Kurt Weber

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I had the opportunity recently to visit Tibet.  It was one of my goals when I initially agreed to move to Asia.  I’ve been fascinated by the history of Tibet, the tragic side as well as the cultural side.  After a long battle to get our Tibetan visas (you need a separate visa from the China visa), we departed on a 2-day train ride from Shanghai.  Yes, 2 days. 

The train is the highest train ride in the world – called an engineering masterpiece, as it rolls over the icy passes of the Himalayas.  It reminded me so much of the carnival ride ‘Himalaya’ – sans the Foghat song rocking, “Slow Ride,” and a Carnie with a smoke dangling from his lips paying attention only to the 16 year old girl in pigtails.  Instead, Tibet opened up to us on the 2nd day of the train ride with wild donkeys, yaks, antelope, sheep, and more domesticated and wild animals ranging across the plains and highlands.  Absolutely stunning.

The train was quite comfortable – 4 of us had a private sleeper car with gently swaying beds.  I’ll admit, that I found our little cocoon to be quite charming.  Perhaps I was the only one that didn’t get tired and a bit of cabin fever.

Alas, after the 2 days, we arrived at Lhasa.  It’s a small city compared to cities in China – but the largest in Tibet at about 1/4-1/2 million.  In a region of less than 3 million people – that’s a significant gathering.  Also, I was surprised to learn that Tibet is the size of 3 Texases.  Yes – as if Texas isn’t large enough – imagine a population of Seattle spread over 3 of them.  The first night and morning, it was raining in Lhasa, so we left the hotel for a short 8 hour van ride to another town.  On the way, we went thru the clouds.  I then proceeded to ride a Yak – which I quickly became accustomed to.

  To be continued…

Had the opportunity to visit a small town just outside of Kunshan this weekend for a sampling of German beer, mixed with the Coors Light of China, “Snow Beer”.  Great fun.  While it was only 1 to 1 1/2 hours drive to Kunshan (pronounced ‘quinn-shan’), it was just far enough to generate the ‘foreigner stare’.  In fact, we were the stars of multiple photos of amazed Chinese local cameras.  Kind of funny too – I had expected a low turnout – a few hundred people at this beer festival that was under-publicized.  However, I would guess there were over 100,000 people there. 

Interesting article about people leaving Facebook in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/magazine/30FOB-medium-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine

The premise of the article explains that there are large groups of people leaving Facebook, while there are clearly lots of new people signing up – hiding those that are leaving.  I haven’t noticed one way or the other – and I don’t have any real data on the topic.  However, I am beginning to wonder if Facebook has lost it’s appeal.  Here’s why:

1.  Everyone is on Facebook.  It’s not exclusive – and it feels crowded.  I have new friend invitations each day – and I don’t know if I actually have 600 real-life friends.  I’m not interesting enough to have 600 real friends.

2.  I have trouble keeping the personal and professional separate.  I prefer LinkedIn for professional.  However, there’s little way to keep Facebook personal: it’s searchable, configuring every little feature to be private is a pain, and it’s not worth my time trying.  I’m more comfortable emailing photos of me with friends at this point.  But, this could be age speaking – I no longer have a need to get attention, I’m leaning towards a more private life.  Yes, I’m typing a blog as I say this.  But, I actually do feel more in control of my personal, private life with other applications.

3.  I really don’t need to know that my high school classmate just gave a cookie to little Timmy and he likes it.  This doesn’t add a whole lot to my day – and seems like these are the majority of updates.  Now, I definitely feel a shift in the target market – and I’m not it.  However, it’s clear that the target market is not the university students either.  I have taken to turning off the feeds for many people – and just trying to filter those that I have interest.  However, it seems that I am in a constant state of reviewing friend requests and turning off news feeds.  Tiresome and tedious.

4.  I had the chance to hang out with a 20-year old college student from the US this summer.  Pretty smart, normal guy.  I asked him if he used Facebook.  He rolled his eyes.  “No.  I’m not a 30-year-old woman.  Why would I use Facebook?”  Refer to #3.

