Facebook should copy Weibo

Facebook should copy Sina Weibo mechanics for Facebook web or mobile.
Facebook today cool but Weibo mechanics is far better a social tool than what facebook have today. Twitteer to me is the past. If Facebook wants to skin Twitter alive, just copy and add Sina Weibo meachnaics and Twitter is a dead duck.

Unless Twitter see's the potential first and move now or it's game over very soon for Twitter if Mark Zuc see's it and act first.

Passion and Dedication to Success

Entreprenuers must have the "FIRE" or should I say the "Volcano Fire" passion and dedication to succeed. I would like to use the sentence "ATTAIN SUCCESS AT ALL COST" in China's highly competitive and ruthless business world. There is NO NUMBER TWO so you must only aim at being NUMBER ONE or be crushed. Just like the volcano lava it destroy anything that stands in its path.

The distance between the No.1 and No.2 is too far apart on the internet space.

While many entreprnuers do have huge passion and dedication it is often not enough to make the MEGA BIG SUCCESS in life. I have meet many entrepreneurs whom do have the fire but lacking enough depth to create THE NEXT BIG THING in life.

Hotels for Start-Up Entreprenuers

The photos above are not a joke. I m now in Busan, Korea attending the GSTAR game expo and this is the hotel I m staying in now - QUEENS MOTEL *potentially a sex motel haha ! The 3 of us all stayed here including the CEO of Say Design and my CTO *RC.

Face of a Billionaire

Andrew Mason owns 6.8% of Groupon. After it went public on the NASDAQ earlier today, Groupon is now worth approximately $18 billion.

That means Andrew Mason is, on paper worth about $1.13 billion. Look at the BIG SMILES on his face. Making a billion does makes one smile.

*NOTE: This should be the dream of every entreprenuer starting any start-up no matter where you are. So remember the smiles and picture you standing there instead of Andrew Mason.

THE CEO *Part Two

The 12 key requirements of being a CEO in China:

1.) Tech Savvy - he must know technology and programming.

2.) Street Smart - screw, cunning, ruthless and understands every trick of traits. You dont have to use it if you dont want too but not knowing about it the ... (*pray).

3.) Connections - the more the better if not the ability to find connections.

4.) Business Sense - an eye and foresight in business *being able to smell where the money is?

5.) Management Skills and Know-how - the capability to lead and manage from small to large teams.

6.) Acting and Communications Skills - yes you need to be able to act and perform a good show not just for your clients but also your employees.

7.) Strong Will to Succeed and Survive - there is a big difference between "Wanting to Succeed" and "Must Succeed". I like to call it getting success by all means.

8.) Experience and Seasoned - in China if you lack the needed experience you'll be eaten alive if you are unlucky to meet the tigers *your competitors.

9.) Ability to Pick and Recruit the Right People - well you cant be always right but you will need some form of "feel" just like gambling to increase the odds.

10.) Motivational Skills - while many knows how to manage a company they do not know how to motivate people.

11.) Sales and Money Oriented - without revenues how long can you still be CEO? So you will also need to know how to sell and really know to sell everything from the company to yourself and your products.

12.) Accounts and Finance Focus - balancing and making sure the bank is healthy is hard as a start-up company.

While not everyone may have all the above criteria it doesnt mean you cant be a CEO. I do not posses all of the above but you must have at minimum 2/3 of the above in order to survive as a start-up CEO in China. Then balance what you lack with partners that have your missing qualities.

STRICTLY TIPS FOR CHINA MARKET

Again I must stress that the tips I’m providing here are strictly based on the Chinese internet and online games space and are gathered from my experience in the market. While many of the tips can be applied to various different markets and businesses it is written based on what I experienced, see and gathered in China.

TIP 40: Rich and Successful Friends

It is really good to know rich and successful friends. Seeing and knowing how they attained success can inspired us and teach us certain formula to succeed in life. Surround yourself with successful friends always as success breeds success usually all the time.

A few years back I meet an interesting guy, he is from Harbin and when I meet him that year he told me he had just enrolled in an EMBA course which will take 18 to 24 months to complete. 6 months later we meet at the Taiwanese cafe again and I asked how is his EMBA ? He told me that he quit but he will rejoin the EMBA again in a few months time when they are starting a new class.

A year pass-by quickly and at a friend badminton event I meet him again and asked the same question, he told me that he joined the new EMBA class but quit after 2 months again but will rejoin when there is a new intake very soon. This time I ask him – the school actually allows you to quit and rejoin so often ? He replied “well its all about money isn’t it ?”

