Comments for Solon Partners

Comment on Who is making money online? by MasonPearlie21

MasonPearlie21 — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:59:04 +0000

All people deserve wealthy life time and credit loans or just secured loan can make it better. Because people’s freedom is based on money state.

Comment on Start-up Nation. The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle by Saul Singer

Saul Singer — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 09:55:04 +0000

Thanks for this thoughtful review. I think you are right that some parts of the Israeli model are easier to duplicate than others, but duplication is not the only option. Another is for different countries to find synergies between what each are best at.

Most countries are better at building big companies than Israel is; while Israel is great at start-ups. Whatever the case is for Estonia, there are likely to be potential partnerships between companies that build on the advantages of both countries.

Best, Saul Singer

Comment on Who is making money online? by yrjo

yrjo — Sun, 03 May 2009 08:39:02 +0000

I certainly agree that online advertising will take a hit in 2009, and your estimate is spot on. Historically, this would certainly not be unprecedented - the market fell 25% from 2000-2002.
The four largest Web advertising companies (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL) reported last quarter their financials, and posted a 2% decline for the quarter compared to last year (7% decline compared to the fourth quarter of 2008).

In a recession smaller advertising budgets are a fact of life (wise or not), and now there is more competition for each dollar in that budget because it is currently much cheaper to buy print, TV, radio and outdoor advertising than in the past 5 years.

I would also argue that that there is a changing online dynamic with a more sophisticated consumer that relies ever less on advertising to find products and pricing, and more on peer reviews and recommendations, social networks, and other sources. For most people the fastest way to useful information may be just to do a quick search on the Amazon site for consumer reviews, or check out specialist review sites like http://www.tripadvisor.com (hotels), http://www.dpreview.com (digital cameras), or send out a twitter message asking for recommendations.

My personal experience has repeatedly showed that the photos and information regarding hotels I have received from peers on tripadvisor.com are MUCH more accurate, honest and helpful than the sites reached through advertising. So I trust those recommendations more, and find myself evermore avoiding online ads.

Comment on Who is making money online? by Siim

Siim — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:24:24 +0000

I suggest during 2009, advertising will lose 10-15% to other models. What’s your guess?

Comment on I want my free music by yrjo

yrjo — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:10:01 +0000

My friend Maarja made a great comment to me in response to the Blog. She recommended that those interested in alternative search engines should also check out http://www.squidoo.com/squidoo - brainchild of Seth Godin of “Purple Cow” fame, and ten other very popular marketing books.

Comment on The hunt for distressed assets by Hermes

Hermes — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:34:45 +0000

Some good economical information about business giants in the world - when used in reduced dimensions could be useful for local market too… Looking forward for new posts!

Comment on How to alienate customers - by Ryanair by Vello Vikerkaar

Vello Vikerkaar — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:08:18 +0000

I don’t mind paying one euro to urinate in their toilet, if they don’t mind me urinating for free in my empty coke bottle. I might even screw the cap back on it.

Comment on Behind the scenes of the Gaming Industry by TCB

TCB — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:51:24 +0000

Half a year? Nine and a half months, more like! And the book is a go.

Comment on Tough going for Electric Vehicles (EV) by yrjo

yrjo — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 12:12:19 +0000

SPOT ON!
Elver is absolutely right - after doing a little additional homework it turns out that the Department of Energy has apparently given approval for the loan to get the factory construction going. CEO Musk has stated that the money “should be available in four to five months.”

BUT WAIT - hold the phone! Tesla may have jumped the gun.

GreenCarReports.com reported on Feb 11 that they received an email from
Tesla spokesperson Rachel Konrad with a key clarification:

“I should note that we have NOT received final confirmation from the DOE that we will receive funds. However, we are in the later stages of the process, where the DOE is evaluating Tesla’s financial viability and technical merits. They are doing their due diligence.”

Apparently DOE is currently reviewing over 70 other applications for Green Car loans.

So it is not entirely clear what the status of the loan is, but Tesla as the flagship of the industry will likely get at least half of their request and may yet see the Model S rolling out in early 2012. Tesla hopes to produce 20,000 Model S vehicles in the first year. Remains to be seen whether the market is ready to pay the $60,000 price tag.

The company has gone as far as proclaiming in their newsletter that they will achieve profitability in the second half of 2009 (based on projections of the Roadster pre-sale data). However, Venture Beat reporter on Feb 13 article labeled this prediction “incredibly optimistic.”

Comment on Nokia’s app store “Ovi” is out by Elver

Elver — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 11:07:20 +0000

Ovi just lost *three weeks* of user data after a chat server’s cooling system failed: http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/02/when_the_cloud.html?cid=RSSfeed_IWK_ALL

Can’t really take a service like that very seriously…