radical candour from a deep generalist
I am not a huge zuck fan but I admire and respect what he has built. Now throw in that he has learned some Chinese but more importantly he was willing to conduct a public interview in Chinese. Huge respect – anyone who says otherwise is just stupid. How many famous non Chinese CEO’s would even attempt this? Hardly any.
Huge props.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/23/zuckerberg-speaks-chinese-internet-soils-itself/
I don’t follow this much but this is such a fun read…
This is what I love about twitter. Real peeps willing to say real things.
Here we have Bernard kicking it off and then Chirstian, Hian and myself all jump into the deep end of the pool.
This storify link I made from tweetbot might be the best :: https://storify.com/dreampipe/conversation-with-bleongcw-dreampipe-hiangoh-and-c
Follow this link to see the whole thread on twitter :: https://twitter.com/bleongcw/status/524492894363611136
For the life of me I can’t find any easy way to enmbed the whole thread.
🙂
I love Ben’s work and find myself glued to his podcast as well – especially digging this episode on cable and the great unbundling :: Exponent: 021: Gamergate of Thrones
http://overca.st/Bihm6OYms
What I dig about Ben is his willingness to go out on a limb a bit with some provocative ideas. Discussing peak Google is for sure a bold claim.
However I must admit I tend to agree. They have one cash cow and in other parts of advertising – video, mobile, native and brand – they are not the clear winner. Search adversities will wane some day and they must follow up with another trick. I think Facebook will be the clear winner when it comes to mobile advertising but Twitter is also going to make a go of it, http://www.mopub.com/
Google is obviously working on a lot of stuff and some of it will hit and some won’t but the question remains – will they remain the giant they are today? I don’t know to be honest.
Peak Google :: http://stratechery.com/2014/peak-google/
I love Twitter but I must admit I only ever see it via tweetbot. At Spuul we have started to use Mopub and will be comparing it to the new Facebook ad product. I must admit that wherever possible in the ad space I try to use google as little as possible.
Now enter Twitter with something interesting around logging in. At Spuul we do a lot of telco integrations and we always enable some form of login via mobile phone number. Problem is that each integration is locked to that specific carrier and therefore not super portable.
If Twitter has truly built a handy global phone number based login system that I can just drop into a mobile app – I am intrigued.
Problem is, as we all know, Twitter has a habit of effing over developers but for my products I am not interested in Twitter integration but the other services they are offering like Digits and Mopub.
Times they are a changing and I may just go with the flow…
At Spuul we are always trying to solve video problems for emerging markets – something that most video folks are not working on. Even the video infrastructure guys tend to focus on developed countries and good networks. We focus on developing countries and shitty networks. That being said we always have said streaming kind of sucks unless you are on a killer connection and don’t mind paying for data. However a lot of people are not on killer connections and can’t afford the data charges. Enter download – something that sounds old school and usually the realm of piracy but we think if done right it is more convenient and more secure than streaming anyway. We also know that customers love it.
It’s pretty simple. Find a video – download it. Choose your size. Watch it as it downloads. When finished go offline to view it.
Boom.
http://blog.spuul.com/2014/10/our-new-android-release/
Much more to come!
Looks like I spoke too soon – maybe another deal going down already – http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/sources-yahoo-in-talks-to-buy-video-ad-platform-brightroll-for-around-700m/
Some of you may or may not follow all the companies in the “video” space but since I am in the space I can’t stop watching. Lately though the pace of acquisitions has been hectic. Couple this with all the announcements these past few weeks about all the content guys getting into launching their own OTT services and you can see that their is a land grab going on. I won’t list all the players but yesterday I was having a meeting with Brightcove and talking to a senior Zencoder employee about the space and the consolidation. Zencoder was a yCombinator company that was bought by Brightcove so they kicked off some of this activity.
Liverail bought by Facebook – this was the other big ad player in the region so now we have Videoplaza being bought by Ooyala :: http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/20/ooyala-buys-euro-video-ad-startup-videoplaza-in-its-first-acquisition/ . Ooyala was just recently bought by Telstra.
Viki was bought by Rakuten which kicked off activity in this region.
Dramafever was just picked up by Softbank. Their big competitor Crunchyroll was picked up The Chernin Group.
The list goes on and on but the more this pace quickens the more I realize there are not that many independent players left to work with in the space which means the products we all use to build video based sites are shrinking pretty rapidly. This is partially the reason why at Spuul we try to roll a lot of our own kit – we never know anymore what product we are using if it will still be around.
Nutty times!
Say what you will but this is the battle of our times. Why do I feel that way? Cause I still believe the mobile phone or let’s say the handheld computer that is always on, always connected to the Internet and happens to be in our pockets that is able to make and receive calls – is the biggest thing since sliced bread. It just is – bottom line.
There are still years to go for this global phenomenon to play out. Years.
That being said, even if you do not agree, it means that the biggest two companies in the world who control this ecosystem are Apple and Google.
You can click the Google or Apple categories on my blog to see what I have written before. I am not a fanboy. I am a realist. I started with Android and moved to Apple. As a startup wanting to dominate the world – I am fluent in managing teams shipping both Apple and Android apps. I won’t get into which app to build first or which platform is bigger or better – if you expect global domination then you have to ship Apple and Android apps. Period.
I won’t lie – there are reasons to like one platform over another but lately I have to admit that Google is pulling ahead. Not in hardware, software but in other places – sheer scale, better app store tools and in relationship building.
Knowing people is a big thing – it trumps developer docs, forums and conferences. I do my best to network and I think it’s important to reach out to folks you know when you need some help. Knowing people is a huge asset.
Do I know anyone in Apple for SEA region? No – only one developer contact who doesn’t respond to me much. Do I know anyone in Google SEA? Yes – many. Did I hunt them down? No – they hunted me down.
It started with someone from Adx and then grew into other connections from various departments and groups. Then it was over to some Android folks and then it is suddenly a meeting with four Android folks from around the region. Yes – they called me.
They updated me on the latest Android news, talked through some issues we had and gave us some guidance with our Google strategies. Was it groundbreaking or earth shattering? No – but is was helpful, meaningful and personal.
Does it make my team and I feel closer to Google? Yes. Do I feel even farther away from Apple as a result? Yes.
Apple seriously needs to step up their game. The OS’s are buggy, the developer support is weak and the App Store needs a redo.
Am I still a big fan! I am. But for the first time ever – I am starting to think Apple is spreading themselves way too thin.
Given their huge profit margins – I find this slightly appalling.
I tend to agree with this post – Facebook is building killer tools, has all the data on users, bought liverail and is offering big incentives to get publishers like Spuul on board.
On my last trip to LA I stopped by here to check it out and say hey to my friend Cody who runs it. Was a fantastic space with lots of cool equipment, meeting rooms and with the mentors being a bunch of seasoned Disney execs and their friends.
A serious recipe for success since the chosen startups gets access to Disney trademarked characters and lots of connections into all sorts of Disney products/experiences. Not to mention the whole tech stars angle.
The other thing I noticed is that many of the startups were not new startups but actually some that have been around but who have chosen to try the accelerator program as a way of branching out into a new region and product space.
Will be cool to see what comes of this model.
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