The Digital Silk Road
Collaboration beyond Culture
Benjamin Joffe, CEO
Open Web Asia | Seoul | October 2008

When was it invented?

Europe
Gutemberg | ~1450
Korea
Metal | ~1230
China
Wooden | ~1040

Who came first?

Where do you get inspiration from?

Innovations are bound to happen

Innovations change society

General assumption #1
Everything from USA is great

General assumption #2
Everything from Asia is weird
(and sometimes funny)

Asian Inventions
Eastern Influences
East-West Collaborations

Compass

Paper

Italy (15th century) Ming vase?

Some digital examples

100%
80%
USA
60%
3G users
40%
Chin Japa
20% a n
0%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
% of Internet connections measured above 5Mbps
(Source: Akamai)

Broadband?
Broadband Broadband
from 200 Kbps 100 Mbps

Broadband?
Walking man F22 Raptor
5 km/h 2,500 km/h

#2 economy, #1 mobile society
#1 mobile & Internet population
#1 digital society

“Social Networking
Is Not a Business”
MIT Technology Review
July/August 2008

Starting date
2004 1997 1999 2004 2006

Revenues 2007 (USD)
150 mln 520 mln ~200 mln 100 mln 150 mln

Profit 2007 (USD)
(50 mln) 225 mln ~100 mln 35 mln ~60 mln

Average Revenue From Users
~0% 87% 80% 5% 50%

Learn from the proven models
of yesterday

Tomorrow’s models
are born today

About +8*

There are more ideas
outside your country
than inside
Tom Kelley
CEO, IDEO
The 10 faces of Innovation

“Innovation Arbitrage”
• About us
– +8* | Plus Eight Star is the leading cross-market and cross-cultural consultancy in Asia.
– We provide local expertise & global perspective on mobile and Internet innovation from
China, Japan and South Korea to add value to and accelerate the development of our
clients’ businesses.
• Our services
– Analysis of proven best practices and business models from Asia
– Other services: executive study trips, market entry strategy, M&A advisory, partners
identification, negotiation support.
• Founder & CEO: Benjamin Joffe
– 9 years experience with mobile & Internet in Asia
– Selected among “China’s Top 100 mobile industry influencers” in 2007
– Regular speaker at events on mobile and Internet in Asia
– Fluent in English, Japanese, French with working knowledge of Mandarin, Korean and
Spanish

Selected References
• Adidas | E-commerce strategy for China, Japan & Korea
• Bouygues Telecom | Cases studies of leading Asian Web 2.0 services
and virtual worlds
• Deutsche Telekom / T-Online | Benchmark of Korean mobile & Internet
convergence strategies
• Hemisphere | Analysis of mobile marketing best practices in Japan and
South Korea (Hemisphere is a leading digital advertising agency),
analysis of leading social platforms (SNS, virtual worlds, online games).
• Microsoft | Analysis of Japan’s key players and market catalysts for
mobile commerce market positioning in China
• DeNA | Case studies of the best practices of leading social networks in
China and South Korea (DeNA operates Mobile Game Town, Japan’s
leading mobile SNS service)
• China Mobile | Benchmark of Korean leading online communities
• Sands Capital Management | Evaluation of China’s investment
opportunities in social networks in China

Social Work
• Mobile Monday
– Founder of the Mobile Monday forum in Beijing since 2006 (3,000+
members, 23 events, over 80 presentations).
• Media
– Monthly column on Asian innovation for Asian Business Leaders (one of
the leading Chinese business magazines), numerous interviews in
international media.
• Events
– Regular keynote speaker and moderator at Internet, Telecom, Media and
Investment events
e.g. ITU Asia, Asia Venture Capital Forum, China Mobility International Summit,
O’Reilly’s Graphing Social Patterns, Red Herring Asia, Media 08 Conference,
Wireless Developer Forum, Open Web Asia, XMediaLab, Mobile Monday Global
Summit, etc.)

Contact Us
www.plus8star.com
benjamin@plus8star.com
benjamin0123 +81 | Japan
+82 | Korea
http://twitter.com/plus8star +86 | China
Telecom & Internet
www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminjoffe + Added Value
* High quality
www.slideshare.net/plus8star