http://www.sundaytimes.lk/111030/BusinessTimes/bt25.html
Rs. 9 bln impact from SL nanotech fertiliser, apparel, rubber patents
By Jagdish Hathiramani
Three patents filed by the country’s nanotechnology public-private partnership, the Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC), in the areas of fertilisers, apparel and rubber, could potentially result in a Rs. 9.55 billion positive impact for the country, based on combined savings and earnings, according to Prof. Veranja Karunaratne, a University of Peradeniya Chemistry don and SLINTEC’s Science Team Leader.
One example given was the development of slow release fertilisers, which facilitates a controlled and sustained release of nutrients. This newly developed fertiliser significantly diminishes previously incurred, and expected, losses of 50% to 70% of urea which are a part of the fertilising process by making it more efficient. Additionally, the anticipated savings of as much as 10% of the urea, which would otherwise be lost, will result in Rs. 3 billion in estimated annual savings for the country. Aside from this, there are also benefits such as better crop yields, and quality, as well as less environmental repercussions.
He further revealed that SLINTEC was also working on private sector projects such as smart yarn, high end fabric, high performance tires and other rubber composites, smart agriculture and remote health monitoring. A 1% value addition in terms of exports in related industries would add billions of rupees in earnings to the potential Rs. 3 billion annual savings from slow release fertiliser and, as a consequence, lift nanotechnology’s total economic impact in Sri Lanka to Rs. 9.55 billion per year, he noted.
At the same time, Prof. Karunaratne indicated that nanotechnology could also be used to add value to existing public sector mineral exports, such as for Ilmenite extracted from Pulmoddai in the North East, a substance for which the country is ranked ninth in terms of reserves as it has 18 million metric tonnes, or 2.6% of the world’s reserves. He revealed that nanotechnology could be used to turn ilmenite, a commodity which was just at the first stage of value addition, into titanium dioxide, which is 40 times greater in price and widely demanded by the paint and printing ink industries which buy up 65% of worldwide supply annually.
Currently, Sri Lanka exports 80,000 metric tonnes of Ilmenite a year at US$ 8 million. However, the country could potentially earn US$ 100 million per year for just 40,000 metric tonnes of titanium dioxide. This is while the local paint industry spends US 12.5 million per year for 5,000 metric tonnes of titanium dioxide.
He also identified Graphite (from Bogala and Kahatagaha), Magnetite (from Matale), Montmorillonite clay (from Murukkan Bay in Mannar) and Vein Quartz (from Matale and Ratnapura) as other commodity-type minerals which were now being exported that could benefit from value addition, resulting in price increasing anywhere between a factor of 16, for nanosilica from vein quartz, to a factor of 25,000, for graphite-based carbon nanotubes and graphite oxide.
Prof. Karunaratne’s comments were part of his recent presentation,”Economic Impact of Nanotechnology: Opportunities for Sri Lanka,” held at the Central Bank’s Centre for Banking Studies in Rajagiriya last week, an event during which he also opined that currently there were only about 4,000 scientists working locally, while 50,000 Sri Lankan scientists were now abroad. He also added that, to truly become an innovation oriented culture, the country needed about 18,000 scientists working and publishing domestically. Also emerging, high technology product exports as a percentage of total manufactured exports was only 1.8% in 2008, equalling US$ 101.27 million.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/111030/BusinessTimes/bt28.html
IT networking giant Cisco Systems recently held a local career fair for vocational students in conjunction with Sri Lanka’s Vocational Training Authority in which several of the country’s top corporates participated, including Abans, Millennium IT, Airtel, Mobitel, IBM, CIC, etc. This event was part of the company’s Networking Academy programme whereby it offers certifications in the field of IT networking.
The academy, a worldwide company initiative currently undergoing an “evolution” to be rolled out in the SAARC region on November 14, comprises 70,000 students across this region, with 1,500 students currently enrolled locally and 2,900 students certified cumulatively to date, by way of six authorised domestic institutes.
Speaking exclusively to the Business Times on the sidelines of the event, the company’s newly appointed academy head and Regional Head for Corporate Affairs for India and SAARC, Bina Raj-Debur, outlined Cisco’s plans for Sri Lanka over the coming year, one of which is national level skills building which will necessitate Cisco going beyond its traditional local focus of academic interactions, and also partnering with the Sri Lankan government and industry associations. Another such area is catering to defence personnel and offering them, post-war, new career options. In addition, the company wants to further its capacity building efforts domestically and, as such, continue to grow its island-wide footprint in terms of students, institutions, etc.
