On the last day of Jan. 2007, Keso announced on his blog that he had left Donews. Today China Web2.0 Review interviewed Keso to find out why he left his old company and what kind of service his new startup will bring to customers.
His new startup is an Internet business consulting company called Five Seasons. The name is from the pronunciation of 5G, which is a famous weekly seminar organized in Donews office for more than one year. 5G has been a great interactive platform for startups. Lao Bai has a more specific introduction of 5G. And here is 5G schedule maintained by Liu Ren, executive of Donews.
In a Sina report, Tudou, former Google China CMO Allen Wang’s new startup and Holding VC has registered as clients of Five Seasons.
Following is the Interview. Thanks to Keso for his time.
CWR: On Chinese Blogger Conference last year, you were asked if you had plan to do your own startup. You said you were not born to be an entrepreneur. Have you taken any special preparations or will that be an obstacle of your new company?
Keso: I am not suitable to establish and manage a traditional company with some amount of employees, because it’s hard for me to be responsible for their personal development and income due to my own personality. Five Seasons is just a loosely connected organization, I don’t have to pay too much attention to other members’ business. What’s more, we trust each other, we have similar value of goodness and vision of the future of the Internet. This is the foundation for the new company to exist.
CWR: Would you like to briefly comment your last company, Donews? What’s your view of your personal achievement, relationship with your boss who is also your good friend, and the strategy of Donews after it was acquired by Oak Pacific Interactive?
Keso: Donews as an independent entity, I mean before it was acquired, was the best company I have ever worked for. I know I cannot find second Donews any more. Now Donews has become a component of an even bigger organization, it must adapt to that organization’s short-term and long-term benefit. I know this change is normal and necessary. But obviously it has some conflict with my own personality, so I chose to leave. This is my own problem, it has nothing to do with Oac Pacific or Donews, neither with Joseph Chen or Liu Ren, because they have their own pressure to conform. I wish them big success. Going forward, Donews is still a platform that I can reply on, and I will do within my ability to contribute to this platform that used to significantly benefit me.
CWR: What kind of niche market is your new company in? What value are you going to bring to your customers?
Keso: There’re already lots of consulting companies, but most of them are with traditional IT background. They mainly sell technical solutions and survey reports. Five Seasons will focus on enterprises’ Internet business. We don’t sell report or ERP or CRM solutions. Our resources include: perspective of win and fail on the Internet based on long-term inspection and working experience, well connection with all aspects of the industry, and understanding and vision of Web 2.0. We believe Web 2.0 has changed and will be changing the Internet, more and more companies will recognize the value of Web 2.0. Liu Ren, Lao Bai and I have helped lots of internet startups and traditional companies’ Internet business. We found that more and more companies have such requirement. So even Five Seasons’ business model is not big, it must be useful.
CWR: Can you share some more specific plans of the company and its services?
Keso: Our object of the first year is quite simple, to survive. The long-term objective is to build a famous Internet consulting brand. We tend to unite more consultants with unique advantages to provide larger help to customers. To be more specific, we are going to help companies to build cooperative relationship with users, not control and be controlled. We also provide marketing advices for companies’ products, help them find venture capital, and help venture capitals with evaluation of their investment target, etc.
CWR: How would you describe your vision of the new company in 2 years?
Keso: It’s really hard to predict the status of Five Seasons when it’s two years old. But we can confirm there will be more Internet business consulting companies, especially those Web 2.0 involved. Further, international consulting companies will enter Chinese market. The total capacity of the market will explode, but different companies will have their unique advantages and entrance strategy. It’s not very hard for Five Seasons to survive. As to if it will grow into a big business and how big, let’s do it and we will find out.
Update: Sina has another interview with Keso and Liu Ren.
Five Seasons,
Keso
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When I read Fons’ post named 
Shenzhen based Xunlei, one of the largest download resource directories in China, has launched