He then gave me a wicked smile which I then knew he had something up his sleeve. Chasing girls or looking for the ultimate rich and educated wife.

We meet many times for KTV always till suddenly he stopped KTV and a friend told me he was doing his EMBA and had less time for parties. 2 years later at a lunch gathering he was there giving out his new name card as COO of a soon to be listed Chinese company. I took his name card and I asked him did you finish your EMBA which I presume he did with flying colors not on the results of the EMBA but on the fact that he meet his target. His main reason for taking the EMBA course was to meet his future employer and this he did achieved. The reason he dropout was simply because he did not see there was any key targets in those classes that would his future employer.

I then recall my mentor told me about the “Havard Business School” strategy.

After IPO he gotten about RMB 20+ million and an EMBA certificate, not bad for a 4 years+ work.

TIP 37:Big businesses are discovered rather than begin with a brilliant idea

Almost all the greatest big business today on the internet are discovered by the founders rather than begin with a brilliant idea. I m a guy whom have a huge jar of ideas always ready especially when making money is concerned but as time goes I can to understand:

1. Business do change.
2. Ideas evolved.
3. Directions and positioning always are being altered.

Google didn’t begin as a brilliant vision, but as a project to improve library searches, followed by a series of small discoveries that unlocked a revolutionary business model. Larry Page and Sergey Brin didn’t begin with an ingenious idea. But they certainly discovered one.

Meanwhile, Pixar started as a hardware company that never found a market, and got into digitally animated movies by making a number of small bets on short films. Twitter began as a side project within Odeo, a podcasting company that was going nowhere. After asking employees for suggestions about what the company should do, Odeo founder Evan Williams gave Jack Dorsey, then an engineer, two weeks to develop a prototype for his short messaging idea. People inside Odeo loved using it and Twitter was soon born.

The truth is, most entrepreneurs launch their companies without an brilliant idea and proceed to discover one, or if they do start with what they think is a superb idea, they quickly discover that it’s flawed and then rapidly adapt.

In all my companies the business did evolved into something better and brighter. This is why when I started investing I usually do not believe in the original idea of the entrepreneurs but rather think of what I can do to help them change their course in time to come. Finding that change is crucial towards getting big success.

Tip 34 : Angel Incubating Your Business

If you have a good idea for a business it is always important to prove the business viability and the only way to do is to invest and incubate the business yourself to see if it works. I had incubated many of my own ideas and this is the only way to:

1.) Ensure that your ideas are right.

2.) Ideas are cheap until you have proven a point.

3.) If you want to get funded it is even more important to prove the concept yourself with your own money.

Usually I scrap 8 out of 10 of my ideas that I put in small money to incubate. The balance 2 are usually winners that can make some good money along the way.

Tip 33 : Raising Fund is a Process to Fine Tune the Business

Today is the first day 2011 Chinese New Year and here is one of the most important tips when you are building your online business:

1.) Get to know as many VC as possible even if you dont want to raise any money.
2.) Get an appointment whether casually for a cup of coffee or as a former business meeting to show them your business plans and introduce your business.
3.) Ask them for their honest and direct opinion + advice.

Good VC can provide critical feedback to your business and helps you refine your business model. Dont take a defensive stand for any bad comments instead reevaluate the comments to see if it fits. Sometimes even the best business plan can have some small foul. So keep an open mind and just remember the final decision is still just yours.

Good VC have seen many business models in and out daily and their results, so they do can give some really comments and facts. Some business is good to make money but it cant become another IPO success story. I have had many such small biz plans along my career in China, all of whom can make damn good money but never a another Baidu or Taobao. My VC friends are the one that pointed these to me and it got me to refine my biz models and business acumen.

*However it is good if you have a business that can make good money even if it can go IPO maybe there can be an M&A opportunity as well.

Usually if you meet the right VC it can help you perfect not just your business plan but also your pitch and presentation. Most of the time when I m presenting to them ... I dont really need their money but just wanted more feedbacks and comments. I hit the Jackpot with 2 of my business plans and it got funded from day one because they just fell in love with the business which i had angel incubated it. This is one method that I had always use to perfect my business plan and to see which business I should put my money into. A BIG THANKS to all the VC that had helped me along the way.

*ANGEL INCUBATION will be another Tip I will be talking more about next.