Archive for September, 2011

The slow China Internet costs us 3 working weeks per year

Over the past days the Internet speed in Shanghai has been horrible again. At UnitedStyles rendering something that should take 30 seconds in a normal situation took up to 20 minutes yesterday, meaning that it is impossible to work. When I was in Europe a few days ago talking to Joop Dorresteijn (who was in Shanghai) I advised him at a certain point to just send the staff home. You can't work at an Internet company without a decent Internet connection to the world outside the Great...
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Have a good flight! Billboard at Changchun airport

Only in China I guess... The picture of this billboard was taken in Changchun airport, it makes you wonder whether the designer actually knows what happened to the Twin Towers. Original source: Reddit user @dktoday (through...
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The Influence of Online Media – Stars 2011 in Stein am Rhein

The Influence of Online Media - Stars 2011 Over the past 4 days Stars 2011 in Stein am Rhein took place, an event for the 'global leaders of tomorrow' to discuss the challenges and opportunities that we will see over the next 10-20 year. Among others speakers like Bertelsmann CEO Harmut Ostrowski and politicians-turned-corporates like Lord Hastings from KPMG and Mona Sutphen from UBS shared their insights with the group of top managers. I was invited to talk about the future of online...
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Stein am Rhein in pictures

I was quite impressed by the medieval town of Stein am Rhein in North Switzerland where I spent the last weekend. I already put up a blog post on Sunday with a few pictures, and here are a few more that give a good overview of the town and its surroundings. View over Stein am Rhein from the Hohenklingen caste Vineyards in the hills above Stein am Rhein Countryside with vineyards around Stein am Rhein View over the Rhine during lunch at the Chlosterhof Hotel The Rhine is still very...
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The power of social media: meeting Yanik Cantieni because of Facebook

After speaking about the influence of online media in Stein am Rhein, one of my points about how social media has changed our lives was proven on the way back to Shanghai. Yanik Cantieni, a former Daimler colleague and friend of mine (we were both on the international management trainee program 15 years ago and we later both moved to China/Hong Kong for the automotive multinational), saw on Facebook that I had been flying through Frankfurt over the weekend and asked when I would fly back. I...
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Stars 2011 in Stein am Rhein and social media

I am spending the weekend in Stein am Rhein in Switzerland where I speak at the Stars 2011 conference. This is a bi-annual conference in Switzerland and China where 80 'Leaders of the Next Generation' come together to discuss about the challenges and choices for the next decade. The participants are leading figures aged between 35 and 40 years old from the world of business, science, politics and NOGOs, all hand picked by their own bosses. Think partners in top consulting and accounting...
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Google calendar sharing issues

Last night I was asking Grace about an interview she was going to do with Bloomberg today. She was surprised that I knew about the interview because she didn't think she mentioned it to me. I told her that she put it in her calendar, so that's where I saw it. Then she was even more surprised because she didn't know I could see her Google calendar. I told her that while I was in the US last week suddenly all her calendar items popped up in my Google calendar. I assumed she was finally...
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Speaking at Silicon Valley Bank CEO dinner this Thursday

On Thursday I will be speaking at a CEO dinner organized by Silicon Valley Bank at Kathleen's 5 in Shanghai. About 100 people already confirmed their attendance, so it will be a nice crowd. Not sure if there are still seats available, but if you want to join best is to get in touch with Libby Tang at (+86)-21-6143 3812 or ltang@svb.com to reserve your seat. Text from the official invitation: The Chinese tech industry is developing faster than ever with massive potentials. It is the...
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Elaine’s multiple language skills

Last week Elaine was chosen as Star of the Week for her Nursery class, and so her picture was put at the entrance to the school. Elaine was very proud of her achievement, and of course I am also proud of her being the first Star of the Week in her class. I am also proud of her language skills, and how easily she switches from Dutch to Chinese and to English. Her Chinese is now basically fluent, her English is quite good (and even better than Scott when he was 2 years and 4 months old) and...
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DEMO vs. TechCrunch Disrupt

I am at the DEMO Fall 2011 conference in Santa Clara, CA at the moment. It's my first time at this conference, that takes place at exactly the same time as its competitor TechCrunch Disrupt. I visited most of the TC Disrupt conferences over the years, and I expected DEMO to be very similar. Although both events showcase start-ups that launch on stage during the event, there are quite some differences. First of all companies have to pay USD 18,500 to present on stage for 5 minutes at DEMO....
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Weekend trip to Sonoma

This weekend I flew to California, and spent the weekend in Sonoma to (among others) look at some wineries. A couple of pictures from the short road trip. The Golden Gate was still in the clouds in the morning, as usual this time of year. By coincidence I saw a sign for the Kendall-Jackson winery along 101, so I went to check it out. Kendall-Jackson is one of my favorite Californian wine brands - I actually found one of their Grand Reserves last weekend in Xiamen. The Tomato Festival...
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Google tribute to Freddy Mercury

Today the lead singer of one of the best bands in history would have turned 65 years old. Freddy Mercury of rock group Queen died back in 1991, but his legend lives on. To honor his birthday Google made a fantastic animated Doodle on the music of Don't Stop Me Now. If you go to Google.com today (or if you are in the US on Tuesday because of Labor Day), you will see the logo above that you can click to watch the Doodle. It took a team at Google 3 months to produce and the result is...
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Spil Games Asia Outing 2011 in Xiamen

This year's annual outing for Spil Games Asia was in Xiamen, the coastal city about 600 km north of Hong Kong. I had never been there actually, so it was a good opportunity to get to know the city a bit. Because of the distance from Shanghai we took a plane, Xiamen Airlines flies many times per day between Shanghai and the city, and with a group of 100 people you can get very nice discounts. We left early Friday morning and around 10:30 AM we landed in Xiamen. The first thing I noticed was...
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Trends in online games: cross platform gaming

I wrote this article for the Business Insider, the original was published here. Several trends are happening at the same time in the online game market. Where a few years ago the most popular, and most profitable, titles were triple-A games, nowadays the most played games are casual and social games. These are games that are much simpler and less expensive to produce than triple-A games. Another trend is that mobile games are growing very fast, something that had been forecast for years...
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