At the same time, also suggested was the company’s entry into social entrepreneurship locally “in a big way.” In line with this, Ms. Raj-Debur also noted that the current, introductory IT enabled skills component of Cisco’s certificates had already incorporated a suite of tools named “Passport 21” which included case studies on business management, money matters, enterprise, etc. as well as a simulated data packet tracing game called “Aspire” which would help inculcate social entrepreneurship skills in students.
Also signalled, Cisco expects to carry out more community engagement programmes in line with the ones it has already carried out with the University of Peradeniya. However, in the future, these will be more structured, rather than need based, which was formerly the case.
The firm also revealed plans to extend its teaching methods beyond the classroom and incorporate open distance learning methods using its proprietary unified collaboration/communication tools into academy coursework.
Concluding, Ms. Raj-Debur also opined that Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were Cisco’s two most important markets in the region, while also recommending IT networking as a career because “all industries need networking jobs.”
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110807/BusinessTimes/bt31.html
A national-level IT conference scheduled to be held in Colombo between the 24th and 25th of this month will showcase a wide and diverse range of topics, from cloud computing, cyber war, social media, data centre transformation, Internet identity and electronic governance, to even mobile payments, iPV6 (a new internet protocol) and ICT’s use in farming, among many other areas.
Organised by the Computer Society of Sri Lanka, the 29th National information Technology Conference (NITC) will feature the following keynote presentations by international speakers: “The threat of Cyber War – How real is it? The increasing need to protect IT critical infrastructure in Sri Lanka” by Prof. Abhaya Induruwa, Principal Lecturer and Programme Director for the Master’s Programmes in Computing, Forensic Computing and Cybercrime Forensics at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK; “Fast Forward – Next Gen Shift in IT Solution” by A.V. Sreenath, Vice President (Enterprise, BFSI and Govt) at the Business Solutions Division of Wipro Infotec, India; “Information Risk Management – The Changing Paradigm” by Srinivas Rao, Co-Founder & CEO of Aujas Networks Pvt Ltd., India; and “Cloud Computing Strategy And Planning Transformation Design” by Martin Yates, Group Chairman for the Enterprise Cloud Computing Special Interest Group, Singapore Computer Society, and Global Solution Architect for Cloud Computing / Virtualisation, Solutions Architecture Director, Dell BV (Singapore).
Meanwhile, according to a statement by the organisers, this two-day event will comprise a total of 26 presentations by local and foreign speakers from both the commercial and academic sectors. Additionally indicated, the entire range of presentations wil touch upon “collaborative development within the context of Sri Lanka and the region, the ways of exploiting ICT trends, the innovation and development of ICT solutions, impacts of ICT on development and development on ICT” as well as topics such as “Web 2.0 technologies, Virtualisation, the trends in Cloud Computing, Social Media, Social Computing and Networks, Information Security, Cyber-forensics and Cyber crime.”
Also noted, the following sub-themes will be on offer: “e-Government and Gov 2.0 –ICT for Public Sector Service delivery and collaborative social networking in effective Government, ICT for participatory citizenship, Developments for bridging the digital divide, Participatory systems access and equity, Web 2.0 technologies- Services available to collaborate and share information online, Web access for differently-able users, Technologies for New Learning – e-Learning, ICT in education, Life long and life wide learning, Interactive & Collaborative Learning, The Virtual University, Internet and Society – Social computing and Networks, Social Learning, ICT, Poverty and Development – ICT for Rural development and poverty reduction, GIS & IS in Agriculture and land use, Emerging technologies to fulfill the communication needs in mobile and fixed lines, Cloud computing and Network Virtualisation, Information Security, Cyber-forensics, Cybercrime, Green IT.”
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/video-gallery/viewvideo/272/news-a-politics/htotas-bid-for-2018-games.html
Beginning with an overview of the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, the proposed venue for the 2018 Commonwealth Games opening and closing ceremonies, Chief Executive for Hambantota’s bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Nalin Attygalle, walks Times Online through the venues for the 17 games encompassed in Sri Lanka’s 2018 Commonwealth Games bid.
