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ok, so there is always bad, sad news, about the economy in Spain and we are sorry for those affected, but what about opportunities!!!!!! every time that there are bad news there are also oportunities 😀
With the great amount of expertise in this forum, I am sure that someone can tell me about what opportunities lurk in the horizon in Spain for some
.any comments……….
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Always plenty of good stuff happening – but it rarely gets publicised in the English speaking press. Wonder why? 🙄
Lots of funding, mergers and acquisitions taking place in the startup world
http://startupspain.com/last-month-in-spain-1q2012/
Jazztel have produced their quaterly figures today – sales up 71% from the previous year
Indra the systems technology people, buy up Park Air Systems in Norway (again news out today)
http://www.indracompany.com/en/noticia/indra-buys-park-air-systems-norway-for-42-m
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It depends on what kind of opportunities interest you. I’m keeping an eye on an area of Madrid where flats which once cost about €200k can now be bought for less than €70k, and they can now be let out at nearly 10% yield. I’m also keeping an eye on the Javea area because although the rental income won’t be so high, I wouldn’t mind having a holiday home in that area. The first option would make more sense financially while the second would be more of a luxury. My decision will ultimately be based on how confident I feel about my own finances – can I afford the luxury? Or do I play it safe? The thing to remember about Spain is it’s expensive to buy and it can take a long time to sell. So it’s important to get the decision right the first time round.
The other thing holding me back is the uncertainty about Spain’s currency, and the fact that it may be worth a lot less in a year or two’s time (therefore making any assets you hold in that currency worth a lot less as well). I’m not one for playing the currency markets (best left to the traders) but right now things are so uncertain that I’m happy to hold off a bit longer. There’s no hurry.
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An interesting article by a Canadian entrepreneur, as to why he started his business in Madrid. It gives pros (cheaper living than American cities, support from local govt, talented people to work on the project) and cons (the bureaucracy, lack of brainstorming opportunities) of doing so, so is perhaps of more value than a heavily-biased piece.
http://www.stepone.com/blog/why-i-decided-to-start-up-in-madrid
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@DBMarcos99 wrote:
An interesting article by a Canadian entrepreneur, as to why he started his business in Madrid. It gives pros (cheaper living than American cities, support from local govt, talented people to work on the project) and cons (the bureaucracy, lack of brainstorming opportunities) of doing so, so is perhaps of more value than a heavily-biased piece.
http://www.stepone.com/blog/why-i-decided-to-start-up-in-madrid
Interesting article. One problem I suspect the author hasn’t come up against is the employment laws. If his business expands and he takes on full time employees he’ll soon start to see the problem (unless Rajoy does something about it first).
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@DBMarcos99 wrote:
An interesting article by a Canadian entrepreneur, as to why he started his business in Madrid. It gives pros (cheaper living than American cities, support from local govt, talented people to work on the project) and cons (the bureaucracy, lack of brainstorming opportunities) of doing so, so is perhaps of more value than a heavily-biased piece.
http://www.stepone.com/blog/why-i-decided-to-start-up-in-madrid
Good article.
My question to him would be why he didn’t choose to go for a country like India where he could find the tech savy people for about 2% of the cost? Just noticed that his “scheme” was to help spanish companies to cater towards the “american” market. Incredible what sort of help they hand him from the goverment instead of just trying to remove the bureaucracy. Spain is way behind in technology department and you can see that by high mobile, internet prices etc. Lots of companies still doesn’t even have a prescense on the web in Spain and if the do it’s quite “crappy”.
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Ardun, I agree with you 100%. I feel his choice could be for other reasons e.g romantic, historical link like in my case the passion for the Moorish period.
Technology, can cut out bureaucracy. It cost time,money, training and the instalation of systems. This would be against the interest of the civil servents. Turkeys voting for christmas comes to mind.
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Back to the ‘Good News’ Jaime…
We are seeing a sustained and ongoing increase in clients viewing and buying properties over the past several years.
That’s nice to be able to report, it is not a gold rush, but then we don’t want it to be, but it is ever upward month on month, year on year.
Our staggeringly great airport is ever busier and soon to be fully complete, and I noted on a blog this morning that Malaga remains the number one searched for destination on the web in the UK, followed by I think it said 6 other Spanish destinations in the top ten.
We will finally have a new underpass open on the N340 soon at San Pedro and an end to that irritating problem for us locals, but is also the last piece in a road infrastructure jigsaw that has transformed our whole coast for the good over the past 20 years of continual invesment and improvement.
And well, didn’t someone post a link here recently that Banesto also sold some 1,500 properties in March and at a discount than was less than they had provisioned for.
There is plenty of good news and interesting things going on, there always has been.
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@shakeel wrote:
Ardun, I agree with you 100%. I feel his choice could be for other reasons e.g romantic, historical link like in my case the passion for the Moorish period.
Technology, can cut out bureaucracy. It cost time,money, training and the instalation of systems. This would be against the interest of the civil servents. Turkeys voting for christmas comes to mind.
That’s actually a very good point. Civil servants or any other “employe” will always work against it’s employer when he tries to make things more efficient. You have to force them and in the case over goverment jobs even the “bosses” will work against it. Very hard to get away from that.
There are lots of opportunities in Spain if you have “high skills” and can get through the language and cultural barrier in Spain. When you have accomplished that you can be quite set since it works sort of like a barrier for outside competition.
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@Chris McCarthy wrote:
Back to the ‘Good News’ Jaime…
We are seeing a sustained and ongoing increase in clients viewing and buying properties over the past several years.
That’s nice to be able to report, it is not a gold rush, but then we don’t want it to be, but it is ever upward month on month, year on year.
I think its fair to say your website is playing a good part, it one of the best about. And your location helps.
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@peterhun wrote:
I think its fair to say your website is playing a good part, it one of the best about. And your location helps.
Well that is very generous of you, thank you.
As it happens our site is in the middle of a complete top to bottom overhaul, and half of it has what we consider to be poor or downright bad functionality, but the good news on that is, we hope to have the first phase of the overhaul done by the end of May, and then it might be a site we ourselves can be proud of, be nice then to ask some forum members to critique it for us and also to get Angie and others to make sure we not getting above our station or drifting into bad habits!
But thanks again Peterhun, that was nice to hear.
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be nice then to ask some forum members to critique it
Can I make a suggestion? When you see search results would it be possible to put as much compact information with the image as possible. The idea being you can see a single image and its key facts (price/area+terrace/location (map?)/sea view etc), without having to click into the page. Put as many of these on a single scrollable page as possible, 20,50,100 or more as an option.
If i was doing this, I’d also make it possible to specify what information appears in the search results – this is called ad-hoc reporting and its essential when you get a massive amount of data to look at. It maybe too much work and obviously some of the information is wrong for whatever reason, but it would make searching easier.
On a side note, although this applies less to your site, I’m amazed that properties with a sea view sometimes don’t actually show the view and do I want to see pictures of peoples furniture? Nice couch..
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What company do you own or work for Chris? You can PM if you want. Ok think I found it. I will make a small “review” for you. 😀
I actually liked the fact that your webpage have lots of “happy” colours and not just a rigid colour scheme that often makes web pages look to serious. If you are catering to normal people of different ages that’s a good thing but not if you cater to the “finer” people you should maybe rethink the way it looks. If you have all sorts of consumers I would think about starting a separate “company” for the finer clientel. Since lots of your customers are moving to a new country I really like the fact that you have gone into depts to explain how most things work in Spain. What I don’t like is all the different links on both sides of most of the pages with stuff that you recommend. In a section where you for example discuss how health care works you can have those sort of links and not on the main page. Most pages also have a problem with cluttering with to much of different information… the information in itself is not bad but I hope you understand what I mean. You also have duplettes about certain things on your main page “About us” can be found both on the bar and when you scroll down. People can’t handle to much information at once and you should help them with structuring that up.
I like the fact that you have the balls to blog about a lot of things. Ofcourse I wasn’t expecting to read any articles about “negative” things but if you dared to I think it would give your firm more credibility in the eyes of the consumers. Maybe you do that in news letters etc?
