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about Asia Buzz
Asia Buzz: Spot The Fake
Web users need the real thing--fresh, original content
By ERIC ELLIS
April 20, 2000
Web posted at 1:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, 1:30 a.m. EDT
An acquaintance of mine in Hong Kong put me in a difficult position recently. An ex-banker-cum-Netrepreneur, he sent me the URL of a site he'd developed that he claimed would help fill the yawning content gulf that does more to impede the takeoff of the Net in Asia than any NASDAQ turmoil. The web address he sent wasn't the numbers and code of a beta site, but the "live" URL of a site anyone who knew could hook into.
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 ASIA BUZZ
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Asia Buzz: False Legitimacy
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Asia Buzz: Dead Cat Walking
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- Tuesday,
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Asia Buzz: It's A Bubble!
(I want in!)
- Monday,
April 17, 2000
Culture on Demand: Scams and Worse Online
Is Net fatigue setting in?
- Saturday,
April 15, 2000
Letter from Japan: It's a Jungle Out There
The local/global Internet binary is never wider than in Japan
- Friday,
April 14, 2000
Asia Buzz: Hot Property
An ex-banker turns a blowtorch on Techpacific.com, and turns heads
- Thursday,
April 13, 2000
Subcontinental Drift: Crooked Cricket
And how the Gentleman's Game can be saved
- Thursday,
April 13, 2000
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 ASIAWEEK
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And it was an impressive addition to the Asian scene, full of stories and information of the region by quality content brand-names such as the New York Times, the BBC and TIME to name just a few. My contact said he wanted me to check out his site and offer a critique. Implicit in his request was for me to write about it, publicize it. Content is King, he told me, adding that the site would get millions of hits.
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I looked it over, saw all the stories framed within his site and remarked to him that he must've been busy since I saw him last, flying around the world and signing expensive content deals in London and New York. "What are you talking about?" he asked. I was referring to the Old Media content on his site. I wasn't aware that the media outlets mentioned above were cutting deals like that on the Net in Asia. It turned out they weren't.
My friend had simply instructed his techies to frame content from the sites within his own. That's a big no-no. I advised him that he'd better stop doing that pretty quickly or he'd burn his previous VC defending indefensible legal actions. He should've known better. Indeed, his media advisor--a former editor of a prominent Asian newspaper--should've known better, doing a bit more advising for his free options than simply advising of his bank account details should the site ever take off.
I haven't heard from my acquaintance since but I notice that he no longer frames, but links to those premium sites. I'm sure he has since learnt a valuable lesson--that content is expensive. It requires hiring journalists and editors, and they have egos and families and high maintenance, unlike smooth-running technology. Of course, you can't just rip off other's proprietary information like you are a Patpong stallholder doing a brisk trade in $10 "Rolexes."
Indeed, I suspect I may have scared him off, telling him that I was thinking of writing a column about this very subject. I'm sure he's back out working the money-go-round with a new business plan that includes hard-to-secure content talent. Forget the bells and whistles like Macromedia's Flash software. What brings web users back to sites again and again is fresh and original content.
So what do you do if you are rolling out Asianplumbing.com? You're highly skilled at mending kitchen leaks but you can't string two words together--in any language. The short answer is that you hook up with content specialists, or you rip it off like my acquaintance.
A good site gathering a reputation is Moreover.com. Think of it as a highly specialized search engine. For a sliding monthly fee, it will integrate as many or as little links from around 1,500 content providers into your website. There's no copyright problem here as clicking on the link will spawn a new browser, which throws up the content website and which gets a new hit. Of course, the new link may be so alluring as to take your attention away from the original site--and that's a danger--but it does solve the issue of having fresh content constantly renewed.
My tip is that copyright infringement will be a growing problem on Asia's frenetic Web. This is a region that has long ripped other people's intellectual property with impunity, from phony Madonna CDs in an Acehnese bazaar to bootleg Hollywood releases selling in the lanes around Zhongnanhai.
If it's a headache policing that in the real world--just ask U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky--imagine what it would be like in cyberspace, dealing with a rogue site that might be hosted in Iran one day and the Cayman Islands the next. If my erstwhile acquaintance and his ex-editor advisor want to make big fast money, maybe they should be investing in a law firm specializing in the Net. That is if they don't find themselves on the wrong side of the statutes first.
Ticked off at Asia Buzz? Turned on? Talk back to TIME
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