The Baltics’ technicolor business...
VILNIUS - Just about every aspect of exhibition companies in the three Baltic states is wildly different. Not only do the major companies put on drastically different types of shows for drastically different prices, even deep-seated industry trends vary between the countries. The one constant in the Baltic exhibition world is that they all manage to put on a good show. Though major exhibitions only happen a few times a year in the Baltics, when they do it is an opportunity – both for businesses and customers – too good to pass by. The price of entrance to get into an exhibition varies depending on the country, with the average price of an exhibition in Lithuania hovering around eight li...

  Down but not out ...
VILNIUS - Exhibitions are a great way to get exposure in the market place. Businesses have a stage on which to show off their goods or services to ‘qualified prospects’ that is, people who are there for a reason, not just randomly. Business owners the world over use exhibitions to improve business by increasing awareness. But something else is happening here in Lithuania. Exhibitions are not for the big boys, but for the little fish wanting to break into the market. Bigger companies are no longer participating in exhibitions and visitor numbers are dropping according to statistics. In fact at Litexpo, Lithuania’s biggest exhibition center, there is only one exhibition, the Balttechnika 20...

  ONLINE - A Web commerce backwater?...
All businesses are Web businesses or so they say. Some companies depend on the Internet for their livelihood. Balts like to think  that they are at the cutting edge of IT.  Skype came from here, but when it comes to e-commerce, as The Baltic Times found out, this just is not the case. Even the success stories Rate.ee in Estonia and draugiem.lv have not had the same global impact because of the language barrier. This week, Insider looks at Web based businesses. Vilnius - The Baltics like to think of themselves as wired and technophile nations but that is not really the case if you look at what’s available on the Internet in Lithuania. There is no eBay, Amazon, You Tube, Faceboo...

  ONLINE - Rating the Estonian Facebook...
TALLINN - Estonia did it first. When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, was still in high school, Parnu genius Andrei Korobeinik was busy building a social networking site that would capture a nation. With more than 300,000 users, Rate.ee is a phenomenon – not many countries have a Web site where a third of the population has voluntarily put up personal information  pictures and their souls for others to a judge. Police use it to catch criminals and find lost children. Couples use it to meet, marry and divorce. Its simplicity is its main attraction. The site has a friendly environment where everyone can hope to find what they are looking for. There are no age limits and the site d...

  ONLINE - The European way...
VILNIUS - Baltics online industries have boomed in recent years as the benefits of cyber business become more apparent. More companies are advertising and conducting business online in an attempt to reach a broader Internet consumer market. The Internet celebrated its 20th, or by some counts 34th, birthday this year, and in that time it has managed to create an entire cyber generation – a generation of youths with the entire world at their fingertips and a credit card stuffed in their back pocket. Are there any benefits for companies in joining the phenomenon that is online business? Paulius Brazlaus, manager of the Old Town Hostel in Vilnius, said this has led to great benefits fo...

  AUTO - On the move...
Balts like to spend money on expensive things both when they can afford them and even when they cannot, so it is no suprise that luxury car sales are up and some makes and models are doing  really well. We do not make cars but we sure know how to enjoy them, even  the president of Latvia, as we find out in the story aside. When car sales fall, the  economy is really in trouble. This week's insider is all about automobiles. Much ink has recently been spilled over the challenges confronting the Estonian auto market.  Those critics seemingly have every reason to raise the alarm.  Rising fuel costs, a slowing economy, and the very real credit challenges facing the Est...

  AUTO - Luxury built on fantasy...
A walk through any capital city in the Baltic States is a glorious eye-popping experience for any motor enthusiast. Gone is the era of the old Ford Cortina, instead the pavements are lined with Mercedes, BMW and even the occasional Hummer. Such luxury in the world of automobiles leads one to assume that the Baltic States are undergoing a period of economic utopia, however scratch gently below the surface and one will find a world of excess expenditure and creeping debts. Latvia’s automobile market was expected to enter a period of moderate growth in 2008 as its automotive sales were up 31.9 percent in 2007. However, a decline has been noted, probably due to the government’s anti-infl...