garry’s subposthaven

About 90 per cent of China's billionaires are the children of high-ranking officials. Princelings have fared far better in business than in politics, observed analyst Zhang Hua, who commented on the phenomenon in Hong Kong's Apple Daily in 2007. 'Not a single (princeling) family has been left behind,' he said sardonically. The various families have carved out territories in various industries. The family of former premier Li Peng, for example, controls the country's energy sector. His daughter Li Xiaolin is chairman of China Power International Development, an electricity monopoly. His son Li Xiaopeng used to head Huaneng Power, another energy heavyweight.

The family of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin has moved into telecommunications, while the offspring of former premier Zhu Rongji are strong figures in banking. His son Levin Zhu is the chief executive of China International Capital Corp. The princelings began staking out their dominions in the business world in the 1980s when China was opening up its economy. Armed with their fathers' connections, they were able to exploit the opportunities thrown up by China's economic transformation.By the 1980s, this economic revolution had led to much public disquiet, and when students staged protests at Tiananmen Square in 1989, much of their anger was initially directed at what they saw as rampant corruption by senior officials and their families.

Not surprising-- billionaires are minted at big sociopolitical dislocations. The opening and industrialization of China is one of the biggest in history.

Everyone talks about the Russian billionaire oligarchs who seized factories and entire industries for themselves. Perhaps they should lump the Chinese 'princelings' as well.

The difference? Maybe we don't hear about them because the Princelings don't buy prominent Western sports teams.

• Years ago in the pre-Internet era, AOL was the talk of the town, so Microsoft had to copy it with MSN. No money was made; no strategic advantage was gained.

• Netscape was the rage for a while, so Microsoft threw together a browser and got in that business. The browser was given away for free. No money was made; the strategy got the company in trouble with government trustbusters.

• During the early days of the Internet, new online publications appeared. Microsoft decided to become a publisher too, rolling out a slew of online properties including a computer magazine and a women's magazine. They were all folded.

• Computer books became popular; Microsoft began Microsoft Press. After an early splash and success, the company soon lost interest and the division now languishes.

• Teddy Ruxpin became a hot toy. Microsoft rolled out a couple of robotic plush toys, including the creepy Barney the Dinosaur who sang "I love you and you love me." The company soon lost interest and dropped the whole thing.

• AOL-TV appeared, along with other device-centric TV-delivery mechanisms in the 1990s. Microsoft created a Microsoft-TV division as well as a device. It soon lost interest.

• Adobe Photoshop became a huge success, so Microsoft hired Alvy Ray Smith to develop photo-editing software. Smith quit when the company lost interest in the idea.

• Yahoo and Google showed that a search engine could be a money maker, so Microsoft copied that idea; it now has Bing.

• Cloud applications are currently trendy, along with notions about software as a service. Microsoft decides to go into that business.

• The Apple rolled out a MP3 player, the iPod. Microsoft came up with its own MP3 player, the Zune. The company also says it wants to stream music.

John C. Dvorak is predicting the end of the party.

I think Microsoft is still too full of talented people for that to happen, but dude, seriously... the world would be a better place with Microsoft as an innovation-driven company rather than a fast-follower.

In just over a month, LOLquiz has amassed more than 300,000 users and scored at least 20 of Twitter's top trending topics--all by letting people write, take, and tweet about five-question quizzes. Yet Zohrob has no advertising budget and works with just one business partner: Jim Young, founder of HotOrNot.com. The success of LOLquiz, he says, is part luck, part tech, and an army of tweens. "I was just experimenting," says Zohrob, noting that he created the site after spotting the similarly popular quiz apps on Facebook. "I had no idea it would get this big."

Impressive work, Dave.

Full article here

"Sustaining engagement means routinely drawwing users back into your world with carefully designed touch points, timed to arrive before they drop below a C point."

Really cool analysis here.