Entrepreneurship
Solo Netrepreneurship Better Than Big Portals?
Dan Mitchell points out that, while building large profitable ad-supported sites remains difficult, solo netrepreneurship provides a viable alternative.
Let’s say you wanted to build an advertising-supported online media business that took in $50 million a year in revenue. How many users would you have to attract to get there?
Probably too many for most people to even try, if the numbers run by Jeremy Liew, a venture capitalist at Lightspeed Venture Partners, are accurate.
The analysis is “sobering,†wrote Tim O’Reilly, the chief executive of O’Reilly Media, a publisher of computer books. “This may be why more entrepreneurs are going for low-investment sites that don’t need an exit but provide ‘lifestyle businesses’ for their owners,†he wrote on Radar, his company’s blog.
That is, rather than seek venture financing and hire a staff, it may be better for one or two people to create a relatively simple site — say, a hobbyist blog for guitar enthusiasts — and use a service like Google AdWords to, hopefully, make enough money to live on.
Most Philippine Web strategy still revolves around empowering “communities“. With Filipinos taking over the blogosphere, perhaps we should start thinking about empowering individuals.
Instant Noodles Inventor Dies at 96
Momofuku Ando, inventor of that hyperefficient fuel for Asian knowledge workers called instant noodles, is now enjoying ramen in heaven.
Momofuku Ando, the Japanese inventor of instant noodles, has died, according to Nissin Food Products Co., the company he founded. He was 96.
Ando died of a heart attack on Friday, Nissin said in a statement posted Saturday on its corporate website.
He was born in Taiwan in 1910, when the island was under Japanese colonial rule. He moved to Japan in 1933, according to Japan’s daily Mainichi newspaper.
Faced with food shortages in post World War II Japan, Ando developed the idea that a quality, convenient noodle product would help feed the masses. He founded Nissin in 1948.
In 1958, “Chicken Ramen,” the first instant noodle product, was introduced after many trials. Following its success, the company continued to add innovative products, including “Cup Noodle” in 1971.
“The Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen Museum” opened in 1999 in Ikeda City in western Japan commemorating his inventions.
The company’s products even went into space when Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi took instant noodles in a pouch called “Space Ram” on his 2005 mission on board the U.S. space shuttle Discovery.
Ando was a keen promoter of developing food for space travel, Nissin said.
Ando gave a 30-minute speech at the company’s New Year ceremony and enjoyed Chicken Ramen for lunch with Nissin employees on Thursday before falling ill, Japan’s largest daily Yomiuri said.
Thank you, Ando-san, for the trillions of quick calories that power billions of work hours across Asia. The great inventor is survived by his beautiful android great-granddaughter Ando-san.
