'web2.0'에 해당되는 글 2건
What does it mean that you are located in Asia and you offer global services?
(This post is cross-posted on Springnotes and also a re-writing of my previous post on Springnote and the Asian wiki market.)
I understand there are many of you guys that are located in the Asia/Pan-Pacific region and that are aiming for global markets. I'd assume your primary language for the service offering is probably English.
So I'd love to hear from you guys: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being physically located in Asia and going global (or Western for that matter?)
I guess another question would be if a service like Springnote is offered in Chinese, what's the chance of that doubling the market?
Wikis on the rise in Asia
Springnote is based in Korea. It has multi-language offerings in
Korean, English, and Japanese. (We're planning to expand the language
set in the near future!)
A question that naturally follows is this: "Why Asia? Do you think
you can ever invade the invincible U.S. market while based in Korea?
Stop dreaming!" Well, let me walk you through one step at a time to
show what's really going on.
(click here for a larger view of the chart)
As a starter, needs for wikis are soaring higher than ever. If you
study the search trend on Google, as shown in the charge above, there
are far more queries for the word "wiki" than "blog ", i.e. Internet
users are willing to learn more about wikis than blogs.
However, what's even more surprising is that most of those queries
are indeed coming from many Asian and pan-Pacifc countries, such as
Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia. That means 1) we've got an
astonishingly fast growing market in wikis, and 2) the market belongs
to Asia. That seems to be a great business opportunity right there,
doesn't it?
For example, Springnote, the sole online wiki service in Asia,
gathers many users from around the world through its English and
Japanese service offerings. A great number of them indeed come from
China, Singapore, Japan, and Australia, in addition to many from the
U.S., U.K., Germany and Canada (We spotted an Swedish team today!)
Openmaru, the maker behind Springnote, is located in Seoul, Korea,
garnering a huge opportunity to explore the market here just by being
local, i.e. Asian. While it's a service aiming for global
presence, it's been so lucky to enjoy a success in Asia that could not
easily come with many companies from the West .
The Web 2.0 revolution didn't stop in the Silicon Valley. It's
spreading throughout the entire globe. Do you want to be global or
local? It's a very important question any business development people
should be asking themselves every single day. After all, the Internet
increasingly blurring the boundaries bewteen countries, or even
continents. :)
brought to you by
And I came across this article yesterday. A great read, I recommend this article for you all. I'm sure what's in the article is happening around many parts of the world. Some excerpts:
A social-networking environment gets students comfortable with a school well before freshman orientation, said Day. Prospective students can e-mail roommates, make friends and find out the best campus hangouts even before they accept admission.
Some universities use video downloads to introduce professors.
Apple's iTunes U--though met with skepticism among professors wary of freely distributing their valuable content--is a useful public relations tool, according to Rhonda Blackburn, assistant director at Texas A&M University. Professors have used it to post videos introducing themselves, their research and their classes.
Once students get to universities, the tools continue. Classes in which content is pushed out one way to students are becoming passe. Instead, instructors are beginning to distribute lecture content to encourage intellectual debate and research online--away from the classroom--and are using class time for more in-depth discussion.
Knauff said self-publishing tools are an enticing way to get college students to develop original thoughts as opposed to simply repeating what they think professors want to hear. Students are collectively creating glossaries and repositories for academic articles, audio files and videos.
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