strategist

Charlene Li@Forrester

Just got out of a telephone conference with Charlene. It is nice to know that we have a mutual friend (her old classmate at HBS happens to be my old boss from San Francisco). It is always a pleasure to speak to someone who is as interested or more interested in the bizzaro world of the Internet. We spoke about blogging and how it is changing how people interact with one another and how the very act of blogging is changing how we think of media and advertising. I won't go into great deal here - I forgot to get permission from Charlene to blog about our conversation. (Gotta remember to always ask people if they mind or don't mind my blogging about our conversations. Next time.)

Anyway, if you don't read Charlene's blog, you should. Here is where you can find it. (Link)

Google Halloween Logo

This has got to be one of my favourites from Google.

YAPPSCAM???

Yet Another PayPal Scam??? When will eBay stop these scammers? I would love to sit in a meeting with Meg and the Anti-fraud team from PayPal. Do you think eBay has a team of 'SpecOps' warriors who bust down doors and throttle the fraudsters??? If not, I would love to see Meg set up a team to do just that: Bust (the heads of) the scammers.

Stop Beating Up on Susan Decker, CFO of Yahoo

You know people have nothing better to do with their time and lives when they start ganging up on hardworking people like Susan Decker. As Decker has exercised her stock options and become richer this year, who has the right to say that she does not deserve it? As a shareholder in Yahoo, I am happy with her work and Semel's stewardship. I bought my Yahoo shares at $22.00 and now shares are trading in a narrow band between $33.00 and $35.00. I'm happy. Who wouldn't be happy? Now, if Terry, Dan and Susan can drive that share price up to $75.00, I'd be much happier.

I don't know why people complain and bitch about company employees who are granted stock options in lieu of a higher salary. Given a choice between a guaranteed higher salary and a guaranteed lower salary with stock option grants, I'd gladly choose the latter. With hard and harder work, I can help my company grow its revenues and profits. As the company grows, my stock portfolio grows too. I win. My company wins. They offer motivation to me via stock options. I am willing to work longer hours and put more time doing work even over the weekends. Also, if my receiving a lower salary frees up cash for the company to operate, it is a double bonus.

So, if Yahoo believes it needs to grant options to both executives and employees to motivate them, let them. As a shareholder, I believe it is imperative that the board of directors make me as much money as possible. Yahoo wins. Decker wins. The employees win. The shareholders win. What's wrong with that??? NOTHING!!!

Quoted passage from news article: (Mercury News.)

For the second time in less than four months, Susan L. Decker cashed in a block of 600,000 stock options -- giving her a gain of $27.6 million so far this year. She has pocketed a total of $46 million counting three sales since August 2003, according to Thomson Financial.

Orbitz: For Sale

If Cendant does acquire Orbitz, I guess the online travel industry is about to get a wee bit more competitive. With Cendant becoming a real threat in the marketplace, how will Barry Diller and the gang at IACT respond? Will Diller take a run at Priceline and swallow them up? Or will he give up on the US and come out fighting in APAC? I wonder if IAC still has a couple of billion greenbacks in their corporate kiddybank.

I remember listening in on one of the IR presentations being given by Orbitz earlier this summer. At the presentation, the company CEO made comments that the entire online travel sector was ready for some serious shake-ups due to the de-regulations relating to GDSs enacted by the DOT. I guess he was right. His company got gobbled up by a giant. Henry and his gang came to town and dangled a billion bucks in front of the Orbitz board of directors and the 'Founding Airlines'.

With the de-regulations in effect now (all old regs have been allowed to sunset), I feel it is going to be the 'Wild West' in the US travel markets. Bang 'em up. Shoot 'em up! Round 'em up! Rawhide!

Quoted passage from news article: (CBS MarketWatch)

Shares of Orbitz rocketed 27 percent in after-hours action on Tuesday after published reports said the online travel site was in talks to be purchased by Cendant for $26 to $28 per share, or more than $1 billion in cash.

Warning: DO NOT ACCESS THIS SITE

This is your final warning: Go no further. Clicking on the following link, (LINK), may cause you severe mental damage. You may not sue me for your being so 'stupid' and hitting the link above.

(Comments: Will the clever person who made the above mentioned "poor tasting web site", make one with an Asian character?)

Question: What goes 'kerplunk'? Answer: Friendster

A very comical look at Friendster and the company's decision to fire one of their engineers this past week.

(timconverse.com/blog)

Skype Does Mac

Okay, guys... you can start ringing me anytime now..... I'm ready to go.

(Skype.)

Friendster - No More

As we say on the Canadian Prairies, "I'm outta there!" Come find me at LinkedIn or Orkut.

