Archive for March 25th, 2010
Gravity: New Form of Fun for Groups or a Dinosaur at Launch?
High-profile startup Gravity launched its group conversation website to the public tonight. Founded by three former MySpace executives – Amit Kapur, Steve Pearman, and Jim Benedetto – and backed by Redpoint Ventures and August Capital, Gravity “connects people with shared interests and helps them engage in meaningful and fun conversations.” Unlike other social networks that rely on previous relationships, Gravity connects users with others “you should know and should be talking to because they share your passions.” Rather than rely on existing social connections, Gravity encourages users to make new ones. Sponsor Using metaphors from astrophysics Gravity allows users to create “Worlds” (topics) that they can “orbit” (follow). This metaphor does not extend to “Amir, the friendly neighborhood dinosaur” that serves as the guide. There are real-time notifications to conversations that one “orbits,” and the company indicates there will be an API that allows widgets to be embedded elsewhere. Although Gravity seeks to do something new, the dinosaur might be an apt mascot, for the site seems to be in most respects a combination of forums and groups – two of the Internet’s earliest forms of social networking. The threads are organized chronologically, with embedded comments and the ever-popular “like” feature. Liz Gannes wrote tonight on GigaOm that “the back end is a dynamic ‘interest graph’ with deep analytics about people’s participation.” She notes though that Om Malik “thinks the company is just hoping to latch onto general tech industry excitement about big data.” TechCrunch had in-depth coverage of the companies plans for its data in December. The service has been in private beta since December, and those who are active on Gravity already seem to be pleased with the service and with its look-and-feel. I did get quick and friendly responses to the conversations I started there, although admittedly the topics seemed, well, conversational. Contrast this with an informational site like Quora , a site founded by former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo, where users participate less in conversation than in Q&A. SnapGroups , a site started by Yahoo Groups inventor Mark Fletcher earlier this month, is similar as well. Some say there are two types of people in social networking: those who like Facebook and those who prefer MySpace. The difference between Quora and Gravity might just echo this. Discuss
What Social Needs Does Chatroulette Fill?
I believe you have already heard of Chatroulette , the new video chat platform that has attracted the attention of millions. In February there were 30 million unique visitors to the site. That’s 1 million new users each day. The site made quite a buzz on the news media, blogs , and Twitter . Comscore reports 1 million U.S. visitors in February with a predominance of 18- to 24-year-old males. The platform looks premature (it might be part of its charm) as it comes with one feature only: the next button. (By clicking it you are skipping from one user to another.) The next feature is vital as it gives the user a sense of control. I would even consider naming the hype around its users the “Next” Generation. Sponsor Guest author Dr. Taly Weiss is a marketing trends researcher with a PhD in Social Psychology, a digital research expert, and the founder of TrendsSpotting trends agency. Her digital trends insights are presented at The TrendsSpotting Blog and she follows consumer trends at TrendOriginal.com. Taly’s academic work contributes to the field of Behavioral Economics. TrendsSpotting offers customized and syndicated research reports, published at top market research databases. She can be contacted at talyweiss@trendsspotting.com . What a powerful (yet dangerous) tool that can be for people who seek to experience the control they lack in their personal life. The Next Effect is well embedded in the whole Chatroulette random experiment. What social needs does such a platform serves? Psychologically speaking, these random experiences can teach us on few important needs about social interactions. the crave for peeking (online) face to face control (and at the same time – lack of control) The no commitment effect. Combine the four together and you understand the power and the addiction potential of Chatroulette. We are all well familiar with the above needs: Peeking into strangers’ lives is what brought popularity to the reality TV shows. We humans receive instant gratification from the arousing feeling that comes when we are allowed inside private personal places. Face to face interactions are certainly not new experiences on the Web. But they are getting to an extreme when you personally encounter strangers in their natural surroundings. As to control , Chatroulette can well imitate an act of meeting