My heart goes out to the people of China who lost their loved ones in the yesterday's earthquakes...
Photo from CNN.com
The other day, I read a piece on the China Vortex, shared on Google reader by Tangos. (Thanks Tangos - I'm getting lots of insights into the Chinese web industry through your shared blog articles. Of course I enjoy your own too.)
In short, the article said:
Does the fact that BBS is so popular in China today mean a) BBS is the right platform for social media and b) BBS will remain as popular in China for the coming years? I'm not very sure about that, at least using the Korean market as a "canary in coal mine" example.
a) Is BBS the right platform for social media?
If we define "social media" as the collection of unque, diversified individual voices, I don't think BBS is the optimal platform for social media activities - on the contrary, BBSes can often lead to group thoughts and monoculture, where the agenda is largely driven by big voices.
b) Will BBS remain popular in China for the coming years?
In Korea, we have a popular BBS/forum service in "Daum Cafe". Three or four years ago, Daum cafe was arguably THE most popular service for Korean netizens. Today, Daum Cafes are still doing pretty okay I guess, but are definitely not the most popular daily web destination as they once used to be. Over the last several years, Daum Cafe has given much way first to minihompies, and later to blogs.
The problem of Daum Cafe as a BBS-type service was that it wasn't as much focusing on individuals. On BBSes and forums, usually it's difficult to keep track of the messages users left on different spaces and the subsequent comments left by other users. It's also difficult to put one's personal identity to the page that collects all his postings ("My page"), just like a contributor's personal page on Wikipedia is rarely visited (many people don't even know such pages exist). People like group activities too, but basically people are individualistic. Users want to have "their own site" where they have all their content under a specific URL which they can use as personal brands.
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I know this is a very crude analogy, but I think the evolution from homepage to BBS to blogs and other forms of social media can be said:
Generation 1 = Homepages = individual "homes" without much communication channels. People sometimes visit other "homes" but communication between homes are generally not very active. Besides, it's generally difficult to build and manage one's own home.
Generation 2 = BBS = town hall meetings or cocktail parties where people gather together and talk about various topics, but not much of "individual space".
Generation 3 = blogs = individual homes with built-in communication system and numerous, instant townhall meetings (i.e. the content aggregation via XML/RSS).
If we look back on the Korean web service market, the game-changing services have walked through the above generations. First the homepages were all the rage (circa 1998), then there were Daum Cafe and other BBS/forum services like Freechal (circa 2000). Then, of course, Cyworld minihompies came along and took the market by storm (2002 or so). And now the name of the game is, arguably, blogs - I'm not saying this because I'm a blog company CEO :)
Of course this is only what happend in the Korean market, and just because something happened in the Korean market doesn't mean it will happen everywhere else. But having said that, I am eager to see if the Chinese' love of BBS will continue or even get stronger, or the Chinese netizens will further embrace blogs or other forms of more "personal" media platform. What do you think?
In short, the article said:
- Much of Chinese internet = BBS
- Often the Chinese "group thoughts/activities", such as the recent (rather unfortunate) "Angry Chinese" incidents, get organized on these BBSes
- Chinese' love of BBS might have come from distrust of traditional media
- Outsiders have not figured this out
So, BBSes are the real social media marketing tool, and as usual, the Chinese are ahead of everyone else, but just haven’t figured out that part themselves. While the west talks about social media and Web 2.0, China has had a version of it for the past ten years. It may not be pretty, but it works.
Does the fact that BBS is so popular in China today mean a) BBS is the right platform for social media and b) BBS will remain as popular in China for the coming years? I'm not very sure about that, at least using the Korean market as a "canary in coal mine" example.
a) Is BBS the right platform for social media?
If we define "social media" as the collection of unque, diversified individual voices, I don't think BBS is the optimal platform for social media activities - on the contrary, BBSes can often lead to group thoughts and monoculture, where the agenda is largely driven by big voices.
b) Will BBS remain popular in China for the coming years?
In Korea, we have a popular BBS/forum service in "Daum Cafe". Three or four years ago, Daum cafe was arguably THE most popular service for Korean netizens. Today, Daum Cafes are still doing pretty okay I guess, but are definitely not the most popular daily web destination as they once used to be. Over the last several years, Daum Cafe has given much way first to minihompies, and later to blogs.
