Mobile: App or HTML5, In Talk With Co-Founder of Tudou

Recently, I was talking to Marc van der Chris about mobile app. For people who do not know Marc yet, he is a co-founder of Tudou, a leading video sharing site in China. (Tudou has just filed for IPO in the U.S. So, has its archrival, Youku. For readers who are interested, here is a earlier blog Gang Lu wrote about the two companies: http://www.mobinode.com/2010/11/17/chinese-video-sites-burning-to-the-ipo-with-hope/) But while Gary Wang does all the work and takes the title of CEO, Marc is a silent partner at Tudou.

What he is doing is Spil Game Asia. He started the flash game company in Shanghai in 2006, when Spil Game (a Dutch company) wanted to expand to Asia. By now, Spil Game Asia has grown into a population flash game platform with 20 million visitors a month. It has two sites in China: game.com.cn and xiaoyouxi.com

The next move Spil Game Asia will be focus on is mobile. But rather than developing an App like everyone is doing, Marc thinks they should develop with html5. “I am a big believer of html5,” said Marc. One of key advantages of html5 is that it works on all platforms, whether they are iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, etc. Most smartphones already support it. For app, you will have to develop a version for each platform.

“Most people like app because they look cool. But, in fact, html5 can do most the function already. Html5 program looks and works like app. And contrary to most believe, they can work in offline mode, too,” said Marc. “I think app is only temporary. Html5 is the future.” But how long before html5 can surpass App in popularity?? “No one knows,” said Marc, “but its development is very fast.”

Having laid the foundation of Spil Game Asia, Marc will soon leave the company and start a new project. “It is something about fashion.” He will tell me next week in details. Stay tune, if you are interested.

By the way, Spil Game is sponsoring a html5 game contest. Winners can be award up to 5000 Euro !!! Here are the details: http://html5contest.com/

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