May I ask what the other sellers say about when you are offering certain “objects” as bargains and not theirs?
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Good news? There has been a shift here in Barcelona. The number of appointments to view flats that have been kept is now about equal to the number of appointments canceled (many while waiting at the front door at the designated date and time), which is a big improvement. I do not want to feed the anti-Spanish sentiment exhibited by some in this forum, but given the lax attitude of real estate agents here, I think they should pay me to view pisos.
Because I am a perpetual cynic, I do not have high expectations from anyone. But what I am experiencing now is ridiculous. I am about to give up.
Is there a website or service where I can post that I have 30-40% down payment and will have pre-approval for a mortgage sometime next week and have people who want to sell their flats contact me and bid-down each other for the opportunity to sign and close a sure-bet deal in a matter of weeks? That is what I did when I purchased a car last December and it worked out well for all involved.
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@GarySFBCN wrote:
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Is there a website or service where I can post that I have 30-40% down payment and will have pre-approval for a mortgage sometime next week and have people who want to sell their flats contact me and bid-down each other for the opportunity to sign and close a sure-bet deal in a matter of weeks? That is what I did when I purchased a car last December and it worked out well for all involved.
I also thought of this the other day. There are plenty of potential buyers out there in a position to proceed but they have no idea what the “real” property prices are. I see properties hanging around the market for month after month with no reduction in asking price, so I know that the asking price is too high, but I’m just not prepared to go round checking out each property that interests me to find out how much the seller is willing to accept. So the ideal situation would be to have a web site (like a “property buyer’s portal”) that allows buyers to say “I’ve got €x of capital available, and I’m interested in such-and-such types of property, who wants to sell their property to me?” and then the sellers genuinely prepared to sell at (or below) that price can send the buyer the details of their property.
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@shakeel wrote:
You will find that the “Property finders” has this market. They however deal with the more expensive end of the property for people who are cash rich but time poor.
Yes – I was thinking of replacing them with a web site 😀 Well, to an extent at least, just by allowing buyers to advertise themselves without being tied to a particular agent.
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@peterhun wrote:
Can I make a suggestion? quote]
We working on this with some new galleries which are all to come by the end of May, and to offer simply a basic gallery option much like you say it is a kind of thumbnail scenario with basic information, we like the idea yes.
But jeeze, this web stuff has never been easy, I have produced hundreds of magazines over the years, and I used to think that was complicated, but changing one single thing, well it is the ‘Dark Arts’ really, all code, html and hours of time and design to get anything right!
If we haven’t cracked it by end of May be real pleased if you told me why and then I put it right!
Thanks again.
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@Ardun wrote:
May I ask what the other sellers say about when you are offering certain “objects” as bargains and not theirs?
If I can ask you to look again at the site at the end of May, that would really, really help, because everything will be fully up by then, the areas you mention now are the areas that are being fully overhauled right now.
We have tried to blog the ‘negative’ stuff, or address it, but we still early days in trying to ensure we do that, but we do put up lots of ‘downbeat / negative’ links, it doesn’t do to try and pretend everything is rosy in the garden and as time goes by we be happy to get people to really post their own views, one day we want to get Angie on there and tell us just how it is, and readers of course also. But it takes time.
The site will be radically different in six weeks or so, will come back to you then, but as I said earlier… man, this web stuff is a challenge for an old guy like me!
As for bargains, not everyone wants to sell as a bargain and nor should they, but it is a word I want to STOP using as it happens, because it is not the right expression and again we hope to acheive that with the overhaul, which looks at just everything we do and say really.
Thanks ever so much for your comments though.
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@Chris McCarthy wrote:
@peterhun wrote:
Can I make a suggestion? quote]
We working on this with some new galleries which are all to come by the end of May, and to offer simply a basic gallery option much like you say it is a kind of thumbnail scenario with basic information, we like the idea yes.
But jeeze, this web stuff has never been easy, I have produced hundreds of magazines over the years, and I used to think that was complicated, but changing one single thing, well it is the ‘Dark Arts’ really, all code, html and hours of time and design to get anything right!
If we haven’t cracked it by end of May be real pleased if you told me why and then I put it right!
Thanks again.
Chris, I’m a web developer (php, cakephp, wordpress and drupal) so if you need any help, perhaps with testing, send me a pm.
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Another positive article, although it may surprise those who claim Santander are due a fall purely because they are a Spanish outfit.
Botin predicts profits to rise 50% in next two years
http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/23/banco-santander-emilio-botin/
Despite his critics, over the past 25 years Botín has steered Banco Santander from a sleepy regional player — once the seventh-largest bank in Spain — to the country’s largest bank, with about 20% of the market, and Europe’s eighth largest by assets. Thanks to the inspiration of his father, who preceded him as chairman and who established a branch office in Havana in 1947, Botín now has powerful franchises in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Argentina, Germany, Britain, Poland, and, yes, the U.S. (through his 2007 acquisition of Sovereign Bancorp at a typical bargain-basement price). Although still technically a Spanish bank, Santander now makes more than half its profits in Latin America (see map). Perhaps no other bank in the world, with the possible exception of Britain’s HSBC, has been so successful at running a diverse overseas empire.
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@DBMarcos99 wrote:
Another positive article, although it may surprise those who claim Santander are due a fall purely because they are a Spanish outfit.
Botin predicts profits to rise 50% in next two years
The mere fact they are profitable indicates they are taking risk.
Banks make a profit by being highly leveraged, it can swing the other way and wipe them out in an instant. Then they get dragged into a negative feedback loop, falling share price = falling capitalization = falling share price. The end result is like Barclays bank, profitable but withing hours of nationalization.
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Facial recognition technology sold by Spanish company to Brazilian police
A small, young Spanish company, Ex-Sight, sells a leading edge technology for facial recognition that will be used by Brazilian police during the 2014 World Cup.
Ex-Sight’s main focus is on the development of biometric systems that are new to the market, based on the recognition of human faces and not on tactile recognition, which is what other programs now use.
The computer software from this Spanish company is focused on digital and physical safety. It has access control systems and continual facial detection; as such it can be used by groups such as the police when attempting to find suspicious suspects. Further, this facial recognition technology could have medical applications, according to its developers.Facial recognition software has been around for some years now. I’m not sure why this new technology is anything different – I don’t quite understand the phrase “based on the recognition of human faces and not on tactile recognition, which is what other programs now use” But good news for Ex-Sight in closing the sale.
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About 5 years ago I worked for this Spanish start up that were developing localization devices (you could see the location of the device in google maps):
They were doing very well (and I hope they still are) with lots of international contracts. There were many talented developers there and they used cutting edge technology but, as is too often with Spanish companies, they were exploited heavily by the company (excessive unpaid hours, etc) so I left after a year.
Also I should mention that Fon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON) is based out of Madrid.
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Another telecoms company (this time in the mobile arena) apparently doing well. Spain is a “growth engine” for Yoigo’s mother company from Sweden
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@DBMarcos99 wrote:
Facial recognition technology sold by Spanish company to Brazilian police
A small, young Spanish company, Ex-Sight, sells a leading edge technology for facial recognition that will be used by Brazilian police during the 2014 World Cup.
Ex-Sight’s main focus is on the development of biometric systems that are new to the market, based on the recognition of human faces and not on tactile recognition, which is what other programs now use.
The computer software from this Spanish company is focused on digital and physical safety. It has access control systems and continual facial detection; as such it can be used by groups such as the police when attempting to find suspicious suspects. Further, this facial recognition technology could have medical applications, according to its developers.Facial recognition software has been around for some years now. I’m not sure why this new technology is anything different – I don’t quite understand the phrase “based on the recognition of human faces and not on tactile recognition, which is what other programs now use” But good news for Ex-Sight in closing the sale.
Yes it’s not very clear what’s so special about their product. It sounds like they are saying that their product can identify people from visual data as opposed to say finger print data. But it’s a dubious way of saying it, and it doesn’t specify what’s so new about their technology.