strangers on the street. You can choose between two acts: you can play active or passive. They are both highly addictive. You can actively approach, and they might not get interested in you. You keep on trying. At the same time, you can choose to be the one who turns down interactions. That can be satisfying don’t you think? The no commitment part is achieved by users’ anonymity. Chatroulette doesn’t require any identification or user subscription. You don’t have to work hard and fake your identity. Finally, there is something new in these sets of random acquaintances that leaves you unprepared. This surprise element can never be achieved offline. While Twitter and Facebook let you follow strangers you choose to, Chatroulette adds more dimensions to these interactions. It is no longer about your friend’s whereabouts or images, nor about reporting what’s going on now. It’s live and you get a chance to play with an imaginary sense of control. While in real life you hardly talk to strangers, here you get it as a social norm. The future of random interactions: I can think of several ways of making these interactions more intriguing – mobile interactions on the move (following people wherever they go) would definitely be hot, as well as the option to filter the people you meet by their location, age or gender. But forget that for now. If Chatroulette were to succeeded in controlling immoral and pornographic activity, what a great human experiment it would open! Discuss
Google Apps in China: It May Work, It May Not
The Google break from China raises some questions for the enterprise considering cloud computing. It’s one thing if the network goes down. That can be fixed. But when the government does its own blockade, that’s another story. Google Apps customers face this very issue. Google has the thorny task of explaining to its customers of what they may expect when using Google Apps in mainland China. Sponsor First off, it’s important to clarify that Google is not shutting itself out of the China market. Google has stopped censoring its search services: Google Search, Google News, and Google Images on its Chinese domain, www.google.cn. But Google intends to continue to do R&D in China ad it will maintain a sales presence there. But for people working in China, there can be a bit of a mixed message. What if you are using Google Apps in Beijing? What can you expect? To keep customers updated, Google has created a Google Apps status dashboard that updates daily to show what in the Google network is working on a day-to-day basis. Google Groups, Blogger, YouTube and Google Sites are entirely blocked. This could pose a number of issues. For example, a customer may use Google Sites for an intranet, project site or an employee profile page. You could go on with the issues this presents but basically it’s one of the downsides when using a cloud computing service in face of a repressing regime. Google has some recommendations for those doing business in China: “… it is important to know that there are several networking configurations and associated technologies available to help ensure ongoing access to your critical business services such as Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. These network configurations, such as a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection, secure shell (SSH) tunneling, or using a proxy server, are already in place by many businesses with worldwide operations who serve their users from various locations. Companies should consult their own technical, legal and policy personnel to find a solution that works best for them.” But then what if the applications do work? Where is the data? Who can access it? Google says it does not host a customer’s data in mainland China nor do Google employees in China not have access to Apps systems or customer data. Discuss
China’s Social Gaming Landscape: What’s Coming Next
It’s no longer a secret that China’s online gaming industry is booming, and growth is set to continue with companies such as Shanda Games , Netease and The9 leading the way. In 2009, China’s online gaming industry earned nearly $4 billion, growing 39.5% from 2008 . Each day, millions of high school students trying to forget the pressures of college entrance exams and young adults discontent with their jobs flock to Internet cafes to play online role-playing games. They’re part of China’s 384 million netizens , and they sit in front of rows of computers in dimly lighted smoke-filled rooms for upwards of eight hours at a time, living in virtual worlds to escape the pressures of contemporary Chinese life. Sponsor Guest author Joel Backaler writes The China Observer , an award-winning blog focused on Chinese technology trends and consumer culture. His writing has appeared in and he has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal China Journal, BusinessWeek, and Seeking Alpha. Joel is a