alarm:clock

IMterviews - Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Joichi Ito - The a:c IMterview

Joichi Ito is founder and CEO of the venture capital firm Neoteny. He has created numerous Internet companies including PSINet Japan, Digital Garage and Infoseek Japan. In the US, he recently invested in Technorati, Six Apart and Flickr. He is currently VP of International and Mobile for Technorati and Chairman of Six Apart Japan. Joi has a number of personal characteristics that more VCs should possess: people like him, they trust him, and he's gregarious, curious, and worldly.

Joi in Helsinki

The a:c: Good Morning Joi
Joi Ito: hello
Joi Ito: (my blog is down... check joi.
ito.com)
Joi Ito: we can start if you don't mind
me multi-tasking
The a:c: Not at all.
The a:c: First, We'd like to learn more
about the Japanese Internet. To put it
in a larger context, how does the Japanese
market differ from the US build-up,
boom, bust and current reawakening?
Joi Ito: hmm..
Joi Ito: OK
Joi Ito: well, I helped start the first
commercial ISP
Joi Ito: I told them ISPs were
infrastructure
Joi Ito: but instead of building
businesses on the Internet, thousands
of ISPs sprung up
Joi Ito: mistake #1
Joi Ito: I'm not sure how different
this is from the US
Joi Ito: also the bubble was much
shorter
The a:c: I think similar
Joi Ito: so not a lot of .com's
funded
Joi Ito: a few were and even fewer
survived
Joi Ito: they are big and making money
now
Joi Ito: Yahoo
Joi Ito: Rakuten
Joi Ito: Digital Garage and a few
others
Joi Ito: but bubble was shorter so
loss was shorter