EightBlack.

I suppose living in Singapore has it’s advantages.

For one thing, you don’t need to stay awake all night, standing under a bus stop with a sleeping bag under your arm just so as you can get your hands on what would have to be one of the best lessons in marketing in 2010.

(ie take the iPod touch, inject it with a good dose of steroids and then release a limited quantity to the US market first. Works a charm. Each and every time. Pavlov’s dog couldn’t salivate any more if he tried)

Most Apple zealots I know survive on little sleep. Like the kid in the photo. And look like they need a good wash. And a good feed. It must be a part of the Apple cult motto. Allegedly, this Apple disciple is 19-years old. He looks 11. Anyway.

All we do here in Singapore if we want the latest tech toy is simply walk into “the temple” as my son calls it. Sim Lim Square. All things electrical. Some genuine, some not so genuine. Within a week of the iPad launching in the US, there was stock at Sim Lim.

Will you pay a premium? Sure. But not a huge amount. And you’ll get what you want, when you want it. Simple market forces at work.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge fan. And no doubt an iPad will find it’s way into our house, along with all the other Apple hardware.

My 7-year old daughter told me she was buying one this weekend. I politely asked her what she would be buying it with, upon which, she ran screaming and crying into her room, telling her mother that I was the meanest father ever.

I had a quiet giggle. This is pure Apple genius at play. Even a 7-year old has figured it out.

The iPad may only be to the cynics, a trumped up iPod. But to all the Apple fans (and to the legions of folks out there who love Apple product but are scared to admit it), the iPad is a part of the future.

The internet in your hands.

(Image of Apple zealot courtesy The Age, Melbourne)

I enjoyed talking with Laura and I’m always fascinated about what draws someone to take on a role such as hers. A true professional with a senior background in PR and a long-term stint in Geneva with the World Economic Forum makes for an interesting chat over a coffee.

The thing that impresses me with AmCham Singapore is the sheer volume of events they manage to host each and every year. Last count, in excess of 250 per annum!

If you’re serious about doing business in Asia, then you can’t ignore the resources, connections and networking opportunities that AmCham can deliver.

Membership details are here.

Maybe it’s just me.

2-weeks ago I decided to download the Uber-Twitter app to my CrackBerry. Then, instilled with much confidence I installed the Facebook and LinkedIn apps as well. Man I was on a roll. I then discovered FourSquare.

There was no stopping what I was capable of. I admit it, over the past month or so, I may have become addicted to social networking. It’s like everything has sort of melded into one giant virtual hub.

However, I think I’ve unleashed a monster. My BlackBerry won’t even turn off now.

Today, I wrote on a Web 2.0 friend’s Facebook Wall…”Des, help me! My Twitter account is talking to Facebook, which in turn is stalking my LinkedIn account. Not to be outdone, Wordpress is acting like a petulant child and is adding its two-cents worth at every opportunity. On top of that, Uber-Twitter is barking at me incessantly, I don’t know which site to turn to first when I open my Mac in the morning”.

FourSquare still thinks I’m at a coffee shop, when in fact that was 2-days ago. I’m actually standing in the living room in my underwear, yelling at the kids “Its good to be the King”.

Or something like that.

All I know is I have “tweets” up the wazoo. GMail is groaning under the weight of all those emails I haven’t deleted.

Stuff them.

Then, finally a voice of reason and sanity appeared.

Someone I respect, a guy called Ken McCarthy – sent me an email with a link to a blogpost of his.

At the end of the day, it reminded me of what I do. And maybe it’s why I resonated so strongly with Ken’s words. I’m a simple sales guy. And no amount of tweets, pokes, prods, inmails, outmails, emails, e-hugs and texts will get the people I want to do business with to pick up the phone and call me.

Better still, I need to spend more time picking up the phone and calling them.

The art of presenting, of talking face-to-face and of actually talking on the phone, may I fear, become a lost art.

I hope I can hang on long enough before I get sucked into the vortex…I think trying to resist the social networking revolution is like trying to hold back the tide.

(*Sent from my Mac, sitting at Starbucks, listening to Crystal’s performance last night, without looking at my phone or opening a social networking site for at least 15-minutes).

