Originally posted on the Geeks on a Plane blog
After a brief stint in Berlin, the GeeksOnaPlane crew flew in for a day and a half to feast on a typical German dinner with the Atoms & Bits conference crew and Felix Fidelsberger, entrepreneur and former Seedcamp UK winner for his start-up, Toksta. Several
thought-provoking discussions led me to believe that Berlin is the hub for innovation in Germany – the fact that East Berlin is relatively cheap in terms of real estate, creative resources and developers – makes it the perfect place to cultivate a tech start-up. One theme that came up over and over again was the fact that Germany is about 18 months behind the US in development and adoption of social media and internet innovation; not 1 year or 2 years, just 18 months. I heard that from a few engineers and entrepreneurs, which made me curious to learn more about this unusual 18-month cycle.
According to several independent observers, there are some “copy cat” innovators in Europe. Basically, these guys wait until technologies are innovated and new products are launched in Silicon Valley, tested out, and begin gaining buzz and user traction. After a few months in beta-mode, these folks start investigating whether or not it would be a good technology to essentially “copy” and bring to Germany and eventually, greater Europe. While this may seem like cheating, a few entrepreneurs have made quite a bit of money using this technique and have been acknowledged as very successful as what they do.
Enter “18 months” – It takes about half a year to see if a company is generating buzz and attention through social media and word of mouth, another half a year for that company to ‘really’ figure out its monetization strategy, business model and at least be heading in the right direction to profitability, and another six months to analyze the data and begin to build and brand the “copy cat” product in Europe, to eventually launch in alpha within that six-month period. One of the these products is called “Jamba.”
Jamba! is a mobile phone content provider, based in Berlin, Germany. In China and the company’s English-speaking markets, currently Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, the company trades under the name Jamster. Jamba!’s main line of business is the creation and marketing of ringtones for mobile phones. It is perhaps best known for the Sweety the Chick and Crazy Frogcharacters. The company also sells insurance for mobile phones and home electronics and runs online gaming and online datingservices. In 2005 it started doing business in the United States and China.
(oh, and the “guy who hates Twitter” is a fellow that is creating a Web MD type product in Berlin who is 100%, absolutely convinced that Twitter will go away in 4 years. I really tried to convince him that he is wrong, Twitter is the best thing since sliced bread, however, he was very stubborn and held his ground. I told him that I was going to DM him on Twitter and RT his updates and include him in my Twitter feeds until he decides that it’s a worthwhile product. After all, you won’t be sold on a product if you don’t use it, right?)
