We’ve got a program here at Ogilvy Beijing called “Innovation Day,” which we hold roughly every other Wednesday of each month. I’m usually responsible for inviting speakers, and we’ve had some terrific ones since last summer, when we started: Game guru Monty Singman, Gary Wang from Tudou, Xiaonei/Fanfou/Hainei founder Wang Xing just to name a few. Next time we’ve got Victor Koo, former president at Sohu and now CEO at video sharing site Youku.com. Today, we were fortunate enough to have Hongbo, a.k.a. Keso, the best-known IT blogger in China. He was editor-in-chief at DoNews before it was acquired by Oak Pacific Interactive, and now runs a small consultancy called 5G.He had some very interesting things to say in the nearly 90 minutes he spoke and answered questions. Some highlights:

  • We’ve all heard it said a million times that the Chinese Internet is all about entertainment, but Keso laid out some of the reasons as to why that’s the case. Besides the huge youth component of the Chinese netizenry (70% or more are under 30), he pointed out — and I admit this is something that hadn’t really occurred to me — that it’s simply one of the most economical forms of entertainment available in China: more entertainment bang for the buck, as it were.
  • He made the observation that China has historically lacked a “public sphere” — that is, a social space where ordinary citizens to discuss issues and form public opinion. The Internet in China, despite censorship, has filled much of this need; this explains, he says, the enormous popularity of BBSs in China.
  • While the Internet has been adopted widely in private life, somehow enterprise adoption in China is woefully low. Sites like Alibaba have enlightened thousands of SMEs as to the commercial power of the Internet, but millions of SMEs are still in the dark. Keso believes that this is an area where entrepreneurs would do well to direct their energies, even if it’s in something so simple as building basic websites for small businesses. This would be a terrific stimulus to the Internet economy in China. And this is where, in answer to a question from one of my colleagues in the audience, Keso would put $100 million in venture capital were it to fall into his lap.
  • Keso challenges those who are dismissive of the Web 2.0 wave in China just because it hasn’t yet produced much by way of commercial value. It has already brought about an irreversible change in the way that people interact with companies, with brands, and with media. Bubble or not, he says, it will find its motor just as search found one when Google launched AdWords.
  • Don’t expect conceptual change about the nature and possibilities of Internet marketing to come from the portals. They’re just old media in a new guise, and they can’t think beyond traditional advertising models. But Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, who really get the changes now afoot in the industry, will help move things in altogether different directions, just as we’re starting to see with some of the SNSs in developed markets.
  • IPTV of the set-top box variety isn’t the future in China. Video programming that offers real interactivity will be a PC-based phenomenon, not a sit-on-the-couch-with-the-remote activity. TV will come to the PC; Internet content won’t be going to the TV. 

Keso remains an undiminished optimist about the long-term prospects for the Internet in China. He’s very enthusiastic about prospects for video-related content, both P2P (where China really excels) and in video sharing. He believes that the 512K and 1M so-called “broadband” most Chinese people are accustomed to today will, in very short order, become just as antiquated as dial-up is to us today, and that a richness of content we can only imagine now will become a reality.