Hong Kong vs San Francisco: How is the Tech World Adapting to Life under the Corona Virus (Covid-19)?
Henry Oh arrived in Hong Kong in 2005 to write a book about the Hong Kong underworld, he soon found a job via the Web Wednesday networking community and started his career in mobile gaming as Head of Business Development for Hello Kitty!
Fifteen years on, Henry is back in San Francisco, as VP of Operations & Partnerships for Tenjin.io, where he now helps mobile game developers answer the question, "Is my ad campaign ROI positive?" with data insights on downloads and in-game activities.
We managed to cover many topics:
- Comparing the speed of reaction to Covid-19 by tech companies in China and the US, looking at the different outcomes between centralised and decentralised models
- How San Francisco successfully implemented "Shelter in Place" and why the culture of science and data helped the Silicon Valley and the SF Bay Area to accept the new status quo
- The ongoing erosion of civil liberties, with the impact of tracking and surveillance tech on privacy
- How the business models of US tech giants, like Facebook and Google, are pushing them to be more proactive about content moderation
- The pressure on entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley to reduce their burn, conserve cash and lay people off
- How the big players in the mobile gaming world are using their stash of cash for a "land grab" and to increase brand awareness
- How hyper-casual games rule the charts, to the ongoing surprise of the game design community (download Tenjin's "2020 Hyper-casual Benchmark Report")
- How the economic blow from the virus is further enhancing the digital divide and pushing people to adopt or die
- Why the US responds slower but more creatively and, perhaps, with a more significant outcome in the long term
- The role of “3D Printer Maker Communities” using Reddit to coordinate the production of emergency supplies
You can also find Henry on Twitter (@sfmoca) and learn more about Tenjin's "native or 3rd party campaign attribution. Ad revenue & IAP ROI and cost aggregation" at www.tenjin.io
Interviewed by Napoleon Biggs, Digital Entrepreneur at Web Wednesday Ventures