Mandarin-speaking former Fulbright Fellow who has worked and lived in Taipei, Beijing and Singapore with Frontier Strategy Group. Follow Joel on Twitter . But beyond the Internet cafés, social games have emerged as a convenient alternative for students and workers alike to gain a sense of release and revitalize themselves before tackling the next assignment of the day in their everyday lives. They take breaks to tend to their garden on 5 Minutes’ Happy Farm (Kaixin Nongchang) farming game, or steal their friend’s car parking space on Kaixin001 ‘s Qiang Chewei. RenRenWang (formerly Xiaonei), Kaixin001 and Tencent’s QQ Xiaoyou are leading SNS portals, and are the go-to sites to access China’s most popular gaming applications. The widespread popularity of social games is not solely limited to white collar workers in their 20s – social gaming appeals to China’s youth, their middle-aged parents, and even elderly retirees looking to share a common hobby with relatives spread throughout the country. The social gaming landscape is developing at an extremely rapid pace, with competition growing increasingly fierce by the day. What Makes a ‘Winning’ Social Game in China? The most popular social games in China are simple to play and appeal to a broad audience. These winning games take place in easily recognizable environments such as kitchens, gardens and parking lots, and only require a few clicks of a mouse to have a shared social gaming experience with your friends. Happy Farm is the most popular Chinese social game to date. Created by Shanghai-based social game developer 5 Minutes, the game is quite similar to Zynga’s FarmVille. Players own a virtual farm where they plant fruits and vegetables. They purchase supplies like seeds, pesticide and fertilizer at a virtual market. While part of the game is about growing and protecting your own harvest, the real fun is sneaking into your friends’ farms to steal their vegetables. The game is easy to learn, taps into traditional Chinese farming culture and is extremely addictive – appealing to the young, the old and everyone in between. Which Social Game Developers in China You Should Know About? 5 Minutes (五分钟) , CEO: Shaofei Gao 5 Minutes was founded in 2006 by three college students. In November 2008 it released Happy Farm (below) and achieved immediate success, partnering with leading SNS portals, and receiving a one-time multi-million Chinese RMB payment from Tencent for full rights to the game on its QQZone platform. At the end of 2009, 5 Minutes received $3.5 million in venture capital funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson . Rekoo (热酷) , CEO: Yong Liu Founded in 2008, Rekoo is one of China’s leading social gaming developers with several domestic partners: RenRenWang, 51.com, Alibaba, Baidu and Sohu . Rekoo also has strategic overseas partnerships with Facebook, MIXI, Myspace and Cyworld. Rekoo’s most successful games are Sunshine Ranch and Animal Paradise. IsMole (奇矩互动) , CEO: Edwin Chen Founded in 2008, IsMole started off as a market-leading game developer for social networks, but quickly lost its competitive edge to others like 5 Minutes and Rekoo. IsMole’s is best known for its Xingfu Chufang (below) cooking social game that has been released in five different languages across seven countries on thirteen different SNS platforms. Kingnet Games (恺英网络) , CEO: Yue Wang Founded in 2008, Kingnet first released Tower of Babel in April 2009, and within three months had over 500,000 users. In July 2009 Kingnet received venture capital investment from KPCB China. In October 2009, Kingnet had over 2 million users on Facebook. Challenges Facing Social Game Developers Social game development in China has entered a period of tremendous growth, but it has yet to fully mature. Companies compete fiercely with varying levels of experience and capital to create the next winning game. Two major challenges have arisen as a result of this environment. 1. Lack of Innovation: There is an overall lack of diversity in gaming context. Copying is rampant amongst competitors – once a social game is proven successful, competitors begin producing their own versions. For example, there are numerous games that take place in farms such as 5 Minutes’ Happy Farm: Rekoo’s Sunshine Ranch, Kaixin001′s Kaixin Huayuan, and Zhiming Xingtong’s Happy Farmer. 