Been a bit too busy to blog on the recently completed American Chamber of Comerce (AmCham) event in Beijing on China's digital universe. I am somewhat glad I waited as so much good stuff has already been written on it that I can get away with mostly just pulling and summarizing.
AmCham's brand new blog, the AmCham Daily, had this to say about the event:
Matt Roberts of About.com moderated the first panel - Decoding China’s Internet Scene - and asked what trends will shape the Internet in China. Siliconhutong.com’s David Wolf, CEO of Wolf Group Asia, cited growing access to wireless and the ensuing mobility this provides as the guiding trend for the next five to ten years. Andrew Lih, a new media academic who is authoring a book about online collaboration, stressed the importance of avoiding situations where content might get your site shut down. “Anyone who can stay ahead of ICP issues will win out in the end,” he said. Micah Truman, CEO of Wanmo Performance Advertising, said e-commerce is the trend to watch: “It’s about to go absolutely nuts.”
Jeremy Goldkorn of The Standards Group and danwei.org moderated the second panel on the business of blogging, kicking off the discussion by asking the speakers why they blog.
On the risks involved in blogging, Will Moss of PR site imagethief.com said he worries about offending current and potential clients, even though he never writes about the former. Despite this, he said the benefits of blogging - an increased profile and potential to attract clients - outweighed the risks. Chinalawblog.com’s Dan Harris, founding member of law firm Harris & Moure, answered that his company is small enough that even if his blog offended half the world, there would still be another half full of potential clients. “The greatest risk is to my marriage because I spend so much time online,” he joked.
David Wolf from Silicon Hutong had this to say about the event, within minutes after its conclusion:
Just got of the dais from my panel at the AmCham-China "Under the Digital Influence 2007." The discussions so far have been superb.
What do I mean by that? I mean that this is one of those rare occasions where I have - without exception - learned something useful and valuable from every one of my fellow panelists.
Matt Roberts - Matt moderated, but his preparation, his selection of questions, and the fact that he sneaked his questions to us beforehand made our discussion livelier and better.
Micah Truman - eCommerce is coming back, and it's coming back HUGE.
Andrew Lih - The tools the Chinese government uses to block certain websites are getting stronger, more robust, and more precise. In one sense, that's disturbing, but in another sense - the precision sense - it is actually a good thing.
Jeremy Goldkorn - Moderated. Ask risky questions, even weird ones. You'll be happier with the answers. Jeremy likes asking the tough questions - of all people, including his friends, and it brings out the best in a group of smart people.
Dan Harris - Comments that add value are fine, but your dedication to free speech cannot overwhelm the value of editing stupid, ad homenim, or irrelevant attacks from your site.
Will Moss - Will finds what I do: the opportunity to build chemistry with potential clients outweighs the danger of chasing potential business away. Also - companies don't blog, people do.
China Expat had this to say about the event:
Yesterday’s AmCham event ‘Under the Digital Influence’ gave an excellent overview of the internet scene in China. There were two panels, the first entitled “Decoding China's Internet Scene” and the second “The Business of Blogging.” Panelists consisted of a virtual who’s who of the China internet world (I’m inclined to say ‘no pun intended’ but I haven’t decided whether it was yet). The discussion was pretty engaging, and it was one of those rare panel events where no one looked sleepy in the 3+ hours.
The first group gave a good amount of insight into a few topics, most interestingly the issue of firewalls/blocking of sites in China. The panelists (Sam Flemming, Andrew Lih, David Wolf and moderator Matt Roberts whose bios can be found here) talked about the apparent government process of deciding which sites to block. I say ‘apparent’ because officials do not comment on what sites are blocked or why. In contrast, other countries often provide lists of banned sites and reasons (pornography, political sensitivity etc).
Another interesting exchange was about the development of web 2.0 (social communities like Facebook etc) in China. The panelists generally agreed that there has not been enough local innovation here despite the wealth of technology talent. Many times Chinese simply adapt foreign favorites, even for sites with basic function like search engine Baidu (which is practically a replication of Google). Andrew Lih even claimed that at one point users in China trying to get to Google were literally redirected to Baidu, something which I had never heard, but somehow find easy to believe.
IP lawyer extraordinaire Stan Abrams over at China Hearsay enjoyed the first panel so much, he discussed C to C commerce in the cab leaving the conference. He then remarked on what a geek this made him and I concurred until I realized I was in that cab and a part of the conversation!
Within the first five minutes of the commencement of the first panel, I knew I was going to enjoy it. All of the panelists so clearly knew whereof they spoke and Roberts so clearly knew the questions to be asked. By the time it concluded, I had written down six questions I wanted to ask, but discretion limited me to two. I tasked CLB co-blogger Steve Dickinson with taking notes and at the conclusion of the first panel he admitted he had been too wrapped up in it to take notes.
As for my panel, I will simply state that I learned tons from my co-panelists and was hugely impressed by Jeremy Goldkorn's fabulous handling of our group. I truly feel honored to have been able to participate in a panel with such thoughtful and gracious people.
Jim Boyce of AmCham deserves massive kudos for putting together such a great event and for his hospitality, both before the event and after. Jim is a great guy and he is seeking to be one of the foreign torchbearers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He would be a great representative of China's expat community and I urge you to go here and vote for Jim.