By the way, what the 'heck' was management thinking at Friendster anyway??? Me thinks that the VCs need to re-examine their stake in the company. With the online backlash at Friendster, I don't think the VCs can even hope of seeing a repayment on their principal at anytime in the near distant future. Perhaps, they can try to sell the URL to some other company one day.

Does their new CEO really know what is going to happen here? Does Koogle support this new stance by company management? If so, oh-oh. Time to get out of Dodge City fast!

Jeremy Zawodny Reacts to Friendster

Very nice. I, too, will dump my Friendster account.

(Jeremy Zawodny's Blog.)

Friendster: Red Card

Looks like Friendster wants to declare a 'war' on blogging by staff. Too bad for them. It's time to 'dump' Friendster and look elsewhere for social networking services.

(Troutgirl's Blog.)

Yahoo: Testing New Front Page

I just noticed yesterday that Yahoo is testing a new front page design. I like the new design much better than the current one. One reason for my dislike of the current design is that it looks too messy or cluttered for my liking. Also, the top six icon buttons do not appeal to me nor have I ever used them. Lastly, I like how they have placed the company logo off to the left side of the page.

Letter to Steve Jobs@Apple

Dear Steve,

I hope you are enjoying your rest and recovery after your operation. I am sure the crew at Cupertino (e.g. Tim Cook & Gang) are taking care of the place during your absence (don't get too mad at them if they only put in 3 hours of overtime a day while you are away). I know you are busy banging away on your PowerBook sending emails to and fro and burning up the airwaves via iChat but I have a problem with you.

As I sit here in Tokyo, I want to leave you with this one thought/complaint: "Can you hurry up and get back to the office! I'm waiting for the PowerBook G5 to come out and I am anxious to get my hands on the 'newest rocket launcher' from Apple, so can you throw on your black turtleneck and a pair of ratty old blue jeans and get back to work ALREADY???"

Best wishes on a full recovery,

Apple Fan & User

(Silicon Valley.)

Steve Jobs: In hospital

I hope Steve takes the month of August to relax and think of new and exciting ways to 'Wow!' us Apple Fans. I am quite sure he will be working out of the hospital/home for the entire month and most likely will be doing way too many iChat conferences with his team. I wonder what will happen when his physician takes away his laptop?

(Globe and Mail.)

Apple OS: Yet another reason to switchback to Mac

I am very eager to take the new Apple OS out for a test drive later next year. I hope they time the release with the 'highly-anticipated release' of the next generation PowerBook. I wonder if Steve Jobs is planning on making a liquid-cooled version of the G5 PowerBook??

(CNN.)

Scam O Rama: Check it Out!

After reading about the website Scamorama in the New York Times (web article), I just had to check out the website. If you are ready for a good laugh, click this link.

Yahoo 2G Mail

Now, that Yahoo has upped the mail storage limit to 100MB for free, I wonder how many people will pay the few bucks per month and sign up for Yahoo's 2G mail???

eBay Scam: Scam the Scammer

Very funny (on-going) story about how someone tries to 'stick it' to a scammer. Story comes via Joi Ito. You have got to hand it to the people who protect us from the 'scammer'.

eBay Live! 2003

Had a great time in Orlando meeting the eBay folks during their eBay Live! event. What a great time!! I hope I can go to this year's event in New Orleans. I really want to ask Meg the same question I asked her last year. I wonder if she'll give me the same answer...??

Instant Messenger Space is Getting Crowded, TOO!!!

So much talk about all the new offerings coming out of AOL, Yahoo and MSN for IM users. I don't use IM very much anymore. Don't know why - guess I don't have much spare time to 'IM'. Anyway, I just downloaded AIM to see what all the fuss is about. (I still have my AOL account from the days when one could only use dial-up. Don't know why I keep my account open - call me 'sentimental'.) I'll give it a test and 'kick the tires'. Later, I guess I will have to download the new Yahoo IM application as well.

(CNN.)

Ask Jeeves: What a Run!

Matthew Ingram over at The Globe and Mail takes a closer look at the 'Google-effect' on Ask Jeeves. A few years back, I had the pleasure of visiting the crew at Ask Jeeves in their offices in the Valley. Nice people. It's so nice to see that their little company is now a much 'BIGGER' company as measured by their market cap. Ask Jeeves is so big now that it just 'gobbled up' ISH. Is this a harbinger of yet more M&A activity out of the Ask Jeeves? IMHO, I hope they continue buying up market share. (No, I am not an investor in the company BUT I wish I were.)

