UPDATE
This issue has a feature article on Red Herrings’ annual investor conference on Web 2.0 provided by an inside birds-eye view from MBITA member, Sheridan Tatsuno of DreamScape Global. Did you know that disposable dishware can now be made out of recyclable vegetable matter? Read about our new member, Pan Pacific Export Import. Also, see about TradePort’s Global Trade Center and MBITA’s Global Jobs Center in this issue of World TradeWinds.
President
Tony Livoti
MBITA
Vice President
Shay Adams
AIM Medical Sales
Members
Dr. Edward Valeau
Former President
Hartnell College
Salinas
Marcelo Siero
IdeasSiero
Jim Faith
Trade Export Finance Online
(TEFO)
Staff
Cristina Polesel
General Manager
Emi Hirano
Marketing Assistant
Akiko Tsukahara
Marketing Analyst
This newsletter has been
created by MBITA's editor
Cristina Polesel
cristina@mbita.org
MBITA New Member
Pan Pacific Export Import
HALAL ARTESIAN MINERAL DRINKING WATER
The Monterey Bay International Trade Association (MBITA) is pleased to welcome its new member, the Pan Pacific Export Import, importer of Halal Artesian mineral drinking water from Fiji Islands.
HALAL is an Arabic term meaning: “Permissible to Drink or Eat”. In English it refers most frequently to food that is permissible according to the Islamic Law, whereas in Arabic it refers to anything that is permissible under Islam.
- all sizes of bowls and plates
- three-compartment plates
- sushi trays
- oval trays
- lunch boxes
- square boxes
- soup cups
- coffee cups and soda cups .
Due to the high quality of the material, these products are:
- environmentally friendly - 100% disposable
- water and oil proof (up to 100 degree Celsius in hot water or hot oil)
- up to 220 degree Celsius microwave reheatable.
- safe in the refrigerator
- healthy
Contact:
Pan Pacific Export Import
28527 Mission Blvd.
Hayward, CA 94544 - U.S.A.
Tel: 510-582-4817 - Cell. 510-316-1286 - Fax: 510-537-5162
Web: www.waterfromfiji.com
email: ali710412@aol.com
MBITA Member Story
From the film industry to industrial greenhouses to gas turbine engines, Guaranty Bank's client's fogging technology has been creating special effects, controlling indoor climate and reducing energy waste and pollution since 1969.Guaranty Bank of California is very happy to be part of this company’s international expansion. Through the Ex-Im Bank working capital loan program, Guaranty Bank financed projects in Dubai and Spain with a credit line of $800,000. This allowed the company to expand their business without straining their cash flow or exposing their company to expensive long-term debt.
Most recently, the Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), a Mexican government-owned utility provider with over 23 million customers, signed a $12,000,000 contract with their client.
The Bank is financing this project with an Ex-Im line of credit totaling $2,500,000. CFE also required a 10% performance bond, which Guaranty Bank of California was able to grant to complete the package. The project has been making excellent progress and is expected to be finished in May, 2007.
Guaranty Bank of California received Ex-Im Bank's 2004 Regional Bank of the Year award for the western region. The Bank ranks number four in number of transactions, amongst all the Ex-Im Delegated Authority lenders in the US.
Contact:
Trade Finance/Guaranty Programs
Eileen Ma
Tel: (626) 243-1182
ema@guarantybank.ccEdward Tang
Tel: (626) 243-1183
etang@guarantybank.ccSarah Diep
Tel: (626) 243-1185
sdiep@guarantybank.cc
Commercial Real Estate Loans
Raymond Tran
Tel: (714) 876-2108
rtran@guarantybank.ccTodd Huynh
Tel: (714) 876-2111
thuynh@guarantybank.ccMinh Nguyen
Tel: (714) 876-2110
mnguyen@guarantybank.cc
An Era of Innovation and Disruption
By MBITA Member Sheridan Tatsuno, Dreamscape Global
Sheridan Tatsuno of Dreamscape Global and long-time MBITA member again participated in the annual Red Herring Conference in Monterey, Ca. held on May 2, 2007. The following is his birds-eye view of this annual high-level trade and investors’ conference.
- Content discovery, not search, using metadata
- YouTube on television
- YouTube interface for custom music programming
- All digital media in one location
- Mobile media personalization and direct access
- Real-time travel videos using mobile phones
- Social networking as a feature set on websites and mobile phones
- “Cyber-coolers” with buddy lists and recommendations
- Multiple users in virtual music bands in online games
- Monetization of popular community sites
Tastemaking, such as a favorite artist’s favorite songs, movies and websites
Red Herring annually announces 100 leading information technology companies. This year’s finalists, selected from 800 submissions, can be found at: www.herringevents.com/spring07/200finalists.html
Web video is a popular emerging business opportunity that is pursuing $500 billion in worldwide advertising, of which $270 billion is in the U.S. and only 6% online. Entrants are trying a variety of business models: own syndicated content, user-generated content (UGC), self-service content creation, self-service (like Google), and contests, but there is still little liquidity in capital markets.