Richard Hartung has some impressive “Asian” stats. He spent 6 and half years in Japan (and speaks fluent Japanese). And for the last 17-years, he’s been here in Singapore.

He’s certainly earned the right to talk about what it takes to do business here, given his impressive career with Citibank, MasterCard and some of the largest local banks.

For the past 8-years though, he’s been operating on his own, in a consulting business called Transcarta.

He’s one of the region’s most respected card payment specialists, an active journalist and a committed contributor to several worthwhile charities.

If there’s anyone who “gets” the region, it’s Richard. And I enjoyed our chat…

The link is here to the transcript and you can download it here.

Now that the music has died down from last week’s Twitter Revolution, the question I’ve been grappling with is this. Is Twitter Too Hard? (for the average person that is).

Obviously the “twits” can’t get enough (i.e. the devout followers of Twitter and incessant tweeters).

Frankly, it’s doing my head in.

I’ve already said before that at 43, I may very well be too old for Twitter. And my kids certainly think I’m too old for many things. Like walking around the house in my underwear, yelling “its good to be the king!”.

Anyway.

Back to the Twitfest.

Last week, the blogosphere nearly burst at the seems with all things Twitter. The folks at Twit HQ hosted their inaugural Developer Conference (#Chirp) and have announced to the world their grand plans for monetising the business.

They’ve also got a lot of very nervous Twitter developers, (who clearly have consumed way too much red bull), on edge, as they gently tip-toe around the “what we’re going to do/build now and what we’ll let you do/build now”.

When I was at my folks place recently, my old man said to me “Do you use Facebook and Twitter?”

He sort of said it to me in the same quiet, hushed tone as he used when he once asked me if I was homosexual. I was 8-years old at the time and thought I had a few years ahead of me before I had to face the horror of bringing girls home. Or deciding that I liked boys. Whatever.

I admitted to my 76-year old father, that yes, I do indeed use Twitter and Facebook (and even LinkedIn). It was like admitting that I once tried the whacky tabaccy but didn’t inhale.

Or something like that.

Then I realized the errors of my ways. The questions started. And I began to quickly lose the will to live. Couldn’t we talk about the hidden porn on his computer, the hidden porn on mine. Or anything in between.

I just didn’t have the energy.

Which brings me neatly to my point.

There are a lot of very smart, very committed folks carving out a whole new niche and industry with Twitter. Its the next big thing, by all accounts.

These same folks then admitted that Twitter had surpassed the 100M user mark, with on average, 300,000 new registrations a day. That’s 9M a freaking month. NINE MILLION!

As a comparison, GMail has 167M users (if you believe the Wikipedia entry). At Twitters run rate, they’ll be neck and neck with Google’s GMail numbers by the end of the year.

Facebook on the other hand has 350M users globally. But they brag about “active users” rather than total numbers, which I think is the correct way to brag, if you’re going to do it all.

Anyway, my concern is this.

Perhaps 10% of the community get Twitter. That’s 10% of the people who regularly surf the web, have a couple of email accounts, know what Facebook is, have created a LinkedIn profile etc etc. Argue with me all you want about what you think this figure might be. But lets agree – it wont be large.

If you don’t believe me, try this. Next weekend, when you’re sitting down for dinner with friends, summons the courage to ask everyone if they have a Twitter account. Then ask them if they have actually “tweeted” about something meaningful. Then really tip them over the edge and ask anyone if they know what the whole point to Twitter is.

Wait for the drivel.

Trust me, you’ll be looking for anything to distract you at this point. You’ll throw your keys into the fruitbowl and your best friends wife wont look that bad after all. Talking about Twitter in a social setting will do more than test your sense of humour.

You’ll be told to go and sit in the car. Happens to me all the time.

When I first saw Twitter back in 2007, I was in the US at a Web 2.0 conference. The original post is here.

People were “tweeting” and attendees at the conference could see live tweets appear on centrally mounted plasma screens. I walked past the screens a few times and kept wondering what all the fuss was about.