2. Lack of Continuous Improvement: There is a tendency for developers to stop investing in the game after it is on the SNS platform. In some cases this is due to lack of sufficient capital, while others stop because they’re trying to make multiple games to obtain a quick return on investment. This lack of continuous improvement creates short game lifecycles, as user experience ultimately suffers, and a short period of success finally leads to replacement by the next popular game. To win in this environment over the long-term, it is unavoidable that operational costs will continue to rise, as developers must continuously improve the quality and uniqueness of their games to fend off domestic competition and maintain their market share. This Is Only The Beginning Despite these challenges, there is tremendous growth potential in social gaming in China. The first years of growth in China’s social game development have served as a foundation. The next few years will see a convergence between social games and 3G mobile gaming. The social game user base that is predominantly comprised of students and young white-collar workers will continue to grow with even more older players joining the crowd. While Chinese companies will continue to face a competitive market at home, the best companies will develop unique winning strategies domestically and localize them to win success overseas. In a recent interview, 5 Minute’s CEO Shaofei Gao was quoted as saying : “China’s netizens are becoming more mature, they are gradually becoming more accustomed to paying for gaming, and social gaming market opportunities will definitely continue to increase in the future.” Discuss
Startup Strategy Roundtable: Validate Your Ideas
I started doing my free Online Strategy Roundtables for entrepreneurs in the fall of 2008. Based on this work, I’ve been able to draw a few conclusions. First, a good percentage of entrepreneurs don’t bother validating their ideas. Another percentage are immediately interested in raising money. Raising money without validating the business is pretty much impossible. If we can address some of these patterns we have a chance at significantly reducing infant entrepreneur mortality. At this morning’s roundtable I worked with four new entrepreneurs, and this is what I learned. Sponsor Sramana Mitra is a technology entrepreneur and strategy consultant in Silicon Valley. She has founded three companies and writes a business blog, Sramana Mitra on Strategy . She has a masters degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her three books, Entrepreneur Journeys , Bootstrapping, Weapon Of Mass Reconstruction , and Positioning: How To Test, Validate, and Bring Your Idea To Market are all available from Amazon. Her new book Vision India 2020 was recently released. Mitra is also a columnist for Forbes and runs the 1M/1M initiative. Mel Marten presented ClaroConnect , described as being like a match.com for financial advisors and clients. There was a discussion about the best way to monetize the business, whether charging an annual fee is preferred to monetizing every lead. Then the conversation turned to affiliate marketing. Albert Santalo with CareCloud was next. This Internet-based service simplifies the many tasks of the modern medical office. While this business has been validated by a growing list of clients, the positioning of their service needs to be more sharply defined in order to scale the business. Through much give and take, the importance of segmentation and focusing on the strongest segment of their market was emphasized. Martin Linkov presented Favit , a product aiming to personally curate and simply present online content. As a blogger and potential customer, I said I am looking for a service to curate and prioritize what other bloggers are saying about a topic I am blogging about to give my readers a fuller perspective. But Martin is not looking to answer that need. He demonstrates how difficult it can be to explain a complex service, while being pressed to succinctly define who the user is for this service, and what is the value proposition for the bloggers who are the stated channel. The most valuable selling proposition for this service still needs to be defined and validated. Mark Hernandez pitched his business, After COOL Fitness . I liked this business idea, there is clearly a need to fill in as physical education and recreation programs are being cut from school budgets. Currently they are paid by grants and parents. When I learned of the lopsided ownership structure of the business, I felt Mark’s main priority should be to rework the capital structure of the business while continuing to organically grow the business regionally. The roundtables are the cornerstone programming of a global initiative that I have started called One Million by One Million ( 1M/1M ). Its mission is to help a million entrepreneurs globally to reach $1 million in revenue and beyond, build $1 trillion in sustainable global GDP, and create 10 million jobs. In 1M/1M, I teach the EJ Methodology which is based on my Entrepreneur Journeys research, and emphasize bootstrapping, idea validation, and crisp positioning as some of the core principles of building strong fundamentals in early stage ventures. You can find the recording of this roundtable session here . Recordings of previous roundtables are all available here . You can register for the next roundtable here . Photo by Laurent Cottier . Discuss