How are companies monetizing their sites? Google offers revenue sharing with content providers. SmileBox provides templates for content and ads. Gotuit monetizes personalized content. YouTube mixes UGC with content from networks and other businesses.
Tags and ads are popular, but few websites feature ads yet. The most successful websites with tags and ads are the New York Times and Yahoo! Web search is a big revenue source, with only 1.5% of the websites generating 42% of the ad dollars. To help companies maximize revenues, video ad optimization companies are proliferating. Today, the best Web video monetization player is ABC’s primetime reports, which are designed from the user’s viewpoint.
Is there too much VC money chasing Web 2.0 and other deals? Ray Lane, partner at Kleiner Perkins, believes there is over three times too much VC money. There is such a long-term surplus that he forecasts investment bubbles in green technologies and other emerging fields. The problem is that each VC investment triggers ten copycat investments, so Kleiner Perkins is doing more “stealth” investments that are not publicly announced as well as setting up China funds.
Currently, Kleiner Perkins invests 40% of its funds in IT, 1/3 in cleantech, ¼ in life sciences, and the remainder in enterprise security startups. Solar cells, biofuels, storage, and pandemics are some of its current investment areas.
Pierre Lamond of Sequoia Ventures also agrees that there is too much venture capital. Currently, there are 10,000 VCs worldwide, with only ten VC firms having good returns, while the rest are suffering terrible returns. Venture capital has become an asset class so VCs have been raising money since 2001 despite these mediocre returns.
For example, Harvard University is investing 5% of its $30 billion endowment in new ventures. Currently, 2,000 to 3,000 ventures are funded annually, of which 1,500 fail. To survive this falloff, Lamond recommends that ventures focus on revenues and profits. Due to the slow IPO market, there are 200 to 300 companies with $100 million in annual revenues that are not going public. They and their VC backers are returning to the 1980 practice of waiting five to seven years to go IPO.
“Silicon Valley is losing its dominance,” says Lamond, he offers the VC secrets to success: a big market (be contrarian and don’t fall in love with your technology), a strong team, a unique product or service, and an unfair advantage. “If there’s no competition, there’s no market.”
Sheridan Tatsuno is principal of Dreamscape Global, a consulting firm enabling companies to develop breakthrough strategies. He is co-founding startup companies and will teach filmmaking online for Jonkoping University in Sweden as part of a new global venture academy network. www.ryze.com/go/tatsuno, www.dreamscapeglobal.com
With a focus on global trade industry companies and professionals, the MBITA Global Jobs Center offers its members—and the industry at large—an easy-to-use and highly targeted resource for online employment connections in global trade.
Both members and non-members can use the MBITA Career Center to reach qualified candidates. Employers can post jobs online, search for qualified candidates based on specific job criteria, and create an online resume agent to email qualified candidates daily. They also benefit from online reporting that provides job activity statistics.
For job seekers, the MBITA Career Center is a free service that provides access to employers and jobs in the global trade industry. In addition to posting their resumes, job seekers can browse and view available jobs based on their criteria and save those jobs for later review if they choose.
Job seekers can also create a search agent to provide email notifications of jobs that match their criteria.
Start using the MBITA Career Center TODAY!
MBITA Luncheon
Leading up to MBITA’s “Green Trade Mission to China”, President and founder of MBITA, Tony Livoti brought together 50 members of the California's business community to Monterey California, to discuss renewable energies and green technologies.
Held on May 4, 2007, the luncheon featured a panel of experts with expertise in ranging from solar power and wind power to fuel sufficient algae and fruit seeds. The experts in the panel included: Franz Helbig, Partner of Monterey Venture Partners; Ron Swenson, Managing Director of Solar Quest; Ingrid Rosten, Executive Director of CleanStart; Anders Riel Muller, Senior Advisor Environmental Affairs of Baltic Sea Solutions and Bernie Weiss, Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Center for International Trade Development (SVCITD).
The issues that were discussed include:
1) What are the best global opportunities and investments in the burgeoning ‘Green World’?
2) Is the Green revolution going to be as big as the IT revolution of the 90’s?
3) What are the challenges and solutions that face the Green Revolution to maximize economic growth while maintaining a clean environment?
The panelists expressed that Green Technologies are not just something of the future but they are now being used aggressively in small and up incoming economies, such as Solar Power panels that are facilitating the energy needs in places of fragile environments such as the Galapagos Islands, and wind mills that are providing a great deal of power for the Netherlands.
The panels agreed that the ‘Green Revolution’ is not something to be compared to the ‘IT Revolution’ because they are very different in nature; however as oil prices rise and our populations expand leading to higher energy demands, Green Technologies will play an integral part in supplying a cleaner source of energy and is certainly worth investing in, as record investment in new renewable energy capacity in 2005 exceeded $38 billion.
Some of the major challenges facing renewable energy companies that were discussed included coalition building to influence US government officials of the needs and benefits of Green Technologies as well as general the general public.
As a part of MBITA’s “Green Mission to China” Mr. Livoti will take many of the ideas and issues bought up in this luncheon to China in his continued effort to promote and explore Green Technologies in cross border trade.
Join the TradePort Global Trade Center’ and obtain information on import, export and investment opportunities from all points on the globe.
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