But the assumption was this. The geeks assumed that all the non-geeks knew how to actually tweet (or even understand what Twitter was for). How do I send a direct message, follow someone, create a list, or create an account? And how do I customise the home-page?

And even if they did create an account, did they do it knowing full well what the hell they were signing up to? And what would they make of watching live “tweets” unfold before their eyes – about all matter of useless subjects and snippets of information.

Bigger still – what would THEY tweet about?

A lot of my friends don’t have Twitter accounts. Safe to say all of my parents and their friends don’t have Twitter accounts (heaven forbid).

Randy Rupert apparently just started using email. And according to some, has never even used a search engine. He must think Twitter is for the mentally unhinged.

But the problem maybe more fundamental. People like Rupert have got the gold. And in the days of the old media empire, the people with the gold got to make the rules. Thankfully, the web doesn’t play by these rules any more. Which must be giving old Rupert the complete shits. Which is indeed, most excellent!

However, tin-pot old tyrants like Murdoch still wield a lot of power. It’s a dilemma all the new media organisations are grappling with – and that is, how do we play in the same sand pit without it turning into an all in brawl?

One of the smartest marketers I had the good fortune of meeting is Alex Mandossian. He’s passionate about teaching his students and clients about “consumption of content”.

As a business, I think companies like Google (and now Twitter) have failed in teaching us (the average guy on the street) how to actually consume their content. You might think Google didn’t have to. People were going to sign-up in droves when they realised the power of targeted search and the results it could bring.

Scoff all you like though. Google’s mainstream (now). Google’s enterprise (now). Google has armies of specialists, agencies, media organizations and trained individuals who will help you spend money via Adwords (now).

Marketing Directors at Fortune 500 companies don’t have to sweat getting to know how to set-up an Adwords account (anymore). They have people to do that. And no doubt, the same sort of specialist skills will appear around Twitter.

But Google is working like mad now to backfill all the sales, marketing and customer service positions it needs to cater essentially for the corporate market. It wasn’t always this way.

But to engage with Twitter, you have to “drive” yourself. You have to learn how to steer, to engage, to interract. Ultimately, you can’t pass the buck with Twitter. You’re 100% accountable.

Some of you might think after a week of “twittering” that you can’t be stuffed anymore. Even if it is like “texting for the web”.

Maybe the geeks think that the tidal wave of momentum will carry the day. But someone has to teach the 300,000 people a day who just showed up how to consume all that Twitter has to offer. And to make it stick. And to ensure enough of the 300,000 twitter sheep hang around and keep doing stuff.

I think the Twitter movement is just getting started. 70,000 apps already, 100M plus users, billions of tweets a quarter. It doesnt get any more impressive.

Forget about Steve Ballmer at Microsoft throwing a chair at the fact that he can’t get a piece of the action. Eric at Google must be burning shit down at the thought that Evan et al wont let him play. Not just yet anyway.

But for Twitter to survive long-term, I think it has to be able to withstand life outside of the incubator (ie the early adopters). Twitter’s traction is clearly going to come from mobile. Forget the black and white web. Mobile is where its’ at.

In Asia, not everyone may have a desktop or a PC. But mobile penetration rates are some of the highest in the world. In Singapore for example, mobile penetration is at 130%. Meaning that there are 6-million registered handsets but only 5-million people.

Countries like China are bypassing the old landline infrastructure. Too slow to install and scale, too expensive, and simply too old fashioned.

My humble opinion is that in the not too distant future, applications like Twitter will be far more important to you than you realise. From your mobile. And not via any other means.

Maybe the dilemma around Twitter is in my head. Maybe I shouldn’t be too concerned. After all, everyone worked out how to use “the Google”. Even George Dubya.

But. And it’s a big but. If any of you have tried to teach your parents how to use their current mobile, good luck at trying to teach them how to Tweet.

I don’t know how much more of this I can take…

Guys like Tom O’Brien make doing business anywhere – look easy.

But I suppose that’s the crux of it. When you uncover Tom’s background, you’ll discover that what may appear easy now is a result of doing 20+ years working in the same industry. He’s one of the region’s most respected commodity traders.

He’s a pro. And remarkably humble. Which makes him even more likeable.

