How to make a 3.1 million Euro turnover in 2007 ? Take a look on the 25 Latvian team operating the biggest networking site in Latvia. This social network runs on invitation-only basis and have registered in this product 40% of the country’s population and 80% of the Latvian Internet users.
I talked with Girts Slavins, manager of Draugiem.lv, and he is very happy about the success of the social network. They are cooperating with the government in Latvia for the implementation of social programs. Every week they are present in schools making presentations of their product. They are educating children, and tell them about the risks using a social network. In Latvia, being a small country, i believe they can do easier this job than in Romania, but it is the fact to be appreciated. I wait until one site in Romania will do the same (constantly) with their users. In 2008 they will expand and Romania is an interesting market for them. Girts strongly believes that his company have the most powerful social-networking software solution. What i believe is important : they succeeded to reduce the costs of the telecommunication operators from 55% to 35% ( in Romania is around 55%) for micro-payments, and that happened because they provide for the operator a 5 million Euro per year turnover. Here is the full presentation of Draugiem
The Number of Internet Users in Latvia ( Letonia in Romanian ) is marked with Grey and with Orange is the registered number of users in Draugiem . Registering a TLD Domanin Name in Latvia will cost you 20 Euro per year
About Latvia:
Internet Usage Statistics:
1,070,800 Internet users as of August 2007, 47.0% of the population, according to the International Telecommunication Union – ITU.
Latest Population Estimate:
2,279,366 population for 2007
Gross National Income:
GNI per capita is US$ 6,760 (2006)
Country Size (Area):
Latvia has 64,598 sq km – Population density is 36 persons per sq km.
