Talk given at the University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business. Its purpose was to challenge some preconceptions around innovation with examples from the Asian tech scene. This talk was given twice the same day thanks to the invitation from a Professor after the first session. It includes 4 questions as an "orientation test".

1. Rethinking Innovation
Benjamin Joffe | CEO, Plus Eight Star
Haas School of Business, Berkeley | 2009.11

2. Plan
1. Introduction
2. Orientation
– Definition
– Why foreign companies fail in Asia
– Why Asian companies fail overseas
3. Background on Innovation
1. Misleading appearance
2. Techno-Darwinism
3. Innovation catalysts
4. 5Cs of Innovation
5. Innovations in web & mobile
4. Q&A

3. Introduction

4. Benjamin Joffe
本杰明
ベンジャミン
벤자민

6. 4 years
1 year
4 years

7. Consulting | Startups | Community

8. | Plus Eight Star
• “Innovation Arbitrage”
• Internet & Mobile Digital strategy
• Best practices from China, Japan & Korea
• Published reports
• Inside Cyworld (2007)
• Inside Tencent (2009)
• Inside Alibaba (upcoming)
• Contact
• www.plus8star.com

9. References
EUROPE USA
ASIA

10. Work With Startups: Newt Games
• Mobile SNS in 2003 in Japan
– 3G
– GPS
– Avatars
– Virtual goods and AI!
• Too early!

12. Work With Startups: Cmune
• Making the 3D Web happen
– fbFund winner
– First 3D FPS game on Facebook
– #1 Widget on Apple.com
– Virtual Goods
• Check it out!
– www.cmune.com

13. Most Advanced 3D Game on Facebook
Paradise Paintball by Cmune
http://apps.facebook.com/paradisepaintball/
Disclosure: I am an investor & partner of Cmune

14. Mobile Monday Beijing
31 events
111 speakers
3,500 members
1,500 companies

15. Orientation Test

16. Question #1
Define “Innovation”

17. Definitions
Entrepreneur
Inventor (Business)
Idea (Prototype)
(e.g. Chocolate + Hemp)

18. Question #2
Google is the world’s largest search engine.
Its market share is 1.5% in Korea. Explain.
(here)

19. Question #3
Why Did Japanese Handset Makers Fail Overseas?
(Where are Sharp, Panasonic, Fujitsu, NEC, Sanyo, Mitsubishi…?)

20. Background on Innovation

21. 1. Misleading Appearance
Aggressive?

22. Simplification vs. Understanding

23. The Appearance
• Naver = “Google of Korea”?
• Rakuten = “Amazon of Japan”?
• Tencent = “Facebook of China”?

24. The Reality
• No real equivalent
• Powerful ideas get overlooked
• Virtual goods since 10 years ago
• Market 7 times USA
• More concepts not yet ported

28. 2. Techno-Darwinism

29. Charles Darwin
“The Origin of Species”
(1859)

30. Voyage of “The Beagle”

32. “Diverging” from common ancestors

33. 150 years later…

34. IT Infrastructure
100%
Avg. 7 Mbps
80%
Avg. 15 Mbps
60%
3G users
40% C
hi
n
20% a Avg. 4 Mbps
www.plus8star.com
0%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
% of Internet connections measured above 5Mbps
(Source: Akamai, 4Q08)

35. Alexa Ranking
USA China Japan Korea
#1 Google Baidu Yahoo JP / SB Naver
#2 Yahoo Tencent FC2 Yahoo
#3 Facebook Sina Google JP Daum
#4 YouTube Google China YouTube YouTube
#5 MySpace Taobao Rakuten Google
#6 MSN Netease Livedoor Cyworld
#7 Live Google Ameblo Nate
#8 Wikipedia Sohu Mixi Google KR
#9 Craigslist Youku Wikipedia Live
#10 eBay Yahoo Goo Facebook

36. “Japan’s cellphones are like the
endemic species that Darwin
encountered on the Galápagos
Islands — fantastically evolved
and divergent from their
mainland cousins”
Takeshi Natsuno
Inventor of i-mode

37. Internet Mobile
1.3 billion 3.3 billion
Source: Morgan Stanley, 2007

38. Digital Population
Country USA China Japan Korea
Population 300 mln 1,300 mln 130 mln 50 mln
Internet users 225 mln 340 mln 100 mln 35 mln
Mobile users 260 mln 650 mln 100 mln 45 mln
x5
Total x2
x3

39. Why did those countries diverge?

40. 3. Innovation Catalysts

41. What do you think?

42. Key Catalysts
• IT infrastructure
• Market potential
• Talent
• Capital

43. On a smaller scale?

44. 4. The 5Cs of Innovation

45. 5Cs of Innovation
1. Copy
2. Competition
3. Constraints
4. Combination
5. China

46. 1. Copy
Entry barriers
Technology?
Capital?
Talent?
Intellectual Property?
Censorship?

47. 2. Combination
Will it blend?
Tencent
(US$1bln)

48. 3. Competition
What happens with
4 Facebook
20 YouTube
10 MySpace
5 Match.com
3 Yahoo
4 Twitter
?

49. 4. Constraints
Low GDP/capita
Limited advertising
No credit cards
No legacy industry

50. 5. China
Scale / Geography / Demography
make some services viable

51. 1. Some Asian species
are fit for global markets
2. Learn from them to evolve
successfully

52. Question #4
When was it invented?

53. Europe
Gutemberg | ~1450
Korea
Metal | ~1230
China
Wooden | ~1040

54. Who came first?

56. The Arbitrage Opportunity
1. Identify
2. Analyze
3. Leverage

57. 5. Some Examples

59. Looking more closely
Zhenai.com vs. Match.com
• “On the shoulders of giants”
– Started as Match.com
– Raised capital
– Business model issue
• “Each new user costs us
money!”
• Develop new model
– 350 people call center
– VIP service
– Metrics & analysis

60. Questions?

61. Thanks!
More about “Innovation Arbitrage”
www.plus8star.com
benjamin@plus8star.com
+81 | Japan
benjamin0123 +82 | Korea
+86 | China
http://twitter.com/plus8star
Telecom & Internet
www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminjoffe + Added Value
* High quality
www.slideshare.net/plus8star