Archive for the 'eCommerce' Category

European Union eBusiness Guide helps enterprises find software, solutions and services

Published on November 10, 2009 in eCommerce and Useful resources. 0 Comments Tags: ebusiness solutions, european union, information and communication technology, service providers, solutions guide.

I just found another interesting activity of the European Commission for our readers. On the IPR Helpdesk the following article has been published:

The European Commission has launched the new online service “eBusiness Guide for SMEs: eBusiness software and services in the European market”, which can be found on the European Commission’s Europa portal. This service gives enterprises an overview of the eBusiness and information and communication technology (ICT) market and helps them select the proper software products, solutions, and ICT service providers.

Providers need to register and provide overall information on their products and services in their national language. Then, users of the online service can find specific solutions by selecting a certain country and language. The service is free of charge. Currently, this tool features more than 1,000 eBusiness solutions providers and 1,500 products, including open-source software solutions.

You can find the eBusiness Guide at http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/e-bsn/ebusiness-solutions-guide/.

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Apply for the venture contest 2009 semi-final in Budapest

Published on September 29, 2009 in Current events, eCommerce, Hungary and Venture capital. 5 Comments Tags: budapest, contest, entrepreneurs, European, event, final, hi-tech, ICT, Innovation, investment, vc.

A concrete opportunity for hi-tech innovative companies in Centrope is arising from the Eurecan European Venture Contest (EEVC) Semi Final hosted by ITD Hungary and NKTH in Budapest on October 28. 10 winners will get a free ticket to present themselves at the European Venture Summit in Düsseldorf on Nov 30 – Dec 1. They will also become a part of the EEVC Top 100, out of 25 most promising companies will be selected by a jury for the final in Barcelona (90,000 euros cash prize) in December.

The contest is organised by Europe Unlimited, our long-term partner located in Brussels, that has been working in this field for more than 10 years. Some readers may remember Steven Carlson and me assisting local companies from Hungary and Czech Republic to present their ventures at similar events a few years ago. This is where the efforts around the European Venture Forums turned into.

The EEVC aim is to identify, promote and reward the most innovative early stage companies in Europe with breakthrough innovation in ICT, Cleantech and Healthcare technology or services with international ambition and potential. 25 finalists will be selected within six semi-finals – to be held in Dusseldorf, Pamplona, Budapest, Turin, Luxembourg and Lisbon – and get a chance to network with investors, industry leaders and potential partners.
Continue reading ‘Apply for the venture contest 2009 semi-final in Budapest’

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A few figures about the Czech e-commerce market

Published on July 3, 2009 in Czech Republic, eCommerce and Facts, figures & trends. 0 Comments Tags: advertising, Broadband, business, Czech Republic, e-commerce, growth, households, internet, mobile phones, operator, statistics, wi-fi, World Economic Forum.

Robert wrote an interesting post on the huge differences in the average mobile phones bills in Centrope. Let’s take a look at some other sectors. Here are the figures for the Czech Republic …

Internet advertising
Czech advertisers spent roughly CZK 5 billion (€190 mil.) on the Internet last year. That represents about 10% of the country’s total advertising spend. According to the Factum Invenio research, advertisers spent CZK 3.3 billion on web banners, CZK 1 billion on search ads, and CZK 0.75 billion on directories.

Internet access in households
According to the Czech Telecommunication Office, 52% of inhabitants have Internet access at home. 44% of the households use Wi-Fi (twice as much as the EU average), 21% cable, 18% ADSL, 10% mobile phones, 5% traditional dial-up and 4% ISDN.

Broadband
According to the Czech Statistical Office there were 1.9 million broadband lines at the end of 2008. That represents an annual growth of 15%. The technology with the highest share is ADSL (681K users). 572k users prefer Wi-Fi and other wireless technologies, 360K use cable.

Mobile phone users
In 2008, the number of the mobile phone numbers increased by 500,000 to 13.57 million. Vodafone posted the highest growth (in total 2.89 million subscribers) while T-Mobile remained the operator with the highest number of active SIM cards (5.42 million) and the national incumbent Telefónica O2 5.26 mil.

WEF Global IT Report
According to the Global Information Technology Report 2008–2009 (published annually) by the World Economic Forum there are 27 personal computers, 43 internet users, 16 broadband subscribers and 128 active SIM cards per 100 inhabitants. That puts the Czech Republic in 32nd place among 134 countries after Austria (16th) and before Hungary (41st) and Slovakia (43rd). The ranking is led by Denmark, Sweden and the USA. The research was based on nine indexes evaluating environment (market, political, regulatory and infrastructure), readiness (individual, corporate, government) and usage (individual, corporate, government).

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What do the Centrope and Baltics ICT scenes have in common?

Published on June 15, 2009 in Business innovation, Case studies and eCommerce. 0 Comments Tags: Baltics, business, Centrope, growth, ICT, Innovation, international, market size, marketing, outsourcing, sales, start ups.

Juri Kaljundi, a passionate ICT entrepreneur based in Tallinn, sent me (and Steve) a few questions before his presentation at the Techcrunch meeting in Stockholm. Unfortunately I was too busy to answer them in time and so now I’m taking this opportunity to comment on the summary at his personal blog.

I still remember very well Juri coming to Brno before his CV-online international roll-out and then his introductory speech at one of our very first First Tuesday Prague meetings. Now he is providing a very good insight of the Baltics we can compare with our Centrope region.

Continue reading ‘What do the Centrope and Baltics ICT scenes have in common?’

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Interested in research cooperation on Digital Content?

