Impression by HP

I remember I first learned HP during the job just after graduating from the college. HP has been the system provider for my company, and the HP salesmen all looks very professional. To me, HP is the image of a man in the suit everyday, looking serious and professional.

However, I've learned the other side of HP these days. HP is sponsoring a case competition on its gaiming unit, a very innovative business enjoying high growth in the high-performing PC business. It's amazing by talking to the head of the gaming unitto see how innovative the unit is, and how advanced technology HP labs have now.

Brand is hard to set up sometimes, but for a big company, brand is sometimes a burden for the new business. For companines such as HP who experience high growth in the past ten years, how to find a new profit resource is very difficult, both internal and external.

What are the current thoughts of VC in Silicon Valley?

Silicon Valley is a place with all types of idea. Entrepreneurs think actively every day and so do the venture capitalists. Warren Packard, a Stanford MBA graduate, said in a forum on Saturday that he is looking beyond the VC industry into 2017. What will happen in ten years? He used a biology model, Biovisions, to tell his vision. (video could be reached here) Biovisions shows how the cell evolves itself via partnering, spliting, searching and diversifying. It's hard to connect VC with the inner life of cell. But I couldn't help thinking the relationship between the society and the cell. Isn't that we are also doing the same things as the cell?

Could monopoly live in a new era?

Before I met the SVP from Fox Media, the company only sounded like Fox News to me. But that's not true. Fox Media covers far more than Fox News. Fox Media has broadcasting branch, producing popular TV series such as Simpsons and 24. It also has sports channel reporting on NFL and MLB. It also has news/business branch, Film&Entertainment, Interactive media, Fox Mobile, Publishing, Dow Jones, and so on. Such a big group, I would say, covering from TV, radio, print, publishing to the Internet/Mobile.

I always wonder if a big media monopoly could produce any synergy between its different channels. People may argue it will be more content-efficiency, but my concern is the internal competition. If you could watch "24" online, (clearly and smoothly), will you still watch TV. If you could read the latest news on your mobile, will you read it again on the website? Readers are changing their appetite fast. Could a monopoly catch up with their speed? an open question.

DreamWorks, dream work?

Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the most successful figures in the animation industry and the CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG, said this in his presentation today, after showing his latest Bee movie.

"We are just trying to get close to what people believe in, instead of being realistic".

The producer of the popular movie Shrek, is calm with the sense of humor. His vision towards the movie industry, especially the animation sector, will still lead the world in the possible ten years.

"I believe in the movie theatre experience, along with the improved home experience", said the CEO. "The quality 3D experience" has a big future.

Listening to the icon in the entertainment industry is an enjoyful experience. His spirit towards the industry is very impressive.

"I always believe in me, and I hate saying no to others and vice versa". He said.

In the competitive entertainment industry, people have to be confidence, enterprenuerial, and pushing, just like this guy.

Maybe not only just in entertainment.

The bee said in the movie: "We are just bees, and honey is the only thing we got"

New media , old media, always a conflict between each other

A piece from Financial Times last week reported on News Corp's charges towards Google's not spending much more effort at preventing illgally copy video on Youtube. The interview with Peter Chernin, president of News Corp, said the Murdoch-controlled group is trying to promote its online space, Myspace, to be the world's largest social networking website, but sadly, has seen the market share taken by Facebook, though he said the Myspace is still better "in terms of measures such as time spent by users on the site and page views".

New Corp. is one of the active pioneers in the online space, from its appetite towards Internet start-up these years. However, I would say there will be always internal conflicts among all traditional media, and News Corp. is included as well. Investing in new media business, is more like grabbing market share from their exisiting business model on old media(printing, TV, radio), while old media people are reluctant to accept it. One case we discussed these days is on the electric cars, which were expected to be a new profit resource for car companies. However, producing electric cars itself means more than a new business, but the competitor to the old business. Even people know it is the future in the mind, it is hard to accept for them to move to the new direction themselves. So electric cars are killed by their inventors because of that conflict.

In such a media chaos now, new start-ups without no financial burden have more opportunites. Google, Yahoo, and Facebook all have better opportunities since they don't have to balance the revenue between old business and new business. So they are more creative with more time spending on generating ideas instead of trade-offs.

This is the opportunies for all enterprenuers.

bad things of new technology

I am not quite tech-gadget type. But I got a lot of new gadgets such as a IBM X41 tablet. It was the most advanced type when I bought it. However, I found there were only few matching accessories for this type, such as a compatiable dock. I bought a USB-connected DVD-RW(not IBM-branded) instead, and thought everything should be fine.

However, it turned out I have to have a dock to reinstall my operating system, instead of putting the restoring CD into the DVD player. So now I couldn't do anything myself. I could only send my laptop(which I couldn't live without one day) to IBM, and wait for at least a week to have them install for me.

