BloGiza

A few harsh words about the local Internet

Let’s talk about our local, homegrown Internet scene.

For those of you who might not know, Israel has over the last decade and a half developed its own Hebrew-speaking Internet industry complete with Hebrew-language portals, news sites, social networks, blogs, e-commerce, and marketplaces.

By and large, everyone in Israeli high tech (the main, overseas-facing high tech industry anyway) ignores the local Israeli Internet. The world of .il seems uninteresting and irrelevant. I have often attempted to buck the trend and gone off spelunking into the Hebrew Internet looking for undiscovered gems. Just as often, I have come back disappointed and I think I am now about to give up altogether.

The latest impetus came a few weeks ago at the Comvention. As with every year, it was a two-day event. The first day featured talks held in English with numerous guests from overseas. The second was conducted in Hebrew and focused on the local Israel-centered industry.

Very few of my colleagues showed up on the second day. In fact, very few people I knew showed up on the second day, even though the convention center was packed. I would estimate that the overlap in the crows between the two days was less than 10 percent. And this is but one indication of the problem at hand. Simply put, the local Israel-facing Internet is small, provincial, disconnected from the outside world, and two or three years behind everybody else.

One of the panels on the second day of the Comvention was entitled “The Israeli Internet – Sleeping Beauty?” To which Gadi Shimshon, a prominent local Internet pioneer, snorted, “Sleeping Beauty? More like a fuggo in a coma.”

He’s right I think. There are a number of dispiriting issues at play in .il:

• Attack of the Blinky Ads –The average American web site has 14 ads on it. In Israel, the average is closer to 100 (I’m not making this up). Click on any major Israeli Internet site. Now shield your eyes. You are immediately assailed by a wide variety of intrusive Flash ads, popups, video clips that start playing automatically, and every other manner of annoyance you can imagine.
  
  While annoying in and of themselves, blinky ads represent a deeper problem: the immaturity of online advertising in Israel. At the Comvention, Kfir Pravda gave an interesting talk about new trends in online video monetization. He talked about viral campaigns and interesting product placement technologies, among other things.
  
  The crowd – which was comprised mainly of ad agency employees – lapped it up. At the end of the presentation, however, a number of people stood up and said that while they would love to introduce more clever and effective advertising online, their clients the advertisers won’t hear of it. Local advertisers don’t want something new and subtle. They want the same old annoying hard-sell with the same old easily measured parameters.

• Firefox? Not here – I challenge my readers to come up with one major Hebrew-language website that renders properly in Firefox. YNet is about the only one that comes close and even then gets tripped up with embedded video. Hebrew sites don’t do Firefox. And I won’t even mention Safari or Opera, heaven forbid.
  
  To some degree, this represents very successful missionary work on the part of Microsoft which for years has actively nurtured generations of local .Net programmers. But it also indicates a real disconnect with the outside world. The main non-IE browsers now account for nearly 25% market share. But you’d never know that here. Local developers ignore alternative browsers because they never encounter anyone who uses them. It’s a closed loop.
  
  The same goes for all them fancy new Web 2.0 services such as Twitter or Digg or De.licio.us. If there isn’t a homegrown version, then nobody knows what you’re talking about nor sees the need.
• Lack of Internet culture - In general, Israel does not have a civilized Internet culture. On the one hand you have the often-hateful “talkback” environment wherein portals and content sites are shot through with ugly user-generated slander. On the other hand, you have Knesset members constantly coming up with new laws whose main purpose is to censor the Internet. Either that or demonstrate that the people in charge of the Internet in this country don’t understand how it actually works.

In short, situation not so good. Somehow, the same country that can produce Internet successes like Yedda and FoxyTunes craps out when it comes to producing homegrown fare.

So, why do I care? I focus on companies which are by definition outward-facing. So, why waste 1000 words on the irrelevancy of the local scene? Because as long as Israel cannot produce local Internet sites that are connected to the world at large, we limit the pool of talented local developers and entrepreneurs who could build the next great outward-facing Internet property.

Does anyone have any ideas what can be done?

The online year that was

As today is the last day of 2007, it’s a little hard to resist looking back at the past year and trying to sum it up. So, I won’t resist. Unlike last year, 2007 is hard to summarize with one handy tag such as “the year of online video” or “the year of social networks”. There was a lot of activity in a number of different areas, the rise of a major player in the social networking space, and the rise of a new form of communication.