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I’m not so sure this is good news (although it will obviously create jobs in building and in shops/bars)
64 shopping centres to be opened up in next 3 years (article in Spanish)
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Not an industry most of us will work in, but good news for Grifols, Europe’s largest maker of blood-plasma products
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Foreign investment in Spain increased in 2011 by 17%, and has now recovered pre-crisis levels
http://www.thecorner.eu/2012/04/direct-investment-spain-increases-year-row/
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Another success from a Spanish telecom startup, now headquatered in Silicon Valley. Took some time for the industry to realise they needed their services though – luckily they got investment to keep them going.
http://gigaom.com/broadband/meet-intotally-the-startup-thats-souping-up-vodafones-3g-networks/
The weird thing is Lopez-Medrano figured out the math in 2002 when he first founded InToTally in Spain. By 2005, he and a team of engineers from Polytechnic University of Madrid had perfected the technology and tried to sell it to infrastructure and handset vendors, but no one was interested, Lopez-Medrano said. 3G networks weren’t really overloaded at the time so their inherent power control faults were overlooked. InToTally, now headquartered in Silicon Valley, had raised $1.25 million from friends and family as well as a few angel investors to develop its technology, but for most of the last decade it just sat on its patents and supported itself by offering consulting services to carriers like Telefonica. Then along came the iPhone.
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Surprisingly perhaps, Real estate investment by foreigners increased by 27% in 2011.
The graph on the link is very interesting. Shows the big peak was around 2003-4, but that even the low point of 09/10 was way above the early to mid 90s. -
Round-up of investments, M&As and good figures from Spain’s expanding start-up scene in April
http://startupspain.com/last-month-in-spain-april/
We are still a small startup market in more than one sense, but it is a exponentially growing market in many others and “where there’s growth, there’s opportunity”.
As you will see in the summary below, many famous and infamous successful international investors are starting to see these trends and seize the obvious opportunity to become more actively involved in Europe’s southwestern peninsula, including Silicon Valley’s Jeff Clavier (Softtech VC founder and Techstars Mentor), German startup clone masters The Samwer Brothers and UK’s Venturepreneur, LastMinute and PROfounders Capital co-founder: Brent Hoberman.
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This article appeared in Diario Sur today, reporting that according to http://www.hogaria.net, while the price of secondhand property (they use the term ‘pisos’ loosely, so it can refer to either ‘apartments’ or ‘property generally) has fallen by up to 6% nationally in the first quarter of 2012, in the province of Málaga, prices are up by 0.3% in April.
http://www.diariosur.es/20120511/local/malaga/precio-pisos-usados-sube-201205111217.html
Go figure…
First sign of prices increasing? Has to happen one day.
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Apparently from 11 May for the rest of the year Plusvalia is going to be cut by 50%
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2012/05/11/suvivienda/1336749025.html
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Interxion to build new Data centre in Madrid. all those kids using iPhones no doubt..
http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/12/05/b2610497/interxion-to-build-new-data-centre-in-madrid
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Interxion to build new Data centre in Madrid. all those kids using iPhones no doubt..
http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/12/05/b2610497/interxion-to-build-new-data-centre-in-madrid
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Starbucks to undergo major expansion in Spain (article in Spanish)
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Starbucks to undergo major expansion in Spain (article in Spanish)
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Looks like Spain is the new hotspot to invest in then 😆 I think it’s been there before, whatever next, people will be saying buy property there ‘you cannot lose’ 😆 😆 Can’t wait (not) to buy a burger there, maybe a Starbucks, no I think I’ll stick to the genuine Spanish coffee 😆 😆 :lol
Costa Racket might start all over again! 🙄
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Looks like Spain is the new hotspot to invest in then 😆 I think it’s been there before, whatever next, people will be saying buy property there ‘you cannot lose’ 😆 😆 Can’t wait (not) to buy a burger there, maybe a Starbucks, no I think I’ll stick to the genuine Spanish coffee 😆 😆 :lol
Costa Racket might start all over again! 🙄
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Plenty of investments going into Spain at the moment. Quite understandably they’re overshadowed by the banking sector stuff, but the business types are investing…
French cement manufacturer Lafarge opens R&D centre in Madrid
Interxion to open 2nd data centre in Madrid
http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/12/05/b2610497/interxion-to-build-new-data-centre-in-madridHilton hotels to open 4 new hotels in Spain every year
http://www.cincodias.com/articulo/empresas/hilton-preve-abrir-hoteles-nuevos-ano-espana/20120522cdscdiemp_8/There is also an amazing amount of investment going into Spanish startups (from Spanish as well as from international VC funds). I’ll put the blog link here when the May entry from startupspain.com is published, but I’m sure it will include the following startup companies who’ve announced major funding rounds:
Teambox, THe Mad Video, Catchoom, Yuilop, Etece, The Etailers, Blaffin, WineIsSocial and Habittissimo, among others!
A lot of entrepreneurs and tech innovators are investing in these Spanish companies.
Maybe in angie’s view they are mistaken – but it’s happening !! -
Lenovo, the Chinese PC giant, recently carried out two capital injections in its Spanish subsidiary
http://www.thecorner.eu/2012/05/lenovo-expands-capital-spanish-branch/
I have to be honest, I can’t say I’ve heard of Lenovo before now…
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Telefonica are at the stage Apple were in 1997. They’ve been forced to bet on new technologies and new markets – some of their recent ventures like the start-up incubators Wayra and the VoIp app TuMe have won plaudits. But it’s making money that will count – and if they succeed, a large element will be contributed by a Brit Matthew Key, their new digital division head:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/27/telefonica-digital-expansion
“The chances of success are not 100%,” says Key, in his first interview since taking the job. “I’m going to give it my best shot and I think we’ve been set up to succeed.” He will present his plans for Telefónica Digital to the City on 5 July. Key is on a mission to make a “material” difference to the mothership’s bottom line, and will operate a “shadow” balance sheet, declaring profit and loss probably every half year.
Telefónica’s revenues from non-traditional business lines could be around €5bn (£4bn) by 2013, according to management consultant Arthur D Little. Not insignificant, even for a company bringing in €62bn a year.
There will be new products and services in seven areas: financial services, healthcare, advertising, media, security, cloud computing, and mobile internet connections in cars and utility meters (also known as machine-to-machine connections).
There are half a dozen existing companies under his stewardship, including Latin American internet TV company Terra, which will be broadcasting dozens of Olympic channels this summer; a satellite broadcaster headquartered in Peru but operating across the region; Spanish social network Tuenti; and the UK discount mobile brand giffgaff, whose online helpdesk is run by its own customers.
And then there is the search for the next Instagram – the photo-sharing service launched 15 months ago which has just been bought for $1bn by Facebook. Telefónica’s technology incubator, Wayra, is a year old but already has bases around the world, including London, where up to 20 startups will be given office space and access to Telefónica’s technology – and, ultimately, its 300 million customers worldwide.
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Start-up fair in Barcelona 12 June – various companies hoping to take on 80 new recruits in the tech sector
http://barcelona.io/post/23610833615/barcelona-startup-fair-recruitment-and-beer
Some of the companies which will be recruiting on the day are: Tuenti, 3scale, RobotMedia, SocialPoint, Oblong Industries, Zyncro, Nuroa and Migoa, Fever Inc, Trovit, GetApp, Offset Options, Presive, Yuilop, Mobile Jazz, Devex, Kantox plus more to be announced in the coming days.
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Another sector growing…
http://www.thecorner.eu/2012/05/spains-audit-sector-increases-turnover-e2-8-billion/
The turnover of audit firms in Spain increased by 2.2% in 2011 to over 2.8 billion, thus extending the trend of steady moderate growth in the previous two years. Tax and legal advice, and corporate finance experienced a more dynamic activity level, while the audit and consulting areas grew by 1%.
A study of the sector published by DBK showed that audit firms managed to increase its sales in 2011, despite the gradual deterioration of the economy in Spain. The tax and legal consultancy segment recorded a billing growth rate of 5.1% over the previous year. This development was aided by buoyant demand for advisory services due the weakening of economic activity.
