Om Malik
{{Short description|Indian-American writer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Om Prakash Malik
| native_name = ॐ प्रकाश मलिक
| image = Om Malin in 2023.jpg
| caption = Malik in 2023
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1966|09|29}}
| birth_place = New Delhi, India
| death_date =
| death_place =
| alma_mater = St. Stephen's College, Delhi
Delhi University
| occupation =
| children =
| website = {{URL|https://om.co/}}
}}
Om Prakash Malik (Hindi: ॐ प्रकाश मलिक; born September 29, 1966) is an Indian-American web and technology writer. He founded and wrote content for Gigaom, which he sold in 2015 after it faced financial difficulty. He authored the book Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist and articles by Malik have been published by The Wall Street Journal, Brandweek, and Crain Communications. He is now a partner at True Ventures.
Biography
=Early life and education=
Malik was born in and grew up in middle-class family in New Delhi.{{Cite web | url=https://www.sramanamitra.com/2007/06/01/om-malik-pioneering-blogs-part-1/ | title=Om Malik: Pioneering Blogs (Part 1) | date=June 1, 2007}} He graduated from St. Stephens’ College in New Delhi in 1986, with an honors degree in chemistry.{{cite news | url=https://www.outlookindia.com/society/proliferation-of-visual-sensors-is-extreme-news-292954 | last=Mukherjee | first=Arindam |title='Proliferation of visual sensors is extreme' | work=Outlook | date=January 12, 2015}}
=Career=
After graduating, Malik had several journalism positions in New Delhi, including with VP Fun and Newsmen Features, where he specialized in lifestyle features.{{Cite web |url=https://om.co/2011/12/05/dev-anand-rip/ | title=In Praise of Dev Anand, India's Gregory Peck. R.I.P! | publisher=Om Malik |date=December 6, 2011}}
He moved to London and then spent time in Eastern Europe. He moved to New York City in 1993 to be a writer for India Abroad and then for Forbes.{{cite news |url=https://www.eweek.com/it-management/om-malik-says-goodnight-sweetheart-closes-down-gigaom/ |last=Chris |first=Preimesberger |title=Om Malik Says 'Goodnight, Sweetheart,' Closes Down GigaOm | work=eWeek | date=March 10, 2015}} He was also a senior writer for Red Herring, focusing on the telecommunications sector. In late 1994, he launched DesiParty.com, an events site for Indian immigrants. Also in 1994, he co-founded the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA). In 1995, he helped launch the now-defunct magazine, Masala, and its website Masala.com, a South Asian portal.{{Cite web | url=https://om.co/about/ | title=About Om Malik| date=10 June 2016}}
In 1997, Malik was on the original team at Forbes.com led by David Churbuck. In 1999, he left Forbes.com to work as an investment manager at Hambrecht & Quist Asia Pacific; his stay there lasted only a few months because he decided he preferred being a writer.
In 2000, he moved to San Francisco, California to write for Business 2.0 magazine. In 2001, he started Gigaom, a blog. The website had a monthly global audience of over 500,000, and was among the top 50 blogs worldwide by Technorati rank.{{cite news | url=https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/news/om-malik-s-pioneering-tech-blog-gigaom-shuts-down-story-8VJ4L7IcN6wBcgsxbAVYbK.html | title=Om Malik's pioneering tech blog GigaOm shuts down | work=Hindustan Times | date=March 10, 2015}} It was listed in the Blog 100 Index by CNET.{{cite web |url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/news-coms-blog-100/ | title=News.com's Blog 100 | work=CNET | date=February 4, 2008}}
His book, Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist, was released in 2003. It investigated fraud by telecom companies during the dot-com bubble.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=23OKPwAACAAJ | title=Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist |last=Malik |first=Om | publisher=Wiley | date=November 8, 2004| isbn=978-0-471-66061-3 }}
Malik announced on June 12, 2006, that he was going to work on Gigaom full-time, although he continued to be a contributing editor and had a regular column in Business 2.0 until its demise in October 2007.{{cite news | url=https://slate.com/technology/2015/03/gigaom-shuts-down-why-did-om-malik-s-tech-blog-run-out-of-money.html | title=GigaOm Was Universally Respected. Too Bad Respect Doesn't Pay the Bills.| first=Will | last=Oremus | work=Slate | date=March 10, 2015}}
In July 2006, Malik wrote a post about Twitter that was credited as one of the first media coverages of the social networking service.{{cite news | url=https://techcrunch.com/2013/08/13/congrats-om/ |title=Om Malik, Father Of Tech News Blogging, American Citizen | last=Tsotsis | first=Alexia | work=TechCrunch | date=August 13, 2013}}{{cite news | url=https://slate.com/technology/2013/11/om-malik-s-first-blog-post-about-twitter-in-2006-got-everything-wrong.html |title=The First Blog Post About Twitter Got Pretty Much Everything Wrong |last=Oremus | first=Will | work=Slate |date=November 5, 2013}}
From July 2007 to March 2008, Malik hosted the podcast The GigaOm Show on Revision3 with Joyce Kim, which focused on technology and business.{{Cite magazine | url=https://www.wired.com/2007/07/revision3-teams/ | title=Revision3 Teams With GigaOm For New Show | magazine=Wired | date=July 25, 2007}} Malik was also a frequent guest on the former CrankyGeeks podcast with John C. Dvorak.
File:Om Malik & Nick Bilton (15083880520).jpg in 2014]]
Malik left Gigaom in January 2014. In March 2015, the company ceased operations due to financial difficulty.{{cite news |title=Tech Blog GigaOm Abruptly Shuts Down |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/10/business/media/tech-blog-gigaom-abruptly-shuts-down.html |last=Somaiya |first=Ravi |work=The New York Times |date=March 10, 2015 | url-access=limited}} In May 2015, it was acquired by Knowingly Corporation.{{cite news | url=https://www.eweek.com/cloud/remains-of-gigaom-bought-by-content-farm-knowingly/ | title=Remains of GigaOm Bought by Content Farm Knowingly | first=Chris | last=Preimesberger | work=eWeek | date=May 27, 2015}}
Personal life
In December 2007, Malik suffered a heart attack at age 41, likely caused by incessant smoking of cigars and cigarettes as well as drinking alcohol and eating unhealthy foods. The heart attack forced him to reconsider his priorities.{{Cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/07/technology/07blogger.html | title=Some Brand-Name Bloggers Say Stress of Posting Is a Hazard to Their Health | first=Dan | last=Fost | work=The New York Times | date=January 7, 2008 | url-access=limited}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{commons category|Om Malik}}
- {{Official website|https://om.co/}}
{{Revision3}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Malik, Om}}
Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers
Category:American male bloggers
Category:American male journalists
Category:American male writers of Indian descent
Category:American technology writers
Category:American writers of Indian descent