Web 2.0 Asia

As I said in this post, I will look into opportunities where other great bloggers can share some of their thoughts and insights with the viewers of this blog.

My first guest blogger is Mr Tangos Chan. He is running China's premier Web 2.0 blog, China Web 2.0 Review. Anyone who is interested in Chinese Web 2.0 industry yet can't read Chinese will find this site very resourceful.

I wished to go to China but couldn't, so an email interview was conducted.

1. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself? What are your
current or past activities that made you start Chinese Web 2.0 Review?

In fact, I'm just an ordinary man.  Currently I'm working in an internet company in Guangzhou to deal with some finance-related issues. But I will move to Beijing soon.  Last year, the concept of "web 2.0" sparked the ideas of many internet startups in China, and more and more overseas VCs are eyeing on China's market.  But I realized that there is an information gap between them. Due to language barrier, English-speaking world don't have many effective channels to know what happened in China. I think an English blog would be a good way for me to try to bridge the gap.

2. Can you describe the funding environment for the Chinese web 2.0
industry? (How hot / cold the market is, What's the average size of
funding, Notable success stories, etc)

In fact, I personally don't know much on the funding and investment circle. But I'm sure the market has recovered from the bubble time, and it is hot, many reputable VCs entered or prepared to enter Chinese market. For example, Sequioa Capital, CRV and KPCB. It's hard to tell the average size, since there are many small cases which you may not know.

Oak Pacific's 48 million funding should be the most notable case, other notable cases include Qihoo and Toodou.

3. In your view, what are the 3 most successful Web 2.0 companies (or
initiatives) in China?

Douban should be on the list, you know, in China, when we talked about domestic web 2.0, we often take Douban as an example.
Dianping is also a very successful website, even though when Dianping launched several years ago, no one knew what is "web 2.0"
Sina blog is my third choice. It is a very successful initiatives to attract users and promote the concept of "blog" to the mass.

(Editor: Wow, I didn't know these until I learned them from you ! I'll check them out.)

4. What's your view on the Asian countries, most notably China, Korea,
and Japan, working together on the Web 2.0 ? How do you believe we can
make this seemingly good idea happen?

I don't think it is easy for east Asian countries to work together, since there is big language barrier among three countries. And it seems that there is also quite different web culture in all three countries.

(Well, I begun my Chinese class :-)

5. Who will win this worldcup :) ?

Netherlands is always my favored team, esp. I'm big fans of Van Basten, but I don't think they will be lucky enough to win the game. So I'll bet on Germany. :)

Thanks, Tangos ! If you have any questions for me, I'd be delighted to answer them. Also as I discussed with you, I'll translate this into Korean and post it on my other columns.