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Two Ferrari shops opened up in Madrid this week
http://www.marca.com/2012/05/30/motor/formula1/1338375222.html
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Nissan to continue investing in its Barcelona plant – it’s chosen as the site to build its new electric model, the e-NV200
The new plug-in model will be closely based on the NV200 small van and minivan series. Barcelona is one of several global facilities that already builds combustion engine versions of the NV200. The addition of this new EV derivative brings with it EUR100m of new investment, Nissan notes.
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Have you thought of applying to the Spanish Gov’t for a job, maybe you could help regulate Spanish property agents, developers and lawyers, then try and sell off the 1-2 million unsold new homes supposedly in Spain, then the re-sales perhaps.
I think it’s also good news that Bankia are seeking a 19 billion euro bailout otherwise they’d go bust, and it’s obviously good news that some 100 billion Euros have been withdrawn from Spanish bank accounts and placed in accounts abroad otherwise people might find their Euros converted into Pesetas at half their value one day 😆 😆
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@angie wrote:
Have you thought of applying to the Spanish Gov’t for a job, maybe you could help regulate Spanish property agents, developers and lawyers, then try and sell off the 1-2 million unsold new homes supposedly in Spain, then the re-sales perhaps.
I think it’s also good news that Bankia are seeking a 19 billion euro bailout otherwise they’d go bust, and it’s obviously good news that some 100 billion Euros have been withdrawn from Spanish bank accounts and placed in accounts abroad otherwise people might find their Euros converted into Pesetas at half their value one day 😆 😆
I think he has a job….Minister for propaganda 😆 😆
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Seems Orange are hoping they can capture some telecoms business in Spain. They’ve opened up 300 stores (article in Spanish). Reminds me of what someone said on another forum – you may find young people without a steady job, but they all seem to have smart phones 😕
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DBM have you withdrawn your euros from Spain yet, have you any left ??? 😆 1000’s of sensible Spaniards and others are 😆 😆
😆 Billions being withdrawn, 2 million unsold new homes, cement consumption down to 47 year low, strikes in Madrid, Spain’s unemployment at record highs, businesses closing at record levels, retail sales for April down 10%, 1000’s of Brits and others house trapped in the sun, Spanish bond prices dangerously high, Spain’s banks seeking massive bail-outs, derelict building projects everywhere, how we could go on!
No joy for Rajoy.
Are you searching for every little crumb of comfort, Starbucks, Ferrari 😆 😆 Buy one Starbucks get a free Ferrari 😆 😆
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Poor Angie – unable to read the thread header 😆
But it’s good to see that those who only want to see bad news, also read this thread. I’ll redouble my efforts to show my gratitude!
Here’s something of interest – eCommerce has doubled since the start of the crisis (although I suspect this would have happened anyway)
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Madrid to host 5 new congresses (article in Spanish)
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Genuine offer to you DBM.
If you are stuck with unsold property in Spain I can help you sell it, or, I will recommend a very reliable agent on the Coast and I would trust him. 8)
Debt counselling and/or emotional counselling, well I have helped on the first so would be prepared to advise on that and recommend someone on the latter if necessary, you can pm me if you wish in confidence 😉
Yes, you’re quite right about the thread header, will open a separate header on headline news relating to Press releases that might have major impact on Brits and others in Spain as we would wish them to try and get ahead of the situation if possible 🙄 Maybe run it alongside your header to show both sides of the coin, what do you think? 😆
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Still confused by the thread header “Any good news or opportunities” angie 😆
Plenty of threads you can (and do) talk about the bad stuff eg Euro, Bankia, etc.
But, in line with the thread header here’s a Spanish start-up now doing well world-wide (product is used by Nasa, Google, and the Universities of Yale and Oxford), and is run from Madrid and New York:
Javier maneja los hilos desde Nueva York y Sergio Álvarez desde Madrid. Doble sede, al más puro estilo israelí. “Para nosotros España es un centro de producción, de desarrollo, hay mucho talento pero no hay mercado, vendemos en EE.UU.” Trabajan por proyectos, como el de Google o la Nasa, y además cobran a las empresas por alojar, mantener y personalizar su software libre CartoDB.
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More good news for you DBM, a friend of mine has just emailed me and is prepared to offer OCD counselling at a discount to you if you wish, pm me please and I can pass on the contact details, you know it makes sense 😉
However my previous offers to you of agent recommendation and financial counselling are free to you, how good is that? 😆
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Still confused by the thread header “Any good news or opportunities” angie 😆
I have to thank you though – you’re inspiring me to keep posting all the good news stories out there…But guess which poster we really have to thank for this “Good news in xxx country” thread? I’m sure she can let you know in her own good time..EDIT she didn’t start the thread I was thinking of, but was the first to contribute!
Online ticket marketplace and startup Ticketbis gained 5 million of sales in 2011, and are now expanding internationally with major funding. They now operate in 8 countries – Spain, Brazil, Mexico, the UK, Argentina Portugal Italy and Germany.
(Article in Spanish)http://loogic.com/ticketbis-factura-5-millones-de-euros-en-2011/
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@angie wrote:
YAWN, ❗
Keep posting, Spain’s economy is booming, are commissions down this year of course we know who’s behind the thread!!!OCD? 😆
Can you read ? 😆 No-one is claiming a boom (although there may be one a year after they leave the Euro). But there’s certainly good news and opportunity out there, if you are prepared to read about it. If the thread upsets you so, there’s an easy answer – ignore the thread! 🙄
Interesting developments in remote robot control, from the University of Barcelona (although I’m sure this has been researched in many places, they’re claiming advances in this field):
Spanish scientists from the Universitat de Barcelona have successfully tested a technology that can transmit any type of movement from a person to a robot, and from anyplace on the globe.
The ‘visitor’—as the researchers themselves refer to the person who is teleported—transmits his movements to the robot using a special suit with seventeen sensors. The robot meanwhile could be located on the other side of the planet.
The other indispensable part of the outfit is the helmet, which has a screen for each eye so that the user can see the video feed from the robot’s cameras in 3D. There are also speakers for each ear so that the visitor can hear what the robot’s microphones pick up.
The helmet weighs 1,300 grams and does pressure the user’s skull a bit, given that it must be tightly fitted in order to keep the cameras aligned in front of the eyes and avoid disorienting the position sensors. The technology has already been tested successfully: from the Spanish city of Barcelona scientists were able to make a robot copy a human being’s movements, while located in the British capital of London. -
I like the thread, it shows your committed or maybe should be at some time if you become obsessed with one thread. Of course, I’m sure you have a vested interest in counter balancing the continual bad news coming out of Spain for your own reasons which I doubt you would disclose so why not?
Others share their experiences on various topics I believe to warn those who could be conned by more of Spain’s scammers and con artists.
So that has to be more good news for your thread 😆 On the Starbucks info, I don’t think it comes near the flavour of Spanish coffee so that is possibly not such good news for coffee lovers 🙄
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@angie wrote:
I like the thread, it shows your committed or maybe should be at some time if you become obsessed with one thread. Of course, I’m sure you have a vested interest in counter balancing the continual bad news coming out of Spain for your own reasons which I doubt you would disclose so why not?
Others share their experiences on various topics I believe to warn those who could be conned by more of Spain’s scammers and con artists.
So that has to be more good news for your thread 😆 On the Starbucks info, I don’t think it comes near the flavour of Spanish coffee so that is possibly not such good news for coffee lovers 🙄
You’re dribbling now. If you don’t like the “good news and opportunities” why keep knocking? 😆 Just ignore it!
Spanish start-up Bananity obtains an initial 400,000 Euros worth of funding (Spanish article)
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I like good news especially if it involves Spain cleaning up it’s tarnished property image that impacts on people’s lives, and no doubt on yours too. As you sit in your office delving like mad in to any semblance of hope out there even if it’s a few Euros here and there with such stoicism I hope Jaime’s thread runs and runs with your support and that of you know who!
I had to laugh at your latest one though, it wasn’t dribble (did you mean drivel, there is a difference?) I was almost spilling my tinto, more good news then for you 😆
As I said on a previous topic I will keep exposing the scammers which is further good news for you 😆
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Enjoy your tinto!
