Half of everything is not here
Om Malik has a nice bit on the NYT article on MySpace.
Its the realization that there are a LOT of people who are not in the US or speak English.
I believe that International issues will creep up and supercede US based issues - within 4-5 years from now. Chinese and Indian companies will have as much influence and power as US based companies do now. And God forbid the Italians, Germans or Spanish get their act together.
Russia alone could transform the known world - and when all of these factors, cultures and technology bases interact and mix together - they’ll easily equal, if not overcome Hollywood and Silicon Valley.
All this is very clear if you spent anytime OUTSIDE of the US lately and met and talked to some of these technologists. That’s why we’re starting BBM India and getting our footholds in China and Korea (and back in Japan - after being away for 10 years.)
BTW I get to meet Jamie Kantrowitz from MySpace Europe - as we’re both speaking at the eTribes mashup - May 2nd - at the Commonwealth Club.
April 24th, 2006 at 9:28 am
This is a very important message. And there’s another one. “Half of everything is not in English.”
It’s interesting the way that Google colours one’s view of the web. It’s very good at showing English language results to English language speakers. Which might make one think that that is all there is.
April 24th, 2006 at 11:16 am
really,,, half of everything is the “other half”
April 24th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
For SNS providers who have created a platform which goes beyond basic text based communication, international expansion should be a no-brainer strategy. Especially for providers like MySpace which are associated with content owners. Music, video (perhaps integrated with a service like dotSUB which would allow users (with the rights holders’ permission) to subtitle works), photographs, all would seem to be candidate content which seeds community interaction and binds communities together through shared interests.
Given that Europe and East Asia have communications infrastructure equivalent to if not exceeding what is available in the US, content delivery based models are easily transferrable. Japan’s SNS user numbers are still small (about 7M total, 3M for the largest single site), and with limited functionality. If MySpace can figure out the peculiarities of the local market and gain recognition, I think they are in with a good chance. (although I don’t think the locals will be sitting back and just watching)
Much of the web remains localised in single language domains. Given the limitations of machine translation, large scale interactions between users who do not share a common language may not be here too soon, but non-text based content already proliferates beyond national and lingustic boundaries. Witness the dynamic of Japanese-Korean-Chinese-Taiwanese popular artists and their overseas fan base. (The popularity of western (mostly US) artists goes without saying)
The ability to design platforms which are capable of handling the mix of shared and locally distinct data would seem to be a key advantage, and I don’t see many players yet who have shown that they have the ability to execute. If it happens anywhere, I am betting it will be Europe first, due to the numbers of highly bi/multi-lingual people at the cutting edge of IT or business model innovation. Contrast this with Japan for example, where the (very) few truly bilingual people are mostly found in investment banks and large multinationals and aren’t frequently seen in such areas.
April 26th, 2006 at 1:33 am
Julian, Google often shows results in a mix of native languages. Maybe you have a preference set to Only Show English Results?
Marc, remind me to introduce you to my friend Xin Chung. He’s a Chinese American working on some cross-border tech stuff, might be some good networking for you.
June 17th, 2006 at 11:12 am
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