So, herewith a few highlights IMHO of the online industry in 2007

Story of the year: The consolidation of the advertising industry
Y’all thought I was going to say Facebook, right? Now, while the rise of Facebook is certainly the most hyped story of the year, my vote for the most significant development  (not to mention the biggest source of M&A activity) is the rapid consolidation of the online advertising space.

During the last 12 months, Google bought out Doubleclick for $3B. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft acquired aQuantive for a staggering $6B. AOL bought out targeted ad firm Tacoda, as well as Quigo which. Yahoo acquired Blue Lithium, as well as a majority stake in Right Media. WPP bought 24/7 Real Media. And the list actually goes on.

The M&A hyperactivity in this sector is an indication of the fact that online advertising has reached a certain stage of maturity. Beyond that, the consolidation is likely to have long-term ramifications, especially in regards to the rise of Google as the behemoth of the information age as well as the development of new business models online. And that’s what makes this, at least for me, the biggest development of the year.

Phenomenon of the year: Facebook
Obviously, I couldn’t not mention Facebook which gained momentum extremely rapidly this year and became the go-to social network for those of us who aren’t musicians, 14-year-olds, or skeevy perverts. Facebook only opened itself up to the world outside the university sphere towards the end of 2006. I joined up early this year. Before long, almost every high tech-ist I knew (and many I didn’t) was on it. Lately, the sphere has expanded further and everyone, their parents, and their parents’ friends are connected. Clearly we’re on to something.

Of course, it will be interesting to see whether Facebook will be an ongoing concern for most people or just a passing fad. I like it for business purposes, as a tool for microblogging, and as the communications platform of choice for a number of my friends. On the other hand, I have a hard time answering those who complain that there’s nothing to do there. We shall see.

New technology: Microblogging
The rise of Twitter and its clones provided us with probably the only real new media form we’ve had in a few years, viz. microblogging. At first, the concept seemed a bit stupid. After all, why would I want to blog in tiny, one- or two-sentence bursts? But then you start getting into it and discover that Twittering (or updating your Facebook status, which I tend to do more) is a nice complement to blogging for those times when you have something small and/or clever to say but which doesn’t warrant an entire post. Plus, it’s the first Internet app that makes perfect sense for the mobile. It’ll be interesting to see who snaps up Twitter and for how much.

Interesting development in local tech: The renaissance of the Israeli internet scene
Three or four years ago, it seemed that the Internet industry in Israel was close to dead. During the days of the ’99-’00 bubble, the high tech scene was awash in Internet startups looking to be the next ICQ. Then the bubble burst and most of the companies went under. Worse, the VC industry was burned on the subject and it subsequently became almost impossible to get a new Internet startup funded.

As recently as two years ago I regularly had colleagues in the VC world lecturing me that Israel was incapable of producing Internet companies and, besides, these types of investments weren’t suited for VC anyway. What a difference a few years and a YouTube (and a Facebook) later make.

Once again, we are seeing dozens of new Internet companies each month. What’s more, there is a real feeling of an Internet scene here, helped along in no small part by Facebook, the work of groups like the Co.ils and the Geek Garage, and of course Jeff Pulver’s social activities. Let’s hope this continues to develop and mature.

Case of possible overhype: Online video
I’ll catch some crap from friends about this, but the online video space has become somewhat overhyped in the last year. Actually, that’s kind of unfair. What has happened is that in the post-YouTube age, online video has become ubiquitous. This has led to a lot of noise and a sense of, “Ok, what do we do now?”

Towards the end of last year, it looked like the field of mid-tail, independently produced video content (e.g. Ask a Ninja, Rocketboom, Ze Frank) would be the next big thing. As of now, that has failed to happen. There haven’t been any real breakthroughs this year. Even projects as big and as hyped as Joost have yet to take off as a mass-market application.

I still have big hopes for this sector, but it may have to wait until sometime in mid-2008.