From archery, at the above mentioned cricket stadium, to swimming at the aquatic centre to the sprint cycling velodrome (the only 2018 Commonwealth Games-specific venue to be built) and an athletes-only games village and international zone, Hambantota’s bid offers up a compact and clustered layout whereby almost all venues are within a 1 km area. This, in turn, is 14 km from the soon-to-be-built Mattala International Airport in Hambantota and easily accessible to the high speed train stop planned for Suriyawewa.
He also notes that many structures currently in the process of being built, which will be first used for the 2016 South Asian Games, are legacy structures which are multi purpose, while the 4,000 rooms capacity athlete’s housing will be converted into condominiums and hostels for a proposed university in Hambantota.
In addition, Mr. Attygalle indicates that a Sri Lanka Tourism strategy document has identified Hambantota as a tourism hub with 4,000 rooms being ready in time for 2018.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/101003/BusinessTimes/bt10.html
Sri Lanka’s Institute of Certified Professional Managers (CPM) recently announced that it would be holding its 2010 annual conference on Monday, October 11 under the theme; “The Role Of Business in Transforming the Economy”.
Featuring inaugural addresses by External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris, on the “Government role in transforming the economy”, and Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, on the “Financial sector role in transforming the economy”; the event comprises multiple sessions, with presentations such as the “Role of banking sector in transforming business” by Bank of Ceylon Chairman Dr. Gamini Wickramasinghe and “Corporate social responsibility – adapting business model to changing community needs” by Cargills Managing Director Ranjith Page taking centre stage during the conference’s first working session, which focuses on the business sector.
Other sessions include tourism with industry related subject matter encompassing areas such as air transportation and the government and private sector roles in this industry, and the local university education system, as well as cases being highlighted from India and Malaysia.
Further, several panel discussions have also been scheduled which feature top Sri Lankan corporate leaders, including Jetwing Hotels / Pacific Asia Travel Association Chairman Hiran Cooray, John Keells Deputy Chairman Ajith Gunawardena, Aitken Spence Hotels Managing Director Malin Hapugoda, Hemas Holdings Group Director and Serendib Hotels Chairman Abbas Esufally, Sri Lanka’s Asia Pacific Institute of IT Chief Executive Dr. Athula Pitigal-Arachchi, Amana Investments Managing Director Faizal Salieh, and Sri Lanka Institute of IT Managing Director Prof. Lalith Gamage.
Also, there will be a number of public sector personalities, including those from the country’s Board of Investment, Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka, Ministry of Education, etc, at the conference.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100822/BusinessTimes/bt43.html
Sri Lanka’s DFCC Vardhana Bank recently announced two new loan options for customers; a higher education loan for studies abroad, “Vardhana Nenasa”, and a housing loan, “Vardhana Sandella”.
Further, according to a statement by the bank, there are plans to enhance its education loan by “partnering with private higher educational establishments providing degree programmes in Sri Lanka which are affiliated to reputed universities abroad”; while customers can apply for the bank’s new housing loan “based on their income levels, age and purpose of the loan – giving them full flexibility”.
Additionally, the bank’s personal banking products include “demand deposits, time and savings deposits, resident and non-resident foreign currency deposits on the liability side” as well as ”children’s savings accounts, senior citizens’ accounts, undergraduate educational deposits”. Also offered are “housing loans, overdrafts, personal loans, cash-backed advances, gold-pledged loans and credit card services”, and personal loans for “consumer durables, purchase of vehicles, overseas university education, micro business finance, house renovation and financing similar activities”.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100704/BusinessTimes/bt40.html
Sri Lanka must develop a sufficient supply of a “professionally efficient” workforce to meet the expectations of international tourists, according to newly-appointed Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President Anura Lokuhetty. This could be accomplished by strengthening the Ceylon Hotel School and other regional hotel schools, upgrading the Sri Lanka Institute of Hotel Management to a national university or even include tourism as a vocational subject in the country’s school curriculum.
He also suggested that Sri Lankan professionals who had taken jobs abroad in the past be lured back. As to the harassment of tourists by locals, Mr. Lokuhetty said: “ As a strong believer of the expansion of tourism through positive community participation, I suggest that to help overcome this problem, we assist and aid community centres, therefore encouraging traditional markets in every resort enabling local people in their own area to sell their wares to the tourists.”
He said this will also give tourists the opportunity to mingle freely with locals without pressure. “This will not only curtail irregular sales activities and harassment on our beaches, but will positively promote integration between the local communities and tourists, and all parties shall benefit,” he added.