Another rail order overseas for Spain’s railway industry. Compared with the major orders (like the Saudi 9 billion order last year, it’s very small beer. But every little helps!
http://www.spanishrailwaysnews.com/noticias.asp?not=233&cs=spai
Romanian Railways (CFR) have awarded FCC Construcción, in a joint venture with Alpine (its Austrian subsidiary), Azvi and the local company Straco, the contract to refurbish and upgrade the Atel–Micăsasa section in Romania.
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Ducksboard, the start-up that offers website owners the toolset to report on metrics, gets a 560,000 investment in May.
Of course the big news in the web field today, comes from the UK, where Martin Lewis has sold his MoneysavingSite for £89 million, no small number.
I wonder how much big sites in Spain, like 11870.com Idealista.com or Trovit.es are worth? -
Brent Hoberman the co-founder and former CEO of Lastminute.com has invested in the Spanish start-up Blink Booking via PROFounders Capital.
This funding round brought in $2.5 million for the mobile-focused last-minute hotel booking service which already offers hotel bookings in 39 cities across several European countries.http://gigaom.com/europe/hotel-booking-app-blink-scores-2-5m-in-funding/
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Xavier Trias the Mayor of Barcelona proposes that the Cirque du Soleil open a base in Barcelona
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Yuilop the mobile apps start-up that started from Murcia (now based in Barcelona) wins 4.5 million of Euros in funding
http://www.todostartups.com/inversionesenstartups/yuilop-com-recibe-45-mme-de-financiacion
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A media company from Madrid, Zinkia (produces the hit children series Pocoyo) is doing rather well States side it seems..
http://www.homemediamagazine.com/industry-news/zinkia-renews-pocoyo-agreement-ncircle-27352
Madrid’s Zinkia Entertainment has renewed its home entertainment agreement with NCircle Entertainment for the animated Pocoyo brand, with NCircle releasing additional Pocoyo DVD titles for the next five years.
Pocoyo: Fun & Games and a Halloween-themed release are scheduled for this year, and NCircle has also obtained the DVD rights for “Let’s Go Pocoyo,” the third season of the TV series, and Pocoyo: Space Circus.http://www.toonbarn.com/other-cartoons/pocoyo-episodes-featured-leapfrogs-leappad/
LeapFrog Enterprises Inc., and Zinkia Entertainment have recently partnered in order to bring the award-winning kids’ series POCOYO to the popular children’s learning tablet LeapPad. The deal was inked with the help of Evolution, which is the North American licensing agent for Pocoyo. Zinkia’s Pocoyo-related content will appear on LeapFrog’s LeapPad by summer this year, through the LeapFrog App Center.
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Possible opportunity? Spain leads the use of ‘smartphones’in Europe, mainly down to music consumption.
http://www.deltaworld.org/technology/Spain-leads-the-use-of-smartphones-in-Europe/
The music is Spanish territory. According to comScore, Spanish users, with 37.7% are those who listen more songs from their smartphones. United Kingdom % 29 and Germany with an 27.9% are the only countries which are close to the Spanish rate.
Finally, access to social networks and blogs from smartphones is an activity also controlled by United Kingdom, 39.2%. Spain returns to the second position with a 31.1%, followed by France with a 24.9%.
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Fully expected you to post immediately which leads me to believe that being somewhat of a computer programmer (you know database and admin support) no doubt based in London, that you have set up an instant alert to others’ posts on here for example, probably aged 53 and in front of your screen fairly constantly!
However, as many of your good news posts are in Spanish and you being bi-lingual, and many readers here being Brits and English speaking, would your posts not have more impact translated to English? Now that would be good news 😆
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@angie wrote:
Fully expected you to post immediately which leads me to believe that being somewhat of a computer programmer (you know database and admin support) no doubt based in London, that you have set up an instant alert to others’ posts on here for example, probably aged 53 and in front of your screen fairly constantly!
However, as many of your good news posts are in Spanish and you being bi-lingual, and many readers here being Brits and English speaking, would your posts not have more impact translated to English? Now that would be good news 😆
Well, I’m probably following the Euro-business more than anything – as you can see here on the relevant thread. I think there will have to be a major decision this week – either Rajoy accepts the bailout and its associated conditions, or he has to pull Spain from the Euro (and he may not have the political support to do that).
As for entering English links – well my last two posts linked to good news or opportunities in English. But sometimes the news is only available in Spanish – non-speakers can always use Google translate to get the gist. -
You seem to be a man on a mission DBM, I can understand your frustrations if you have interests in Spain, you clearly know Madrid very well, not keen on Casa Camacho were you? 😉 Did you sort out your problem with Drupal contact module to send emails?
Back to your posts: there does appear to be somewhat of a ‘stack overflow’ of what appear to be minor good news topics compared to some of the headlines about the impact problems affecting Spain which serve as warnings to naive prospective purchasers in Spain, surely that has to be ‘Good news’ for newbies? 🙄
You have however focused our minds even more to continue to post the warning headlines for others, I’m just about to post another and look forward to your instant ‘Good News’ retort, but won’t be reading them unless you’ve posted the translations, haven’t so much time as you ❗
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@angie wrote:
You seem to be a man on a mission DBM, I can understand your frustrations if you have interests in Spain, you clearly know Madrid very well, not keen on Casa Camacho were you? 😉 Did you sort out your problem with Drupal contact module to send emails?
Back to your posts: there does appear to be somewhat of a ‘stack overflow’ of what appear to be minor good news topics compared to some of the headlines about the impact problems affecting Spain which serve as warnings to naive prospective purchasers in Spain, surely that has to be ‘Good news’ for newbies? 🙄
You have however focused our minds even more to continue to post the warning headlines for others, I’m just about to post another and look forward to your instant ‘Good News’ retort, but won’t be reading them unless you’ve posted the translations, haven’t so much time as you ❗
LOL! “I know what I am, but what are you…” Keep up the stalking! I’ll still post good news and opportunities!
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DBM Quote: ‘Chris, I’m a web developer (php, cakephp, wordpress and drupal) so if you need any help, perhaps with testing, send me a pm’
You came back pretty quickly as I thought. It’s falling in to place 😆 😆 😆 Don’t you just love the Pogues’ ‘Fairy Tale of New York’ even when you’re drunk?
However, I say again, for your ‘Good News’ posts, I doubt many on here have time for that, so get your message across succinctly in English to help us unfortunates out 🙄
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@angie wrote:
DBM Quote: ‘Chris, I’m a web developer (php, cakephp, wordpress and drupal) so if you need any help, perhaps with testing, send me a pm’
You came back pretty quickly as I thought. It’s falling in to place 😆 😆 😆 Don’t you just love the Pogues’ ‘Fairy Tale of New York’ even when you’re drunk?
However, I say again, for your ‘Good News’ posts, I doubt many on here have time for that, so get your message across succinctly in English to help us unfortunates out 🙄
Thanks for the extra publicity! 😀 Incidentally, only takes a second to choose a bookmark – there’s no tech “magic” involved in being able to reply on this board (or any other site for that matter).
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A Spanish success story – Inditex (Zara)
Inditex, started by billionaire Amancio Ortega, has become Spain’s biggest listed company through a combination of broad appeal and an astute business model
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/03/zara-bucks-spanish-economic-gloom
Of course, like Apple, Zara outsources a lot of manufacturing work to the far-East, but they do keep one third of manufacturing capability in Spain…
http://expatconsultant.com/zaras-proves-outsourcing-overseas-always-key-growth/
Clothing is one of the major sectors often outsourced overseas to take advantage of extremely low labour costs, but Zara has discovered that keeping manufacturing closer to home allows them to have more control over delivery times, distribute faster, and avoid potential problems with overseas suppliers.
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French IT company Atos -Es creates Nearshore Development Centre in Madrid to provide engineering services to Airbus (article in Spanish)
http://es.atos.net/es-es/noticias-y-eventos/buscar_comunicados_de_prensa/2012/2012_06_04_05.htm
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Funding received by the start-up Red Karaoke takes its valuation to $11 million as it seeks to expand internationally (already present in the US, Spain and Japan). Article in Spanish
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One of my bravest predictions is that Telefonica will be the next Apple. Like Apple back in 97, Telefonica is striving to put its past behind it by investing in new products and services.
