This event was organized by the OpenWeb.Asia Workgroup and prominent entrepreneurs and bloggers within Asia's web industry.

While a good local startup in a European country can soon go international, having users from Europe and the United States, in Asia language is the top issue. Attracting users from neighbouring countries is difficult.

Each local web market in Asia is potentially huge, but these markets are still restricted and the global audience still lacks communication channels to understand the Asia web. Social networks are very popular in China. The mobile market is fascinating in Japan. Online gaming originated from and is still driven by Korea.

The India and Singapore markets could be easier entries for English-only service. Local markets like Vietnam are still quiet, but will be a battlefield for big names from China, Korea and Japan when ready for expanding. 

Social Web is Theme

Spurred by a desire to create a high-quality, informative and practical technology conference focused on the Asian Internet industry, Open Web Asia '08 was organized with 'The Social Web' as its theme.

Socialization has been a game-changing development on the Internet, and the social web is an area where Asia has its own strength and vibrancy. Asian countries have a distinct Internet culture and market players, so cross-country comparisons can be made.

Topics expected to be discussed at Open Web Asia '08 include: 1) How the Asia web sees trends in the global Internet industry; 2) The innovations in Asia's web; 3) The mobile and online gaming markets; 4) What are the challenges of internationalizing an Internet business to and from Asia?

Open Web Asia '08 provides a stage where leaders Kim James Woo (CEO, Yahoo Korea), Kevin Day (CEO, Comsenz China), Yoonjoon Hyoung (founder of Cyworld, Korea), Shusaku Maruko (corporate strategy, Felica, Japan) can share their insights with Western experts and entrepreneurs such as Loic Le Meur (CEO, Seesmic) and Kent Lindstrom (SVP, Friendster).

In association with one of the most prestigious conferences in Asia, World Knowledge Forum, the event will be held on October 14, 2008 in Seoul, Korea. For more information, go to the official web site.

It's Open Season

'Open' is one of the hottest words right now in the Asia web. Google is focusing on Asian markets and promoting its open strategies. Sohu has localized Netvibes' UWA. Yiqi was the first Chinese open platform fully supporting OpenSocial.

IDtail brought OpenSocial to Korea, and Mixi said yes the day OpenSocial was announced. Comsenz has developed its own ManYou Open Platform (MYOP) to target the China market.

With many open platforms announced and imminent, China and the Asia web need to assess how to monetize the Open web and prepare for the widget economy. Though the global Internet industry is still dominated by Western giants, opening up Asia will benefit both the regional and global Internet industries.