In addition, to counter a current, too high 30% electricity surcharge faced by hotels, he proposed a fairer alternative whereby a flat rate of 10% be charged for all the country’s industries. Mr. Lokuhetty made these comments at an evening event which followed the Annual General Meetings of the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators and THASL held last week, where he was appointed as THASL President for the 2010/2011 period.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100425/BusinessTimes/bt22.html
Thirty five participants from Jaffna completed a 60-hour training programme in English covering the “Business of Banking, Economics, Accounting and Management”, which is intended to facilitate their employment in the banking sector; according to a statement from the programme’s sponsor Hatton National Bank (HNB).
A part of the domestic bank’s community CSR project, this programme, at the same time, also enrolled a second batch of 53 participants who started their training recently at the bank’s Chunnakam branch.
Titled the “Certificate Course in Elementary Banking and Finance,” this programme accepts ‘school leavers’ who have passed their GCE Ordinary Level examinations with credit passes in English and Mathematics and the GCE Advanced Level examinations with a credit pass in at least one subject. Meanwhile, the programme is being taught by HNB staff and senior lecturers from the University of Jaffna.
Additionally, a “special feature of the training programme is the conduct of lectures from Colombo via video conferencing facility, which provided the students with a novel learning experience”, according to the bank’s statement.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100321/BusinessTimes/bt26.html
Private sector must push parliament to approve urban developments – Minister
By Jagdish Hathiramani
Sri Lanka’s Minister for Urban Development and Sacred Area Development, Dinesh Gunawardena, on Thursday requested the private sector to get involved by asking parliament to push through important urban development projects which have been held up at funding. He was speaking at a Ceylon Chamber of Commerce-hosted event where his ministry presented potential investment opportunities in the Western, Southern, Eastern and Northern provinces to members of the private sector.
Further noting that today most regulations have been relaxed to facilitate more rapid economic growth, Mr. Gunawardena added that considering all that the country had lost, it was important that everything be done to speed up growth. He also noted that transportation in cities would continue to be a problem area into the future with traffic congestion on the rise and, while zoning was important in addressing this issue somewhat, alternatives to roads, such as waterways or elevated highways, could be a more effective solution to loading roads even more.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gunawardena’s ministry presented several projects that were nearing the stage where private sector investment would be warranted. These included mainly mixed developments, or a mix of high density middle and low income housing as well as commercial complexes, in Panchikawatte, Colombo and its suburbs, Greater Colombo Township and Greater Hambantota as well as the overall Regional Development Plans for the Eastern and the Northern provinces.
Said to be a pioneering project which was initiated 14 years ago by the Urban Development Authority (UDA), the Panchikawatte Triangle Re-Development project, outlined Architect Planner Surath Wickramasinghe, will be located just 2 km away from the densely packed Colombo city centre and adjoined by three major roads in an area featuring well-known landmarks like the Supreme Court, Elphinstone Theatre and Tower Hall. The project will ‘liberate’ 26 acres of land that is currently mostly occupied by tenements and ‘unreserved buildings’ and so ‘relocate’ over 800 families to Kadawatha as part of the first phase of the project.
The new development will include hotels and office facilities with parking for 3,000 vehicles as phase one followed by a duty free complex, a shopping mall, day and night entertainment and recreation activities, several towers of 30-plus floor high density, high rise apartments, etc. in subsequent phases.
While the details of this project are currently still being finalised, it is likely that it will be offered to serious developers after the April elections. Plans are also underway for similar projects in Slave Island and even Colpetty and the required cabinet papers for these have already been put in, according to Mr. Wickramasinghe.
Presented by UDA’s Director General, Architect Prasanna Silva, the Colombo City and Suburbs plan is geared to attract more investment into the city while also making existing systems in the country’s commercial capital more efficient and green. There is also a focus on facilitating more public transportation, including a dedicated bus lane, a green pedestrian network, wider roads, and more high rises. As such the plan for 2020 has identified more concentrated development zones towards Slave Island as well as special areas for recreation and culture near Beira Lake, Independence Square and Galle Face.
Mr. Silva also outlined long-time existing investment opportunities in areas where UDA land is available such as Chalmers Granaries, where 19 acres of land is vacant between Fort and Pettah for high rise, high density apartments and other mixed developments. He further proposed that as much as half of the business activities currently run out of the Colombo ports could be moved to this venue under the purview of the local port authority while the balance of the commercial developments could be offered to existing Pettah and Fort type of businesses by private developers.
