I always liked to discover Russia or China as healthy growth alternatives for new business. Last October I was blogging about Russia’s online market in 2008 and right now I have only positive thoughts about this part of the world since they decided to invest more in new media.
I like the new country and the achievements made in the last years: Russia is now a healthy democracy with an emerging market and a healthy appetite for new business. I know that in Romania, politicians are not very keen to maintain business relationships with Russian entities but the opportunities cannot be ignored as we entered a new era of doing business.
The financial crisis had a different impact but the fact that Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment group, decided to $200 million investment in Facebook was a great signal for entrepreneurs all over the world. Facebook said the investment represents a 1.96% equity stake at a $10 billion valuation and it seems that DST has indicated that it will offer to buy at least $100 million of Facebook common stock from existing common stockholders. Continue reading ‘Russia, the new financial tiger – online business’
WR Hambrecht CEO Bill Hambrecht on Google’s IPO anniversary (movie uploaded 2 minutes ago):
A Dutch auction is a type of auction where the auctioneer begins with a high asking price which is lowered until some participant is willing to accept the auctioneer’s price, or a predetermined reserve price (the seller’s minimum acceptable price) is reached. The winning participant pays the last announced price. This is also known as a “clock auction” or an open-outcry descending-price auction. wiki
PUMA has another “wonder shoe” designed to write history – the Yaam (pronounced yom), the sprint spike created exclusively for Usain Bolt to run the Berlin World Championships.
149 grams, superlight, 80-85 EUR, very orange, way too cool. Details here…
August 2009 – Hi5.com (social networking website), similar to Facebook, leader on its segment in Romania:
-2.251.606 active accounts;
-56% male users, 44% female;
-most active: 18-25 y (45,9%), 13-18 y (26%), 25-35 y (20,9%).
Changes from december 2008:
- 7 points growth regarding male users – from 49% to 56%;
– more users in 25-35 y – 9,60% to 20,9%;
I have no idea what happened to see this type of growth in 25-35 but it’s a good thing for the sales team since they now have a strong argument for pushing this website. Demographics provided by Alexa say that 18-24 are over-represented on Hi5 but probably will change on their next update.
Big buzz in London these days as Google plans to relaunch a new version of its search engine. Since Google is the only player in the local (Romanian) search market, and only a few websites depend on direct traffic, any change is interesting to follow.
This upgrade is also probably a response to Bing in a very competitive market. Google aims real-time relevant search and they’re also focusing on a multi-platform user experience.
Interesting to note:
- new architecture will include crawling, indexing, and ranking changes;
- “page rank” was so 2008 – new focus on reputation and authority;
According to alexa.com, Google.ro is now the most popular website in Romania – few people know that in 2001 Google.ro was registered by someone else and the first Romanian localised version was available in 2003.
But, by far, the most interesting fact is that the servers hosting google.ro are installed in a military governmental facility, in a high-technology campus at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View (a partnership created between the public and private sector, Google pays NASA an initial base rent of $3.66 million per year but for this money the have their own airstrip just a few meters away ).
First time I joined the business inINTACT Media Group was on the 1st of May 2008. In July 2008, I already started setting up a new sales house and on the 1st of October INTACT Interactive held its first meeting. In November 2008 we had the first website in the portfolio and the first campaign. In February, together with Ocean Strategy and Gazeta Online, we started to shape a group strategy for the next two years.
Right now, INTACT Interactive is one of the top players in online advertising in Romania(representing over 130 websites), thanks to Magdalena Zander, Gabriel Boaca, Maria Cocris, Sorin Cristea and a great team of Internet enthusiasts working 24/7. On monday, Sorin Danilescu will join the team and will replace me as General Manager of Intact Interactive.
My new position in INTACT Media Group is Senior Advisor concerned with new media. In the next months I’ll focus on new business opportunities while supporting the companies and online products of the media group.
There are new challenges ahead and I’m happy to see more and more people involved and supporting new media cutting edge technologies in the group.
DISCLAIMER: this is a personal blog. The contents of this site does not necessarily represent the expressed opinions of my employer, my endorsers or my partners.
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