I am quite a DIY(do-it-yourself) person. and I guess all the consumer producers should like me since I don't quite often use customer service. However, I would like to receive all the information and updates related with my products if there's any. For example, it will attract my attention if IBM/Lenove sent me updated dock information for my X41 tablet later. I may have probably bought it. Or I could just receive the info on how to set up a operating system without a dock.

Currently, people complaining how profit margin is so low in certain industries, such as computer sector. On the other hand, i would argue that companies paid a lot of attention to cut costs, rather than developing brand and consumer loyalty. As a result, they have seen less and less revenue, and finally failed in the market.

Especially for new technology, consumers want to try new things all the time, when they feel safe to buy. Now I feel very uncomfortable in buying every brand new products from IBM, since I learnt from my own experience that the deal like that will bring a lot of inconvenient to yourself. So better wait.

We have been talking about the successful business strategy these days. One thing we talked most is the customer-oriented service. Unfortunately, only a few of companies could achieve it and sustain it. Sometimes, it is easily to be said than to be done.

Blackberry vs iPhone

It's cool to buy an iphone in U.S., but I chose to be practical. A Blackberry pearl only costs less than US$100, while its email function is already enough for me. Several friends chose iPhone because of its stylish look. However, I believe blackberry has more operating experience than Apply on this area. (let me wait for another five years to buy the new-generation iphone after Apply gains more experience)

Speaking of blackberry's professional service, I would say one thing. I got annoyed one day after finding the web browser disappreared from my cellphone. I called the customer service twice, and tried every thing I could to solve it.(remember, I was once in the computer engineering major). But nothing works. So after the short discussion with the customer service tele person, I was connected to a techinical enginner based in east coast. It's already 7pm in my time zone, which means it's over 10pm in his time zone. He is very patient, and seems very confident on how to solve the problem. We have been talking on the phone for over one hour on how to set up new software(most of the time the line was holding during the setting up period). And the problem was solved finally. It is really interesting to see Blackberry has real enginneers to support individual users. More importantly, the service seems works 24 hours.

It reminds me of China's cell phone market. The service quality is hardly assured, while most of the companies only compete on the price. That strategy will not last longer, I firmly believe. The service is what people depend on, and the reason I chose blackberry.

Facebook course offered in Stanford

Believe it or not?? Stanford does have such a new course now, and sounds very interesting.

China's VoIP deal

FierceIP reported a piece on the VoIP deal between a Indiana firm and two Chinese companies. It will be interesting to see its future, and how the big telecom elephants are going to respond to this...

A telecom service and equipment firm based in Indianapolis has cut a deal to sell its VoIP service in China. InteleCom Solutions said it signed a letter of intent with two Chinese companies for sales and distribution.

Panda International and Shanghai NIU Telecom agreed to market InteleCom service and equipment in China. Together, the two Chinese telecoms comprise 372 million landlines, 508 mobile users and 170 Internet subscribers, InteleCom's chairman, John Roberts said. All 1.1 billion are potential VoIP customers, he said. (One research firm pegged the Chinese VoIP market at 144 million paying users in four years. China, in turn, is expected to turn out 35 million VoIP phones this year.)

InteleCom previously cut an equipment distribution deal with Sakal Group, the largest privately owned retail chain in Israel. That deal put 21,000 InteleCom VoIP phones in Sakal's 80 retail stores and 800 wholesale points-of-sale. InteleCom clearly has a plan for world VoIP domination through the clever use of alliances.

too risky to invest in China's digital TV stock

China Digital TV Holding is planning a listing in New York Stock Exchange. It's not a big company, from my research, though the name sounds big. I would say it's risky to invest in China's digital TV market now, especially in a digital TV card maker like China Digital TV, since the policy of standard and regulation hasn't really confirmed yet and it could be changed anytime. Even China Digital admits this in its SEC filing, saying that "its business will suffer if we do not respond effectively to technological or commercial changes in our industry."I believe the company wants to catch up as the first digital-concept stock in NYSE, but I would say better to be a little conserved before everything becomes less obscure.

P.S. I am moving to California now. I start to think if I should chang to another blog or change the blog name to Amy_in a crazy california or Crazy Amy in california. Let me know your good ideas.

Google and AP, good move

Google succeeded in bringing four news agnecies, AP, AFP, U.K. news agency the Press Association, and the Canandian press, as online partners. If you pay attention, you could find Google already categorized the content from four partners to links such as the ap.google.com, afp.google.com and ukpress.google.com. You couldn't open this link directly, but have to through the deeper links such as this AFP piece. I bet there is the commercial agreement to share the revenue, but it is a good way for those agencies to live and expand their audience pool. For people crticize Google's possible-violation of copyright protection, I would say they should find a way to develop along with the technology advance, instead of trying to kill the new tech in its infant age. As you may know, Russia was a typical loser during the Cold War when it forbidden people using phones. Not it takes time to catch up.

mobile TV and TV mobile

In China, people raised the arguments on the mobile TV till so far. Should mobile TV/TV mobile be defined as new media or just the new application on the mobile network? Many experts raised their argument base: someone said content is the most important for the new stuff, just like content does to TV, so better be mobile TV; while someone else said the transmission telecom network is so vital that it is only a new technology developed from the mobile base.

