Hello World - The First Post

About | 2006/04/20 13:34
I'm starting this blog to help the Web 2.0 innovations taking place in Asia get better known to the rest of the world.

(Please, no term debate here --  the word Web 2.0 throughout this blog roughly means an innovative, next generation web. That's it.)

What motivated me to begin this blog was the dinner we had after the Next Generation Web conference of Korea in March 2006. (Oliver Starr's article about the conference here.) The program committee (of which I was a member) got together to review the conference in general; Soon the discussion centered around the question, why can't Asia lead the Web 2.0 innovation, or at least get on par with the Web 2.0 ventures in the Valley?

After all, Korea, for one, boasts the highest household penetration of broadband internet in the world; Successful web companies abound; Mobile internet infrastructure in Asia has always been phenomenal.

An interesting observation: a blog of a young Asian girl -- not a pop singer or a movie star, but seemingly just an everyday girl -- ranks higher than Robert Scoble's Scoblizer on the Technorati Top 100 blog list.

So why don't we see so many Asian Web 2.0 companies being TechCrunched ?

I think one of the reasons has been the lack of efforts to bring the Asian Web 2.0 innovations to the attention of the rest of the world. Less effort to get these companies known, less attention to Asian Web 2.0 industry, less venture money flowing in, less number of startups, and so on.

So I thought maybe more people based here in Asia should step up and start talking about the Web innovations across Asia -- hence this blog.

Just a little bit about myself: I am a Web/mobile professional who has contributed 100+ IT articles to various media, most notably Sky Venture. I also have a gig at a company that tends more to deliberate not obliterate.

I'll be first looking at Korean Web 2.0 companies, with many of whom I have professional and/or personal ties. I will always welcome contributions from outside. Whenever you are interested, send me an email at chang1.kim at gmail dot com.

To view a more resume-ish profile of me, click below.

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