Predictions for 2008
You’ve got to be kidding me. Only fools make predictions in this online age where what you write will forever haunt you. Still, I’ll make some safe and predictable ones for the upcoming 12 months:

• There will be a number of huge-size Internet exits that will have people scratching their heads
• The whole notion of privacy will continue to erode as Google finds out more and more about you
• Mobile internet will remain where it has for the last three or four years, i.e. tantalizingly around the corner as the Next Big Thing
• Some technology or company that you’re not thinking about will be the big story of 2008

So, for all my celebrating friends and colleagues out there, I want to extend best wishes for the new year and hope that 2008 brings health, happiness and success to us all.

Congratulations to Yedda

A little bit late, I tip my hat to the good guys over at Yedda who recently sold the company to AOL for an undisclosed sum.

The Yedda exit is another indication that Israel's Internet scene is developing nicely, and begins to answer those who contend that Israelis are incapable of creating consumer-facing applications that appeal to an English-speaking audience.

In Yedda's case, founders Avichay Nissenbaum and Yaniv Golan and their team did an excellent job both with the UI of the site as well as with the clever and far-ranging business development. They leveraged the use of widgets and embeds to get Yedda out on as many sites as possible.

So, congratulations Avichay and Yaniv on a job well done.

The art of picking winners

Guy Grimland wrote a piece (Hebrew link) in The Marker the other day about highly promising Israeli startups not backed by Israeli VCs. The piece came after reports that targeted ad serving company Quigo has been bought by AOL for around $300M. (Quigo founder Yaron Galai, it should be mentioned, strongly emphasizes that this is still a rumor).

Alongside Quigo, the piece looks at a couple of other high-flying Israeli startups like Oberon Media, Mobileye Vision Technologies, and SuperDerivatives. These have variously raised extremely large financing rounds and/or have significant revenues. And, like Quigo, each managed to make something of itself initially without VC financing.

The question is whether there we can learn a lesson about the structure of the Israeli high-tech market -- and specifically about the way VCs work within this market -- from the success of these companies. I'm not entirely sure.

First off, I think Ori Kirshner (my boss) gave the best answer in the article by pointing out that while Israeli VCs did miss the ball on Quigo,  there have been quite a few other success stories recently that were VC backed.

Beyond that, to say that VCs dropped the ball on Quigo, Oberon, et al. is oversimplifying the case. VCs look at many hundreds of companies a year. Each rejection is its own story. Sometimes, the companies themselves reject VCs, because they find they get what they need from angels or they have chosen to bootstrap it.

If there is a lesson to be learned here it might be one of broadening our horizons. Each of the companies mentioned above operates outside the "traditional" realms like communications technology or enterprise software that Israeli VCs historically invested in. Quigo and Oberon are Internet/gaming plays; Mobileye does technology for the auto industry; and SuperDerivatives provides a software solution for the financial world. The fact that most of them were set up in the post-bubble period (during which a lot of VCs became more conservative in their decision-making process, especially with regards to Internet companies) probably contributed as well.

At any rate, I hope the rumors surrounding Quigo are true. Not only because I wish the founders well (which I do), but also because it will help further establish new sectors in Israeli high tech as "interesting" from the financial perspective.

Early exits

A little while back, Aner Ravon wrote a heartfelt post about the state of Israeli high tech, specifically the fact that Israeli startups tend to exit too early (generally via acquisition) instead of developing into large, mature companies.

The Israeli high tech scene fails to produce sustainable, ongoingly growing, companies. The problem is not the Israeli landscape, the problem is probably with having a wrong dream.

When it’s all about the Exit, focus shifts from succeeding as a company to succeeding as investors, speculators. From creating to trading. Operational record is overlooked for dream weaving. This is why Boaz Eitan walks out with $100M for having successfully sold a multi billion dollar balloon to investors despite having no operational evidence at any point.

The question why this is so often comes up for discussion by people inside the country’s high-tech industry. (Daniel Cohen addressed it in a piece about “The Quest to Create an Israeli Nokia”). While Israel has shown itself capable of creating international category leaders – Teva, Check Point, and Amdocs spring to mind – the actual number of these is small, and none have really sprung up for nearly 15 years.

