A Hungarian company has been claiming it has developed a vaccine against bird flu, however it has not sought regulatory approval from the EU. The Hungarian government has approved sale of the drug, however, the certification documentation is not public because it contains ‘protected information’.
The Hungarian government contributed $9.8m to develop the vaccine, but according to Bloomberg.com, opposition politicians are pushing for an inquiry, and scientists at Hungary’s National Epidemiology Center stated they might have been hasty in declaring it ready for market.
What’s more, the company that developed the drug is owned by an obscure company in Cyprus and the main sales representative is a dodgy Iraqi businessman with no experience selling pharmaceuticals who was previous investigated in connection with a missing shipment of medical aid to Iraq.
A clinical trial with 146 volunteers is now underway in Budapest, according to the article.
Around 1% of Polish Internet users have made a purchase online. Of those, 40% made their first purchase within the last six months. A third of Polish shoppers declared that they intend to increase their number of online purchases. These figures come from a 2005 survey of Polish eCommerce conducted by Polish web measurements company, Gemius, in association with Money.pl.
What struck me is that the most popular method of advertising among Polish emerchants is paid search. Here in Hungary, my impression is that local advertisers have been relatively slow to adopt search, however I haven’t seen any recent figures on the Hungarian market for paid search.
I enjoy living in Hungary, however I’ve spent much of the last ten years working on projects focused outside of Hungary. For example one recent employer, Indextools, has built a thriving business selling Web Analytics services in North America and Western Europe, but until recently they didn’t have ANY business here in Hungary. The local market simply wasn’t ready.
So is Hungary ready now? I’ve been talking to a few people in the local market in an attempt to find that out. The answer is significant, because Web Analytics is an essential part of realizing the commercial potential of the Internet medium.
Continue reading ‘Is Hungary ready for Web Analytics?’
A key roadblock for innovative new businesses in Hungary is the relative lack of capital for early stage startup companies. One way this gap is filled in other countries is the ‘business angel’ - a wealthy individual who brings not only his cash, but often his expertise, contacts and elbow grease.
Here in Hungary I know a handful of business angels, and I’ve met similar people in the Czech Republic. They seem to be few and far between - at least in comparison to places like the United States and Britain. Yesterday I came across this study which, for the first time, offers a formal snapshot of the angel phenomenon in Hungary.
So how many are there? The answer depends on how you define a business angel.
Continue reading ‘The elusive business angel’
One of my favorite resources is the Wikipedia - the world’s free encyclopedia, written by its readers. I suppose I must have discovered it about two years ago when I began to regularly notice it in the search results. You might well argue whether the Wikipedia is accurate (here’s the pro, here’s the con). Regardless, I find it incredibly useful and fun to browse.
One thing I like is that the Wikipedia is so comprehensive. While watching DVDs I will inevitably search for Wikipedia listings on the film, actors and so on. And to think it used to take so much effort to be a film buff.
This morning I discovered that the Hungarian-language version of the Wikipedia is also coming up to speed. Sitting at my favorite Buda-side cafe I got into a conversation with the waitress about the music she was playing. She wanted to know more about Dave Brubeck and I discovered a Hungarian-language page. Compare this to the English-language listing for Brubeck and you’ll see it’s not as detailed - but, hey, it will do for a start.
Last week Budapest played host to the 13th annual International Electronics Forum, which brings together senior executives from the global semiconductor industry. The theme of the conference was ‘the Third Digital Revolution’ and apparently Hungary - and this region - are playing a leading role.
According to conference organizer Malcolm Penn, quoted in EETimes, Central Europe has emerged as a hub for electronics design and development - a hopeful sign that the region is moving up the value chain.
Continue reading ‘Central Europe recognized as electronics design hub’
A friend and longtime nowEurope reader recently emailed me to ask about an invitation he received from me to join my LinkedIn network: “I’ve never figured out what to do with LinkedIn and its like,” Nels wrote me. “How do you use it? Do people hunt for you there? Why? How do they know what to look for, apart from your name … and how do you look for people? By function? area of interest? location?”
Nels isn’t the only person asking - last month I sat down with a Hungarian newspaper reporter to explain the whole thing. And no wonder, with the recent sale of IWIW to T-Online, social networking is all the rage in Hungary. Here’s a brief primer for those who might feel left out.
Continue reading ‘LinkedIn, OpenBC & IWIW: Social networking in Hungary’
The Hungarian tech community is currently abuzz with the news that T-Online has purchased a local social networking site, IWIW, for EUR 4m. For some here, this feels a bit like the heady exuberance of the dotcom days. In fact, the success of IWIW has already inspired two imitators.
This news will certaintly provide encouragement to local tech entrepreneurs, and may be an important signal that the online ad market is beginning to mature. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons this deal is unlikely to create much in the way of long-term value. All the same, congratulations to Virgo Systems!
The good news is the IWIW deal signals that the Hungarian online ad industry is starting to matter. One reason T-Online paid the money was to acquire the advertising inventory. According to reports, IWIW attracts up to 400,000 visitors each day (although I can’t help wonder if those are actually visitor sessions). Another obvious reason is that T-Online wants to increase the value of their portfolio of websites.
The downside of this deal is that IWIW’s popularity is clearly a bubble. The service is primitive in comparison to international competitors such as LinkedIn and OpenBC (the latter is also available in Hungarian). Once a critical mass of users has connected to each other, there’s not much more for them to do unless T-Online is prepared to invest in expanding the service.
And that’s not likely. T-Online has neither the vision nor the will to further develop IWIW. Nor are there any clear models for commercializing such a service. The most sophisticated competitor, LinkedIn, now provides a number of useful services to job seekers, however the service is not yet profitable. Most notably, Google seems have to have given up development of its social networking service, Orkut.
The local tech community can take pride in the fact that IWIW’s valuation (EUR 4m) isn’t that far off from the sums being invested in similar US services - LinkedIn ($15m), Friendster ($13m), Spoke ($21m) and Tribe ($4.8).
One role of government is to allocate funding for infrastructure or projects that the private sector is unwilling or unable to support. The question is usually where do you draw the line.
For example, the vast majority of road construction is paid for by the government. However, when it comes to longer distance highways, the public sector has learned that motorists are often willing to pay a surcharge to travel on faster modern highways.
How well do the private and public sectors work together in Hungary? What kinds of public funding are able for private sector investments? Next week I’m running an afternoon panel discussion on the topic, in cooperation with the Hungarian Ministry of Informatics and Communications, so please follow the link for further information and be sure to attend.
This coming week, Vlastimil and I will meet up at Europe Unlimited’s Biotech Venture Academies in Warsaw.
Apparently, the venture academy format involves bringing together a small circle of companies to work with a number of business coaches - including Vlastimil and me. This is a chance for me to learn about how this works before we bring this event to Hungary later in June 2005.
I’ll share my impressions of the event later this week (and encourage Vlastimil to do the same).
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