Techno-Darwinism
Benjamin Joffe | Plus Eight Star | IGNITE, Amsterdam | 2009.09

Charles Darwin Me
“The Origin of Species” “IGNITE @ PICNIC”
(1859) (2009)

Voyage of “The Beagle”

France (10,000km)
4 years
1 year
4 years

Alexa Ranking
USA China Japan Korea
#1 Google Baidu Yahoo JP / SB Naver
#2 Yahoo Tencent FC2 Yahoo
#3 Facebook Sina Google JP Daum
#4 YouTube Google China YouTube YouTube
#5 MySpace Taobao Rakuten Google
#6 MSN Netease Livedoor Cyworld
#7 Live Google Ameblo Nate
#8 Wikipedia Sohu Mixi Google KR
#9 Craigslist Youku Wikipedia Live
#10 eBay Yahoo Goo Facebook

“This past year hasn’t been
enlivened by one of those striking
discoveries which at once
revolutionize a branch of science”

Japanese like texting on mobile
2000
Because they have small fingers
Asians like avatars
2003 Because they watch animations
Chinese like ring-back tones
2006
Because they go to karaoke a lot

“Japan’s cellphones are like the
endemic species that Darwin
encountered on the Galápagos
Islands — fantastically evolved
and divergent from their
mainland cousins”
Takeshi Natsuno
Inventor of i-mode

5C of Innovation
1. Copy
2. Competition
3. Constraints
4. Combination
5. China

1. Copy
Entry barriers
Technology?
Capital?
Talent?
Intellectual Property?
Censorship?

2. Combination
Will it blend?
Tencent
(US$1bln)

3. Competition
What happens with
4 Facebook
20 YouTube
10 MySpace
5 Match.com
3 Yahoo
4 Twitter
?

4. Constraints
Low GDP/capita
Limited advertising
No credit cards
No legacy industry

5. China
Scale / Geography / Demography
make some services viable

1. Some Asian species
are fit for global markets
2. Learn from them to evolve
successfully

Lean Startup = Life-Force Economy
“Release early, release often”
=
Introducing the next mutation

Dank u wel!
Learn more about “Innovation Arbitrage”
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