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PS3 levels the Netflix playing field with Xbox 360

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The announcement yesterday the Ps3 now also supports Netflix streaming to the TV just made the console wars a little bit more interesting. Xbox 360 has supported Netflix streaming for the past year, but the caveat was that you needed a Xbox Live Gold account, which costs $49.99 a year (or $39.99 on Amazon right now for a 20% discount). The Ps3 deal doesn’t include that – though there is the awkward technical requirement of having to put in a special Netflix blu-ray disc into your Ps3 when you want to stream.

That’s really a small annoyance, if you are already a PS3 console owner. So from one perspective the PS3 has just “one-upped” the Xbox. However, for Xbox owners, the Netflix deal is really just an additional reason to buy the Gold account. I got my Xbox 360 Elite yesterday, while my b-school roomies got Rock Band. I think the services on offer for the Gold membership is already quite compelling, and as an existing Netflix user, I would be willing to pay the additional $40-50 for a yearly membership.

Career advice from Qi Lu, President of Microsoft Online Services

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Qi Lu, President of Microsoft’s Online Services Division, was at Berkeley this evening to have a casual talk with students. He gave a very interesting recap of his own career so far, why he joined Microsoft last year, and what he envisions his division to accomplish. And he shared plenty of career advice.

Qi gave two reasons on why Microsoft, which are essentially his core career principles: first, to be in a position where he can have profound and enduring impact; second, to be able to work with and learn from great people. As for his vision for Online Services, he says their mission is to “computationally understand user intent,” or, in plain-speak, to “build a human mind reader” (so that we don’t need to tell the computer what we want to search, the computer will be able to read our mind and know what we need). It is an extremely ambitious and perhaps “geeky” vision, but Qi’s passion comes across so strongly that I can’t help but also become excited at this vision.

As for career advice, Qi was like an encyclopedia of idioms and metaphors-

  • Chance favors the prepared. (Always work hard.)
  • Opportunities are like buses – if you miss one, there’s always the next one. (So don’t worry and always look ahead!)
  • No bus will take you straight to your end goal. Think about “will this bus get me closer?” instead of “will this bus get me there?” (Think about your career in phases, and work towards intermediate goals which will help you get closer to your long-term goal. I really, really liked this metaphor.)
  • Keep your head above the cloud, and your feet on the ground. (Have the big vision, and work hard consistently.)
  • Make yourself uncomfortable. (Push yourself out of your comfort zone – if you’re comfortable, you’re not learning.)
  • Be good at letting things go. (Be willing and open to sharing.)

These bullet points don’t do him justice. He is such a great speaker and it seems as if he just oozes intellect and wisdom. Needless to say, I’m a fan.

Surprise: Sohu leads the copyright attack on Youku

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The Chinese online video space has long been dominated by a number of local youtube clones, among which youku.com is a leader. Like so many other web spaces, the international players have not been able to beat their local Chinese clones, mostly due to cultural differences (and therefore quality of localization) and often policy issues (government interference, in the case of Google). In the online video space, the local players have also been much more lenient with copyright infringement. Usually these sites just turn a blind eye (for example I just did a quick search and found episodes of Prison Break on Sina’s video site, the Chinese crowd-sourced bootlegged version with Chinese subtitles), while for PR purposes they may claim to have sophisticated systems to take down infringing material as soon as possible.

Well, headlines today are certainly a surprise (at least for me – I haven’t been following this space closely). Sohu, who has just led the formation of a “Online Video Anti-piracy Coalition” (my translation) with some other web partners, has decided to sue Youku.com 50-100MM RMB (about 8-15MM USD) for copyright infringement. A quick google search shows that lawsuits in this space have been heating up – earlier this year H.Y. Brothers, the leading local private film studio, sued a bunch of Internet properties (including Sohu and Youku); and before that Youku had also sued competitor Tudou.

While it’s clearly obvious that these lawsuits are tactics to pursue vested interests, I feel they are helping to push the industry towards a more mature stage where laws and regulations are properly enforced. One reason businesses like Netflix and Hulu don’t exist in China is because the cost of piracy is so low. Of course, Chinese consumers are spoilt in the sense that they have become accustomed to the fact that almost all forms of home media entertainment are free or very cheap (thanks to piracy), so any movement to enforce adequate copyright laws will be met with consumer resistance. But it should be clear that real businesses shouldn’t be founded in the hope that they will thrive due to the piracy environment – free may be a business model, but piracy isn’t.