I would say it is both. it will carry the content of course, and it is also part of the mobile service. However, behind all the arguments, the basic question is the power fight between the two regulatory departments, Ministry of Information Industry(MII) regulating telecom companies and the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT).With the merging of the industries regulated by the two regulators, the conflicts has increased a lot, from the Internet shown on TV, to the TV shown on the mobile. The two departments not only has diffferent opinion on how to regulate the new services, but also support different technical standards. For example, the SARFT proposed a new standard, named China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting, using the STiMi standard, and annouced to use it during the Beijing Olympics 2008; however, the stanford is not very accepted by the MII and the mobile carriers.

The deeper side is also on the two regulators' industry. MII, as one of the nation's pinoeers, has encouraged the competition between telecom carriers and the overseas listing of the four largest telecom companies. The telecom industry created the revenue of over 600 billion yuan last year, almost 7 times of the revenue created by the media industry (regulated by SARFT) with only 88.9 billion yuan. It is understandable that the SARFT may feel a little envy towards the peer. But they should learn more from the peer instead of just trying to grab from MII. Taking a look at the SARFT, it is easily found the pieces containing keywords such as "forbidden", "stop","warning". In fact, the development of an industry should be depend on the regulator's positive attitude, while "forbidden" is definitely not the right word.

We have seen the fast development of Chinese mobile carriers and their must improved customer services. ( if you tried 10086, the customer service line of China Mobile). But then people are still complaing the higher and higher charge of cable fees but still bad customer service of cable companies(usually just TV stations). If customers are satisfied, they will pay more, and in reverse, they will not pay when they could be satisfied. so either mobile TV or TV mobile, who could provide a better service, who will win.

Should Hang Seng index always follow U.S. market?

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index always follows U.S. market, a very easy way for traders to judge its daily up and down. So did today. Now the problem is not only on how the suprime mortgage problem will be solved, but on if the investors' confidence will be rebuilt. The mortgage crisis should just directly affect property and banking stocks. However, funds have been selling out their portfolios because of large amount of redeeming, which as a result leading to the stock falling down in all sectors.

Are investors in Hong Kong too nervous now? I believe so. The market, with over half of the market value from mainland firms, is not the same as the U.S. market. For example, housing and related industry generates over one quarter of U.S.' GDP, while China is still dominated by the prosperous manufacturing industry. Also, the liquidity is totally different: U.S. and European banks have to ask capital injection from central banks, while Chinese banks have enough cash and deposits on hand to meet the loan demand. Just saw one piece quoted Yi Xianrong, a Chinese academic, saying China is even worse than U.S., while I really don't think so. China's personal loan market is still developing very fast from infant, compared to a mature market like U.S. . So Hong Kong investors and traders should realize this huge difference, and react differently. If Hong Kong really wants to build itself as an international finance center, it should always have its own stand. Stock market is one example.

Gmail's keyword ads

Do you often click on Google's Ads when you using your email?

I don't, and never did. I may do it when I use the search engine since it is something I want to know. But for email, I seldom take a look at the ads link on the right since it is not my priority to know more.

Yesterday, found something interesting. I typed something in the sequence of ABC, but then saw accidentally the ads on the rights including some company named in the sequency of ACB. Oh, if that's the truth, then it has nothing to do with my email content. Then I guess who is going to click that.

To me, the ads integrated in the searching engine is something really smart, since that will help boost match between info searchers and advertisers. But for ads inside the email, I still doube the profitability. People writing the email are not in the intention to find something. Then why bother clicking into it?

It's just a deal

When we say Murdoch's deal of Dow Jone, many people just consider it as a bad thing. Here I got someone saying Don't be afraid of Murdoch on NYTimes. In fact, every newsroom gets controlled in some way. It's not Murdoch who set an example of this. Reporters are always the lowest class in the newsroom. So I would not say it is Murdoch's fault for reporters to lose their freedom and independence, it just depends on the boss of the newsroom. All the people get judgement, and it is not a surprise when you meet someone.

So there must be some way to work it out to a more independent and fair news world in this new media era.

Could Jimmy Wales compete with Google?

Seems Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, finally said and did something official against Google. From the starting of Wiki, I could smell the competition against Google since Wiki is a place where people could search definite answer instead of going to good for infinite results. The article in the above link compared Jimmy Wales vs Google with Linux vs Windows. Hmmm, personally, I don't think it is quite right since we still see an innovative Google which has more edge in the research more than monopoly. But it will never hurt to have more search engines, especially professional and vertical ones. I once had the opportunity to talk to Jimmy in Hong Kong, of course, as a big fan. He is very smart, a former hedge fund manager now dedicated to Internet. So I will not doubt his ability to do something outstanding. Let's see.