Other Colombo centre projects highlighted include a high rise commercial development at Transworks Square in Fort, a mixed development at Mount Mary at Borella Baseline Road, a development at Southwest Beira Lake, a mixed development at D.R. Wijewardene Mawatha near Lake House, a high rise, high density mixed development over 48 acres of Prison Department, a health and higher education square at Kirimandala Mawatha as well as high density condominiums at Borella Baseline Road, Orugodawatta, and Dematagoda Railway.
Also shared with the audience was the status of the Greater Colombo Township – 3K + Kerawalapitiya project which encompasses the planned Kadawatha, Kottawa and Kaduwella interchanges that form the Outer Circular Highway (OCH) which will bridge the Colombo Katunayake Expressway and the Southern Expressway.
This construction of the OCH, located 10-15 km from the Colombo centre will take 42 months and will open up investment opportunities for retailing, logistics, tourism, housing, business parks, convention centres, etc. at 5 acres at Kottawa town centre, 12 acres at Homagama and 5 acres at Kadawatha as well as 1.5 acres at nearby Mahara.
Expecting its first ship in 2010, the Hambantota port and its surrounding area was the centre of the Southern province investment opportunities, where several development projects situated between the new port and the upcoming airport were spoken of with some even said to be completed such as those for housing and commercial use.
In addition, a botanical garden and cricket stadium were also said to be progressing. Interestingly, 18 banks have already applied to be situated at Hambantota’s aptly named Bank Square.
Further, green recreation and civic zones contained in a concentric circle leading in from the ‘mouth’ of the seaport were also planned.
While more medium term scenarios were presented for the North and the East, they were definitely more creative in scope, perhaps because they were less hampered by on the ground realities. Proposed as a bridge to India as a consequence of Mannar being highlighted due to its significance in the vast Asian Highway, proposed in 2001 by ESCAP; the Northern Province was indicated as being mainly a draw for tourism thanks to near panoramic views of the sun’s journey from East to West. There were also suggestions of commercial developments to aid opportunities in agriculture such as in the budding local fruit, vegetable and spice industries as well as fisheries and even a possible aeronautical university in Iranamadu near Kilinochchi. These would require transport terminals, low and middle income housing, etc.
Meanwhile, the plan for the Eastern Province combines Trincomalee with Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura to form the island’s largest metro, what is being termed as a ‘metropolis’, where tourism would take centre stage while agriculture of crops like sugarcane, cashew and banana would also be promoted.
Additionally, the suggestion for Batticaloa is island-based tourism, Kappalturai is light industry, Sampoor is steel, Kalkudah is recreation, Valachchenai is paper-based industries, etc. As such, to accommodate for these planned industries, the province would require commercial development, middle and low income housing, a transport terminal, an international stadium and two linear parks among other facilities.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100307/BusinessTimes/bt46.html
Pioneering the web
Today’s most buzz-worthy websites and their founders
By Jagdish Hathiramani
While most people today have heard of the Internet, and the brands it has spawned, even though not many have access; there are just a few who are aware of the people behind the companies that are increasingly featured in today’s news.
Companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia, MySpace as well as others that, though now relatively unknown, were at their height responsible for ideas that kick started entire online revolutions.
It is interesting to note that, unlike your typical Wall Street executive, many of Silicon Valley’s robber barons (of e-commerce) did not finish university but rather left Stanford, Harvard, etc. to take advantage of an opportunity for which they felt the time was right. It is not uncommon also that their stories match the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in that many started out of their homes and built their empires up solely through drive and tenacity alone.
The first of our highlighted web pioneers started the English version of an online free encyclopaedia Wikipedia; which, fittingly, was ranked 2009’s most influential website, as decided by the number of times mentioned across the web, according to Internet watcher “://URLFAN”.
While the website has faced controversy in the past for the quality of content as well as recent unconfirmed reports that 49,000 volunteer editors had left in what was termed an ‘exodus’, Wikipedia however has always been widely accepted as having had an important impact on the lives of a vast number of net-izens. Formed in 2001, Wikipedia is the brainchild of USA’s Jimmy Wales and is a non-for-profit service which boasts 300 million page visits a day (according to a Los Angeles Times article in 2008); it is also known to be funded exclusively through charitable donations, for which it is often criticised as being directionless and unsustainable.
