In Conversation with Dr Gang Lu, MOBINODE and OpenWeb Asia

Recently, during the E27 Unconference 2009 event, Gang Lu, the founder of MOBINODE and OpenWeb Asia, came to Singapore and participated in a panel about “Innovation in Asia”. With an interesting background of working in an European company, Netvibes.com, he has recently moved back to Shanghai. So, we managed to catch him for an interview and have him to tell the story behind MOBINODE and OpenWeb Asia workgroup, and some of the interesting trends happening in China, and some tip for the Singaporean entrepreneurs on how to move to China.

BL: Hi Gang Lu, great to have you for Unconference 2009. Tell us about your background and what you have been working on lately.

Gang Lu: Thank you very much. The days in Singapore are absolutely great experience for me. I spent over 7 years in UK, did my master in engineering then PhD in computer science majoring in wireless ad hoc networks. I was working for one of the European web 2.0 super star company – Netvibes.com as its Asia business development director. Prior to that, I was a R&D working on 3G applications. I recently moved back to Shanghai. OpenWeb.Asia (OWA) workgroup which I initiated and co-founded last June is one of the key projects I am working on. Basically, the members of OWA are from all over the Asia local web industry, they can be either individuals or communities. We work together aiming to bridge the western and eastern market and also help Asian local web understand and learn from each other better. I am also doing consulting jobs to startups and help them on products and marketing. Blogging is also a very important part of my web 2.0 life, the MOBINODE.com founded by me and edited by a few international experts are now one of the most popular tech blog covering Asia especially China web news and analysis.

BL: What prompted you to start MOBINODE and Open Web Asia?

Gang Lu: Everyone knows that Asia has a massive web and mobile market, but unfortunately the knowledge the western audience has is still very limited. There are loads of stories happening everyday here but there is just not much channels through which people can understand more. On the other hand, Asian industry actually has learnd a lot from US and EU, e.g. people use and study Facebook, Twitter etc, but in fact we did not pay enough attention to our neighbours and Asian market such as China, Japan, Korea, Singapore and so on we have similar culture. One startup from US or EU countries can become an international one within a week, but it is hardly to find a pan-Asia web service. Asian web needs more communications!. So I started writing about the local industry in English and also initiated the OWA with friends in different countries/regions, we have one important mission: Open up Asia web.

BL: What is the focus of MOBINODE? Where do you see it going in the next three years?

Gang Lu: I started MOBINODE back to 2006. At beginning it only focus on China web news, later thanks to my job in Netvibes, I got chances to meet with many great people who working in different web services, video-sharing,sns,media etc which help me think more about local industry. Together with other editors who joined me from Japan, Denmark, China, Neitherland and US, MOBINODE now covers news, insider stories and more important, the analysis about Asia web/mobile industry, focus on China. MOBINODE is now still more personal style and we dont really have plan for the next three years, now we just want to discover more great stories and deliver more professional and independent market analysis which I think they are the key for its growth.

BL: We understand that MOBINODE has won the Best Tech Blog for China Blog Awards in 2007. What do you think are the essential ingredients for success?

Gang Lu: Two weeks I was invited by Tencent to moderate a panel in its Tencent MIND 2009 conference. I said to the audience, people know me or MOBINODE or OWA not because I have not done great works, the reason is actually very simple, it’s because the content and concept we are talking about is all about China and Asia which will play an important role in global industry in near future and people wants to know more about them, and we are lucky to be the first messengers in connection with both western and eastern web. Another reason people like this blog I think is we are Talking to, Thinking of and also Practicing the China web, so we are writing the first-hand stories and thoughts instead of doing translation from Chinese to English.

BL: How does the OpenWeb Asia bring people from all different parts of Asia together? What do you see are the next steps for the workgroup?

Gang Lu: OWA is a non-commercial workgroup and all the members are doing this together because we believe it is a very valuable project. OpenWebAsia08 conference for example was organized by some the members. It is the first truly pan-Asia conference focus on web and mobile industry, and we invited local entrepreneurs, leaders and influential people from Asia local industry as well as global industry and create the stage for them to communicate. We also worked with other organizations to bring Asian companies to greater stage, for instance, we were working with NetExplorateur forum which is organized by French Senate early this year and help them discover the best Asian startups. For the first time, 8 startups from China, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Japan are awarded the TOP100 most innovative projects 2009. What’s next? I hope we can build a good ecosystem all over the places, e.g. being involved with local events in which more ideas can be exchanged and more great companies and individuals can be discovered and introduced to OWA annual conference presenting to Asian audience, then from there, OWA can also work closer with other parties in US/EU and bring Asian companies to global stage.

BL: What do you think are the three most important traits for an entrepreneur?

Gang Lu: Leadership, Passion and Honesty.

BL: If a Singaporean entrepreneur is interested to set up a business in China, what is your advice for him or her?

Gang Lu: Although there are many foreign companies which did not work out in China, I feel optimistic about Singaporean entrepreneurs coming to China. Obviously they have the advantage of understanding Chinese culture (at least language is not a big issue for many of them) and also being closer to western culture. I know that Singapore has a very good infrastructure and the government is quite supportive to young entrepreneurs, but we have to admit that Singaporean market is relatively small and China is a place right now full of potentials. The question is how to use these advantage. I think the most important thing is to talk to the local entrepreneurs and grassroot and understand what the Chinese users care about, which most of the foreign entrepreneurs do not do.

First of all, I would encourage Singaporean entrepreneurs to bring their startups and even ideas to China.

About Gang Lu: Asia web business advisor, known speaker, founder and chief editor of MOBINODE.com, co-founder of OpenWeb.Asia Workgroup. OpenWeb.Asia is the first independent workgroup focusing on Asia Internet industry, and is also the organizer of OpenWebAsia conference which is the first truly pan-Asia web technology event bringing together executives, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from throughout Asia. With strong academic background in wireless communications, years of research and development experience in mobile industry and international business management in web industry, Gang Lu is very passionate about the Open Web concept and plays very active role in building efficient channels among Asian local markets as well as between Asia web and global industry. Gang Lu was the Asia Business Development Director of Netvibes.com, the world leading personalized homepage and widget technology provider. He is one of the first introducing Widget economy and Open Platform into Asian market. Prior to joining Netvibes, he was in charge of research and development of Multimedia Messaging Service platform and 3G applications in Dialogue Communications Ltd. a leading mobile messaging service provider in UK. Gang Lu is awarded the Best Expert 2009 by iResearch . His personal blog MOBINODE.com covers the Internet market news in Asia especially focus on China, was also voted as the best China Tech Blog in 2007 and 2008. He is also the guest editor of the world top web2.0 blog ReadWriteWeb.com. Gang Lu has MSc, PhD in wireless communications from the University of Sheffield, UK.

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