5.  The motivation for today’s Facebook users seem to fall into a few different categories: women keeping up with girlfriends who also have a hectic family life (very convenient for this group – but again, not my demographic), play online games, flirt and potentially date.  I don’t like online gaming, and I’m not interested in flirting/dating since I’m in a solid relationship. 

6.  Annoying User Interface.  It’s just challenging to do some basic tasks like: blogging, changing privacy settings, cleaning up your inbox, viewing your own wall.

7.  No barrier to entry.  There are many other competing sites popping up – and unlike search, mobile, operating systems, etc. – the basic functionality of Facebook is very easy to copy.  So, when the next company comes along that appeals to the university students en masse, watchout.   Friendster is apparently still popular in Brazil and the Philippines. 

8.  I’ve gone 3-4 weeks at a time without checking into Facebook.  I didn’t miss it.  I can’t have imagined that 3 years ago.  However, I logged in, checked some messages that folks also sent directly to my email, looked at a couple of photos, and that’s it.  Nothing had changed.  Maybe I have the wrong expectations – but I didn’t see a reason to come back the next day.

9.  For all the thousands of applications on Facebook, I haven’t found one that really hooks me.  I’ve tried over 100.  This is not the case with the iPhone – in which hundreds of clever entrepreneurs are incented with serious profits to build great apps – and they deliver.  Again, I’m realizing that I’m not the target market – so I’m probably a minority on this.

10.  Facebook continues to stumble on privacy, content ownership, etc. and I’m not sure why.  Facebook is a very smart company – I know several employees – they are ‘A’ players.  But, the media seems to have started to follow more negative stories about Facebook recently.  This is not a good sign.  Facebook had benefited from being media darlings.  However, just a few nights ago, in watching Bloomberg TV, the 60+ year old host of a talk show commented that he had started a Facebook profile, and his college-age son was embarrassed that he was using Facebook – that it was not hip and relevant.  The gray-haired host chuckled about how the younger people have already started moving on from Facebook.  This is not good for Facebook.  When Fonzi jumped the shark in Happy Days, it was clear that he was just too old to be in the storyline and the storyline and ratings had fallen.  Although, he did look tough in a leather jacket and swim trunks.

All this said, Henry Winkler has made a great career comeback, and Ron Howard went on to direct fantastic movies.  So, the story isn’t over yet for Facebook.  (side note: it IS over for Facebook in China – the #1 online market.  The government has blocked Facebook – and won’t let up until Facebook either plays nice with the government, or the local competitor builds a large enough lead)  Facebook will undoubtedly innovate quickly.  But, will they do something dramatic enough to attract the students to keep returning the next day?   

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What happens when a country has a famously large and controlling government?  Bureaucracy.  Here’s an example.  It’s a very helpful guide to getting a legal work/residence visa in China.  Only thing more painful could be banking in China.

http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/community/index.php/2008/04/25/guide_to_getting_your_z_visa_work_aamp_r?blog=5

Well, my access to Facebook was lost in China a week or so ago.  Now, Picasa is blocked.  Some friends have asked me whether it bothers me – it does.  However, when I asked my Chinese friends whether it bothered them – and the quick and simple answer was no.  The local sites are not blocked: the local ripoff site of facebook, the local search engine, the local IM, the local blogs, the local photo site, no problems.  Of course, the firewall also contributes to the success and marketshare of the local companies.  The Great Chinese Firewall  - potentially preventing foreigner influence and revenue more than political sensitivity.

Interesting coverage of the Chinese unrest –  The Internet sites Facebook and Twitter are blocked as a result…to join the ranks of YouTube, BBC, more.

No more Facebook for me?  Not sure what I will do now with my social norms.  This will make my life extremely challenging – forcing me to communicate with traditional methods including email and phone.

To be honest, like many of the current university students moving off of Facebook, I have declared myself “too hip” for Facebook daily visits – as it has reached the masses.  But in my case, I believe it has more to do with the age of me and my Facebook friends: not sure I need to know about my high school classmates’ details about their son little Johnny eating oreos and watching cartoons.  And, I’m not looking for a new spouse.  Very happy with my personal life, thank you.

Internet and China: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_12771290?nclick_check=1

Official State Sources (before): http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/06/2617347.htm

Official State Coverage (after): http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200907/20090707/article_406651.htm