Page 82 - Forbes - Asia (September 2018)

TECHNOLOGY BEN SIN // GADGETMAN
CASHING IN HER CHIPS
XU KE IS REALLY GOOD with num-
bers. As an exchange student at the Uni-
versity of California, Riverside in 2013,
the Beijing native developed a knack for
poker, and though she was not yet 21
(the minimum gambling age in the U.S.)
at the time, the existence of online poker
and lenient southern California casino
laws allowed her to play regularly and
hone her skills in probability and risk
assessment.
Her days in card rooms both digital
and physical allowed her to meet a fair number of interesting, uncon-
ventional characters, including investors in cryptocurrency, back before
“crypto” became a business media buzzword. She was intrigued and
began mining bitcoin. The deeper she dug into currency, the more she
agreed with its philosophy of decentralization via blockchain.
Xu continued to play poker when she moved back to China in 2014.
Whenever she scored big at the poker table, she’d invest the money in
bitcoin. At the peak of her bitcoin-buying days, Xu says, she had more
than 50,000 units of the currency. She eventually cashed out 20,000
bitcoins in 2014 at $240, for a $4.8 million payday.
Now 24, Xu realizes that she sold them too soon—20,000 bitcoins
would be worth $120 million now—but she made good use of the mil-
lions she did make. In 2016, after a stint creating and selling a social
app, she founded Nome Lab, a Beijing startup that specializes in making
blockchain product and games.
Of these, the digital goods trading game CryptoDogs has been the
most successful. But this year, following recent controversies over
Facebook’s misuse of personal data and giving a platform to far-right
conspiracy theorists, Xu has focused on her next
idea: a free social network based on blockchain
technology, in which all user data are decentralized,
with a self-governing system that rewards users who
share quality content.
The beta version of the network, called Ono,
launched in April, and according to Xu it already has
more than 3 million members.
Xu cites the origins of the Web as the inspiration
behind Ono: “When [British computer scientist]
Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web,
his vision was to let humans exchange information
and knowledge freely. The internet belongs to all
of us. But it’s become so centralized now. Most of
the world’s top ten tech companies built their net Xu Ke: poker fanatic and founder of Ono.
BEN SIN IS A HONG KONG-BASED CONTRIBUTOR TO FORBES.COM WHO WRITES ABOUT CONSUMER TECH.
80 | FORBES ASIA SEPTEMBER 2018
worths by selling user data. This is why block-
chain is important—you own the data yourself,”
she says, explaining that her company couldn’t
sell Ono users’ data even if it wanted to, be-
cause Ono is a “dapp,” or decentralized app.
Ono is available in the Google Play store,
and the iOS version will come out this month.
It’s also accessible through any Web browser.
I signed up and was surprised to see quite a bit
of English-language content, considering that
most of the users are in China. The network
felt like Twitter (or more accurately, Weibo),
but without character limits. “You are able to
write as many words as you want,” Xu says.
Ono is funded by the $16 million that Nome
Labs raised from investors such as China
Growth Capital and Korea Investment Part-
ners. Xu says the app will run ads and partner
with brands down the line.
The Nome team in Beijing has a staf of 76
(Xu says there are 15 other stafers around the
world). There are also thousands of volunteers
who help oversee the site. “Ono is run demo-
cratically and lets content creators retain own-
ership over their content and get rewarded,”
Xu says. This will be achieved via a system in
which the best content creators (as voted by the
community) receive digital currency that can be
traded or used for in-app purchases.
Xu has lofty goals for Ono. “I hope it can
be the number one social
network,” she says. But
while beating Facebook
will almost be impossible,
one has to admire her
competitive spirit. She says
that every time she sells
something—be it bitcoins
or her first social app—she
isn’t happy, despite the
payday.
“I enjoy winning more
than making money,” she THOMAS KUHLENBECK FOR FORBES (TOP); BEN SIN
says. “I want to build some-
thing that lasts.” F