Reposting a great description of the Supernova Network Age call that’s scheduled for for 4pm PDT Tuesday, originally posted by Elliot Ng. Hope to see/hear you all there! -cfc
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When is the call?
- The call is on Sept 15, 2009 at 4:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time US / 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time US.
- In China, the call is on Sept 16, 2009 at 7:00 am Beijing time / in Korea, 8:00 am Seoul time.
How do I access the call via web or phone?
- Call in Number – +1-347-945-6578
- Web and Chat – http://tobtr.com/s/662500
- More information here.
What’s the briefing about?
CN Reviews is partnering with Wharton School’s Supernova Group to host a conference call on Sept 15 (U.S.) / Sept 16 (China, Korea) about social networks and emerging trends in China’s consumer internet. Kaiser Kuo, Benjamin Joffe,
and other leading China-based consumer internet executives will share
about a vibrant, social, and rapidly evolving consumer internet that
most Westerners don’t hear that much about. They will also share some
of the barriers to success that Western companies will face. The call
is provocatively called “Why Twitter & Facebook Should Forget About
China” and was inspired by a recent Mobinode post with a similar title by tech blogger Gang Lu.
Professor Kevin Werbach’s Supernova Conference
is one of my favorite conferences of the year, because it brings
together a diverse group of people together–public policy makers,
computer scientists, social scientists, economists, entrepreneurs, and
participants from leading technology companies–to do some out of the
box thinking about what Werbach calls “The Network Age.“
In addition to the Conference, Werbach hosts a series of conference
calls about various “Network Age” topics. I suggested to Kevin that we
do a call on China’s internet, and he agreed to host it and let me
moderate it.
What we will cover:
Most Western coverage of the Internet focuses on the narrative of
censorship and control, but misses the vibrant social nature of what is
now the largest internet market of the world. In the West, the
internet started in business/academia/government, fulfilling mostly
functional & utilitarian needs. But in China, the internet started
as a consumer phenomenon, focused on entertainment and communications.
Also, like most of the developing world, China’s internet has developed
hand-in-hand with the growth of mobile, Internet-connected devices –
about 25% of total internet users access the internet NOT on a PC but
via a mobile device. Some potential questions we’ll cover:
- Tencent – how this Chinese internet company achieved a dominant, $1
billion revenue position and at HKD $207 Billion (about USD $26
Billion) now exceeds Yahoo!’s market capitalization of $20 Billion. - QQ as an example of a mobile, social application – different from the West.
- Virtual goods, casual gaming, and the nature of social exchange on QQ and other social networks.
- The upstarts and the copycats – RenRen (Xiaonei), Kaixin001, and the rest. Casual gaming and what is powering the growth.
- Opportunities in mobile applications – China Mobile’s mobile application ecosystem.
- The growth of video – Youku, Tudou, 56.com, and segmentation of the video market in China.
- Why Facebook and Twitter should forget about China
Who is on the call?
- Kaiser Kuo – (Twitter: @kaiserkuo)-Kaiser
Kuo is an American-born writer, rock musician, technology watcher and
cultural commentator. In 2007, he joined the leading advertising agency
Ogilvy as their director of digital strategy for China, but left in
early 2009 to devote more time to writing and to his advisory work for
several Chinese Internet startups, including consulting work for
China’s leading Internet video site, Youku.com. He currently also
serves as digital strategy director, Team Nokia, for ad agency
Wunderman. Previously, he served as China bureau chief for the Silicon
Valley-based magazine Red Herring, and worked as a freelance technology and business writer for such publications as Time, China Economic Review, Asia Inc., and TelecomAsia. He has worked extensively in China-based Web and mobile startups. He is a frequent guest on CCTV-9 program Dialogue,
where he has debated issues ranging from Internet vigilantism to
Feng-shui. Kaiser has been the anchor columnist for the popular
English-language magazine that’s Beijing and its successor, The Beijinger,
for almost eight years, contributing the monthly satire column called
“Ich Bin Ein Beijinger.” An anthology of 61 of his columns was
published in a volume of the same title in June, 2009. Kaiser is a
graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and holds an MA in
East Asian Studies from the University of Arizona. He was co-founder
and lead guitarist of one of China’s most successful rock bands, Tang
Dynasty, and continues to be active in Beijing’s rock scene as lead
guitarist of Chunqiu. He lives in Beijing with his wife and two young
children. Kaiser is currently working on a new book on people-to-people
relations between China and the United States in the Internet age. - Benjamin Joffe (Twitter: @benjaminjoffe @plus8star; Plus8Star)
– Benjamin Joffe founded the digital strategy company +8*
(www.plus8star.com) after being part during the past 9 years of Japan’s
mobile revolution, Korea’s Internet boom as well as China’s mobile
crash and web 2.0 revival. +8* works with large companies (Adidas,
Microsoft, Nokia), investors (MIH, leading investor in Tencent) and
startups (IMVU, Baihe.com) to bring them proven and innovative service
concepts and business models from advanced Asian markets. Benjamin is
a regular keynote at industry events (Ad:Tech, GSP East, Asia Venture
Capital Forum, eComm, etc.), he was selected among China’s Top 100
Mobile Industry Influencers in 2007 and 2008 and co-founded Mobile
Monday in Beijing, the leading mobile industry forum in China with over
3,000 members. - TBD – I’ll be updating this post with another participant who is an operating executive in a leading social media company in China
- Elliott Ng, moderator – (Twitter: @elliottng)
– Elliott Ng is a Silicon Valley based entrepreneur and occasional
angel investor/advisor to Chinese internet startups. Companies Elliott
has co-founded have created value for venture investors via
acquisitions and one NASDAQ IPO, valued at $400 million. He is
currently co-founder of UpTake, a new travel search engine, and founder/blogger of CNReviews, a blog about China’s business, technology, and what’s interesting about China.