The power of free data and the power of API:

Amazon’s “newest project Public Data Sets on Amazon Web Services began offering more than 1 Terabyte (1000 GB) of fascinating public data for developers to access on the fly through Amazon’s cloud computing service.”

New York Times is making its huge database accessible to the developer community and bringing developers together for Times Open, the publication’s inaugural API seminar.

We have seen this free data and API trend across all industries inluding education and government. I am a big fan of free data - no body owns any particular data; it’s how the data is being used matters.

The free data and API somehow reminds me one practice from Dao - you don’t control anything; you simply be with it.

Tags: amazon, api, developers, new york times

To help you digest all the web trends during the week, I decided to start my weekly wrapup posting on each Friday. So you can quickly capture the top trends on web traffic, technology, search, retailers and other trends.

Traditional retailers have a lot work to do with their search results

• Based on Internet Engine’s recent study, Online retailers represent more than 30% of the search listings from a typical online retail search on a major search engine, while brick-and-mortar stores only show up in searches 12% of the time
• Free vs. Paid Results Show More Dramatic Difference: the free or organic listings of the traditional retailer websites have only a 2% share of the total listings. This is dramatically smaller than the share for free listings for eCommerce sites at 17%, shopping comparison sites at 11% and manufacturers’ websites at 10%.

Top 50 web properties for January: Tax, Career job sites, Travel are getting popular. More detail

Web Transaction performance Indexes look at both Credit Card Web Transaction and E-Banking Web Transaction Performances. More detail

A study looked at who are America’s Fashion Conscious: Single, Coastal Women Using Amex. More detail

Search terms on the rise in Dec: Unemployment, Coupons, Discount and Bankruptcy. More detail

Tags: fashion conscious, retailers, search, tax, web transaction performance, web trends, weekly wrapup

To continue my passion and interest around Digital China theme, here are some research, online resources and tools that I want to share with you:

• Asia Pacific Digital Marketing Yearbook 2008 (digital marketing profile of Asia Pacific countries, including China)
• Web2Asia (a blog about web / mobile news & events in Asia, including China)
• China Web2.0 Review (a blog about web2.0 trend in China )

There are a lot of technology orgnizations in Bay area with the focus on China:

• Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association (network among Chinese professionals in Silicon Valley and mainland China)
• Chinese Software Professionals Association (network among Chinese software professionals in Silicon valley)
• Lots of university also have different clubs for Chinese professionals or entrepreneurs

(I’ll continue to add to this list with my other finding)

Tags: china, digigal china, resources, social networks for digital china

I am so glad that I went to the SD Forum event last night - International SIG: CHINA - INSIDER INFORMATION

It was not surprising that there are a lot of people in Silicon Valley and US are interested in China, from culture, business and all other perspectives. What encouraged me from my conversions at the event is: I really could bring a lot of value on this topic - a lot more than what I realized. It seems that my culture background as a Chinese and the fact that I now live and work in Silicon Valley is an interesting combination, given the economic time and global shift that we face. I’m planning to contribute more in this area in several ways: to help people in Silicon Valley learn and understand China, especially in technology and culture related topics; to connect the people who have interests in exploring more opportunities in Chinese market;  and to participate in the conversation and activities where I as a Chinese American techie can contribute more

Enough about my own plan. Here are some tips from me on how to look at web and mobile in China:

• Start with culture: things simply don’t work the same way in different cultures. Understanding people’s life, values and believes helps with the communication and relationship the most.
• Drill down to each industry: one character of China in general is the huge difference between regions, working classes, ages, and industries. It’s helpful to learn about the general statistics, but it’s probably more practical to dive deeper into one particular industry. Then, find out what matters / interests you the most within one industry.
• Talk to different people for different opinions: I don’t think any one has the best understanding on any single topic. The power of connecting with different people is for you to have a bigger and more complete picture of one thing/topic. Don’t get caught by one person’s opinion. Seek more ideas and get connected with more brains.

This is just the start of my series posts around the topic “China - web & mobile”. I’ll focus on some more specific topics in my upcoming postings. Stay tuned And let me know what you are interested in.

Tags: china, mobile in china, sdforum, web in china

During the weekend, I went to one event as part of the Stanford Entrepreneur Week. Most of the events are free. If you are interested in anything related to startups or entrepreneur, do check it out. It is a good event to learn, share and network with people in the entrepreneur fields of business and research.

The event I went is “Pitching and Presenting Workshop: How to Make Your Story Compelling”. The material from the workshop and presentation was nothing new, but very practical. What amzaed me is the fact that there are so many people are interested in “pitching”, yet there are few people who really knows how.

Here are my key learning that I would like to share from my own experience:

• Pitching happens every day on almost everything we do.

