Beijing Olympics - Very Expensive Affair

Flavor of the month – Beijing Olympics. To give you a taste of this very expensive dish please find below the expenses involved in making it: -

1) China has built 12 new stadiums at the cost of almost $3.82 billion.
2) The dragon shape airport terminal built in Beijing cost $3.82 billion.
3) To maintain Beijing’s existing infrastructure and build new one it cost $21.5 billion
4) The unique bird’s nest stadium that is the main attraction in Beijing cost $477.5 million
5) Beijing is expected to spend $38.2 billion in this event.

More than 100 million people in China live on less than $1.2 a day. Now does this expensive dish help raise the poor?

This Olympics organized in China is being called the most expensive one ever.
The 2012 Olympic host UK is struggling to increase it’s spend budget which still stands at approximately $18 billion. More than 100 UK Olympic committee members have reached China to understand the complexities involved in organizing such a grand event. UK citizens have already started questioning the committee for allocating such a huge budget for the 2012 Olympics.

Is it really worth investing this much money in the games? The world is still struggling to fight poverty !

Hope you have enjoyed the dish. Please feel free to add spices to make it taste better.

MSN Introduces Minimise-Me

MSN UK has developed an application that allows you to recreate your profile picture. The character can be customized according to your needs and you even have the celebrity lookalikes at your service.

Check out the “Minimise-Me” application that allows you to create your own mini-me that will be displayed as your profile picture on Windows Live Messenger. Some of the well known celebrity characters are also available for down load on the website. It is creative application, nothing new I must say but its fun.

Try it out.

KZero - Creating Virtual Brands

KZero helps many real life brands to enter the virtual world. They are consultants who have defined their own set of rules to create a virtual brand. This company is driving the future Marketing world. They have helped many companies create a brand in the virtual world websites like Second Life, Football Superstars, There, Kinset etc. I like their bold statement saying that there are 5 rules in virtual brand management :–

Ignore, Remove, Observe, Endorse and Engage

As per this company the Marketing rules in the virtual world differ from the real world. The Metabrands (brands in the virtual world) are positioned in a different way. The consumers behave differently in the online world and you need to understand those needs of the consumers. This company specializes in creation of Virtual Brands and Retailing, and has helped real time brands like Nokia, Loreal, Signify etc create and position products in the virtual world. They can create and promote virtual product, companies, and avatars. They also have analysis on the usage of the various virtual world web sites e.g. how many users are there in per site, age, sex, number of hours spent etc.

The company has a futuristic though process in the Digital Marketing world and has been successful in the promotion of various virtual products.

Orkut Unblocked by Etisalat

According to a report published in Khaleej Times, Orkut may be unblocked soon by Etisalat. As per the report TRA (Telecom Regulation Authority) has granted permission to both Etisalat and Du to unblock 1000 websites (which my include Orkut), which were otherwise blocked because their content was offensive.
Du and Etisalat are yet to confirm receipt of any such official notice from TRA.
Some of the other well known website blocked by Etisalat is Flickr – Photo Sharing website, Skype, Twitter.

Sites can be blocked in the UAE for 'inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates', according to TRA

If users want to question a blocked website with eCompany, they can either visit www.etisalat.ae or click Contact Us/Feedback, call the company’s contact centre on UAE Toll Free 800 6100, or e-mail details direct to help@emirates.net.ae.