I chatted with Tom about his 15+ year stint here in Singapore. He’s got terrific insight into what makes the region tick, what it takes to be successful here and why he thinks the region still has enormous potential.

Link to the transcript is here. And you can download the PDF here. Doing Business in Asia – Tom O’Brien

I have no idea why, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Twitter.

I first saw it in action back in 2007, at a Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. There were 2 plasmas in the main foyer, displaying scrolling “tweets” and people posting the most inane things I have ever seen.

I thought to myself “this will never catch on…”

And if you look at this usage graph from Pear Analytics, you may have been inclined to agree.

Now, 3-years later, lets recap.

- Twitter has raised around US$160M in funding. The VC community is salivating like Pavlov’s dog to jump onboard.
- The valuation of the business is now north of US$1 billion
- Twitter had over 4 billion “tweets” first quarter 2010
- According to Fred Wilson, one of Twitters investors, Twitter is the 33rd largest platform in the world and during February 2010, had in excess of 70M unique visitors (although Twitter wont reveal just how many accounts it has)
- Twitter’s growth has been explosive. Over 60% of tweets originate outside of the US.
- Twitters strength is its “real-time” view of every concievable niche.
- Twitter is currently, the only genuine threat to Google in the search space.
- The first black president elected used Twitter on the campaign trail. And knew exactly what it was and how to leverage the medium.

According to Comscore, just 11% of Twitter users are between the ages of 12 and 17. And this is the crux of it.

At 43, I’ll happily admit that I’m quite possibly too old to embrace Twitter. Nothing makes me want to lose the will to live more than reading “tweets” of supposed friends who insist on telling me what they had for dinner, that they haven’t had a decent bowel movement for 3-days or that their significant other has jumped the fence and become a lesbian.

Ok, I made that part up about what they were having for dinner. But everything else is true.

I am simply amazed at just how many times a day people can post what they are doing. Like I care. But ever since I downloaded the Twitter app for my BlackBerry and then quickly set up “lists” and followed the things that interest me, I have become somewhat of a Twitter evangelist.

Real time football scores. The latest travel updates. I could keep going but it just gets more embarassing.

While the smart folks at Silicon Valley bang their heads together to try and work out how they can monetize Twitter, and people my age cling to the hope that they wont be laughed at too much for tweeting away incessantly, it’s this younger generation who will embrace the medium like nothing else.

In a way, they already have.

Most kids I know don’t know how to talk on the phone anymore, despite them all carrying one. But man, can they text! I’m sure there are some kids who would submit an english term paper in 160 characters or less if it was allowed. Exasperated parents are constantly re-charging their kids pre-paid accounts in the vain hope that one day, in the not too distant future, their phone will actually ring, that it will be a child they gave birth to, and that this same human will want to actually chat.

Most aren’t holding their breaths for this to happen though.

Which brings me neatly to the headline of this post.

My own kids are on the verge of mobile mania. In a couple of years, I doubt whether or not I will ever communicate with them via email. I can though, imagine receiving the following “tweets” from them…

My son will simply send the following:

“@eightblack – send money!”

My daughter on the other hand, might try this:

“@eightblack – bringing home boy. be nice. put shotgun awy. pls dont aswr dr naked”

They’re not going to fire up their laptops (or iPads), open an email client and bang out a message. They’ll do it while they’re in a lecture or at work, or having lunch, or sitting on a train at whatever time of the day that suits them. From wherever in the world that they may be. From a device that they hold in their hand. And one that can actually be used as a phone, but they have no doubt, disabled this feature in the fear that either their neurotic mother or father may god forbid, try and call them.

Sure, Twitter will have to tackle the spam issue like everyone else. But as a permission medium, I think Twitter has only scratched the surface.

Think about how much time we waste and how many conversations get twisted using email. Using a 140 character limit means that you have to focus far more on the actual point.

A friend of mine from London sent me a tweet last night. I saw it on my BlackBerry app this morning. I tried to respond to the question she asked, which was simply this “@eightblack, what’s your view on the ipad? – Wait for the next version?”

It took me 3 attempts and a determined effort to stay under 140 characters. In a sense, I think what she wanted was a yes or no answer, and not a long-winded product evaluation.

