Seesmic - a video twitter startup raised $6M at Feb

While Evan Willams(Founder of Twitter.com) was Focus on Simplicity, saying Trashing Features to Create Value, and asking "What can you create by taking things away", Seesmic, a start-up by adding video conversation feature to twitter(like a video twitter), has just raised 6 million dollars from an impressive list of investors.

Seesmic got more dollars ($6M) than twitter ($5.4M) when it's only in pre-Alpha early stage.

Seesmic added new feature just like:

1. Share video online - post YouTube URL, or recording/uploading
   
2. Video conversation - Video reply to others' video
3. Sync with users' social networks - Can be synced to Twitter.com, etc

Can we image chatting to friends in pre-recorded video messages? And we will got a video conversation including the every video reply.

I was always believing that multimedia message will be more and more important in our daily life, besides text message, we also share video/music with our friends. Thanks for the internet technology, it's easy and fast today. That's the reason why I built YouKu.com for Chinese video sharing users in 2006.

For more information, you can follow those links:

• Twitter Founder Says Trashing Features Creates Value - http://www.cmswire.com/cms/tips-tricks/leweb3-twitter-founder-says-trashing-features-creates-value-002091.php
• Loic Le Meur's Seesmic raises 6 million - http://thenextweb.org/2008/02/13/loic-le-meurs-seesmic-raises-6-million/
• Seesmic - http://www.seesmic.com
  

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JiWai.com had already supported Video Conversation

At Dec 2007, Our JiWai.com had already supported sharing video (YouTube/Youku/Tudou) on JiWai.com like Seesmic, and with our "Reply" feature, The videos can be easily became a Video Conversation.

Besides the Video Conversation, We also support Music Conversion & Photo Conversion.

Instead of save those multimedia ourselves, we provide this service by using Web API to mashup with video sharing sites like Youtube/Youku/Tudou, as well as music sharing sites like 8Box/YoBo, and photo sharing sites like Flickr/Yupoo etc.

Also, JiWai.com have supported Sync with users' social networks such as Twiter.com/Facebook.com/Sohu Blog/Netvibes etc. We are still planing to support more to make JiWai.com more powerful.

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We are working hard on developing JiWai.com better, so stay tuned.

• Visit our blog website at: http://blog.jiwai.de.
• A blog writing about how to make video/music/photo conversation can be visited at here - http://blog.jiwai.de/index.php/archives/25

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Send SMS "get zixia" to 106693184 to see what I'm doing!
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JiWai.de Xinhua-FT Group #4 of 4 - Chicken Born To “Gossip” Another IT Landscape

2007年11月26日，新华社国际经济部的15个记者，在英国 Financial Times 的martin 带领下，前来叽歪办公室视察指导工作。


工作报告 #4 of 4 - Chicken Born To “Gossip” Another IT Landscape

A Tsinghua science-graduate strives for diamonds from information fractions, whose new micro-blog helps us understand his mission unaccomplished, writes Xinhua-FT Group

A chicken slanting its head gossiping (the logo of Jiwai.de which pronounces in Chinese like chicken slanting and in meaning of gossiping) is just like Li Zhuohuan, a young man who has the enthusiasm to gossip but not a fluent English speaker by talking discontinuously during an English interview class.

Li, casually dressed like a college student welcoming us 15 journalists from Xinhua and our teacher Martin from FT at the entrance of his office, where is nearly empty with only a round of bright orange sofa and a computer desk inside and no decoration, showed us Monday a new concept of a communication model in the e-era.

Li, founder of Jiwai.de, excited about the communication style twitter providing, and thus created Jiwai.de, which he described as a Chinese twitter and a chat room.

The 28-year-old former administrator of Shui Mu Qing Hua (a BBS operated by Tsinghua students) said the great difference between Chinese and the U.S. clients is that many Chinese clients are not good at expressing, which he thinks he himself is also not accomplished in it.

In micro-blog, people could write down their thoughts in pieces wherever they are, instead of writing long articles, otherwise maybe they will forget what has sparked in their mind.

The young founder with already 8 years working experiences said: “In the era of information explosion, information has been fractionized. People are not willing to read long stories. What Jiwai.de would do is to find the essence of these fractionlets, and create value for the reader. ”

Jiwai.de is “not only a micro-blog, but also a new media”, which allows the clients to send and receive messages through QQ, MSN, Gtalk, Skype, Wap and handset to it. “We can get any information through any devices from anyone at any places at anytime.” according to Li.

However, just starting their business on May 20 this year, the 10-staff small company provides services totally free to only tens of thousand of clients, which is obviously not enough to make the company to dig the first barrel of gold.

Despite Li admitted frankly that the company still has no profit, he is confident about the company’s future by saying “if the visitors reached 10,000,000, we will certainly find the model to make money”.

