Fri, June 26, 2009
HuaYuan Science and Technology Association (HYSTA) and Silicon Valley China Wireless Association (SVCWireless) co-hosted a special panel session on mobile commerce in TiE Auditorium, Santa Clara in June 25. High-profiled industry executives and entrepreneurs from a variety of sectors including investment, mobile advertisement, mobile banking, IT outsourcing shared their insights with more than 200 Silicon Valley professionals in a 2 hours discussion.
Global mobile commerce (M-Commerce) revenue exceeded $55 billion in 2008 and continues soaring. Mobile devices such as cellular phones have become so popular that many businesses are beginning to use M-Commerce as a more efficient method of reaching and communicating with their customers.
The panel concluded that M-Commerce and E-Commerce will converge to certain extension, after the moderator, HP Jin, HYSTA president and CEO of TeleNav opened the discussion with the difference between M-Commerce and E-Commerce. Dilip Venkatachari, venture capitalist with New Enterprise Associates thinks that mobile is a small sized computer and M-Commerce is an extension of the traditional E-Commerce. David Cao, ECO of ExtendLogic, commented that mobile is actually the computer and quoted that smart phones occupy 13.5% of global phone sales. He also pointed out that M-Commerce can provide additional features like location based service (LBS) and RFID technology. Kaiyang Liu, CTO of CASEE, talked about his own Beijing-based mobile advertisement company as a successful example in developing countries. He believes the line between M-Commerce and E-Commerce will blur as markets adopts and technology advances.
Jonathan Goldberg, analyst with the wireless and communication technologies equity research team, Deutsche Bank, agrees on the huge business potential in M-Commerce. But he thinks wireless carriers will have a distinct edge because of their existing distribution channel and customer familiarity. Jin added that computer Internet still dominates in the B2B domain, while M-Commerce will have opportunities in other services.
When asked about why Asia and Europe are currently leading the M-Commerce while US just begins to experiment in an early stage, Venkatachari and Goldberg think the US consumers still enjoy the traditional E-Commerce on a relatively more matured Internet system and so the demand for mobile was not as high as some other countries. Cao disagreed that US wireless carriers control their network more strictly and squeeze the growth space of domestic M-Commerce.
About HYSTA
Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association (www.HYSTA.org) is a leading Chinese professional association in US. Founded in 1999 by a group of successful Chinese entrepreneurs, HYSTA aims at nurturing entrepreneurship and career development among Chinese technology and business professionals and facilitates networking and the exchange of business ideas between Silicon Valley and China.