Pitching is not only a business activity. It happens at work, at home, at movie theatre, among colleagues, between wife and husband, among friends, online and offline…You and your friend were discussing if they would all go to the movie you want, it’s a pitch. Your husband or wife wants to buy a Graco car seat versus a Chicoo brand, it’s a pitch. You have an innovative idea on how to improve one project and you need to get your boss’ buy in, it’s a pitch. You run into a person at a bar, who could be your potential client, and you want him/her have more interests in your offering, it’s a pitch…

• Practice your pitch skills when ever you can.

With your wife, your boss, your colleagues, or someone you run into at a bar…

• Develop your pitch on your own brand - who you are - and always keep it in your back pocket

Have a short 2-3 sentence long pitch around your self: who you are, what you do, what might be interesting to your audience at the time. I found this tactic really helpful. It’s like the real and juicy inside-content of your “business card”, that helps others to know about you and what you do as a real person.

• Other common successful pitch elements:

The workshop summarized 3 main tips on how to create a compelling pitch from business perspective:

1. what’s the problem you are trying to solve
2. why it matters /why it is a problem
3. how you are going to solve the problem and why it’s different

I broadened these tactics to the general use for our day-to-day activities, not only business activities. The methods is actually quite simple: make it interesting to your audience at the time and keep it short.

Tags: entrepreneur, event, pitch, stanford, story telling

While putting these Amazon numbers together, I keep wondering where Amazon is going:

• Amazon recent sales and shares:

For the fourth quarter of 2008, Amazon sales up 18% to $6.70 Billion; 2008 Free Cash Flow Grows 16% to $1.36 Billion. There were already some early indications that Amazon had a strong holiday season, most notably the company’s announcement that it set a single day record for orders on Dec. 15. We have to keep another data point in mind, that online holiday shopping falls 3 percent overall.

Not surprise, Amazon shares skyrocket after the company released its fourth quarter results.

• Amazon’s biggest job growth

Its employment had risen to 20,700 people as of the end of January 2009. That translates into net growth of 3,700 people — the company’s biggest annual jump in nearly a decade. In this current economy environment, it’s rare how Amazon keeps hiring while most of other companies are cutting back.

• Amazon’s big year of Acquisition

The company spent $432 million on acquiring companies in 2008, more than ten times the amount in 2007. As TechFlash mentioned, Much of Amazon’s 2008 acquisition bill is likely due to Audible. Amazon acquired the audiobook company last year for a reported $300 million. Amazon also acquired Abe Books, an online seller of used, rare and out-of-print books; Shelfari, a social networking site for book lovers; and Fabric.com, an online fabric store. Amazon’s Internet Movie Databse (IMDb) acquired Withoutabox, an indie film distributor.

The 2008 number is striking given Amazon’s relatively restrained acquisition spending in recent years. In 2004, Amazon spent $75 million on Chinese web retailer Joyo.com.

I’ll keep watching Amazon as it is so interesting to see where it’s heading towards.

Tags: amazon

Based on e-tailing’s annual survey, here are some recommendations for online merchants to optimize their website features to improve sales:

• Rethinking promotions

Merchants are creatively rethinking promotional strategies to get the sale immediately, as evidenced by limited-time-only promotions’ jump to 42% penetration (i.e., use by retailers) in 2008 from 18% in 2007.

The use of Online Outlets increased 14 percentage points in penetration. With 86% of merchants now deploying this tactic, a dedicated well-merchandised location to attract price-sensitive shoppers deserves attention.

Free shipping, not surprisingly, remains a promotional standard offered by more merchants in diverse manners that complement their business models, including an increase in conditional free shipping to a store (26% in 2008 vs. 15% in 2007).

• Refining search

Putting control in the hands of the customer, merchants are capitalizing on search usage and tools via onsite capabilities–from landing-page sorts to creative ways of finding product.

Keyword search is the standard-bearer, as 100% of the sites surveyed have the feature.

Beyond that, a majority of merchants are implementing in-depth refined search (85%), providing guided navigation (63%), and landing page sorts (77%) in part replacing advanced search (15% vs. 23%) as these newly tracked metrics provide fewer click-throughs to reach the desired product.

• Retooling content/information

The use of video and audio increased significantly from 2007 levels, with video penetration up to 62% from 45% in 2007, and use of audio reaching 61% penetration among surveyed e-tailers.

Customer education is paramount, and here too category-centric content elevates the shopping experience while interactive tools ensure customers make the right choice, according to e-tailing group.

• Reinventing community

“Share” is a new metric in the e-tailing group survey; merchants’ sharing strategies range from the old-fashioned to the new as they test various means throughout their sites.

Anticipate increased usage of sharing as shoppers become more comfortable with sharing and merchants understand the viral power of cost-effective community initiatives, e-tailing group said.

Original post is here

Tags: ecommerce, etailer, online merchants