Lee Kai Fu Talks About Mobile Internet at Qinghua University

Lee Kai Fu at Qinghua. Sorry for the blurry shot, it was taken from far away.

Founder and CEO of Innovation Works, Lee Kai Fu, was a guest speaker at Beijing’s renowned Qinghua University on Saturday night, speaking with a group of budding/aspiring entrepreneurs (in Chinese of course). The theater room was packed to the rafters, with many folks even standing outside, hoping to sneak in.

Lee didn’t waste any time before he dived into the meat of his talk; he said that Qinghua is an extremely good school, but unfortunately not one that breeds good entrepreneurs. He then moved on to explain why now is the best time to start a business, flashing a slide which shows the trends in the last three decades in China: 1984 – Manufacturing; 1992 – Exporting; 1999 – Internet; 2011 – Mobile Internet.

Lee made a good point about the Internet, in direct translation saying: “Any industry that is touched by the Internet will be gobbled up.” He then listed examples — like games, TV, and media/publishing industries — where traditional players haven’t been quick to embrace the Internet.

He also emphasized that the same will phenomenon will be seen with mobile, stressing that the mobile Internet is the next upcoming wave.

There are many examples and reasons to believe so. Apps which have grown from zero to millions include Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, KakaoTalk, and many more. Lee pointed out that the rate of download of apps has increased exponentially – by 36 times per year – quoting some Umeng stats (a company backed by Innovation Works).

But we can’t see mobile as a standalone thing. Lee says that we should integrate social and location into mobile, quoting the widely used SoLoMo term. The concept of SoLoMo is that it can do what PCs can’t. Lee pointed to IM which has evolved itself on mobile as an example. He states that QQ on mobile can do so much more as you can ping someone even when he/she is on the move. Mobile also helps QQ users, or any other social internet users, find people around their location and has thus changed the way we socialize and interact on the web.

SoLoMo has also changed the way we do businesses. On that, Lee quickly dismissed the notion of group-buying. He said that the group-buy concept, though it helps promote products, actually kills the bottomline of merchants. He questioned why we need a middleman if businesses can actually reach customers themselves through other means.

One good example he cited is that of pushed-SMS, or to put it blatantly, SMS spam. Lee explains that the reason why we hate SMS ads is because they aren’t targeted. Advertising can be good information as long as it is targeted to people’s needs. For example, a SMS that reminds you about your wife’s birthday coupled with discount coupons would be very much well-received by consumers. The crowd laughed and apparently agreed with his point.

Lee also shared a little more about his own start-up incubator, Innovation Works, in the second half of his speech at Qinghua. I will cover that pretty soon. Stay tuned.