Aner lays most of the blame with the money guys:

Most Israeli startups are funded by VCs, Israeli and American, who in turn get most of their funding from out of Israel investors. This is good and bad. The VC model is based on selling their share for the highest amount in the shortest time. The fundamental focus of a “business” is to create a profit. Unfortunately, these two foci’s correlate less often then they do. An IPO may mean such correlation, as the VC can sell it’s share and the company can grow. However, very few companies fit the IPO model, and most companies are forced to think about their “business” in different terms. Terms such as “comparables”, “size of the (exit) opportunity”, “exit strategy” and “fitting the investment portfolio” take precedence and management attention away from real business decisions. Innovation becomes more important than operations because ideas can be sold earlier in the lifecycle. This means the company must be sold to a company who believes it can turn innovation to operations. Sold to, not become one.

I don’t want to argue that he is wrong, because a lot of these points have merit. The venture capital model does present certain problems (mainly the time horizon) when it comes to growing a big company. There have certainly been cases where investors have pressured companies to exit when they had the potential to become much larger. And yet, at the risk of being an apologist for the VC industry, the situation is a lot more complicated.

Other factors contributing to the relative paucity in the development of large-scale tech companies in Israel include:

• The entrepreneurs themselves – In some cases, as mentioned, investors will push entrepreneurs into exiting too early. But in many other cases it can be argued that VCs try to keep entrepreneurs from going for exits in the mid- ten million range that might be good for the entrepreneurs but lousy for the investors.
  
  To put another way, it is the rare entrepreneur (especially in Israel) who won’t give in to the temptations of a $200M exit. Very, very few people have the cojones of a Mark Zuckerberg.

• The lack of a local market – The fact that Israel has managed to grow a tech industry at all is impressive given its basic situation. We are a tiny little country, whose inhabitants speak a native tongue that nobody else does, cut off geographically from all of its potential markets. All this means that Israeli companies need by definition to be oriented towards overseas markets. As a result, a lot of non-technological functions end up being shipped off overseas instead of staying in Israel. This leads to…

• Management issues – Israel has traditionally had problems growing management capable of making the jump from a $100 million-level company to a $1 billion level company. The situation has improved in recent years, ironically as more Israeli executives have served time in international companies. But there are still way too few international-grade managers to go around.

• The financial environment – You should also remember not to discount the general financial environment. The wild IPO environment in the late ‘90s and beginning of this decade has been dampened for years. And while the TASE is growing continuously, it is still considered a backwater financial market. Meanwhile, investment banking and other financial services are still relatively primitive. All this has led to greater M&A (well, A) activity rather than IPOs.

It should also be pointed out that Israel doesn’t necessarily want a Nokia, in the sense that Nokia completely dominates Finland’s technology industry.

The question is whether this is all leading in one direction – as Aner suggests – that direction being downwards. But that is a question for another day.

Geekcon 2007

I had the pleasure of attending the second day of Geekcon 2007 this weekend at the Wingate Institute.  As it was last year, Geekcon brought together several dozen extremely talented people who came up with a variety of weird and interesting projects to put together.

Among the ones I really liked were an attempt to do IP over semaphone, a very cool recreation of the Enigma encryption device put together using mechanical and electrical components only, and -- for sheer esoteric silliness -- Oren Tirosh and Kobi Sambrano's daytrading program which took its buy/sell cues from the movement of a lava lamp.

Geekcon -- like the Geek Garage which it spawned -- has an incredible and unique atmosphere about it. There's something about getting some of Israel's smartest and most creative technology people to work on amusing projects just for the hell of it that brings a flutter to my little heart.

I'm glad that Giza (which co-sponsors both the Garage and Geekcon along with Carmel) helps enable this unique forum.

I wasn't able to put together a project this year, but I've already started working on one for next year. In the meantime, I've posted some more photos on Flickr for your enjoyment.

The Great Vertical Social Network Shootout

I don't know about the rest of youse guys, but I'm beginning to feel slightly awash in a sea of social networks. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for vertical social networking and I see it as one of the logical developments of the MySpace revolution.

Lately, us Israeli Internet aficionados have found ourselves spoiled for choice when it comes to choosing a social network of our very own.
First into the fray was The Marker Cafe, an online spot where tech-savvy Israeli business types could get together. A couple of months after that, the iDrink guys rolled out their site, which serves as an online complement to the real-world Internet drinking club.

Now, our friends from The Coils have brought out the.co.ils Zone, which also provides an online space for Israeli Internet entrepreneurs (as well as us investor types) to meet, talk, do business, put up photos, share links, and all that other fun social networking stuff.

