"the initial reaction seems to be disappointment, at least from the people who had been eagerly anticipating the magazine's arrival. Members of the milk group on Douban, a social networking service oriented toward students and young white-collars, seem to agree that the mainland edition is a far cry from the HK original."...which keeps reminding me that Hong Kong and Mainland China are two very different playing-grounds.
"the initial reaction seems to be disappointment, at least from the people who had been eagerly anticipating the magazine's arrival. Members of the milk group on Douban, a social networking service oriented toward students and young white-collars, seem to agree that the mainland edition is a far cry from the HK original."...was mich mal wieder daran erinnert, wie unterschiedlich die Märkte in China und Hong Kong sind.
"One of eBay's biggest problems comes from how it handled decision-making between its headquarters in San Jose and its China operations. Exit interviews with former Eachnet and eBay executives in China indicate that senior management in China felt that headquarters "did not listen to them" at critical junctures. Instead, these former executives believe that San Jose directed from afar rather than trusting its China management to know what would work in China. This sentiment was especially true for executives from the original Eachnet team who felt belittled by the American team after the acquisition."This pattern seems to repeat itself with the majority of all gweilo-companies trying to enter the Mainland market: foreign company can't ignore market in China -- company then buys into Chinese joint venture -- utter ignorance of cultural differences and ill communication take their toll -- foreign company fails utterly a few months or years later -- needs to write off or sell assets.
"One of eBay's biggest problems comes from how it handled decision-making between its headquarters in San Jose and its China operations. Exit interviews with former Eachnet and eBay executives in China indicate that senior management in China felt that headquarters "did not listen to them" at critical junctures. Instead, these former executives believe that San Jose directed from afar rather than trusting its China management to know what would work in China. This sentiment was especially true for executives from the original Eachnet team who felt belittled by the American team after the acquisition."Dieses Muster scheint sich bei der Mehrzahl aller Geschäftseintritte westlicher Unternehmen in den Markt in China zu wiederholen: Risiko nicht in China präsent zu sein ist größer als das Risiko in China zu scheitern -- westliches Unternehmen begründet daher Joint Venture mit chinesischem Partner -- Mißverständisse und das Ignorieren kultureller Unterschiede nehmen ihren Lauf -- westliches Unternehmen scheitert -- und hinterläßt oder verkauft den Rest des Geschäfts.
"It would be one thing if factories were like single people - dating websites enjoy a steady stream of new single customers - but manufacturing is not the same. In the long run (or sooner?), all capable manufacturers are known to the market. The website works best in a world with murky market data. We are heading away from that world, not towards it. There are already websites that allow companies to list information for free and Chinese are using these sites with greater frequency."
"It would be one thing if factories were like single people - dating websites enjoy a steady stream of new single customers - but manufacturing is not the same. In the long run (or sooner?), all capable manufacturers are known to the market. The website works best in a world with murky market data. We are heading away from that world, not towards it. There are already websites that allow companies to list information for free and Chinese are using these sites with greater frequency."Die Schwesterdomain von Alibaba ist Taobao -- chinesische Version von eBay und größte C2C-Plattform in der Volksrepublik. Taobao warf bislang kein Geld ab und wird (laut Jack Ma) auch noch mindestens bis 2008 kostenfrei bleiben; Ma bleibt auch keine andere Wahl, denn er hatte bereit Mitte letzten Jahres erfolglos versucht, bei Taobao Einnahmen durch Werbung und Premium-Keyword-Angebote zu erzielen. Der Vorstoß mußte unter anderem durch die wütenden Reaktionen der Nutzer wieder zurückgenommen werden.
"'More' is the typical game-industry's approach to everything: more levels, more graphic power, more customization and even moreso, intertwining features. Here is a lesson that the game-industry can learn from the Web 2.0-world -- less is more, really," Winter opined. "Less is what a casual audience of above-30-year-olds are looking for. They don't want to waste their time and money on upgrading graphic-hardware just to play Crysis in all its beauty. They are looking for some thirty minutes of ease and challenge besides their working-life, their family and hobbies, instead of spending endless hours of grinding in an online-game."
Communities are the key to online worlds, Winter says -- and the current community within MMOs currently reflects, he notes, the industry's "max-out principle," where the learning curve to fully engage in the virtual society is steep. "This doesn't mix well socially with the casual market," Winter says. "Such social discrepancies -- almost like culture shock -- are among the biggest shortcomings of recent multiplayer-products."
