“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

That was lines in Charles Darwin’s masterpiece of The Origin of Species.

It is also one description of the Internet world of today, concludes Brian XIN Weimin, who is chief technology officer of MSN China.

He made remarks when he was delivering a speech in the school on September 12 evening, titled “An introduction to opportunities and challenges in today’s Internet.”

He was speaking to the MBA students at the invitation of the MBA students union in the school.

By borrowing various latest business happenings in the real world into his speech, he had tried to prove how important a role the innovative thoughts are playing in the cutting-throat competition in the Internet business.

More than 100 MBA students joined to listen to his speech.

Brian XIN Weimin, CTO of MSN China

Brian XIN led the students on a retrospective view of the development of MSN China’s products, such as IM (Instant Messenger), portal, mail, space.

He illustrated how the market penetration level is like in regard to MSN business in Chinese market, how MSN China had expanded MSN services which fit into the needs of white-collar workers, as well as its analysis and recommendation on clients’ behaviors in this regard.

He said that he is optimistic about the future of kind of websites which specialize in providing services to Netizens in facilitating their online social networking activities, though he didn’t push that to an extreme and put up doubts for open discussions about how they should maintain a sustainable development trend.

He said that, space remains ample to explore many more business models, which includes the social networking-focused models.

The personalized services, such as provided by IM, are kind of business models which he said have a bright future.

Meanwhile, efforts are needed to get in place to improve the Internet infrastructure.

The 21st century will still be a burgeoning period of Internet development and business opportunities are going to emerge just around the corner, only if your mindset is ready to welcome it, he concluded.

Brian XIN takes picture with MBA students

Brian XIN received his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Tsinghua University. He served as the president of Tsinghua Alumni Association of Northern California (THAA-NC) during 2004-2005.

He has rich experience in Internet, mobile, software development, and technology business management, in both startups and multinational companies.

September 16, 2008