Hovering above this all, of course, is Facebook which has seen an incredibly quick uptake of Israeli Internet scenesters, and which already contains an iDrink group, a co.ils group, and numerous other groups related to the Israeli Internet.

So, the question now becomes what to do with all this activity. And frankly, I'm kind of stumped. iDrink is nice, but is limited in its functionality. The Marker Cafe has plenty of functionality. It is, however, in Hebrew only which cuts it off from the rest of the world.

The co.ils Zone looks like it has a lot of potential (assuming that Ning, the platform on which the Zone is built, gets their act together and deals with its recent outages). But it will be a challenge for them to get a critical mass of people actually using the site, what with all the competition from the other sites.

What do you think?

TWS 2007 wrap-up

And so, the big event was a success, I would say.

More than 500 people showed up at Gan Oranim Tuesday night, including just about everyone who is everyone in Israel's Internet industry. Ten companies showed off their wares, generally quite well. Shimon Peres made a slightly controversial (and in my opinion slightly rambling) speech about how the Internet means we shouldn't have to study history. And Yossi Vardi did his patented Vardi schtick. (Pictures from the event can be found here).

In all, an auspicious start to what hopefully will evolve into an institution.

I won't give my opinions of the individual companies (especially since I already did so). From reading other people's blogs, it seems that ClickTale, G.ho.st, and Double Trump made strong impressions. I would, however, like to address two issues.

A lot of the commentary notes that the companies didn't  dwell on things like their revenue model, competition, or market analysis in their presentation. This is true and it was done on purpose. The companies each had seven minutes for their presentations, and we instructed them to focus on presenting their product and their vision. The rest of the pitch they could then save for potential investors.

Also, I heard a bit of grumbling about the quality of the finalists. Which I think is unfair and may stem from the wrong expectations about the event. If you came to the event looking to see the top 10 Web 2.0 hopefuls in Israel you might have come out disappointed. The finalists represented a broad spectrum of business possibilities available on the Internet, from classic Web 2.0/social networking sites to diagnostic services to B2B applications and technologies.

Also, while I think all 10 finalists have the potential to be viable businesses, not all of them (and perhaps not even the majority of them) are VC-grade investments. One or two have the potential to be significant exits. The rest may be successful on a scale that would make the founders and angels happy, but aren't large enough to interest heavier institutional investors.

Sadly, that's just how the game is played.

If you ask me the best thing about TWS is that it showed that there is a real internet industry here in Israel (or, as Deb Schultz put it, we've developed a scene like the one they had in Silicon Valley back in the good old days).

You suddenly see a lot of entrepreneurs trying out new ideas: very passionate Internet fanatics and kids who grew up on the Web. We're seeing second-generation Internet companies founded by people who worked at Hotbar, ICQ, and Incredimail. And you are increasingly seeing investors <shameless plug>who understand the potential of the Internet and who live it from the inside.</shameless plug>

As Martha Stewart would say, it's a good thing.

With the TWS Finalists

On Thursday I had the pleasure of sitting with Yaron and Yami from the co.ils and most of the 10 companies selected to present at Tuesday's TWS 2007 event. TWS has now grown into a major industry event, with several hundred entrepreneurs, investors, and other internet afficionados are expected to show up.

Thursday's meeting was a kind of prep session to see the presentations and to provide the companies with some constructive advice to make them better. So, who are the lucky companies? In no particular order:

• Hingi (http://www.4144.co.il) - Hingi is the "Hear It 'n' Get It" music service. They allow you to find out what is playing on the radio or MTV at any given moment and download a ringtone/truetone/callback tone/MP3 of it to your cellphone. Their trick is enabling all this in two clicks, rather than seven or eight like you would expect. In other words, Hingi enables true impulse buying for music over cellular. Although I'm probably a bit older than the target demographic, I can see the value of a service like this in a multi-billion dollar ringtone market. They are definitely playing in the right playground.


• Telecut (http://telecut.co.il) - Telecut provides a SAAS that helps reduce communications costs for individuals and small businesses. Telecut analyzes your cellphone bills, checks for errors, and makes suggestions about other plans that might suit your needs better and more cheaply. While Telecut is not the "sexiest" presenter at TWS, the service looks useful and is probably relevant to the broadest swath of users.


