Basil: I bet. I bet. So, you're a known person for somebody who would spot technology trends early. What trends do you see emerging now?
Maha: There's so much going on in the mobile space globally right now with the introduction of Android into the marketplace and, in addition to that, what Amazon is doing with their Kindle Fire, from the perspective of Android tablets. There's just been this kind of watershed moment where you're really seeing a real foil to Apple or, I should say, a second provider to Apple.
Apple has really owned the day for years with respect to their smartphone penetration and the apps that are on the phone, as well as the retail environment. Now having Android come up, it enables a whole new set of viral apps to come to market with a huge audience. I think it's been said that over a billion new Android phones will be lit up in the next eight to nine months. In my opinion, that represents an enormous market globally.
Basil: That's true. The challenge, I think, with the Android now is the monetization on the apps. I've talked to a lot of people and they say although the penetration is higher on the Android side, but the monetization is much more challenging.
Maha: I think if you look at Facebook in its early days, the applications that have been launched when Facebook just opened up their API's were very similar, right? It was throwing sheep against a wall. It was very, very quick, light, not very sticky applications. I think in the next several quarters, you're going to see a whole new set of sophisticated applications on Android, whether it's in the games environment or whether it's in enterprise apps environment. It's, to me, a no-brainer and those will monetize increasingly better as the Android community becomes a lot richer.
About the Guest:
“Maha Ibrahim invests in innovative cloud and digital media companies with the potential to become global market leaders. Maha is known in the venture industry for her ability to spot technology trends early, foster growth at her portfolio companies through hands-on operational guidance, and achieve profitable exits for entrepreneurs and investors.”
“Maha joined Canaan’s Menlo Park office in March 2000. She was one of the first investors to recognize the huge potential of social gaming. Maha led Canaan Partners’ early investment in social games pioneer PicksPal (acquired by Liberty Media) and is now a lead investor in Kabam, the world’s largest developer of massively multiplayer social games and InhaleDigital, the first social retail site for online games. Maha also invests in enterprise technology companies leveraging cloud computing to improve business outcomes”
Maha holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT and now serves as a General Partner at Canaan Partners.
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Emerging Trends in Technology
Maha Ibrahim talks about the Emerging Trends in Technology.