Published on May 7, 2009 in Current events, Czech Republic, eCommerce, eGovernment and EU funding programmes. 2 Comments Tags: "digital content", brokerage, communities, cooperation, discussion, event, FP7, R&D, research, web2.0.

On Thursday last week Gunther Krumpak and I were facilitating one of the discussion tables within the ICT Brokerage in Brno, the event co-organised by our FIRST Innovation Park. See Gunther’s post about the event. The second day consisted of interactive discussions divided into six tables according to the FP7 5th & 6th call’s challenges. Ours was dedicated to Digital Content, Technology Enhanced Learning and Intelligent Information Management.

We had an interesting bunch of researchers, companies, both experienced Framework Programme players as newcomers around the table. As usually the most useful talks happen with those you choose (or who choose you) for coffee conversations. We have also distributed copies of two documents that may be also of your interest – the relevant part of the FP7 workprogramme and the examples of projects funded under FP6 or FP7 1st call. By the way the 4th ICT call (closed on April 1) attracted in total 1267 project proposals – 954 STREPs 954 and 172 integrated projects (IPs).

If you are interested in international R&D projects around building virtual communities, Internet application including web 2.0 and social networks and if you are looking for a partner in the Czech Republic for 5th or 6th call proposals, feel free to contact us.

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MUFIN & Webnode: two success stories from Brno

Published on January 9, 2009 in Business innovation, Case studies, Czech Republic, eCommerce and EU funding programmes. 0 Comments Tags: brno, contest, fav, Flickr, fp6, IBM, incubator, LeWeb, search engine, similarity, start-up, university, website.

Within the CITT project we are looking for successful examples of applied research and ICT technologies that can be brought to the market. And we like reporting when a Central European university or a company succeed in pan-European competition. Here are two recent stories from Brno that may be inspiring for other FP projects and small start-ups.

Continue reading ‘MUFIN & Webnode: two success stories from Brno’

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Are Czechs more digitally divided? In Internet skills ….

Published on December 4, 2008 in Czech Republic, eCommerce and Facts, figures & trends. 0 Comments Tags: czechs, education and skills, european statistics, internet abilities, peer to peer file sharing, visegrad countries.

Eurostat, the European statistics body, monitors all sorts of things. Including the ability of EU citizens to perform certain computer or Internet related tasks. And the latest results show that among the Visegrad countries (and Austria), the Czechs exhibit somehow different results. If we had a suitable definition of digital divide, we could say that they are “more digitally divided” than citizens in other countries, as far as Internet abilities are concerned.

The abilities, monitored by Eurostat, include using a search engine to find information; sending an e-mail with attached files; posting messages to chatrooms, newsgroups or any online discussion forum; using the Internet to make telephone calls; using peer-to-peer file sharing for exchanging movies, music etc.; And then the Eurostat groups individuals into those with “advanced skills” (able to perform 5 or 6 of the activities), “medium skills” (3 or 4 of the activities), “low skills” (1 or 2 of the activities).

Looking on the latest results of Internet skills for the Visegrad countries and Austria, some interesting fact can be deducted.

Continue reading ‘Are Czechs more digitally divided? In Internet skills ….’

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Internet Street lacks Internet

Published on December 4, 2008 in eCommerce, eGovernment and Facts, figures & trends. 0 Comments Tags: barriers, internet penetration.

I just stumbled upon this curiosity and could not believe it, i.e.

A Polish man living on a road called Internet Street in Warsaw has caused a stir after it emerged he is selling his house because he is unable to set up a broadband connection

[source: Total Telecom]

Is it still nowadays possible that a decent Internet access is not available in urban areas?

Remember that you get wireless access of the GSM network or urban hotspots nearly everywhere.

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The European Venture Contest semi-final results

Published on November 14, 2008 in Current events, Czech Republic, eCommerce, Hungary and Venture capital. 0 Comments Tags: biotechnology, business plan, contest, event, hi-tech, presentation, semifinal, software, venture, Venture capital.

On Monday I had a chance to participate as one of the reviewers in the European Venture Contest semi-final held in Prague. As I announced earlier here there was seven semi-finals all together taking place in Brussels, Stuttgart, Linz, Copenhagen, Pamplona, Eindhoven and Prague, each picking up three most promising hi-tech companies for the final to be held in Barcelona on December 17 with the cash prize of 90,000 euros.

So who won in Prague?

Continue reading ‘The European Venture Contest semi-final results’

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Innovation and knowledge exchange in Vienna

Published on September 4, 2008 in About CITT, Austria, Case studies and eCommerce. 5 Comments Tags: Business innovation, CITT, knowledge based, vienna, vienna business agency, vienna it enterprises.

In Vienna, ICT enterprises benefit from numerous location factors, especially with respect to the work of service providing companies and universities but also clients, contractors and competitors.

An analysis of the innovation processes of the enterprises shows that they strongly focus on development and introduction on the market. It is less important for companies to permanently carry out research activities themselves. This lack of science activity strongly influences their innovation power: more often enterprises try to improve already existing products than concentrating on a completely different innovation process.

The main obstacles within innovation processes are high costs, economic risk and a lack of financial aid.

Continue reading ‘Innovation and knowledge exchange in Vienna’

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Archive for the 'eCommerce' Category

European Union eBusiness Guide helps enterprises find software, solutions and services

Apply for the venture contest 2009 semi-final in Budapest

A few figures about the Czech e-commerce market

What do the Centrope and Baltics ICT scenes have in common?

Interested in research cooperation on Digital Content?

MUFIN & Webnode: two success stories from Brno

Internet Street lacks Internet

The European Venture Contest semi-final results

Innovation and knowledge exchange in Vienna

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