• The Weebz Family (http://www.weebz.com) - Created by a company called Intuition, Weebz lets you set up online sites for family events such as weddings and Bar Mitzvahs, lets you edit these sites online easily, and allows family and friends to contribute their comments, photos, etc. Their branding revolves around a family of cute animated creatures called the Weebz family, which emphasizes their focus. I have to give props to the guys from Intuition for showing up wearing matching Weebz neckties. Nice to see a company that knows how to stay focused on its marketing message.


• iGiza (http://www.igiza.com) - iGiza creates tools and an online platform to help people in the Multilevel Marketing (MLM) industry manage their businesses online. (MLM for those unfamiliar with the term, is a business where products are sold by independent distributors. Think Herbalife or Tupperware). Again, this is not the sexiest Internet company you'll see this week. However, I am a big fan of offline-to-online business migration. And I think there is a lot of potential here. Also, with a name like iGiza, how could I not like them?


• Urban Seeder (http://www.urbanseeder.com) - This actually does qualify as one of the sexiest Internet companies you'll see. With Urban Seeder you can leverage the Web to "grow" a relationship whether for romance, business, or other purposes. You can go from sending anonymous notes to building up a connection. The process is much more involved than this, and I fear I am not doing it justice by trying to explain it in a few sentences. But the concept is intriguing and the design of the site is great.


• Match My Pet (http://www.matchmypet.com) - Two young entrepreneurs who have developed a combination social network/breeding site for pets. The social network aspect allows you to post pictures and videos of your pet, participate in forums, and get other information. The breeding service allows you to find potential mates for your pet in your area. While I'm not sure I'd currently invest in another vertical social network, people have a real emotional attachment to their pets so I can see the potential for something like this. After all, ask the guys from Dogster.


• G.ho.st (http://g.ho.st) - G.ho.st is the Global Hosted Operating SysTem, a web-based virtual desktop which allows you to collect all your online files (web mail, Flickr photos, Google spreadsheets and docs, etc) in one place. In addition, you can share local files on the desktop as well, and have them available on any browser. All in one seamless and nicely designed package. For my money, this is one of the most interesting and exciting of the local Internet companies, both for the product as well as for the company itself (a joint Israeli-Palestinian venture based in Jerusalem and Ramallah). Definitely one to watch.


• The Flat Planet Phone Company (http://www.flatplanetphone.com) - I have to apologize to Flat Planet Phone Company, since I was called away when they were presenting and so cannot vouch firsthand about them. The company allows small companies to become VoIP resellers, in effect letting them run their own virtual phone companies.

In addition to the eight aforementioned, there are two other companies participating who did not participate the other day:

• ClickTale (http://www.clicktale.com) - ClickTale has developed a suite of tools for website usability testing and diagnostics. The ClickTale application records every move a user makes on your site and presents diagnostic reports that can help you maximize usability on the site.


• Double Trump (http://www.doubletrump.com) - Double Trump have developed PlayOn, an encapsulation technology for software that enables a variety of new business models for usage. The company's first target market is casual games. Under the standard casual gaming model, you can play a game free for an hour (or a few levels) and then you have to pay $20 or so for the full version. With PlayOn, you can choose to play for 1 cent a minute and if you play $20 worth of any game, you get to keep it. The company operates a casual gaming site of its own (http://www.playonarcade.com) which demonstrates the technology. And is also responsible for me wasting hours playing Diner Dash and Mah Jongg. In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that Double Trump is a Giza portfolio company that I am involved with, and that the entrepreneurs are a pair of really great guys.

And so we go. Ten very different companies attacking different markets with different approaches. I'm not sure if the goal of TWS was to get a seriously wide variety of companies, but if it was then mission accomplished.

Hope to see you all Tuesday night in Gan Oranim.

At the Com.Vention

The Marker kicked off its second annual Internet Com.vention (a.k.a. "Vardi-gras") today. As it was last year, the convention was the local Internet event of the year, a decent mix of Israeli entrepreneurs, investors, and local and international figures from the Internet world.

So what was the story this year?

• Many, many entrepreneurs. At last year's conference, it seemed that the ratio between investors and startups was, if not exactly even, then not extremely lopsided. This year, the entrepreneurs definitely outnumbered the money people. There were easily several hundred internet entrepreneurs -- many of whom we have seen at Giza over the last few months -- which is the clearest sign of how the Internet has exploded here recently.
  