One of its new ventures that is creating enormous waves world-wide, is Wayra, a start-up accelerator or global entrepreneurship network. It was started in Latin America with great reviews, moved over to Europe more recently, and is now operating in Spain. Yesterday was its first Madrid showcase – report from TheNextWeb.
For Telefónica, today’s event was also the opportunity to showcase the value it has added to Wayra’s shortlisted teams. In exchange for an average equity stake of 10%, “entrepreneurs worked with a list of mentors which feature some of the biggest names in the Spanish entrepreneurship space,” said the head of Wayra Spain, Gary Stewart.
As a matter of fact, each startup was introduced by one or two of their mentors, which included seasoned entrepreneurs and investors such as Bernhard Niesner, who founded the language startup Busuu, and François Derbaix, who recently sold his company Toprural to HomeAway for a reported amount of €14 million.
Mentors aside, most of the room was filled with investors – not only from Spain, but also from other countries such as the UK and Israel, which led the event to be fully conducted in English. While it is always hard to gauge feedback in real time, the audience seemed quite enthusiastic about most of the projects, and it will be interesting to see how many investments will take place as a result of this demo day.
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And another purchase just announced! It seems like company investors are piling into Spain in search of bargains!
ON24, which specializes in webcasting and virtual event solutions, this morning announced that it has acquired Madrid, Spain-based IMASTE, an enabler of multi-lingual virtual trade shows and corporate events in Europe.
The company offers cloud-based virtual events and delivers a family of products that can be used to set up and organize digital events, virtual career fairs and online trade shows – including 3D environments.
ON24 says the acquisition, terms of which were not disclosed, creates the world’s largest virtual communications and events provider.
Edit: Another report on that purchase
IMASTE was founded in 2003 by Aitor Zabala, Miguel Arias, and Miguel Fernández Lapique. More than 200 customers rely on IMASTE’s virtual event services to power their virtual events across Spain, Europe, and the World. They have worked with the likes of MonsterUK, Curriculum.br, Deloitte, Accenture, The Economist, British Council, Top Language Jobs, and Renault.
“This merger of two leaders in the virtual events space will result in a single, dominant global virtual events and webcasting company that will serve customers more effectively and efficiently,” Miguel Arias, IMASTE co-founder and CTO.
IMASTE is based in Madrid, Spain. ON24 is based in San Francisco, Calif.
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More investment, this time in the start-up ChangeYourFlight
http://loogic.com/entrecanales-y-fides-invierten-en-changeyourflight/
Spanish article, but here’s a translation of the first couple of paragraphs
Up to now we have not featured ChangeYourFlight a startup conceived in Spain with an original business model and that has recently been touted in various investment forums, attracting the attention of many investors because of its high initial valuation. Now we know the company has been funded with an undisclosed valuation by the Entrecanales Foundation, and by the investor group Fides, who have also recently invested in Teambox.
ChangeYourFlight was founded by José Luis Vilar and Iñaki Uriz and offers an online service to retrieve money from the airline tickets you cannot use; it already has an agreement with the airline Air One, Alitalia’s subsidiary and works in tandem with other major airlines to offer the services globally -
It seems the sector specialising in meals delivered at home is growing at 4%, according to new startup portal Just Eat
Interesting that Chinese food remains far and above the most popular home delivery.
Los tipos de comida más pedidos en Just España son la china (40%), la española (15%), la italiana (14%), la turca (8%) y la japonesa (7%)
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@angie wrote:
It seems a house may have sold in Alhaurin heavily reduced, desperate sellers keen to move to UK, hasn’t gone through yet so may not happen 🙄 Could be good news but then may be bad news 🙄
Angie – You seem a deal more strident and aggressive in tone and approach lately. I think you may be in danger of losing valuable support really. I read through this thread this morning and you seem to be unduly wound up by DBM’s perfectly reasonable posting and then, well if you don’t mind me saying so… you seem to be bouncing from thread to thread in almost manic fashion really.
It’s a shame I think if we descend into just bashing everything ad hoc, will nilly, there is room for everyone on here is there not? And I do believe that a good portion of your message is very important, but it is in danger of getting lost IMO.
At this point I suppose I now have to retreat and wish I had never said anything! 🙁
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I think she was just responding to how ridiculous this thread is getting. I know the silly season is approaching but even then there are limits 😆
This is the reality for most people, on SKY today. see austerity hits spanish factories.
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@katy wrote:
I think she was just responding to how ridiculous this thread is getting. I know the silly season is approaching but even then there are limits 😆
If the man wants to have a thread, he is entirely entitled to have it without coming under pointless and continual attack, I don’t see him having a pop at anyone elsewhere really.
Like he has said, read or don’t really, but leave it be if you have nothing to add to it.
It was like the Apaches attacking a Wagon Train load of happy homesteaders on here this morning!
😉 -
Thanks Chris, but it’s been quite enjoyable. A couple of doomsters have been trying to show that no-one is investing in Spain, yet all the links and articles I’ve shown just in the last week or two seem to show different! No wonder they’re a trifle upset – and they can’t quibble with facts! Of course it doesn’t mean that Spain is anywhere near out of the woods yet, but the fact that so many different companies and investors are expanding in Spain does appear to indicate there is a future for the workforce, which is surely needed.
And yet another investment. US software vendor SAS will double its staff in Spain over next 3 years. (Spanish article)
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@katy wrote:
A couple of doomsters and a lot who seem to be ignoring the thread 😆
Getting a lot of views though, according to the board! Mark must be pleased – this board was almost dying a little while back – now it seems to update every few minutes….
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I think it’s you who is getting wound up Chris, as for dbm well the majority of his topics are rather small fry compared to what is really happening in Spain and he’s welcome to them, many are in Spanish and I and others don’t bother to read or answer them, almost laughable really 😆 Basically he likes to get his maybe your thread to the top of the page whenever anyone post the slightest negativity or truth about real Spanish woes, it’s clearly orchestrated and the truth will no doubt out.
Once again you’ve over reacted as if your income depended on it 🙄
If you don’t like our threads well you don’t have to read them either, but they will be posted if only to warn others after all you know very well that Spanish property and other matters need cleaning up fast 🙄
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@angie wrote:
I think it’s you who is getting wound up Chris, as for dbm well the majority of his topics are rather small fry compared to what is really happening in Spain and he’s welcome to them, many are in Spanish and I and others don’t bother to read or answer them, almost laughable really 😆 Basically he likes to get his maybe your thread to the top of the page whenever anyone post the slightest negativity or truth about real Spanish woes, it’s clearly orchestrated and the truth will no doubt out.
Once again you’ve over reacted as if your income depended on it 🙄
If you don’t like our threads well you don’t have to read them either, but they will be posted if only to warn others after all you know very well that Spanish property and other matters need cleaning up fast 🙄
You’re missing the point completely, as per usual.
There is a lot of positive stuff happening in Spain, away from the cajas/property sector which has caused so much grief – and I’m as interested in the fate of the Euro as anyone – you will find my entries on a regular basis in other threads. I know you’d like to have blanket bad news about the country (how a civilised person can hate 45 million people so much is beyond me) but there are opportuntities and successes in those areas, with various investment news stories on a regular basis. Hence the links. You claim not to read the links yet you’re constantly on this thread whining and whingeing about them. Clearly orchestrated? Poppycock. You just don’t like the truth and have to invent conspiracy scenarios to hide that. -
@katy wrote:
You will have to ask Mark for a cut and the spanish propaganda machine not forgetting Chris 😉 You have certainly earnt it, I wouldn’t have carried out all those searches without some kick-back. can’t be easy finding good news about Spain
Almost a full time job!Actually, as I believe I’ve already explained to you on another board, it’s fairly easy to find positive stories about Spanish business, start-ups and exports. A good use of Twitter (with informed folk on the time line) and the use of aggregation sites like Meaneme and thecorner.eu means it’s quick and easy to find out what is happening in various sectors.