The search engine space sure is getting very crowded! With Google's IPO or google-version of IPO just around the corner, I suspect many young entrepreneurs are licking their chops at launching their very own home-made search engine in the next few years. (I wonder if it is too late to start learning how to write computer coding???)

eBay: Q1 2004 Financial Results

Looking over the financial results for eBay right now. The numbers are quite impressive - AGAIN! Meg and her gang sure have that company heading higher and higher. I'm sure she will be ALL SMILES when she brings her 'road show' over to New Orleans for the 2004 eBay Live! event this summer.

In just one year, the company has improved its 'confirmed registered users' from 68.8M (03'03) to 104.8M (03'04); 52.3% growth in CRUs. Very impressive. Also, look at their GMS for that same period: $5317M (03'03) to $8039M (03'04); 51.2% growth in gross merchandise sales. Again, WOW!

With the company getting a solid start in China, we can expect the company to see organic growth improving much more for the next 12-18 months. Yikes! Now, the question on my mind is this: When will eBay move its HQ away from the USA?

(PDF of Financial Results; see page #13)

Wayne Rosing in Tokyo

Very nice presentation. So glad to hear about the Google Tokyo Research & Development Centre being set up in Shibuya.

John Patrick in Tokyo

Thanks for dropping in and visiting us in Tokyo!!

Birth Place of Google: Stanford University

When I was at Stanford in 2002, I can honestly say that I stood in the Quad in awe of the history around me. Google. SUN. Yahoo. Tiger Woods.

Google: GFS

The Google File System paper available via PDF.

John Patrick@Japan - Search Engine Strategies

Today's expo in Shinjuku was opened by John Patrick. His speech was short but very much to the point. He talked about the dream of putting special tags on all information so that each piece would be accessible to the user. What a wonderful dream that would be if each piece of content uploaded to the net had a special tag attached to it. Yes... what a dream!!

John Patrick introduced today's guest speaker, Wayne Rosing, VP of Engineering at Google (Google - the Search Monster!!). After Rosing's presentation, I went up to John and told him that I recognized him from his blog. Didn't have much of a chance to say anything else as he was quite busy.

Fuss about Gmail

A definite 'must-read' for anyone who is following Google's adventure into freemail service and the ruckus being raised by a California Senator.

(O'Reilly Network.) via (John Battelle's Searchblog.)

A9: Wonder Tool - Where to next??

I have just installed Amazon's new search engine/tool "A9". I will be spending a few days early next week reviewing the tool and writing up a report on its features and impact on future search engines.

I really believe that search is entering into the next phase of growth. As more people jump to the internet, I expect more exciting tools coming out of all the 'skunkworks labs' around the world. Internet users will want to see search engines capable of working with them as personal assistants. Search engines will need to learn from the online behaviours of the user. Users will want to see searches divided into three groups: (1) most likely to satisfy your query, (2) might satisfy your query, and (3) what other people who have similar interests found interesting.

Personally, I would like to see companies in Japan jump into this area of innovation through increased spending in R&D.

(A9.com)

California Senator: Gmail Slapped!

You really have to admire Derek Powazek for writing a letter to the California Senator who has proposed a law to ban/hurt/disrupt Gmail on the issues of 'privacy'. From the senator's rationale, I would like to see a law banning ads on television because the ads are invading my home, too!

Or I have a better idea - why don't I just turn the channel or get off the couch and go to the kitchen and grab a sandwich while another senseless and useless commercial invades my home??? C'mon Senator! Get real!! My advice to you is very simple, "Don't use Gmail!" If someone sends you a Gmail, don't open it!

(Read Derek's response to the misguided California Senator.)

Gee, with all the problems plaguing California, you'd think that a senator would focus her attention on other matters more pressing to the constituents of her district???

(Read more news about the Senator vs. Gmail.)

(Technorati Search: Senator vs. Gmail.)

Tim Berners-Lee: Awarded $1.2M

All I can say about this wonderful and generous award is this: Mr. Berners-Lee - thank you for the Internet.

(CNN.)

SUN - Microsoft: Best Friends???

Wow! I am speechless. Can it be true? Scott and Bill & Steve are friends again? Were they ever friends before? I remember meeting Scott McNealy in 2003 and he always referred to Microsoft as the 'Evil Empire' up north. Now that they are no longer fighting, what new collaborations will they begin in the near future?

(SiliconValley.com)

Do you think Bill is thinking of buying SUN?

ISPs vs. Spammers

For all its worth, I sure hope the Titans can slow down the amount of spam mail hitting my mail boxes. I don't think anyone can ever stop them but, I will keep my fingers crossed!

(CNN.)