The problem of Daum Cafe as a BBS-type service was that it wasn't as much focusing on individuals. On BBSes and forums, usually it's difficult to keep track of the messages users left on different spaces and the subsequent comments left by other users. It's also difficult to put one's personal identity to the page that collects all his postings ("My page"), just like a contributor's personal page on Wikipedia is rarely visited (many people don't even know such pages exist). People like group activities too, but basically people are individualistic. Users want to have "their own site" where they have all their content under a specific URL which they can use as personal brands.
+++
I know this is a very crude analogy, but I think the evolution from homepage to BBS to blogs and other forms of social media can be said:
Generation 1 = Homepages = individual "homes" without much communication channels. People sometimes visit other "homes" but communication between homes are generally not very active. Besides, it's generally difficult to build and manage one's own home.
Generation 2 = BBS = town hall meetings or cocktail parties where people gather together and talk about various topics, but not much of "individual space".
Generation 3 = blogs = individual homes with built-in communication system and numerous, instant townhall meetings (i.e. the content aggregation via XML/RSS).
If we look back on the Korean web service market, the game-changing services have walked through the above generations. First the homepages were all the rage (circa 1998), then there were Daum Cafe and other BBS/forum services like Freechal (circa 2000). Then, of course, Cyworld minihompies came along and took the market by storm (2002 or so). And now the name of the game is, arguably, blogs - I'm not saying this because I'm a blog company CEO :)
Of course this is only what happend in the Korean market, and just because something happened in the Korean market doesn't mean it will happen everywhere else. But having said that, I am eager to see if the Chinese' love of BBS will continue or even get stronger, or the Chinese netizens will further embrace blogs or other forms of more "personal" media platform. What do you think?
Shanghai-based italki is "applying Web 2.0 concepts, such as social networking, user-generated content, and crowdsourcing, to language learning." Founded by American and Chinese entrepreneurs, italki has 210,000+ users from 100+ countries speaking 90+ languages. They have recently launched a new version, where users can "now collaborate on creating free language learning textbooks", according to Kevin Chen of italki.
On italki, speakers of different languages can exchange questions/answers regarding the languages they are learning. For example, as shown on the screenshot below, those who are learning Korean language can post questions, for which Korean speakers (like myself) might provide some help.
Or, one can also find a "language partner" for peer study. Naturally, I searched for the 18-25 year old females - go ahead and sue me :) By the way, the search still gave me some 17 year olds - a small glitch, perhaps? (Just hope there isn't such thing as "underage peer language learning").
Users can do more, such as posting language-learning resources and files, and forming study groups. The site is cleanly designed and very web 2.0-ish (with the Truebuchet font and all). The fact that they already have user base in the order of couple hundred thousands is also a plus, I guess.
I don't know if italki has indeed finally brought the concept of "education 2.0" into existence, but it's true that many people (including an avid reader of this blog who now became a friend of mine) firmly believe that education and web 2.0 are natural fit and the so-called "education 2.0" is very, very promising.
My thought is that, perhaps the true Litmus test for italki will be to see if italki can replace, or at least provide a more efficient way to learn foreign language than the existing language-learning methods.
On italki, speakers of different languages can exchange questions/answers regarding the languages they are learning. For example, as shown on the screenshot below, those who are learning Korean language can post questions, for which Korean speakers (like myself) might provide some help.
Or, one can also find a "language partner" for peer study. Naturally, I searched for the 18-25 year old females - go ahead and sue me :) By the way, the search still gave me some 17 year olds - a small glitch, perhaps? (Just hope there isn't such thing as "underage peer language learning").
Users can do more, such as posting language-learning resources and files, and forming study groups. The site is cleanly designed and very web 2.0-ish (with the Truebuchet font and all). The fact that they already have user base in the order of couple hundred thousands is also a plus, I guess.
I don't know if italki has indeed finally brought the concept of "education 2.0" into existence, but it's true that many people (including an avid reader of this blog who now became a friend of mine) firmly believe that education and web 2.0 are natural fit and the so-called "education 2.0" is very, very promising.