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Here’s an article that even the doomsters can enjoy in part. It describes the difficulties of starting up as a small business in Spain. However it does have some positive business stories and new developments/opportunities too, so if you don’t like the positive stuff, don’t read!
http://englishwarehouse.com/article_detail.asp?id=132&cat=news/current%20affairs
Calvo and SpotBros had to prove themselves before they felt they could ask for money. “It’s true that in Spain we have many things to improve regarding the tech entrepreneurial environment. It’s too hard to find some government help and starting your own company sometimes involves too much paper and bureaucratic stuff,” he says. “But I also feel that the biggest problem is the feeling people have that if you try something and you don’t achieve it, you are a loser, and that frightens many people…”
But Calvo claims that this mentality isn’t the biggest hurdle entrepreneurs have to face. “On the other hand, the hardest thing is to find the right people to start a project; find someone that will abandon everything and start that adventure with you,” Calvo says.
In this socialist country, there is often not much support for folks going out on their own. Support groups like Ellas 2.0, for female tech entrepreneurs, and Madrid TweetUp at the Irish Rover have started popping up around Spain. Others, like SpotBros, create their own opportunities to network and exchange ideas. “This is what we are trying to solve with the ‘hackathons.’ We want to create a community of entrepreneurs, developers, etcetera. [It’s] A place for people to speak about their ideas, find new people and start moving ahead,” Calvo says.
A hackathon or “codefest” is a collaborative day for programmers and developers, each with its own focus, whether it’s a common (programming) language, operating system or app. “In our Hackathon we want to encourage people with our history. We want people to find a place where they can meet and chat with interesting people [and] brainstorm.”
Calvo says it’s interesting for him and his company, and it can help others push their own projects. “We want them to offer a place where once a month they can share their creations, brainstorm, meet new people…start creating that tech entrepreneurial environment we need in Spain.”
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You’re talking rubbish now marcos. 😆
As a newbie, since November, why don’t you look at mine and others’ previous posts going back years on here. You may notice that we visit Spain, have friends there, English, Spanish and Portuguese, have lived there, have bought there, got out unscathed financially but could have been ripped off there had we not acted, we like Malaga, the countryside, Northern Spain, Spanish wines and food, the sun etc 8) 😆
What we don’t like and BTW our group have helped a lot of people previously on here and at exhibitions, are the scammers some of whom have aliases on this and other sites, some are still operating with impunity, the build standard of urban homes, the destruction of Spain’s countryside and hilltops, the lack of regulation, the slow Court procedures, successive impotent Gov’ts, exhorbitant completion costs and Bank charges, the commercial aspect on sites, and a lot of rubbish being spouted in general, add to that dog shit in towns and villages 😆
Clearly you have not come across or spoken to distressed people in UK and Ireland who sank life savings into their Spanish dream having believed the hype spoken en-masse by this unregulated industry. 😡
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@angie wrote:
You’re talking rubbish now marcos. 😆
Really? You’re the one who maintains you don’t read my entries, yet you’re on here constantly, whingeing about them! 😆
I’m not trying in any way to stop your “exposure” of property scams. I’m sure they are very useful and that all welcome those threads. Not exactly what you are doing with a “further bad news about Spain” though is it? Just a way to get back at this thread – we already have threads on Spanish economic situation, and on the Euro. But please continue if it makes you happy.
@angie wrote:
and he’s welcome to them, many are in Spanish and I and others don’t bother to read or answer them
Something else – please don’t lecture to us about Spain if you can’t even read Spanish!
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For those interested in opportunities, there is actually a summit for startups and investors taking place in Madrid today and tomorrow. So far as I know the presentations are in English
http://spain-startup.com/
It’s obviously too late to go now, but it is being streamed live (I believe) here:-
http://spain-startup.com/live.html
and you can follow events on Twitter using the hash-tag #Spainstartup -
Since November you and Co have constantly run your favourite thread at top of page within an instant, you had the offer of running your thread alongside the one I started which might have been a better way of exposing both sides of the coin leaving other threads for general matters.
If you think warning the naive newcomers is lecturing about Spain then you’re mistaken again, most posters on here have historically been British, Irish and/or English speaking, and many British residents in Spain don’t speak Spanish either, much of the mis-selling was by Brits to Brits and very few I’ve met spoke no Spanish either, so get off your high horse and consider them 🙄
Clearly you speak Spanish after all didn’t you have a short term job at a school in Valencia before returning to UK, why not stay in Spain, you seem to have all the credentials ❓ 🙄
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Again Angie – if it annoys you to see good news and opportunities, don’t come on this thread. I notice you have not tried to dispute any facts, links and news stories here, so it’s obviously the fact they exist that annoys you.
And there is no attempt (another of your paranoid conspiracy theories) to keep this thread top. In fact just after my last entry I contributed to the Euro-crisis thread, thus making that top. The only one here making this thread top is in fact you! 😆 Well, now I’ve replied, you can blame me. 😀PS Yes – if you can expose property scams, great. It’s to the benefit of all of us.
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SPI is written in English as well, I’ve posted other reasons why English is predominant here, your comment on me not speaking Spanish was not relevant. Mark Stucklin was once known as Spanish Property Doctor and wrote for the Sunday Times to help people who read that paper. As for your thread, it’s not annoying when it’s in English, and we don’t have time to translate your threads, there are similarities in the vein of the text to ? As I said, the two threads could run together!! Also, my threads won’t always be as instant as yours because I’m not always in my office or checking Iphones/pads ❗
I have also said on many occasions why I believe it’s not a good time for Brits to buy in Spain, poor exchange rates and loads of Euro Uncertainty, but equally I’ve often said, ‘if it’s for a lifestyle change and for the long term then ok’ 🙄
Paranoia you accuse me of, oh but then I did say you had OCD so I can take that flak 😆
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Even in countries such as Greece start-ups, some successful will be happening all the time. The same in third world countries like kenya. However it is only a small part of the big picture. I doubt that confidence will return on this forum cos someone has opened an eg. chain of chip shops in Spain
This thread is starting to look like trolling or at least bumping your thread to the top which I thought was against forum rules.
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@katy wrote:
Even in countries such as Greece start-ups, some successful will be happening all the time. The same in third world countries like kenya. However it is only a small part of the big picture. I doubt that confidence will return on this forum cos someone has opened an eg. chain of chip shops in Spain
This thread is starting to look like trolling or at least bumping your thread to the top which I thought was against forum rules.
Nope – and if you and Angie weren’t continually on here complaining about Good News and Opportunities, the thread would be a lot further down the list most of the time 😆 . Note that I also post regularly on the Euro thread – easy to test!
Further to my previous article, here’s another interesting article on the difficulties of doing business in Spain. I’m posting here in this thread as it does have some positive stuff too,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303753904577450273395856562.html
“[People] are frightened of putting money in equity, real rates for bonds are negative, property is not something you aren’t going to look at. You either keep the money under your pillow or you invest in VCs.”
But, he said, there was a funding gap between early funding, which was relatively easy to get, and later-stage growth funding which was very much harder. “Companies are being starved of growth capital.”
But by no means is it all gloomy. Wayra’s demonstration day this week showed an impressively diverse range of start-ups, and the program has reviewed some 12,000 business plans from around the world. AndWhile there is always more a government can do, entrepreneurs like Sindhu Joseph, CEO of Cognicor, a Barcelona artificial intelligence company, was hugely optimistic about the future. She said the lack of full liability protection had been an issue for her, but she has started up her company nonetheless.
And Mr. Peña pointed out that Spain is often seen as a bridge between low-growth western Europe, and high-growth Latin America.
Telefónica itself was a case in point; 50% of its revenue now comes from its Latin America operations.
Mr. Rafart was also greatly inspired by the success of Zara, the Spanish fashion giant. “I am 45. For the first time in my life the biggest company on the Spanish stock market is younger than me. Traditional companies, the banks, the utilities, had always dominated.
“But now you have a guy, Amancio Ortega, who started a company himself and who has created a global giant. These are the success stories we need in Spain.”
