Tomi Ahonen, Mobile 2.0 conference
Starts out with a bizarre list of the least successful Web 2.0 communities. Promoting his new book, "Digital Korea":
Every Korean home will have a home robot in 10 years. Korea has highest speed, lowest cost broadband in the world. In Korea broadband exceeds per capita - there's more broadband than people. 75% of cellphones in Korea are 3G. The majority of internet access in Korea is already mobile - the car is seen as the next place for the net to reach.
Tomi's gone a bit madder since I last saw him talk....
In India operators have rolled out a "background noise" service for use during calls.
Today in Japan 44% of all cellphone users actively click on advertising they receive via mobile.
Cameraphones designed for the under-10s sold by KDDI.
Think beyond screen size and keypad issue: "why can't the mobile phone read my mind?"
1/3 of students in Korea send 100+ text messages every day. This enables "near-telepathic connectivity". SMS is used to share secrets privately between friends, even when they're within speaking range.
30k business brands in South Korea are on Cyworld. 500k items of content for sale,
Kart Rider in Korea, making all its money from gifts and personalisation. Has professional players, is free-to-play. 25% of all Koreans have driven it.
Ends with a sales pitch for his books. Bit rude considering he's running 25 minutes over. Finishes with 3 thoughts:
- "User-generated content is not just rubbish: it can be high-quality content"
- "All major brands will be in the mobile web 2.0 space"
- "We don't need subscriptions or advertising to monitise mobile web 2.0; we can do this by customisation, gifts and so forth"