It's good to see the strategy change for China Mobile

First, I didn't know if it is true or not that China Mobile is behind U.K. private equity group Terra Firma on buying the music company EMI. But at least, it shows that China Mobile is having some new thoughts on buying into the content side, instead of the old thoughts of only buying mobile carriers. That's a good thing for the mobile conglomarate, holding at least 10 billion U.S. dollars in hand, to start thinking the expansion out of mobile network.

I have argued for long that China Mobile will not have the same high profit margin as it used to be on voice usage. The central government has been pressing it to lower the calling fee, cancel the called fee and reduce the profitable roaming fee. So what will be the next profit source for China Mobile, as well as the next big good news to the stock market? Of course, it will be good to see the giant turning itself into a content producer who will connect its wide network to distribute the content. Since China Mobile doesn't own any celebrity now, it is perfect to buy a music company owning a lot of celebrities and music copyrights. We may soon expect China Mobile to stop using celebrity from other companies, and instead, using the one from EMI. (at least saving some costs)

Financing Terra Firma, a private equity, will be a smart decision since Terra knew EMI with the same country origine, and it is already a familiar idea to Chinese regulator after the country's foreign reserve firm buying into Blackstone, a U.S. private equity.

But the problem beyond this is if China Mobile is able to handle an international company since it hasn't run any worldwide business before. Also, music business is very different from the monopoly mobile business. China Mobile needs more talents to support this strategy advance.

But all in all, we expect a smooth and enjoyable music downloading process when using China mobile service.

Another Disney is needed in China

Sorry for not posting frequently these days. A friend was visiting Hong Kong last days and I am her full tour guide.

Hong Kong Disneyland is one of the must-to-visit for many mainland tourists, including my friend. Frankly speaking, you couldn't expect much in a hot summer like these days. More terrible, it is a summer holiday season for many kids who do like Mickey and Minnie. Though the world's smallest Disney theme park, it is tidy, cute and fun. The size is not a problem, but the cultural differences are more important. Most of the staffs are Hong Kong native of course, and they could speak definitely good Cantonese and English. Mandarin, to them, is not strange, but definitely not as good as their mother tongue. Especially, the programs are very different from the one we grew up since the childhood. The cartoon Donald Duck looks similar, but we are more familiar with the Chinese voice of Li Yang, instead of the English one or Cantonese one. Especially, for some interactive program, languages become a huge problem and I don't think my friend, who couldn't understand Cantonese, could enjoy the program as it is supposed to be. I remember I went to another theme park in Shenzhen, where my friends and I could enjoy the conversation from staffs and learn the culture from the Mandarin tour guide. But in Disney, I feel nothing.

So maybe there should be another Disney in Mandarin version if Warner Brother really wants to expand in China. At least it will help Mandarin-speaking people understand more, and reduce the language load of Hong Kong Disneyland.

Do you need a video resume?

How many times you have sent your word or pdf resume to the potential employers? Now you have another tool, making a video resume.

Yahoo put it as the headline today and it sounds very interesting. The video resume, created by the website workblast.com, in fact will show a much more vivid way of the applicants, instead of several lines of your past working experiences and education. Now, you have the chance to speak for yourself, not just write for yourself.

But will employers want to use this to sort out thousands of application? probably not. Employers tell the right candidates(at least the one who will pass the first round interview) by a five-second look through on the paper resume, not a ten-minute video watching on each one.

So my suggestion is that employers could use video resume for the second-round interview before meeting the candidates in person. It will save the effort to judge if the candidates have the fluent speaking ability, and in some extent, their character.

Anyway, fun to make a video resume now, especially if you want to apply a job to some online video companies:)

Will this be the trend?

Just found an very interesting new media project named Assignment Zero started by a vetaran journalism professor Jay Rosen and Wired News. The inniative is to allow citizen and non-trained journalists to contibute their stories, non 100 percent perfect, and the professionals to be responsbile in editting them. The former journalists will act more like an editor on the stories from various resources submitted by the grassroots. Take a look at the website, and it seems to be really easy to be a journalist. Have five minutes? Or five hours? Like to research, write, or conduct interviews? Do you have prior journalism experience or none at all? Any way you dice it, we can use your help.

I believe this is a good way to lead to good online journalism. Now we see too much rubbish content on the web now, and you have to stand it. If there will be someone to help them more clear and understandable, that would be great.

But the problem is that how to maintain the diversity of the content by raising their standards. Journalists usually have a certain way to write the stories, but the readers may want more, something funny, something simple and something easy. Could we achieve the quality and the diversity at the same time? That will be a question.