Henry Oh of Tenjin talks at Web Wednesday (V125)
Channel: Web Wednesday - Asian Startups
Date: 2020-04-17

A cross-pacific interview, talking about how the tech industry in the US and China are 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 later, 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 based on game 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 recent report: https://blog.tenjin.com/benchmark-report-2020/)
- 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 “Maker Communities” using 3D printers and Reddit to churn out emergency supplies

You can find Henry on Twitter (@sfmoca) or visit www.tenjin.io

Henry Oh, VP of Operations & Partnerships at Tenjin, interviewed by Napoleon Biggs, Founder of Web Wednesday Ventures Ltd

https://www.webwednesday.asia/

https://www.tenjin.io/

Recorded for Web Wednesday Hong Kong on April 9th, 2020.