Bad Day

I had a horrible day on the web. I am shocked and left utterly speechless...

eBay Fraudster

Well, after two attempts of contacting the eBay seller, I have given up. I don't know why people will cheat others in order to gain a few bucks. It is sad when people commit fraud at eBay. Just sad. I don't think eBay really cares about stopping fraud at their site and this makes me sad. If eBay were so committed in stomping out fraud, I would expect the company to ask sellers to put up a 'performance bond' to secure rights to enact trading at their site. As such, with no performance bond, fraudsters can go and reap untold riches from the honest, and hard-working people on the internet. I really hope the low-life who took my money and did not ship the item gets caught one day for his/her acts of fraud. Spend a few years in prison!

eBay should create a special section on their site where buyers can list the email addresses of those who commit fraud as a way to warn others. And eBay should do the same with that seller's personal information.

Yahoo BB: Big-Time Trouble Ahead

Although Yahoo BB helped the police apprehend the alleged criminals, the negative publicity does not bode very well for the company. The media is having a 'field day' with this news. Yahoo Japan and Softbank shares are down at the end of trading. I wonder what will happen tomorrow with the companies?

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Police Suspect Softbank Insider Copied Data In Extortion Case

TOKYO (Kyodo)--Tokyo police suspect that a Softbank Corp. (9984) insider copied client data late last year for three people arrested Tuesday for allegedly trying to extort money, police sources said Wednesday.

Hiroshi Mori, a 67-year-old publisher, and two others were arrested on suspicion of attempting to extort billions of yen from Softbank by threatening to publish data for the Internet investor's Yahoo BB Internet connection service subscribers.

The police have found no sign of any illegal access to Softbank's client database and allege that a Softbank insider copied the data, the sources said.

Softbank officials said database access records have allowed them to identify the time when client data were copied late last year.

Only system development employees at Softbank have direct access to the client database, and their numbers have declined from some 130 last autumn to about 60 at present, the officials said.

The Metropolitan Police Department allege that Mori, who had represented a political organization in the past, obtained the copied data and instructed his colleague Seiji Takeoka, 55, to use the data for extorting money out of Softbank. Takeoka, along with Teruaki Yuasa, 61, were arrested Tuesday with Mori.

In a separate extortion case, Hiroyuki Kimata, 31, was also arrested Tuesday after allegedly obtaining Softbank client data from a Softbank affiliate that had employed him, the police sources said.

Kimata is suspected of trying to extort money from Softbank BB Corp., another affiliate, by threatening to release data for 1 million Softbank clients, they said.

He has told the police that he accidentally obtained floppy disks that contain data for hundreds of thousands of people, the sources said.

(Other news: Mainichi News.)

Hotmail to Cell Phones: Openwave

Can't say whether this new feature will improve my personal productivity but I am happy nonetheless: I am an investor in Openwave. I hope the company can get some business out of the Middle Kingdom. I could sure use some good news soon. (See posting from last week.) Just when you think things are looking good, someone comes around and KICKS you in the head. Such is life, right?

(Reuters.)

eBay: Network Effect - Alive and Well

eBay is featured in BusinessWeek this week. What is going to slow down this online giant? Who is going to challenge eBay for online supremacy?

(BusinessWeek)

Yahoo Japan: What are they planning???

I read this news article below with great interest. What is Yahoo Japan planning on doing? What are their long-term strategic plans in Japan??

Yahoo Japan To Hire 5 Times More New Engineering Grads In FY05

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689) intends to hire about 100 engineers fresh from university and other schools in fiscal 2005, five times more than it planned to employ a year earlier, company sources said. It also plans to take on about 300 mid-career staff, almost the same number as before.

The company wants to recruit more new graduates to curb personnel costs and ease its current manpower shortage due to business expansion.

The newly minted engineers are what the company calls "Web Engineers," workers engaged in building and operating portal Web sites.

More than 90% of Yahoo's employees are mid-career hires, with only some 20 employed right out of school each year.

New graduates earn an average 30% less than experienced recruits during their first year at the company. But some of them become as skilled as mid-career staff after undergoing three months of training, the sources said.

(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Sunday edition)

eBay Fraudster: [email protected]

I have written earlier about my first incident of eBay fraud in an earlier posting. The seller ([email protected]) failed to ship the item to me as agreed to in our transaction. I made complete payment to the seller and have not received the item. The seller has stated that he/she has already shipped the item. Unfortunately, that was over 3 weeks ago. I find the seller's lack of interest in resolving as an indication that he/she had intended not to honour his/her agreement and thus, committing fraud.

