Google Apps Launched - Office War Just Begun

I promised never to cover Google here anymore unless it has anything to do with Maxthon or Mashup Media. However, since it has, I cannot help to mention it. The Bloggers are buzzing around the Web now for the release of Google Apps. See stories here, here , here and here for more in-depht info.

Why do I mention it here then? Well, one for that I already tried to sign-up putting all of Mashup Media on Google Apps, but failed since Israel did not appear in the countries listed when you register. Please fix it Google! I am eager to spend $50 + ..

Second, some voices has been raised that it is still lacking enough compelling features and products like Jotspot, CRM tool etc. However since I know the people behind these products I know that the fun has just begun..  I wonder what one could do with this in a browser?

Something on M comes to my mind..Oh enough said already - time for a falafel..

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Apps, Maxthon, Office, Mashup Media

aniBOOM - YouTube of Animation

News has it that Israeli start-up aniBoom just were funded by Evergreen. aniBOOM really rocks and looks very much like a YouTube for animated stuff.  Here is one nice little animation I liked:

Technorati Tags: aniboom, Animation, Israel, puppy, puppy