A (somewhat delayed) Report and Impression of the Mashup2

Written by Guest Blogger on June 8, 2006
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- By Michael Li

The hand of time often has a powerful distorting effect – it makes certain things fade away and, at the same time, selectively highlights certain others. As this write-up is almost 3 weeks post the Mashup2 event which took place on May 20th, it could suffer from both effects from the hand of time; therefore one should simply treat it as a personal recollection, neither comprehensive nor objective.

The Mashup2 took place in Hangzhou in a tea house by the beautiful Westlake on Saturday, May 20th 2006, following the successful Mashup1 which was hold in Nanjing on March 18th, 2006. The idea to organize some regular mashup camps originated from exchanges in the online discussion google group Ideas Factory China that was started by Isaac Mao, Jianshuo Wang and several other friends and colleagues back in Feb. 2006. Soon after I introduced the first US mashup camp ongoing then in Silicon Valley, some active discussions among the group followed which lead Robert Mao to propose a group BBQ in Nanjing, which was later expanded to include people who were not then in the group following the suggestion of Isaac.

While the scope of mashup camp in Silicon Valley is somewhat more narrowly focused on “mashed up” interesting web applications and services, the mashup camps in China turn out to be a lot more open-ended and wide in scope. As demonstrated by the 2 camps held in Nanjing and Hangzhou so far, it is in reality an event for people who have strong interest in emerging advanced web applications, services and technologies, as well as in becoming internet entrepreneurs, to get together, sharing and exchanging new ideas, and making new friends. It is this kind of open-mindedness, cooperative and collaborative spirit that I hope will continue to flourish in future mashup camps, and that could spread and percolate more into China’s web and internet community that will lead to more mature, high-quality and meaningful web services and applications to help build a better society and a more livable and enjoyable world around us all.

The Hangzhou Mashup2 has impressed me in two aspects: One is that Hangzhou is fast becoming a major dynamic city with more new internet start-ups emerging, and the other is that more young people are willing to take the risk now and are starting their own internet companies as the barrier of entry and the cost to start a web service are continue to decrease. This certainly points to some level of bubble forming in the sector, but as those of us who have experienced the web1.0 bubble several years back can testify, the truly innovative, well-managed and solid start-ups will be able to endure and survive the web2.0 bubble and continue to grow, to become successful.

Some of the start-ups that I have had chance to meet and talk to are listed below in no particular order: Edushi (3D virtual city maps), Yupoo (a flickr-type photo web service), Goto.cn (online music service/community), Yododo (travel community), Car.com.cn (auto drivers community), Cityram (2D maps), 8box.cn (online music search/community), 50ren (a new form of community based magazine/media proposed by Yezi), and Mipang (an online travel community). There were a number other start-ups in presence at the Mashup2 that I regret didn’t have the chance to meet and talk to, but I hope to meet them at other mashup camps and wish them, as well as those above, future success and the best of luck in the pursuing of their individual dreams!

Michael Li is Managing Director of Incubator2.cn, an incubator for China’s internet startups and a community for local enterpreneurs and VCs.

Michael Li is the first guest blogger of this blog, I would also welcome anyone who would like to share your opinions and ideas on this blog to be a guest blogger.

4 Responses to “A (somewhat delayed) Report and Impression of the Mashup2”

  1. Hu Dou on June 9th, 2006 2:20 am

    Hangzhou has almost everything to be a Silicon Valley, based on Paul Graham’s http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html

    Hope to see more this kind of reports.

    Thanks!

  2. Marshall Kirkpatrick on June 9th, 2006 12:21 pm

    Great write up. More guest bloggers, please! Keep ‘em comming, much appreciated.

  3. stlplace.com » Blog Archive » Douban mipang and hnlhousing on June 22nd, 2006 12:27 pm

    [...] Here is an article from China Web 2.0 Riview.           [...]

  4. zheng gaozhao on June 22nd, 2006 11:30 pm

    国内真正有意思的mashup还是不多

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