An interesting article on IT Facts about the amount of “free money” in the United States. The SEC cannot locate approximately 3 mln lost shareholders, representing $10 bln in unclaimed stocks. 87,500 tax refunds were returned to the IRS in 2004, totaling $73 mln. In the state of Texas alone, $72 mln of lottery winnings went unclaimed in 2003. An estimated $600 mln of un-redeemed store credits and gift certificates expired last year.
Category: Business
EU falls behind US by 20 years
According to EUROCHAMBRES, the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the economic performance of the EU is about 20 years behind that of the US. The study compares the EU to the US in terms of GDP, R&D, productivity and employment by “time distances”? between the two regions and forecasts how many years the EU will take to catch up with the US, and under what conditions of growth.
- Employment: Europe’s employment level for 2003 was achieved be the US in 1978. It will take the EU until 2023 to reach US levels of employment, and then only if EU employment growth will exceed that of the US by 0.5% p.a.
- R&D: Europe’s R&D investment for 2002 was achieved by the US in 1979. It will take the EU until 2123 to reach US levels of R&D investment, and then only if EU investment will exceed that of the US by 0.5% p. a.
- Income: Europe’s income for 2003 was achieved by the US in 1985. It will take the EU until 2072 to reach US levels of income per capita, and then only if EU income growth will exceed that of the US by 0.5% p. a.
- Productivity: Europe’s level of productivity for 2003 was achieved by the US in 1989. It will take the EU until 2056 to reach US productivity rates per employed, and then only if EU productivity growth will exceed that of the US by 0.5%.
EUROCHAMBRES has member organisations in 43 countries representing a network of 2,000 regional and local Chambers with over 18 million member companies. All findings from EUROCHAMBRES’ publication “Time for a fresh start – But time is not on our side. A Comparison of European and US Economies Based on Time Distances? (zipped format, 7MB)
Vodafone to acquire cell phone operations in Romania
Vodafone revealed last night that it is in talks to pay between $3.5 billion (according to some sources) and $4 blillon (according to others) for two phone businesses in Romania and the Czech Republic in a bid to plug a gap in its global mobile network.
Vodafone already owns 20pc of Mobifon, which has 4.9m customers – almost half of the market – making it the number two player in Romania, where less than half the population owns a cellphone.
Branding. Is it dying?
There are more brands than ever. But they’re taking a beating – or, even worse, being ignored. Who’s to blame? A new breed of hyperinformed superconsumers.
And yet there’s something strange going on in branding land. Even as companies have spent enormous amounts of time and energy introducing new brands and defending established ones, Americans have become less loyal. Another remarkable study found that just 4 percent of consumers would be willing to stick with a brand if its competitors offered better value for the same price. Consumers are continually looking for a better deal, opening the door for companies to introduce a raft of new products.
Marketers may consider the explosion of new brands to be evidence of branding’s importance, but in fact the opposite is true. It would be a waste of money to launch a clever logo into a world of durable brands and loyal customers. But because consumers are more promiscuous and fickle than ever, established brands are vulnerable, and new ones have a real chance of succeeding – for at least a little while. The obsession with brands, paradoxically, demonstrates their weakness. (via Wired Magazin
The full article here: The Decline of Brands. And another interesting one Brands aren’t worth as much as we thought
Brands and colours
An interesting article in E-Commerce Times is arguing on the usefulness of colors in nowadays e-commerce branding.
In today’s e-commerce age, where everyone is forced to type and to remember names with perfectly correct spellings, companies with big branding campaigns only hurt themselves with their old-fashioned, painted, colorful advice. They must all reconverge and regroup and realign their thinking to cope with today’s name-driven economy.
For now, it is best to leave the pretty colors of the rainbow in the sky
Read the full article: Customers are color blind
Romanian Currency – World’s Biggest Advancer Against EUR, USD
Among nine traders, strategists and investors polled on Romania’s leu by Bloomberg, six advised buying the currency against the euro and three advised to hold it. None said sell. According to Bloomberg analysis Romanian leu is the currency with the fastest growing trend against Euro, while according with the last six months data Romanian leu is placing third worldwide, after the Polish Zlot and Brazilian Real as attractivity for foreign investors.
All these are happening more likely because the Romanian central bank will lift foreign exchange restrictions for Romanian companies to help them protect themselves against losses from steep swings in the leu against the euro and the dollar. The bank’s administration board will on Feb. 24 formally approve a decision to allow companies unrestricted access to buy foreign currency, Bloomberg.com reports.
Demand for Romania’s currency is increasing also on speculation plans to allow foreign investors to open deposits in the country will spur an inflow of funds. Romanian central bank Governor Mugur Isarescu said on Feb. 17 the government will allow foreigners to make deposits in lei, a step required for joining the European Union, by the end of June.
New York Times buys About.com
Following on a previous post on the fight for About.com, it seems that the winner is The New York Times
More coverage in The New York Times itself and Cnn.com
Fixed Fee for Online Music
The Arbitration Commission of the Romanian Copyright Office has decided that internet users who offer music on their site for downloading or streaming, must pay a fixed annual fee of 80 euro. If the owners of the websites charge for the music they have to pay 10% of the price of a downloaded song to the collecting society, with a minimum of 8 euro cents per track. A same scheme is set in place for the providers of ring-tones. (via CoCo: Romania: Fixed Fee for Online Music
Big fight… about.com
The fact that Primedia’s About.com is on sale is already old by now. Same that the final bids are due on Tuesday. The latest news on the case are mentioning no more no less than 5 (yeah five) huge bidders are in the game, as follows: Google (huh, no wonder:), Yahoo! (well if Google’s there, they should be too), AOL, Ask Jeeves (as Bloglines wasn’t enough) and last, but not least The New York Times itself. Big fight to follow if all of them are really in the game. The same rumors are saying that the asking price is $350 million to $500 million.
Top 10 influential brands in 2004
In the survey of almost 2,000 ad executives, brand managers and academics by online magazine Brandchannel.com Apple ousted search engine Google from last year’s top spot, but the surprise to many will be Al Jazeera’s entry into the top five.
Ikea still remains the first one in Europe followed by Virgin.In the third position in Europe there is a new entry in the top five, yet another swedish company, the clothing retailer H&M. On the fourth, the world’s leading cellphone maker, Nokia. In fifth position another (this time I would say surprisingly) new entry: the arab news network Al Jazeera, which managed to come in ahead way much bigger competitors like BBC or CNN.
The full results of the survey: Readers Pick Apple in 2004