Talking about his competitors, Li pointed out that Fanfou.com (also a company providing similar micro-blog service) has more clients due to the robust promotion, which his company is lack of by showing us the empty first floor of his office which assigned for marketing department with actually no staff working there.

After the interview, Li Zhuohuan, the guy working round the clock, caught on the train to Shanghai, from where he sent out one of his gossips saying “Today is my oral English day talking to Martin for a whole afternoon with sweat streaming down my back”.

JiWai.de Xinhua-FT Group #3 of 4 - Desperate, dedicated, but no despair

2007年11月26日，新华社国际经济部的15个记者，在英国 Financial Times 的martin 带领下，前来叽歪办公室视察指导工作。


工作报告 #3 of 4 - Desperate, dedicated, but no despair
- Passion is all that about, writes Xinhua-FT group

Zero profit, 10 staff, 6 months’ operation, 100,000 US dollars burnt, -- such is the situation faces Li Zhuohuan, founder of China’s twitter clone, Jiwai.de.

What kind of business model to apply Li does not know, but that does not hamper his determination to turn money out of his cyber platform, where users can broadcast their throwaway thoughts to friends and the world through instant messaging, mobile phone text messages and their own websites.

Instead of making profits, Jiwai.de., much similar to the US "Web 2.0" service www.Twitter.com, has to pay message fees if it reply text messages to mobile phones.

“We will find a way out as soon as possible,” grinned the 28-year-olds, sitting at a couch in a virtually-no-decoration room in a building in Zhongguancun, China’s Silicon Valley and the earliest science park in the country, where more than 10,000 high-tech companies situate.

The rapid growth of a great number of high-tech enterprises in China has made them the most dynamic and promising sector of the economy in recent years.

Blocks away from Jiwai stands another mansion that belongs to Founder Group, one of the country's most successful IT companies, whose PC business has secured No. 2 in China for the past 7 years, with 3.5 billion US dollars of total assets.

When four Peking University teachers set up Founder at a basement with a merely 400,000 yuan of registered capital 20 years ago, Li was just a primary school student, who might have no clue at all that he, after graduated from Tsinghua University, cradle for many China’s leaders, would follow suit of these forefathers of China’s high-tech industry.

At the grandiose dome-shaped multi-media auditorium on the top floor of Founder group, Zhang Bingxian, its deputy CEO, envisioned that they were focusing on up-stream chips and circuits boards. Along its path of development for more than two decades, Founder’s business has expanded to health care and pharmaceuticals from mere PC manufacturing.

Li, who requires himself and his colleagues to work 7/24, admitted learning from others (namely, twitter) was "necessary" at the early stage but also emphasized that his company have been trying hard to create more.

He cited his latest invention of "Jiwai screen", where instant messaging and phone messages can be displayed in a large screen. "We are applying for a patent," he said.

"Be it a success or a failure, this is worth trying," Li took a deep breath, ready for his biz trip to Shanghai for his “Jiwai screen” promotion.

Obviously there is a long way to go for Li, yet, in such a fast-developed economy as China, who can deny Li and his colleagues will not create another IT empire in 20 years? Or maybe just 10?

JiWai.de Xinhua-FT Group #2 of 4 - Maverick IT founder shrug off traditional Chinese motto

2007年11月26日，新华社国际经济部的15个记者，在英国 Financial Times 的martin 带领下，前来叽歪办公室视察指导工作。

工作报告 #2 of 4 - Maverick IT founder shrug off traditional Chinese motto

BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) – Chinese parents will have their hearts shattered if their children fool away studying time at China’s top university for all-day ramble on their own interests. But it is a frequent truth and amazingly these maverick students somewhat get rewarded while shaking traditional creed.

Former Tsinghua (China’s MIT) graduate Li Zhuohuan, 28 years old, who prefers to call himself Zixia (purple rainbow) after a good-hearted female movie figure, is such a typical maverick. Graduated in 2001 from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Tsinghua, Zixia has already been a hot figure on campus for his Zixia BBS.

Calling themselves the “axe-band”, Zixia BBSers shows a close bond as a popular community even till now. The axe-band relies on the Zixia BBS so heavily that they couldn’t stand the breakdown of Zixia’s server and even contributed money for him to buy a new one not long ago.

The saga goes on. Zixia or the maverick turned his back on his four-year major and followed his IT dreams after graduation. After working with Youku (a Chinese Youtube) as Chief Scientist for one and a half year, Zixia decided to stand on his own leg for his own “interest and happiness.”

“Twitter, chirp, buzz, gabber, gabble, whisper, …” these are what Zixia desires his website “Jiwai.de” to be full of, after following his personal love of American Twitter.com.

Since its establishment on May 20 this year, a symbolic day in China with a meaning of “I love you”, Jiwai.de has attracted thousands of users till now, though no profit return has yet been seen.

