January 20, 2008 · 03:19 PM

Smart boys about new markets

Read live from the first panel, with very distinguished guests: Hubert Burda , Joseph Vardi, Martin Sorrell, Richard Wurman and Joe Schoendorf. Moderator: David Kirkpatrick.

Richard Wurman, renowned author and TED conference founder, smiles and gives the first talk of the day. The panel was supposed to be called "the old boys", Wurman says, "what happened to this title"? The audience laughs. And indeed, there is no female participant on stage, even though many women doing groundbreaking work in the field of new media are sitting in the audience.

He continues to criticize: most companies that call themselves global, are not really seeing things globally. There is always a bigger context for everything!

He values face-to-face communication as the best form of media - and this is what DLD is all about.

Vardi, co-chair of DLD, states: There has been a paradigm change - walls are breaking, people empower themselves. We face tremendous changes in the music industry, the film industry and in the way money can be earned with advertising.

But he is full of enthusiasm: "We are in the beginning of the best of times. I have never seen more new things in my life".

Joe Schoendorf from Accel asks: "Who is under 25 years old"? Just a few hands are going up, though worldwide, more than 50% of the population are this age. This means: They have never lived in a world without the internet and other technology.

There are 3 billion cellphones. Soon, there will be more video cameras than people. Media is everywhere!

Now, Hubert Burda gives us some ideas about the future: mobile video, online communities and social networking. People rather watch DVDs than TV. He describes his business as "the business of attention". What is the future of television and advertising? Burda talks about some ideas: IP TV and YouTube can reach thousands of viewers - but only with short clips.

He talks about his young children from his second marriage: he just has to watch what they are doing online and it makes him enthusiastic about the future of media.

Martin Sorrel thinks that more money should be invested in online marketing, particularly in Asia, where half of the world's population is living now. And markets in China will grow even more.

As someone interested in digital advertising, he calls Google a "frenemy". The top 4-companies in advertising have a revenue of $45 billion - Google is a serious force on this market. Yet today, clients spend only 10% of their ads on their digital campaigns. Users spend 20% of their time online. This is not proportional - digital advertising is a market of the future.

But so far, only in Sweden, people spend more time online than watching TV.

In Sorrel's words: „In the future there will be a big powershift from countries that are called „the west" to the eastern countries, like China, India, Russia."
Directed to the western audience of the DLD he says: „Dont give up hope yet, but worry about 2009."

Hubert Burda compares Europe with his experience in the USA: Europe seems very behind. We still believe that the more editors, the better the website. Some of the central ideas of web2.0 - participation and user generated content - only slowly make their way into the German consciousness.

For example: Ten years ago, nobody in Europe believed in the Google algorithm. See what power the company has now.

In Europe, it is hard to attract the best and the brightest to work for media companies - they rather go to the USA or to Asia. Is it a matter of the different vibe at American universities?

Jospeh Vardi: The quality of the work and the creativity in non-European is increasing. We are going to see more and more people from Romania or Bulgaria with great ideas. But is it something to worry about? It's just a result of globalisation and networking.

The geographical questions remain of central importance, even in a digitally connected world: Turkey is still denied membership of the EU - but it is such a promising country: young and the gateway to the muslim world. Vardi expects many new business ideas from parts of the world that many people do not yet have on their maps.

Hubert Burda. „We have to be creative every day", new markets are a challenge for advertising „We have to develop new kinds of creative offers."

Kirkpatrick, the Fortune Magazine Tech-Correspondent and moderator of the panel, raises an interesting question to sum up the panel:

Where would the panelists prefer to be when they were 25 again?

Martin Sorrell: „I wouldn't stay in Western Europe, I would go to Bejing, Shanghai, Bengalore."

Important are the N-11, the 11 new markets, like Pakistan, Iran, Vietnam, Kazakhstan. And: „Africa is the continent of opportunity"

Mr. Schoendorf would stay in Silicon Valley: „I love where I am. It is a magnet of innovation which attracts creative people and entrepreneurs from all over the world".

By the way, he adds, in the future, there will be more women on a similar panel like the one held at DLD.

Martin Sorrell: "Important is the powershift inside of multinational companies, today they are dominated by the Western world. This will change, too."

Vardi: „It is terrific that all these persons are here - where are you all from...?"

And people from the audience scream: China, Sweden, Austria, USA, The Netherlands, Israel, France, Turkey. And one participant even screamed: Bavaria....

 

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