Random Musings

if you really dont get it – then read this.

interesting news from my friends at Daum. with the expiration of current-ceo Seok Jong-Hoon, the board has announced the appointment of their CFO into the CEO position. what does it mean when a web company places a CFO in the top dog position? is it a sign of maturity or weakness? daum has had an uphill battle against #1 ranked Naver, which accounts for the lionshare of search in korea, and has been actively exploring web 2.0 trends. over the past year, i have had the privilege of sitting down to dinner with outgoing ceo mr. seok during his last two visits in the US. on each occasion, i found him to be an intellectually curious and open minded executive who was carefully watching online trends. he communicated genuine interest in embracing user involvement in product, as evidenced by his push for more UCC-focused development.

i hope incoming-ceo Choi Sae-hoon exhibits a similar curiosity and passion about his products as Seok Jong-Hoon did and does not focus so much on revenue that it undermines the product and community. i am not against the idea of a CFO leading a tech company as i have seen a few other examples of CFOs successfully taking the helm, but more often that not, the CFO in question was a major tech geek from the start. so maybe we just need to find out, how much does mr. choi love his gadgets?

best of luck to the daum team and to Seok Jong-Hoon and Choi Sae-hoon!

First, congrats to Chester and Chang and the entire TNC/Textcube team!

Secondly, congrats to Google Korea for making such a smart buy.

Chang announced the acquisition of TNC by Google Korea today on his blog. When I was in Seoul in March, both Chester and Chang demoed their product for me and all I kept saying was, “Wow, this is better than Wordpress!” which is the blogging platform I use here on this blog.  I even wrote up a short piece about it here and told by buddy Om to check it out.

I am not sure if Google will roll it out internationally, but I can say it is a first-rate platform that can hold its own against Moveable Type and Wordpress.   Also, I think this bodes very well for the Korean startup market.  In many ways, innovation in the Korean start-up market has been stifled because of the lack of good exit opportunities and the dominance of Naver and Daum.  This move by Google will not only attract the attention of other international tech and media companies to the innovative work in Korea, but it will hopefully encourage a new generation of entreprenuerial coders in Korea who thusfar think that working at Naver is the best thing for their careers.

Congrats guys!

My friends in Korea are doing an amazing job putting together the first pan-Asia web conference – Open Web Asia ‘08.  The speaker list looks great. The timing is perfect as many US web companies are clamoring to get into Asia and as Asian web companies are starting to eye the US market.

If you plan on being around Asia in October, I would say this is a must attend event.   Also, side note on the location – there is a casino there for you gambling VC types;)

finally! someone writes a good post about social networks in asia (tho i do have to say, I think qq is more an IM client, even tho it is an IM client on crack).

as i have been discussing the future of soompi and the potential for growth in the asian market with a lot of really smart people in the valley, i have been amazed with how little people know about the largest internet market in the world! social network services in asia are for the most part profitable. that, in and of itself, is a phenomenon worth studying.  also, is virality a cultural by-product there? or is a result of product development? these are all questions that could have major impact on how we do business here.

well, go read the post – its got some great insight. in the meantime, i will keep doing my research on the matter:)