While not specifically related to the Asia Online Marketing scene, we thought this interview of Google’s Sergey Brin at last week’s Web2.0 Summit was quite interesting at a general level.
Of the points discussed were Brin’s views on Bing and Yahoo, the recent deal with Twitter and Google’s Social Search implementation which launched yesterday.
TechCrunch Japan is hosting another TokyoCamp on Friday November 6. 
TokyoCamp is the Japanese equivalent of TechCrunch’s TC50 event which invites a number of startups to demo their Software, Service or Product in a ‘Demo Pit’ followed by lots of networking with key Web and Tech influencers.
This is the 2nd ever TokyoCamp, and looks to be bigger and better than the first one back in August. On this occasion there will be 21 startups demoing their ‘wares’.
It’s a full day event followed by a meet-up from 8-10pm… at the cost of 6000 yen.
Register Here… or Click Here for more information.
If you’re going, we’d love to hear from you so just let us know.
I thought I’d share this very interesting survey conducted by the self described voice and advocate for the Digital Marketing industry in Asia, the ADMA (Asia Digital Marketing Association). This it the 3rd yearbook conducted by the ADMA and is supported by some of the most prominent entities in Digital Marketing, including DoubleClick, Microsoft Advertising and RightMedia (Yahoo).<p> The study aims to analyse the state of Online in all the Asian markets (excluding Japan) and covers aspects such as Demographics, User Behaviour, Online Advertising and eCommerce Development in each of these key markets.
While a little long and extensive, it’s a great resource for anyone looking for country specific information or recent stats. Enjoy the read.
ADMA’s Annual Asia-Pacific Digital Marketing Survey 2009
Lee Kai-Fu, who recently left Google China to start his own company – Innovation Works is now eyeing cloud computing, e-commerce and the mobile platform industry for some of his first investments (See interview with Reuters, Hong Kong). The fund hopes to fill a gap in China for seed capital and aims to nurture 20 business projects and bring five to first round venture capital funding each year, as it searches for the next Baidu or Alibaba.
It comes to no surprise that Lee Kai-Fu picks out cloud computing, e-commerce and the mobile platform industry for investments. A critical mass is forming as more consumers embrace the Internet channel for transactions. Lack of trust, poor delivery systems and unclear payment structures are slowly become barriers of the past. We have seen lots of development in payment platform in China from China Union Pay, AliPay, bridging the gap between offline payment and online payment.
According to Lee, “Only a third of the Chinese population as a percentage is online and those who are online spend only one-sixteenth of the American. The growth opportunity just to catch up with the U.S. is … 48 times.” Similar opportunities exist in mobile advertising and cloud computing, a business model built on providing services over the Internet.
Guess Asia Pacific is definitely a space to watch for in the next few years for online innovations and new business model – with both China and India, presenting huge opportunity for businesses.
It looks like Baidu are well on their way to implementing the Mobile strategy they set out a couple of months ago. 
The latest in the Chinese search-market battle between Baidu and Google, is Baidu’s announcement yesterday that they are launching a number of mobile applications with a local carrier. This move is quicker than anticipated and highlights the growing battle between the two entities. According to this news from PCWorld:
Baidu services including its Internet search, free music download search, and message forum will all be pre-installed on 3G handsets from China Unicom, Baidu said Monday. Baidu will also provide search capabilities for mobile Internet Web sites run by the carrier.
What’s probably most interesting about this, is that China Unicom also happens to be the carrier that is about to launch the iPhone in China. Does this mean Baidu apps will be pre-installed on the iPhone?
Considering the animosity between Apple and Google seems to be growing over Google Voice, Android and Map applications…. perhaps Apple would welcome the chance to shun Google in such a large consumer market?
A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about Australia’s ambitious Gov 2.0 plan, and it’s MashUp Australia competition, which allows and encourages programmers to develop applications that access streams of open Government Data. In light of the above we thought it was also worth blogging about the recent report released by the Japanese government: ‘ICT Hatoyama Plan’, which amongst other things, refers to tapping into the Goverments ICT potential.
The most important part of this plan seems to be the establishment of a nationwide Cloud Computing platform called the ‘Kasumigaseki Cloud’, allowing various Government departments to access data and collaborate efficiently. As this excerpt from CloudBook states:
The Kasumigaseki Cloud will enable various ministries to collaborate to integrate and consolidate hardware and create platforms for shared functions. Efforts will be made to efficiently develop and operate information systems with the aim of greatly reducing electronic government-related development and operating costs while increasing the pace of processing by integrating shared functions, increasing collaboration among systems, and providing secure and advanced governmental services.
