WSJ – Sep 28 - Investor and entrepreneur Peng
T. Ong is best known as the designer and co-founder of Match.com. Today,
he is the chairman of Infocomm Investments, a $200M fund in Singapore, a
venture partner with GSR Ventures, and works with select start-ups as
an angel investor and adviser.
Q: You invest in Coffee Meets Bagel – in China and the U.S. Do you approach deals differently in these two regions?
A:
I think the similarities far outweigh the differences. The differences
are cultura. A lot of what I invest in is local, meaning teams that are
doing business where they are also savvy about the culture and the
market.
Q: What does the Chinese start-up scene need most today?
A: The availability of experience is missing in China still.China is way behind. Specifically, Beijing is 20 years behind.
Q: What top three trends are changing the way start-ups can succeed?
A:
When we did Match.com there was not any kind of stack for us to build
on top of, no Java. Now you could put that together in a week, probably.
Also the world has been opening up in terms of financial impact. The
last big trend is global talent.
Q: Does government regulation play a big role in the investment decisions you make?
A: It’s
not the main thing we worry about. But it’s not insignificant. In
China, if a company is creating a lot of user-generated content that’s
targeted at a large audience, then we pay a lot more attention because
regulation is more sensitive here than in the U.S.
Q: Has nonequity crowdfunding taken off in China?
A: In China, I have not seen a company doing what Kickstarter and IndieGogo are doing in the U.S. yet.
Q: What do American start-ups need to do to win in the Chinese market?
A: You will need to have a localization team.
Q: Why do you like investing?
A: I
really like destruction. Every time a new platform breaks through,
everything stops and changes. The most recent one is mobile, that’s
getting very obvious to everyone.
by Lora Kolodny
See full article at WSJ