• The morning panel on "hot trends in 2007" turned up basically what you would expect: video, semantic web, convergence, and user-generated content.
  
  Two interesting comments: Dr. Nicolas Bussard made an interesting point about how changes in Web design make it easier for people in developing nations to build sites and start accessing the net. And Mike Marquez of CBS Interactive spoke of what he called the "open content ecosystem," which is the interplay of all the technologies -- from mobile video to trend analysis to vertical search -- that will allow people to consume content wherever/whenever they want.
  
• The most piquant panel was the afternoon discussion devoted to the question of "So, is it a bubble?". Here, the panelists -- Angels and VCs, including Giza's Eyal Niv -- were split. Some say it is, some say it isn't. Everyone agrees that valuations are climbing, and that the influx of money into the sector increases the danger of companies getting venture funding who really shouldn't be. (Thus siphoning off the talent and time of people who might be otherwise engaged in better companies).
  
  At any rate, the panelists basically agreed to disagree. We may be in bubble land, but at least it seems that everyone is a bit more reasonable than they were seven or eigh years ago.
  

TWS 2007

Giza is proud to be one of the sponsors of the.co.ils Web Startup 2007, one of the more exciting upcoming events in the world of the Israeli Internet. TWS is a competition to find the best and brightest young Internet (or mobile Internet) companies and allow them to pitch their idea to a panel of leading VCs, angels, and Internet industry experts.

TWS comes to us courtesy of Yaron Orenstein and Yami Glick (our friendly neighborhood Internet gurus responsible for the.co.ils) and is based in part on startup competitions such as Demo.

The rules of the competition are fairly simple. Participant companies need to be involved in the Internet, need to have a great team, and need to have a product that is at least partially ready to demonstrate at the event. Anyone who fits these criteria is invited to register for the competition.

Companies will be screened by a panel of experts, who will pick the top 10 finalists. These finalists will present their ideas at the TWS event which will be held on April 10. Companies who did not make it to the top 10 are nonetheless invited to the event to benefit from the networking opportunities there. (Full contest rules can be found here).

Registration ends March 20, so hurry up and sign up.

In our Backyard

I spent the day at the Israel Internet Association's annual conference at Airport City. I noticed that VC representation at the conference was almost nil save for myself and a few of my colleagues from Giza. I suppose this has something to do with the general tone of the ISOC-IL conference, which seems to be geared a bit more towards academics than entrepreneurs.

At any rate, the discussion was fairly interesting, especially an afternoon session dedicated to blogs, forums, and talkbacks. The bottom line here: Israelis like their talkbacks, which are seen as a combination of national sport and healthy venting of steam that might otherwise endanger society.

One of the participants at the session was a journalist named Dvorit Shargal, who blogs under the name Velvet Underground. Apparently, her blog has been making a lot of noise in the local Internet space over the past year. She routinely gets dozens of comments on each post. And for a while she was the subject of rampant speculation before she revealed her true identity.

Until this afternoon, I hadn't heard of her.

In fact, I probably couldn't name any of the big-league Hebrew-language bloggers. This fact ties into a growing realization I've been having lately. I've been doing a lot of work with one of our portfolio companies which is working on piloting its Internet product in the Israeli market. As a result, I have been meeting with a host of local portals such as Tapuz and Nana.

In the last couple of years, it appears, a rich and varied world of local, Hebrew-language sites has developed in Israel: search engines, portals, social networks, gaming sites, blogging platforms, videocasting sites, you name it. Israel has dozens of local Internet brands, which are as readily familiar to local Web surfers as MySpace and Flickr are to surfers overseas.

Except that I'm willing to bet that most of my colleagues in the local venture world have not heard of half these sites, and have probably visited even fewer.

Of course, there is an explanation for this. We are by nature focused on investments that promise major returns. Israel, on the other hand, is a small, relatively closed market which doesn't hold much potential for creating huge companies. Which means we are much more in tune with the Internet culture than we are of the one that is happening in our backyard.

I suppose this isn't necessarily a major tragedy, although it does make you wonder whether we're not missing out on some potentially interesting companies.