My thought is that, perhaps the true Litmus test for italki will be to see if italki can replace, or at least provide a more efficient way to learn foreign language than the existing language-learning methods.
TAG italki
Spotplex, a Silicon Valley-based blog analytics service that was founded by Koreans and once touted by Techcrunch as "a better Digg", apparently closed its door:
Spotplex was run by Doyon Kim, co-founder of Dialpad (sold to Yahoo) and Opinity. As someone who personally knows Doyon (we even went to the same school, albeit during different years), I am sorry to see Doyon's service shutting down. But I'm sure Doyon is learning tons and will bring us other exciting services in no time.
Other Valley-based services founded by Koreans include Mysimon.com; And some Korean web services like Cyworld have their US operations.
Spotplex was "a real-time ranking for blog articles based on actual impression counts, not the number of votes or recommendation. In short, people can find what people read most today and thus most interesting news of the day."Dear Spotplex users,
We regret to inform you that Spotplex is going offline. This was a very hard decision for us and we are sure you will miss the service as much as we do.
Thanks for your support. For any question, please send us an email at support@spotplex.com.
The Spotplex Team
Spotplex was run by Doyon Kim, co-founder of Dialpad (sold to Yahoo) and Opinity. As someone who personally knows Doyon (we even went to the same school, albeit during different years), I am sorry to see Doyon's service shutting down. But I'm sure Doyon is learning tons and will bring us other exciting services in no time.
Other Valley-based services founded by Koreans include Mysimon.com; And some Korean web services like Cyworld have their US operations.
Microsoft to work with Hyundai-Kia Motors on "in-vehicle infotainment"
Web 2.0 | 2008/05/07 20:05 | Web 2.0 Asia
Bill Gates, after meeting with Korean President Lee, announced Microsoft will invest $100M+ in setting up the "Automotive IT Innovation Center" jointly with Hyundai-Kia Motors, the nation's premier auto company.
According to Reuters, the first product under the partnership would be a voice-controlled system linking mobile devices to car stereo systems; Later versions are expected to include multimedia and navigation-related features.
In plain English: the US-bound Hyundai and Kia vehicles will soon have Microsoft-powered gadgets inside the cars. Which means those cars will be the first models that come with the integrated Ctrl + Alt + Del keys on dashboard. :)
As evidenced by Ray Ozzie's "Mesh" plan, Microsoft is working hard on its new corporate vision to provide ubiquitous connected experience across all devices and environments, including the driver's seat. Meanwhile, other companies like Apple should also be looking at similar opportunities.
According to Reuters, the first product under the partnership would be a voice-controlled system linking mobile devices to car stereo systems; Later versions are expected to include multimedia and navigation-related features.
In plain English: the US-bound Hyundai and Kia vehicles will soon have Microsoft-powered gadgets inside the cars. Which means those cars will be the first models that come with the integrated Ctrl + Alt + Del keys on dashboard. :)
As evidenced by Ray Ozzie's "Mesh" plan, Microsoft is working hard on its new corporate vision to provide ubiquitous connected experience across all devices and environments, including the driver's seat. Meanwhile, other companies like Apple should also be looking at similar opportunities.
Cyworld "Minilife", aka Cyworld 3D, is about to start closed beta service. They are accepting up to 500,000 closed beta users (about 2% of their current user base of 22 million). Cyworld Minilife is a Second Life-like virtual 3D social network service, and is expected to launch in June this year. So far I'm not that impressed, but will deliver updates anyway.
In Korea, you can check out the gas price on the web in advance before you fill up your car. The government-operated site, Opinet, offers a near real-time price comparison service for the nation's gas stations.
For those who are always on the move, this feature will soon become available on mobile and in-car navigation. So the age-old "future scenario", where we drive our cars around and find shopping and price information around us in real time, doesn't seem too distant to finally become reality.
For those who are always on the move, this feature will soon become available on mobile and in-car navigation. So the age-old "future scenario", where we drive our cars around and find shopping and price information around us in real time, doesn't seem too distant to finally become reality.