“We are not quite sure about our return model, but it is for the sake of happiness when recognized by users,” said the maverick with passion.

Daily cost of Jiwai.de includes 1,000 yuan of rent fee, payment of salaries to its 10 staff who are all fresh graduates from Beijing’s top universities, indicating that Zixia has poured at least 500,000 yuan (67,567 US dollars) till now.

“Jiwai now is burning money, my and my friends money, but Jiwai is our dream,” said Zixia, “More than the clone of Twitter, we create Jiwai Screen, a new interactive software to facilitate Q&A phase in a conference.”

Chinese traditional education motto is challenged in front of Li Zhuohuan, but by no means Li Zhuohuan is the only student who shrugs off “good good study, day day up.”

Uncertainties ahead are very much like shreds and fractions blogged on Jiwai.de, but wonders always spring out of uncertainties and wonders are usually created by mavericks. Enditem

JiWai.de Xinhua-FT Group #1 of 4 - Chicken Born To “Gossip” Another IT Landscape

2007年11月26日，新华社国际经济部的15个记者，在英国 Financial Times 的martin 带领下，前来叽歪办公室视察指导工作。


工作报告 #1 of 4 - Chicken Born To “Gossip” Another IT Landscape

A Tsinghua science-graduate strives for diamonds from “information fractions”, whose new micro-blog helps us understand his mission unaccomplished, writes Xinhua-FT Group

“Right information, (to) right person, (at) right time, right place and (through) right device,” is believed the core spirit of JiWai, a two months old “interactive commutation dot com”. Its founder, Li Zhuohuan, a Tsinghua IT graduate, simply puts it by revealing his envisioned landscape in an awkward yet passionately oral English, to 15 green-hand journalists led by a British pro, whom he clearly believes to be his would-be users.

“See, just this simply and speedy!” Li’s eyes sparkled when he finishes a brief demonstration of his Jiwai. The 15 Xinhua trainees are excited and inspired by his platform partly, and apart from that, obviously more by his characters, extra-ward, willingly, and determined.

Incorporated with current popular chatting tools like Tencent QQ, MSN, G-talk, Skype and even individual cell phones, Li boasts the superb convenience of Jiwai, whose logo is a cute chicken with its mouth wide open, and its characters meaning “gossip” in Chinese, is simply an interactive communication platform online in which, he claims that “every registered users can “gossip” and indulge themselves”.

Seeing is believing. The creation of such communication platform is fully understood and appreciated after a face-to-face chat with Li, born in 1979, yet shares features like highly-educated, creative and fashionable ---- typical characters of the generation born after 80s in China.

Positioning Jiwai determinedly on potential young users, Li is fully aware of differentiated competitions with his U.S. rival ---- twitters, whose participants actively contribute resourceful and logic comments.

As he acutely perceived that, Chinese online chatting users tend to “gossip” casually, and pick out values from “information fractions” in this info-explosive era.

“No body will bother reading paragraphs of texts during casual time, they like to gossip and enjoy, instead.”

Despite promising outlook of users scale, Li has to face limited funding, money burning, and striving for profit-turning point.

“Me and my friend invested on our own money, ”he smiles confidently, and funding clearly turns out to be not a question at all to him.

The odd is that he doesn’t want venture capitals participation simply because he could not bear to “give his niche to yet another with no plans in his head” ----- “That would be more confusing, isn’t it?” he sparkled with a somewhat perceivably hidden confidence on his face.

Li obviously has no blueprint as for how to make his enterprise profitable, which, in his words, that he and his stuff are striving for their prospect profit model and which he believes could become true someday soon.

To what people often relates to potential successful people ---- “somebody’s got great gut and delicate minds”, he embodies the characters also in his arrangements of his work place.

The office, a duplex situates in a luxurious business skyscraper, is simple, tidy and in order. The upper floor stuffed with 6 or 7 young graduates of Li’s teens, busily researching program models in front of their PC screens.

“My stuff here is required to work 8 hours a day, but they normally work a 10-hour shift, and extensions are optional,” Li says frankly at easy, “as for me, I work 24 hours a day, & days a week, simply, around the clock!” The reason, as he puts it, “I love what I do, and I do enjoys this.”

Named “Zixia”, or the purple rainbow, resembles a beauty’s title in the amusing edition movie of “Journey to The West”, clearly amusing and humorous, Li confesses his devotion to fashions and cutting-edge IT tools.

“You guys are more than welcome to join in! Help me strengthen my users’ base!”

Late in the night, Li has scheduled to fly to Shanghai, China’s east business hub, to patricide a conference and promote his Jiwai platform. However, hardly any second-thought and hesitation can be perceived, but instead, a determined devotion to the career he has always loved. Enditem.