Next Internet Craze: e-Social Networking

Interesting how the next best thing to hit the internet is how to 'network'. I have already joined Friendster, LinkedIn, Tribe, Tickle, Match, Ryze, and a few others. I have joined some just out of interest and others for fun. I really like the look and feel of Ryze for business and like Tribe for its layout design.

With all the new social networking services and more being developed, which company will emerge as the techno-leader by the end of 2004? Will it be Friendster? Will it be Google's Orkut? Or will some new - still at the drawing-board service - emerge as the leader? For now, I will continue plugging away at each of the services to find the 'ONE' that fits my general and specific needs.

(Yahoo News)

eBay Feedback: System Broken

I believe the eBay Feedback system is broken. Let me explain. eBay buyers and sellers give feedback on their transactions and thus, help others understand what type of buyers and sellers we are. Well, that sounds great on paper but, does it work?

Last month, I made 10 purchases on eBay: Nine have arrived but one item is still outstanding. (I sure hope I was not scammed! If I was, I am going to raise a huge stink about that seller.) I have left feedback on the nine sellers and have only received one feedback from the nine. Now, what's the problem? I spoke with someone at work and was told that eBay sellers have no 'incentive or motivation' to provide feedback on the buyers. If so, why don't they care about a mutually beneficial relationship? Where is the reciprocity???

Pesky Pop-Up Ads

Microsoft plans to eliminate pop-up ads. Great. Good for Microsoft. Now, does this mean MSN will sell even more 'ad space' on its portal? I don't know which is worse: pop-up ads or ads on its portal? (Reuters.)

Amazon Glitch

This must be quite awkward for Amazon. Would I write my own book review? I think not. (NY Times.)

eBay Fraud: [PENDING]

[UPDATE: I finally was contacted by the seller. Let's hope he/she will send the item as promised.]

Just had my first experience of eBay fraud. Yes, I was fooled by someone on the other end of the Internet. Three weeks ago, I was the successful bidder on an item and sent my money via PayPal to the seller. The item never made it over here. I attempted to contact the seller but, he/she is no longer a registered member of eBay. Sounds suspicious? You bet!

I sent off a message to eBay informing them of the problem. Well, as you can guess, eBay was not very helpful. I was instructed to contact my credit card company to stop payment. Yeah, right. How much time would I have to waste talking with my credit card issuer? Would it be worth it?

I suspect scammers hope that buyers/fools will not go to all that trouble of contacting PayPal and the credit card companies. The scammers win - the buyers lose. Actually, the only loser is eBay. I am going to stay away from buying anything on the site for a long, long time. To the credit of eBay, I did receive a reply from Jennifer, Fraud Prevention Group, but it is of little help now.

If it is so easy to be a scammer on eBay, I wonder why more people don't try to 'screw' buyers?

And yes, the email address I posted in the subject line is the address of the seller. I guess he/she no longer uses that address.

Oh well. there goes some money down the 'TOILET'!!!!

[final thoughts: I wonder if I should send a registered letter to eBay and address it to Meg???]

Monster.com & Networking

Not sure if this is a good idea so, I'll just have to keep an eye on Monster and see what happens to them. Do you think some media giant will 'make a bid' on the company? (Globe and Mail.)

Google vs Booble

Very funny. (Reuters.)

eBay: Oops!

I really screwed up last week. I won the bidding on an autographed photograph of Batman and Robin only to royally screw up the payment transaction. The seller brought my mistake to my attention late Tuesday evening. Gee, I feel like an idiot. Guess, I must be one. Now, I have to send another payment via PayPal to the seller this week. I sure hope I don't get 'negative feedback' on this transaction.

Orkut Invitation Wanted

I will do your windows and wash your car or computer if you send me an 'invite' to the newest, hippest, tres chic social network on this side of the galaxy!! (Orkut.)

eBay Auctions: Yikes! How much did I spend???

Yikes! I just spent a week at eBay Auctions and ended up spending over $500!! I had only planned on spending about a couple of hundred bucks but kept on bidding. I came across a set of CFA Level I Study Guides for auction. The bidding started at $50.00 and ended when I bid over $200.00 for the study set. I guess it is a bit of money but the retail price is $495.00 so I find some comfort in the fact that I did save over 50% on the item. The only items I won are autographed photographs of Batman and Robin and Michael Douglas. I got two photos of Douglas: one of his role in Wall Street and the other from The American President.

The movie "Wall Street" is one of my favourites. I love the line "Greed is good." And for the other film, I love the speech that he gives towards the end of the film when he finally answers charges/allegations levied at him from a US-President-wanna-be.

Well, I'll have to take a rest from eBay Auctions for the next 10 months as I need to prepare for the Level I examination.