DISQUS

Chin Yong · 8 months ago

I beg to differ here. Using Alexa ranking will be a contest of popularity and by no means that should correlate with success (directly).

Alexa serve to show a benchmark for the number of visitors to a site. It cannot show the value add that the sites bring. The local bloggers and gaming site serves to entertain and that is their value add.

For the others, their value add are different from each other but I believe the most important value add they bring are different domain knowledge and experience especially for the incubators. Such knowledge and experience can potentially help to resolve point (v), which is that entrepreneurs are not thinking big enough.

Not thinking big enough is something I am guilty of as well. Guess nobody like to tackle the really big problems and would rather focus on the smaller and easier to tackle problems.

Aaronchua · 8 months ago

Yes, using Alexa is not perfect but I do think it has some merits:

i) While Alexa cannot show the value of the site, it can show how many people the value has reached. I don't think it does a lot of good if a site generates value but cannot reach a critical mass to make any difference.

ii) Is there any alternative to measuring value? Profits or revenue perhaps? If I rank by that measure, I don't think there is a lot of difference to what I have tabled. What other measures do you see as alternatives?

Thanks for the great comment!

Sean Seah · 7 months ago

hmm....this must be true. expert saying must be right here :)

reader · 8 months ago

Maybe it's time to disassociate yourself (IDM) from those incubators that aren't doing their job.

Personally, I feel that some incubators think they are so good but it seems the numbers show their lack of mentoring abilities. They want to be a Simon Cowell but the thing is Simon Cowell actually knows what he's talking about.

Spend some time to visit all of your incubators' website. You'll be surprised how many of them are outdated or are still in development ('under construction') for years.

Aaronchua · 8 months ago

I always checked out on the sites of startups and incubators. It is surprising how unsavvy many of them are to the Web. I wish more of them could be like Fred Wilson.

Sean Seah · 7 months ago

good, then email the startups and tell them. I am sure they welcome it :) I am one who love to hear what you mean by unsavvy from looking at the sites. what thing unsavvy? design? business model? marketing techniques? what u mean?

alexa ranking · 8 months ago

Alexa rankings can't be the sole determinants of measuring a sites importance and popularity as the http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/fortunehotels.in rankings do not take into account all the browser types like Windows Vista etc.

Aaronchua · 8 months ago

Fully agreed but I don't think Alexa is that far off for B2C web applications.

For example, I don't think sites that are above 500k will be ranked as popular even if we include different browser types.

Only applications on mobile and virtual world are totally untraceable by Alexa, which is why I did not include them in the ranking.

Thanks for your comment!

Taylor Davidson · 8 months ago

Re: ii) Page views don't equal revenue or profits. And remember that what startups are "selling" takes a lot more from people than what individual bloggers are "selling" (most likely, free content).

Re: iii) I think you know I'm a big believer in the potential of casual gaming :)

Re: iv) Interesting point: I hadn't thought about what it would take to measure page views and visitors through mobile devices. Big opportunity, right? (especially since mobile platforms will become increasingly popular, although that might be an area for growth more in the US than in Asia).

Re: v) Related post on the lack of diversity on the web: http://www.noahbrier.com/archives/2009/04/diver...

Sean Seah · 7 months ago

"area for growth more in the US than in Asia" - actually i think its the other way round. you can read buzzcity report to know about mobile internet usage pattern.

I believe casual gaming too :)

Sean Seah · 7 months ago

"The current crop of entrepreneurs just isn't thinking big enough" - well said. however, we just have to keep trying and believe in them. Reason? The others wont do it, somebody must try, prove it and attract the conservative group to believe and try as well.

An investor said once to me and i believe in it, "the first idea in a business normally is not the right one, Creative did not start with Sound Blaster as their first product." Let e startups try and fall. The good ones will stand up to do it again, becos their passion will drive them. And they will do the 2nd time better. If they fail again, they will stand up and do it the 3rd time. Reason is the same. Passion. And that is what it is all about.

Aaronchua · 7 months ago

Finally!

Congrats Sean, you are the first person we have funded that commended on this blog and we have funded 200 companies already : )

Not to brag but there are many people who wants to have a conversation with the office and this place is the easiest to assess. Yet, I don't see anyone coming here at all to leave comments and have conversations.

Instead, they send me long emails explaining what they are trying to do : )

For the record, I don't read long emails but I do enjoy having conversations.

Sean Seah · 7 months ago

I should be happy i guess, ha.
You cover an interesting topic here and i do share some views you mentioned here.

follow me on twitter @invinzee. Phokki tweet @Phokki as well.
Twitter is even more easier for short conversation ;)