Comments on: What We Must Learn from Asia

By: DB

DB — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:18:01 +0000

Too bad the site requires an annoying registration to view the deck.

By: nadahima

nadahima — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:50:59 +0000

beside china, my country, indonesia also will grow fast in the next few year
telco company is frwoing very fast today here and we open to investor

thanks
http://telecomandinternet.com/?p=51

By: Social Media in Asia | Jørgen Nøvik

Social Media in Asia | Jørgen Nøvik — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:00:21 +0000

[...] this week I came across a blog post talking about a presentation for VC firms in California. The presenter was Benjamin Joffe from [...]

By: Phones

Phones — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:59:21 +0000

Well i dont have much to say about Asia, but i believe it really great and wanna visit some countries during the holidays. thanks for sharing.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:33:53 +0000

Mark, thanks for your great commentary and kind comments!
I’m looking into how I could add commentary to slides (text or voice) without too much PPT hassle. In the meantime, some of my presentations are in video here:
http://www.plus8star.com/talks/
As a side note, we released our “Inside Tencent” 2009 report. Feel free to check the slideshow or free sample on our website!

By: aproductguy

aproductguy — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:52:23 +0000

Charles, having grown up in Taiwan and traveled many times to China, I thought I had a pretty good grasp of the Asian scene. When I stepped foot in Korea a couple years ago, I was blown away as well. My local colleagues had TV on their mobile phones so clear that they could see the stock ticker running below the reporter. At Samsung HQ, they had microwaves that read bar codes off of TV dinners and heated accordingly. The population density lends itself to a more connected infrastructure compared to the US, but still, it is really amazing to see how advanced S. Korea is. While all the talk is about China these days, South Korea has not only advanced their own technology and infrastructure, but successfully setup shop in the US and created household brands like LG, Samsung, Kia, Hyundai and more.

By: marksuster

marksuster — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:52:49 +0000

I think companies like Zynga and Playdom probably get many ideas from what is happening in Asia. I have talked to people at EA and know that they’re studying the Asian markets closely. But the beauty is that companies like these will continue to innovate and create things that Asian companies aren’t doing. The shame is companies that never look to Asia or Europe to see what they can learn. It is too often assumed only to flow the other way.

By: marksuster

marksuster — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:49:28 +0000

Awesome examples. Many people tell me that South Korea is the real spot of innovation on the web: more so right now than Japan or China. Going to these countries is where you have experiences like the one you describe. I remember being in Tokyo in 1999 and watching people surf the Internet on i-mode and then being surprised that in the US nobody was even sending text messages.

By: marksuster

marksuster — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:46:28 +0000

thanks for your input. No doubt a single presentation and superficial post can’t explain the market dynamics. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head when you say, “Obviously the devil is in the details, but that’s just more reason to go out there and experience first hand”

By: Don

Don — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:17:56 +0000

Great perspective and info from Benjamin – it’s a huge market worth understanding. A friend and former engineer of mine is Chinese, and we’ve had some really interesting discussions about the needs, wants, and behaviors of their Internet users. The most striking observation being that, in his experience, Chinese users view the web as an entertainment platform over an information platform. He’s of course offered to help us localize Streamy.

I think it’s worth mentioning how well some of the casual gaming companies in the US are doing with micro-transactional models and virtual goods. I have some close friends killing it at Zynga, and I don’t expect them to slow down any time soon.

There are lessons to be learned and eyes to be opened, but I think Americans may continue to lag on mobile / virtual world adoption simply because we’re not as collectivist as some of our international counterparts. The Zynga guys would probably disagree.