FiveAcross on NHL

Recently, I did a piece about Cisco’s acquisitions of FiveAcross and its business implication. I promised to do another one detailing how FiveAcross’s Connect Community Builder adds social networking capabilities to sites like NHL.com from a user point of view.

I created my NHL Connect personal page and instantly, it made me feel like a part of the fan community. Bear in mind that my only hockey knowledge is the great Wayne Gretzky and the Sharks. When the browser is in the “NHL Connect View”, the left panel carries a MSN-messenger-like portal that contains a collection of standard social networking tools, such as RSS, blog, message board, video streaming and etc. My favorite feature is the video sharing because nothing says how good your favorite hockey player is than a video of a few between-the-legs maneuvers and some great goals.

What I like the most about NHL Connect is the simplicity of the look-and-feel and ease of use. Although, it took me a while to figure out how to embed video streams. These seemingly straightforward tasks (for someone who is savvy with social networking sites) might come as a challenge for a regular hockey fan. And these are exactly the cool features that separate fans.nhl.com from a regular NHL forum.

Going back to Cisco’s strategy with FiveAcross. Cisco is identifying consumers’ demand for social networking capabilities on enterprise websites, and is expecting enterprises to embrace it like other consumer tools such as instant messaging.

As Cisco moves into this new market, it faces possible future competitors like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, which either own social-networking sites or offer tools to help build social networking into Web sites. So far, these companies have focused on allowing people to add social-networking features to their personal blogs and Web sites instead of developing a comprehensive solution for large enterprises. Cisco is smart to stay with its familiar territory of large enterprises while moving into the consumer market.

As an end note, other than NHL.com, FiveAcross’s client roster also includes DailyComedy.com and Alloy.com. Its competitors are the likes of BroadbandMechanics.com.

April 10, 2007 · Filed Under MObilenoDE Mobility

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5G - The First Web2.0 Consulting Company Founded in China

Keso, ex-editor in chief of Chinese BSP Donews.com and one of the most influential Chinese bloggers has recently announced the opening of his own startup. The Keso’s new adventure, named 5G will be an Internet consulting company specializing in web2.0 market, reported by the largest Chinese news portal Sina.com.

It might not sound like a breaking news for most of you, and I also did not talk to Keso for some exclusive background news (actually the conversation between Keso and me is limited to a few Hello so far ^_^). I gave my thumb-up to him and I think it is a really good news. Here are my thoughts:

The Chinese web2.0 market is not mature, and we need some specialists to point out a good direction to those fragile Chinese startups. We need some guidance and 5G can definitely be an efficient channel for Keso to contribute his priceless experience. Unfortunately, we only have one Keso but the Chinese Internet desperately needs more.

“Blogger” has found its position in Chinese web2.0, the netizen, the mainstream medias and even the government have seriously shown the interests on the blogosphere. However, it is still very hard to find a professional blogger in China. I have seen many very good foreign entrepreneurs were very active in the blogosphere, they built their fame from blogging, and also take blogging and feeds-reading as an important part of their lives. There should be more and more journalists and entrepreneurs come from the bloggers, which is what I really believe the way to drive the future’s Internet.

The web2.0 is an easy-to-say-and-hard-to-do. It could be deadly easy to profile a web2.0 startup and comment on its pro and con, but it could be a completely different thing to actually run it. I think Keso is brave. He stands up to run his own startup and also takes much more responsibilities to help other startups (I know Keso has advised many startups before, but need mention that, now he is dealing with his Customers, and the friendship may not work very well any more).

The news says 5G has already sign several contracts with the web2.0 companies such as the leading Chinese video-sharing site Tudou.com. No surprise for me at all, I am sure Keso can easily find a customer with his massive resources. So congrats to Keso, with my very best wishes.