歐洲科技創業方興未艾

你預計在大數據領域的創業活動會更活躍嗎？

????從上世紀80年代開始，全世界人均科技存儲信息能力幾乎每40個月就會翻番；截至2012年，每天有2.5百億億字節(2.5×1018) 的數據生成。它帶來了一個全新的領域，包括如何存儲、處理、挖掘、分析和利用這么多數據。我個人認為，大數據領域需要的創新太多了。

????有意思的是，Facebook除了能讓用戶及時了解到朋友的寵物剛剛過世和其他爆炸性社交新聞外，它為這個世界做出的一項最重要貢獻是Facebook作為一家公司處理大數據的能力，以及Facebook開放了手頭所有大數據技術的源代碼，給這個世界做出的貢獻。很多公司，像如今已是世界最大WiFi網絡的Fon都可以獲益于這些投資，也全部開放源代碼。

????開放源代碼是一種合作理念，基本上發端于歐洲，后來得到了全球的追隨，如今全球一些最大的社交媒體公司大多數后臺都在運行開放源代碼軟件。這一點可以理解，如果你的數據庫是私有的，如果你是唯一一家對用戶和客戶設有密匙的公司。為什么不開放所有技術的源代碼，讓所有這些都能發揮作用？開放源代碼是一種合作理念，但實施開放源代碼本質上是非常資本主義的。像我在Index Ventures的投資伙伴以及其他很多投資者已大舉退出MySQL這樣的大數據公司。

????大數據結合開放源代碼方式將產生重大的創新，創造可觀的價值。

最后一個問題，Facebook在歐洲的普及率很高，在亞洲也在取得進展。你對它的商業模式和擴張能力有什么看法？企業增速看來已經放緩，有些廣告客戶說，Facebook廣告不如搜索引擎廣告有效。

????Facebook現在的狀況就像2004年的谷歌，能盈利但還不能大量盈利。Facebook需要微調廣告模式，它當前的廣告模式相當粗糙，不是不好，但還處在早期階段。我不認為現在是買進Facebook股票的好時機，因為大量內部人士的賣盤還在持續。但買進時機很快就會到來。我不認為Facebook是明日黃花。馬克?扎克伯格是當今的天才CEO之一，Facebook將繼續走下去。扎克伯格有能力破解下一個難題，也就是移動平臺的貨幣化。

????譯者：早稻米

Do you see more startup activity in big data?

????The world's technological per-capita capacity to store information has roughly doubled every 40 months since the 1980s; as of 2012, every day 2.5 quintillion (2.5×1018) bytes of data were created. This has led to a whole new field which deals with how do we store, process, mine, analyze, and make use of so much data. Personally I see big data as an area in which a lot of innovation is needed.

????Interestingly one of the most significant contributions of Facebook to the world, other than learning that your friend's pet just died and other shocking social news, is the ability of Facebook as a company to process big data and the contributions that Facebook has made for the world by open sourcing all the big data technologies it uses. Companies like Fon, now the largest WiFi network in the world, can piggyback on these investments and be all open source.

????Open source is a cooperative idea and mostly European invention that the whole world has tagged along and now most of the back offices of the largest social media companies in the world are run with open source software. And it makes sense, if your database is proprietary, if you are the only one with the key to your users and customers. Why not open source all the technology that makes it all work? But while open source is cooperative idea, the implementations of open source are very capitalist in nature. Investors like my partners at Index Ventures and many others have had significant exits on big data companies like MySQL.

????Big data combined with an open source approach will lead to significant innovations and massive value creation.

Finally, Facebook now has deep coverage in Europe and is growing in Asia as well. What are your thoughts on it business model and its ability to scale? Growth seems to be slowing and some advertisers say that FB ads are not as effective as search ads.

????FB is now where Google was in 2004, profitable but not yet hugely profitable. FB needs to tweak its advertising model which so far is pretty rudimentary, not bad, but an early stage. I don't think it's time yet to buy FB shares because of the tremendous amount of insider selling that has been taking place. But soon the time will come. I don't think Facebook is a passing fad. Mark Zuckerberg is one of the genius CEOs of this era and FB is here to stay. Zuckerberg will crack the next piece of the puzzle which is how to monetize mobile platforms.