Ben Huh, co-creator of I Can Has Cheezburgers, picture in 2008 in New York City. Picture: Joe Kohen/WireImage Source: Getty Images
- LOLcats entrepreneur Ben Huh talks to news.com.au
- Huh says Australia should build its own Silicon Valley
- 'National broadband is a great idea, but at what cost?'
THE MAN who introduced the web to LOLcats visited Australia last week, and had a few things to say about the tech culture Down Under.
South Korean entrepreneur Ben Huh, bought popular website I Can Has Cheezburger - a site dedicated to cute pictures of cats with misspelled captions - in 2007, when the site was in its infancy.
Since then the site has made Huh a multi-millionaire and he has gone on to launch other popular websites including Know Your Meme and Failblog - which is dedicated to documenting human stupidity.
In town to promote computer company, Dell, Huh told news.com.au that he was really excited to be here, but was sad Australia was losing so much of its tech talent to the US. The Federal Government should be trying to build a Silicon Valley of its own and encourage local talent to stay and work locally.
"The culture of entrepreneurism is there, he said. People are willing to take risks but we need to be willing to be bolder about the challenges they tackle.
"Policies and government structures play a big role in that."
He said Australia was making progress but was not there yet.
"Australia is suffering from a brain drain where risk takers are moving to the US," he said.
One thing the government should do to encourage innovation locally is stop taxing people for money they don't yet have, he said.
In Australia if you are given stock options in a start-up company, you are taxed for those shares immediately, even if you have yet to earn anything from them.
In the US, people do not have to pay taxes on stock options until they have been paid out, he said.
"Imagine walking into a casino and they told you upon entry 'we're going to tax you now for money you haven't earned, in case you earn $10,000'," he said.
"At face value that seems like a terrible idea; having to pay taxes on something that may not be worth anything."
Huh said the entrepreneurial spirit was strong in Australians. He said the government should be cultivating that by allowing them to foster a local community of innovators and allow them to keep challenging themselves.
"Nothing is essential to innovation except making it easier to take risks, " he said.
But will the National Broadband Network help in fostering this innovation? Huh said government-funded fibre was a huge political risk but also a little bit brave.
"Fibre is not essential to innovation, but it will lead to innovation," he said. "I just don't know how much."
Huh said if it comes down to return on investment, fibre was best left up to private industry.
"But if the government wants to spend that money, then that's their choice. It's a pretty brave move.
"I think national broadband is a great idea but at what cost?"
Huh said the US had "terrible fibre" but said the best stuff could be found in Kansas where Google was installing fibre optic broadband "because iIt has decided to dump a crap load of money there".
He said part of the problem in the US was the lack of competition. Huh said the Australian Federal Government should learn from the US example by creating competition between Internet providers.
He acknowledged though, that it would take "political courage".
"Spending billions on infrastructure to wire up the country ... you'd need to weigh up the odds," he said
"A lot of people smarter than me are trying to solve the problem but $34 billion (to build the NBN) doesn't seem like it's going to lead to innovation."
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