"'More' is the typical game-industry's approach to everything: more levels, more graphic power, more customization and even moreso, intertwining features. Here is a lesson that the game-industry can learn from the Web 2.0-world -- less is more, really," Winter opined. "Less is what a casual audience of above-30-year-olds are looking for. They don't want to waste their time and money on upgrading graphic-hardware just to play Crysis in all its beauty. They are looking for some thirty minutes of ease and challenge besides their working-life, their family and hobbies, instead of spending endless hours of grinding in an online-game."
Communities are the key to online worlds, Winter says -- and the current community within MMOs currently reflects, he notes, the industry's "max-out principle," where the learning curve to fully engage in the virtual society is steep. "This doesn't mix well socially with the casual market," Winter says. "Such social discrepancies -- almost like culture shock -- are among the biggest shortcomings of recent multiplayer-products."
"A user registers with the online community and personally adds individuals that they know to their personal networking database. While adding these peers to the networking database, the user grants a specific level of access to each individual... Based on the level of access granted by the user, the peer may or may not be able to access the users information or the user's personal databases for potential networking." (patent-application excerpt)I'm no longer wondering about the weird practises of the U.S.-patent-system, software-patents and prior art, blabla yadayada. What really surprises me this time is the issuance of a patent seemingly contradictory to already existing intellectual properties. The Jaipuria-patent seems to be in conflict with the so-called Friendster-patent in various details, for example searching my and my peers' networks.
"A user registers with the online community and personally adds individuals that they know to their personal networking database. While adding these peers to the networking database, the user grants a specific level of access to each individual... Based on the level of access granted by the user, the peer may or may not be able to access the users information or the user's personal databases for potential networking." (patent-application excerpt)Ich wundere mich längst nicht mehr über die seltsame Praxis des U.S.-Patentamts und amerikanische Software-Patente die geistiges Eigentum auf Ideen anmelden, die es schon Jahre zuvor gab. Was ich allerdings erstaunlich finde, ist die Bewilligung eines Patents, das sich mit bereits bestenden Patenten überschneidet; das Jaipuria-Patent scheint in einigen Details dem Friendster-Patent sehr ähnlich zu sein, z.B. bei der Suchfunktion.
"In the name of provocation, let me start by saying that DESIGNERS SUCK. I’m sorry. It’s true. DESIGNERS SUCK. There’s a big backlash against design going on today and it’s because designers suck.
So let me tell you why. Designers suck because they are arrogant. The blogs and websites are full of designers shouting how awful it is that now, thanks to Macs, Web 2.0, even YouTube, EVERYONE is a designer.
Design Democracy is the wave of the future. Exceptional design may only be done by great star designers. But the design of our music experiences, the design of our MySpace pages, the design of our blogs, the design of our clothes, the design of our online community chats, the design of our Class of ’95 brochures, the design of our screens, the design of the designs on our bodies—We are all designing more of our lives." (Bruce Nussbaum)
"Thiel, 39, says the site's college-aged users make it worth $8 billion or more, as much as Viacom Inc.'s MTV music video channel." (Bloomberg)Eight billion, are you kidding me? Compared to another merger: at the end of December, Lufthansa and KarstadtQuelle got an agreement to sell the travel-group Thomas Cook to KarstadtQuelle--for around EUR 800 million. Thomas Cook generates some EUR 7.7 billion per year with their 23.300 employees and 80 aircrafts. This puts prices for YouTube and Facebook into another light for me. I'm wondering how Facebook will get as profitable, if their users are already going hyperbolic about things as tiny as a news-feed.
"Thiel, 39, says the site's college-aged users make it worth $8 billion or more, as much as Viacom Inc.'s MTV music video channel." (Bloomberg)Spaß beiseite, 8 Milliarden? Nur zum Vergleich: Ende Dezember haben sich Lufthansa und KarstadtQuelle darauf geeinigt, den Reiseanbieter Thomas Cook an KarstadtQuelle zu verkaufen -- für 800 Millionen Euro. Thomas Cook generiert 7.7 Milliarden Euro pro Jahr mit seinen 23.300 Angestellten und 80 Fliegern. Solche Zahlen rücken die Preisschilder von YouTube und Facebook für mich in ein anderes Licht. Ich frage mich jedenfalls, wie Facebook so profitabel werden wollen, wenn ihre Mitglieder bereits bei den kleinsten Änderungen an der Website Amok laufen (z.B. in Sachen News Feeds).