I’d much rather people reach out to me via Twitter now. It makes sense. You can set up feeds, you can “follow” the people/places/things that interest you. And when you get bored, you cans stop and follow someone or something else. Perfect for people like me with A.D.D. You can sort these preferences into lists. And above all, you can search in real-time. And that’s something that even Google hasn’t cracked.

Think about it seriously for a minute. Look at your inbox. Look at all the messages in the last 24-hours and ask yourself this question. Is there anything here which I couldn’t respond to in 140 characters or less?

What if Twitter becomes the “start-page” of the web? Or more importantly, a place where YOU start. From a device you hold in your hand.

With 70,000 apps already developed, there’s not much the microblogging and information network can’t or won’t be able to do.

It will be interesting to see just what comes out of this weeks inaugural Twitter conference, annoyingly called “Chirp“. The event sold out weeks ago despite it carrying a admission fee of just under $500, it’s being moderated by John Battelle and the who’s who of the valley will be in attendance. You can be sure Google will have some folks in the audience.

And you can be sure the meteoric rise of Twitter is being tracked very closely by everyone that matters at Google. The thing that would probably be pissing Mountain View off more than anything, is that an acquisition is looking more unlikely as the days go by. Even Williams, one of Twitters co-founders has already sold to Google once, when he unloaded Blogger to them back in early 2003.

And if he and his partners have already knocked back $500M from Facebook, whatever offer comes from Google now would have to be able to choke a horse. And a very big one at that.

I’m convinced. Twitter is going to be more useful to us than Google. Maybe not tomorrow. But not far away. And as for plain old vanilla email, you can kiss that medium goodbye as well.

Paul Hourihane is one of the most respected marketers in South East Asia, having been recently nominated as one of the top 10 agency marketing professionals by his peers (Agency Of The Year Special Edition, marketing-interactive.com, 2009).

I met Paul over 15-years ago when we first arrived here in Singapore.

Since then, Paul has gone and built a highly successful South East Asian business – GoDirect!, which covers Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

He’s earned the right to talk about what it takes to business here in the region. He offers terrific insight into the nuances between the 3 markets he operates in, reveals some of the mistakes he sees people make when coming here for the first time and talks openly about what he would do if he had his time all over again.

Paul is a great operator, knows the region like the back of his hand and is widely respected by his peers and competitors alike.

The links for transcripts will be up shortly…

Update: Actually, they’re ready. Link here. And download PDF here. Doing Business In Asia – Transcript Paul Hourihane

I had the pleasure of working with Todd back in Melbourne – and now we find ourselves both based here in Singapore.

Todd is one of the best project managers and analysts I’ve worked with. And while he’s a relative newcomer to Asia, he has the attitude of a long-termer. He integrated quickly into life here, is passionate about the region, and has an adventurous spirit. Traits that are harder to find in the typically transient expat conveyor belt.

I thought Todd’s comments about “patience” versus “push” were spot on.

We’ll soon be offering transcripts of all our video interviews, so stay tuned. There will be a link at the bottom of each post.

Update: Link to the transcript here. And you can download the PDF of it here. Doing Business In Asia – Todd Kimpton Transcript

Coming up next, a conversation with one of Asia’s most respected marketers, Paul Hourihane from GoDirect!

I enjoyed this conversation. David is an example of a true internet entrepreneur. Packed his bags, his kids and his PC and headed to Singapore. And set up his company on the smell of an oily rag. You’ve got to admire his passion and determination. For him, there was no turning back.

He runs a company called Magic 8 Enterprises, and specialises in putting people’s products and services on the first page of Google. You can learn more here.

David’s a straight shooter and calls it like he sees it. Which is refreshing. I admire that he’s built a business which at present, is generating most of its revenue from local companies.

If there is an example of how a business environment caters to the budding entrepreneur, then Singapore and David go hand in hand.

More to come…

PS. Soon we’ll be adding the full transcription of each and every interview. There will be a link at the end of each post which will allow you to download and read the entire conversation at your leisure. We’re having the previous sessions done as we speak type.

The link to the transcript is here. And you can download it here.