Okee Bokee

Ni hau! I'm pleased to report that Bessemer just closed an investment, alongside Granite Global and Mobius, in China's largest blogging site, Bokee (fka Blog China). In fact, I telephonically attended my first Bokee board meeting this morning at midnight California time. I'm still not entirely sure what Bokee does, but as soon as I learn Mandarin, I intend to fully investigate.

This is Bessemer's first investment in China (excluding Mosel Vitelic in Taiwan), and stems from the great work of Hans Tung in our Shanghai office.

Bokee exemplifies the kind of high-margin consumer technology venture I profiled in my road map post--with consumer generated content, viral growth, and proven consumer appeal. And Bokee benefits from all three major catalysts behind Bessemer's interest in consumer ventures: rapid evolution of mobile services (Bokee sells mobile access to blogs), emergence of consumer classes in India and China, and the highly accelerated adoption rate of successful applications.

As Red Herring reports (though I couldn't tell you why), it was Bokee that first compelled me to explore the blogosphere.