Meanwhile, Mr. Wales’s story is not much different from his creation; growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, with meagre means. Creating Wikipedia because of his youthful love of encyclopedias and frustration due to them being always out of date and hard to use, Mr. Wales has interestingly endeavoured to maintain it as a free resource, free for everyone to use and even edit, so that the information can be as up to date as possible while being vetted by a number of volunteer editors.
Currently, Mr. Wales spends all his time on ‘near-constant’ speaking roles all over the world as well as fundraising for Wikipedia, while Google has reportedly made a recent contribution of US$ 2 million to the website.
Another website often in the news today is YouTube. The latest news update in the unending YouTube censorship saga, for example, relates to three Italy-based administrators at YouTube-parent Google being found guilty of violating privacy laws by a court in Italy due to content uploaded to YouTube. Started out of their garage as a way to upload and share ‘funny videos’ in 2005 by USA’s Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, all former employees of online auction site eBay’s payment gateway PayPal, YouTube’s startup story is the Software Developer’s dream, which ultimately led to the site’s mass appeal and adoption to the degree that hundreds of millions of video clips are now watched online every day.
One of the most prolific online companies in existence today is Google; which started as a search engine in 1998. Since then the site’s popularity due to its speed, stripped down design and unique, pioneering search methodology has led to its diversification over many different areas including media sales, news, e-mail though Gmail, books (another controversial area at the moment), video sharing through YouTube, Google Maps and even Google Earth.
This online media empire was started by USA’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin and reportedly receives billions of search requests a day. However, and hotly disputed; Google, which has the motto ‘Don’t Be Evil’, claims to still maintain its billionaire founder’s values of scientific inquiry and innovation, prompted by their meeting as PhD candidates at USA’s Stanford University; even though the founders have stepped down from active leadership to focus on other interest such as joint investments in renewable energy, electric car company Tesla Motors and even movie producing as well as an individual foray by Mr. Brin into Space Adventures, a USA-based Space Tourism company slated to launch flights in 2011.
A close contender to Google’s dominance is Yahoo, and in fact it was an early leader in the fields of online search and media sales going back before the dot.com bubble; Yahoo.com, which claimed 1.5 billion visitors annually in 2008, was founded in the early 1990’s by David Filo and Jerry Yang, both of whom also met at Stanford University; and is reportedly one of the few ‘pure’ Internet companies remaining. Now with Mr. Yang and Mr. Filo both retired from active leadership, the new leaders of Yahoo have opened doors to major cooperation with Microsoft, a move that the previous leadership seemed dead set against.
The precursor to Facebook, Flickr and even new tech upstart Twitter, was undoubtedly MySpace; a site that introduced sharing and social networking to the world. Created in 2003 by business school graduate Chris DeWolfe and an ex-band member and film studies graduate Tom Anderson, the site was planned to incorporate all the benefits of single benefit predecessors; MySpace is currently owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
While everyone who travels anywhere over the web sees Facebook branding, not many would know that the site has over 400 million active users today. Founded by Mark Zuckerberg, and fellow college roommates and computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, while at Harvard University in 2005; the website earns approximately US$ 300 million in revenues (as per 2008 estimates), and has revolutionized social networking. However, the site is often a key target for privacy issues and cyber attacks. Interestingly, while Mr. Zuckerberg et al still helm Facebook, Microsoft recently bought a small stake in the company.
A growing contender to Facebook’s crown is micro-blogger Twitter which was launched in 2006; gaining ground as the ‘SMS of the Internet’ the service reportedly has 55 million monthly visits to its site, and is expected to earn an estimated US$ 400,00 in revenue in the third quarter of 2009.
Based on an idea by USA software architect Jack Dorsey, who currently serves as Twitter’s Chairman, and created with investment from Evan Williams, of Blogger.com fame; the website is the newest and most trendy kid in the blogosphere today; especially due to its most recent, dissemination of information from quake struck Chile, and its adoption by many governments as the next ‘it’ technology to be used to disseminate information.
Another website that has revolutionised the online landscape even though continuing to be relatively unknown by international audiences is craigslist.org.
Craigslist.org, a non-for-profit, free community notice board that offers online classified advertising and forums, which gets in excess of 4 billion page views per month; has become the preferred choice for classified advertising even more so than newspapers. Founded by USA’s Craig Newmark in 1995, widely described by detractors as an “uber geek” and a “hippy”; the website has revolutionised urban communications while stretching a once small San Francisco-based online forum/community to all parts of the world, providing all services. Mr. Newmark also continues to refuse buy-out offers in the multimillion range.
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