Peter Sinclair: Entrepreneur shows who's top banana

By PETER SINCLAIR

What follows is the tale of two entrepreneurs.

Richard Li, the self-made billionaire son of a self-made billionaire, has the additional distinction of being one of the few businessmen to best Rupert Murdoch.

At 26, he was already famous in Hong Kong as the scion of the colony's top tycoon, Li Ka-Shing, and founder of an entertainment startup, Star TV, Asia's first satellite cable service.

In 1993, still a tyro, he attempted to take over Hong Kong Telecom in the teeth of fierce opposition from Murdoch in alliance with SingTel.

Bad idea. In the end, aboard the Australian's yacht, he agreed to sell out his interest in Star for just under $1 billion.

This was a rehearsal. The windfall enabled him to found Pacific Century Group, its stodginess - a combination of insurance, real estate and high-tech - in marked contrast to the perilous glamour of Star.

But then he launched an IT subsidiary, Pacific Century CyberWorks, "the world's largest broadband internet business." In a few overheated months last year it achieved a stock-market value of more than $US31 billion - larger than Amazon.com's.

Early this year, in a rerun of 1993, he beat off the combined forces of News Corp and SingTel to take over Cable & Wireless HKT.

Now, it's NOW.

His grandiloquently named Network of the World has just appeared online, and is already producing two hours a day of original live television programming which Li plans to expand rapidly with an emphasis on educational material.

"Now you have a need for speed!" the site warns - a DSL connection, ideally.

Edgy, entertaining, it aims at the youth market - "It isn't your grandma's website!" was its slogan, until an actual nana fired off an email of furious complaint. MP3 Showcase, for example, features original music by unknown musicians in a NOW Top 10 format.

So how much is Richard Li worth today? Heaps.

Making money out of the internet, then, is perfectly possible for a visionary entrepreneur. But sadly, not all visionaries have this magic touch.

Ken Bannister has been online since 1997 - longer than Li - and his Altadena-based Banana Museum has been going since 1976.

The site contains everything man has ever thought or guessed about this vaguely risible fruit: "I like bananas, I respect bananas, I find bananas interesting, but I do not love bananas."

But Bannister is banana-ed out. After nearly 30 years bathed in the yellow glow of the museum's banana-coloured floods, he's feeling a bit jaundiced.

For too long now he's been listening to The Banana Boat Song. For too long he's been surrounded by gently curving forms in plastic, wood, alabaster, glass, ceramic, lead, gold, cement, soap - there's even the only petrified banana known to science.

Banana pipes, banana charms, banana belts, pins, magnets, mugs, knives, clocks, lights, shampoos, lipsticks, tobacco, toothpaste, ties, hats, shirts, shorts, slippers, brassieres there's the 2.4m banana couch, the banana tux, the boudoir banana (I didn't ask), the gold-sequined Michael Jackson banana.

The museum has featured in literally thousands of newspapers, magazines and TV shows.

The International Banana Club offers a master's degree or even a full doctorate in bananistry. All over the world, people sport their Ph B medals (a Banana Rampant suspended from a bright yellow ribbon) with pride.

Last month, Bannister decided to cash up. The legendary Banana Museum and all its contents were for sale on eBay with a reserve of $US900,000. Bids closed last week. Except there weren't any.

Ken, I wonder if perhaps a call to Rupert Murdoch ?

Bookmarks

LEANEST, MEANEST: New Internet Computer

Even as his long-time lieutenant, president Ray Lane, abruptly jumped ship last week, Oracle's volatile founder, Larry Ellison, was firing off another salvo in his quixotic battle to create a Microsoft-free universe.

His New Internet Computer (NIC) is a simple, cheap net appliance with system software on a built-in CD-Rom, so that OS and browser upgrades amount to sliding in a new CD.

The sleek, black NIC includes a 56K modem and 64 MB of memory, so its web capability is on a par with similar PCs.

But Larry's Black Hope, running Linux and Netscape, is way cheaper than most at $US199, or $328 with monitor. Its major rival, Netpliance's i-opener, has just gone up to $US399.

Advisory: dealing to Bill.

MOST NOVEL: Fitaly One-Finger Keyboard

QWERTY, the keyboard people love to hate, doggedly survives, as much a technocultural icon as the Roman alphabet, the steering-wheel or the mouse.

It premiered on the world's first typewriter, the Sholes & Glidden, in 1874, and for 126 years we've been moaning that it is inefficient, confusing and more than slightly bizarre.

We tried (and hated) the Dvorak keyboard with its scientific arrangement of keys in order of frequency.

Now, in the age of the hand-held appliance (not to mention OOS), here's one in which a single forefinger does all the walking.

The Fitaly, developed by Textware Solutions, is already available as an overlay for the Graffiti area of the Palm Organizer.

Advisory: hunt-and-peck heaven.

Links:

SingTel

Pacific Century Group

Cable & Wireless HKT

NOW

Banana Museum

New Internet Computer

Netpliance i-opener

Fitaly Keyboard

Dvorak keyboard

Email: petersinclair@email.com