Additional features of this cloud infrastructure, is the establishment of a National Digital Archive… and the emphasis on creating Green Cloud Data Centers.
It’s good to see such ambitious plans being put in place at Government level.. and I don’t think it’ll be long before we see or hear more about similar eGov initiatives from other APAC markets (especially, South Korea and Singapore).
Few weeks ago, I wrote on China being the next Silicon Valley and the potential of new business models being incubated that is specific to the Chinese market – well saw this interesting article on TechCrunch “Healthcare Reform, Chinese Startup Style” – Seems like business model that is specific to China is starting to sprout and taking shape in China.
Meiloo.com – founded by Yan Zhang, is a website that helps Chinese Internet users find, source and compare doctors and hospitals for elective surgery. Elective health care services are a $10 billion a year market in China that already heavily advertises on TV, billboards and the Web. Meiloo.com aggregates the contents as well as provide an online booking facility for doctors/hospitals. In return for marketing their services to the broad consumer base, doctors and hospitals actually pay Meiloo a cut of the surgery fees. Yan Zhang leveraged on the distribution power of the Internet channel to reach out to the large population of consumers that choose to search online for information and book their surgery at the convenience of their home.
Although not a huge population will jump onto the bandwagon of booking elective surgery online, the ability to capture just 1 – 2 % of the consumer market in China is already mind boggling (CTrip taps less than 10% of the domestic travel market and is a multi-billion company). Meiloo is growing transactions at a pace of 15%-25% per month, and has helped book nearly $1 million US dollars in transactions in the last twelve months.
Would definitely not be surprise to hear of more success stories and original business model sprouting out of China as more and more business and individual starts to embrace the online channel.
The reverse brain drain is here to stay. I had written earlier about the H1B bottleneck being an opportunity for India/China to attract talent back to India. At a recent gathering of the Think India Foundation, when polled, over 2/3rds of the audience stated that they would like to return home. It is no longer only about green cards or citizenship. It has got much more to do with the opportunity back home. Even with lower salaries, the quality of life is much better. The returning techie also gets a career booster – he is much more likely to be at a more senior role than what he or she would have in the valley.
The trend is noticeable eve with young graduates. An overwhelming majority of this subset would want to settle back home, albeit with a few years of professional experience in the US. With the US economy slowing down, while India and China (Chindia?) growing fast, this group which has fuelled the valley’s innovation engine does not want to get caught on the wrong side of global economic forces.
Yahoo’s famed Open Hack developer event is coming to SE Asia for the first time. While it will be hosted in Jakarta, the event is open to 200 Developers from across the whole region… so better Sign Up quick.
In addition, there are some developer competitions being run in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam… and winners will be flown to Jakarta for the Open Hack event on 21-22 November 2009. If you’re a developer in South East Asia and would like to join the competitions you can sign up here.
According to the YDN Blog:
We are planning on some great talks on the first day around our newest technologies, including YQL, Yahoo! Application Platform, Blueprint and our Geo Technologies. Then it’s down to some serious hacking so you can show us what you can build in 24 hours using our APIs and with anything else you like. Of course there will be some fun and games during the two days, and we will keep you fed and hydrated throughout. Our Open Hacks days have got progressively better each time we do them, so the expectations for the SEA event are high, and we are planning a truly stand out event.
For more on the announcement or previous Open Hack Days click here and here.
Airtel – India’s largest mobile network – has launched an ‘exclusive’ deal with twitter. Its subscribers will be able to tweet directly onto their twitter accounts using a text message. Further, such tweets will be delivered as text messages to all Airtel subscribers who are registered as tweet subscribers.
It is an interesting concept, but I think it is too late on the scene with users having the option of tweeting using twitter applications on their phone, blackberrys and netbooks. The charge of each such SMS is Rs. 1 (about USD 0.023) compared to sending a regular SMS which is anywhere between Rs. 0 and Rs. 0.5. What is also amusing is that as a registered user, you will get tweets from all other registered users. In a way, I will be following anyone who also registers. And they would be following me.
If I were an SMS marketer in India, I would be suitably pleased with such Diwali gifts.
Happy Diwali everyone!