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@angie wrote:
You’re talking rubbish now marcos
I don’t see this as helpful Angie, I haven’t a clue why you have so taken against DBMarcos, but frankly its all coming across as a bit irrational, and as I said before very aggressive.
We all believe you have a lot of valid points and arguments and you do indeed speak up for those elements of Spain that you regularly enjoy, but I think you lose your very important argument when you go off on one as you have here.
There hasn’t been a punch up on this site for ages, but this just seems like the wrong fight to pick to me and certainly the wrong person to pick on. I don’t understand your point or objective really.
He’s always seemed a well balanced poster to me and this thread was interesting and different but I never saw it as some sort of campaign for Spain, just a quite valuable resource of information, which is hopefully the eventual purpose of the whole forum no?
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@katy wrote:
Even in countries such as Greece start-ups, some successful will be happening all the time. The same in third world countries like kenya. However it is only a small part of the big picture. I doubt that confidence will return on this forum cos someone has opened an eg. chain of chip shops in Spain
This thread is starting to look like trolling or at least bumping your thread to the top which I thought was against forum rules.
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the problem with this thread is that it is about showing good opportunities on a SPANISH PROPERTY site.
I have found quite a few of the links interesting and i believe Spain could have a wonderful future if its sorts out a few issues, which i won’t get into right now.
I am sure Chris or myself could give quite a few good opportunities, but as they would be property related and more than likely on our respective websites, we would be in breach of the rules of SPI.
And let’s be honest, even if Mark this give permission for us to do it, within days (or hours) this site would be spammed with ‘property bargains’ by countless ‘international property experts’.
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@DBMarcos99 wrote:
For those interested in opportunities, there is actually a summit for startups and investors taking place in Madrid today and tomorrow. So far as I know the presentations are in English
http://spain-startup.com/
It’s obviously too late to go now, but it is being streamed live (I believe) here:-
http://spain-startup.com/live.html
and you can follow events on Twitter using the hash-tag #SpainstartupThanks. Sorry I missed it. I for one appreciate the links, but then again my interest in Spain is not solely based around property either.
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@Chopera wrote:
@DBMarcos99 wrote:
For those interested in opportunities, there is actually a summit for startups and investors taking place in Madrid today and tomorrow. So far as I know the presentations are in English
http://spain-startup.com/
It’s obviously too late to go now, but it is being streamed live (I believe) here:-
http://spain-startup.com/live.html
and you can follow events on Twitter using the hash-tag #SpainstartupThanks. Sorry I missed it. I for one appreciate the links, but then again my interest in Spain is not solely based around property either.
No problem. I only wish I’d known about it earlier. Not had time to listen to much on the streaming, but I gather videos of the various presentations will be available on the spain-startup site.
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Well blow me down, I did check back and we actually agreed recently on Navarra wines 😆 Got to be good news 😛
Chris McCarthy has the nerve to talk about ‘irrational’ behaviour, coming from him that’s rich, now who else did he fall out with and they left or were kicked off the Board? I could look back but for starters:
Man in Marbella, Claire, Paul, Goodrich, charlie, Joan, etc and has run ins with katy, logan, me, etc etc and there’s more, trouble is he was fighting for his agency that he claims he is or is not involved with, who knows what his position is, but did state he ‘takes the blame for his share of the problems that were going on’ as Viva boss, but did nothing to stop things!! 😡Now I realise this part should be part of another topic but he mentioned ‘irrational’ on this good news thread so answered it here 🙄
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@angie wrote:
Well blow me down, I did check back and we actually agreed recently on Navarra wines 😆 Got to be good news 😛
Chris McCarthy has the nerve to talk about ‘irrational’ behaviour, coming from him that’s rich, now who else did he fall out with and they left or were kicked off the Board? I could look back but for starters:
Man in Marbella, Claire, Paul, Goodrich, charlie, Joan, etc and has run ins with katy, logan, me, etc etc and there’s more, trouble is he was fighting for his agency that he claims he is or is not involved with, who knows what his position is, but did state he ‘takes the blame for his share of the problems that were going on’ as Viva boss, but did nothing to stop things!! 😡Now I realise this part should be part of another topic but he mentioned ‘irrational’ on this good news thread so answered it here 🙄
That’s very bizarre Angie, I always thought I had an excellent relationship with Charlie, had no issues with Man in Marbella at all, or Claire, don’t know Paul, or in fact Joan, but Goodsitch went on and on a bit, but you know what – I leave it be now, I wouldn’t dream of hanging around where am not welcome, or where anyone thought I had been rude or intolerant to others, or was even remotely responsible for someone leaving the forum, so on you go with your campaign.
I wish you the best of luck, and I leave it to Fuengi to hold up the real estate perspective, goodness knows he has more patience than me thats for sure.
You and Logan will I am sure make very interesting reading for all the new visitors!
Cheers
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Have no beef with Fuengi at all, judging by his posts he is the agent I would first approach if I was buying there or recommending.
You and I have often had spats but we have clearly differing opinions due to our different experiences and standards, but that was generally conducted in a healthy debate, why not let the two topics, good news, and bad news run as two main headers as seems to happen on EOS, they are always there to refer back to then. People are passionate due to experiences or others’ problems.Trouble is here, each topic drops of the page and people have to repeat them because they get forgotten.
As said before, we don’t dispute property sells in Spain still, that there are possible or perceived bargains, but caution is needed and no doubt Viva and others will continue selling. Expect you back in due course a calmer version perhaps 🙄
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The video on the Spain Startup & Investor Summit (first day) is now on Youtube
It’s a long vid, over 8 hours, and covers many exciting startup projects. However better to start at approximately 47:30 minutes if you don’t speak Spanish, or don’t want to hear the govt propaganda. Some of the speakers are Americans (and at least one today is British, working with Nanogap). But don’t worry, the presentations are in English even when the speakers are Spanish, as it’s an international presentation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EusaimlsAoM
I’ll post the link for today’s summit when it gets uploaded.. but the live streaming today is here http://agoranews.es/2012/06/07/directo-spain-startup-investor-summit/
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Good news for anyone who shops at El Corte Ingles for their groceries. They are reducing prices by 20% across 5,000 products. Of course many will realise that the prices have been too high for a long time, but a reduction of 20% will allow them to fight against the likes of Mercadona. In UK terms El Corte Ingles (also trade as HiperCor or SuperCor) strive to be upmarket like Waitrose; Mercadona is probably closer to Asda or Tesco.
(Link is in Spanish) http://www-origin.abc.es/20120607/economia/abci-core-ingles-baja-precios-201206071318.html
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the problem with this thread is that it is about showing good opportunities on a SPANISH PROPERTY site.
I hope that one understands the direct connection between investment (and jobs) and the stability of the real estate market.
As for the concern about what ‘newcomers’ may think of the behavior on this thread, I’m embarrassed to say it is like gawking while driving past a horrific accident on the highway. One sometimes cannot resist looking.
I do appreciate the ‘good news’ to provide balance and perspective.
And I’m learning to avoid posts that include icons such as 😆 because they have become warnings that the post is rude or disrespectful.
Finally, if anyone has a problem with this thread, why open it? There are several other forum topics on Mark’s great site. It’s like complaining about a program on the television – CHANGE THE CHANNEL.
Have we become so helpless? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47rQkTPWW2I
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@GarySFBCN wrote:
the problem with this thread is that it is about showing good opportunities on a SPANISH PROPERTY site.
I hope that one understands the direct connection between investment (and jobs) and the stability of the real estate market.
all direct foreign investment to Spain is a good thing, but i think most readers want to seem more tangible opportunities such as reading today in the euroweekly that the ‘foundation stone’ has been laid for the theme park they are to build there. Supposedly to silence the skeptics. If it goes ahead (and is run properly), should be a real boon to the area.
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@Fuengi wrote:
@GarySFBCN wrote:
the problem with this thread is that it is about showing good opportunities on a SPANISH PROPERTY site.
I hope that one understands the direct connection between investment (and jobs) and the stability of the real estate market.
all direct foreign investment to Spain is a good thing, but i think most readers want to seem more tangible opportunities such as reading today in the euroweekly that the ‘foundation stone’ has been laid for the theme park they are to build there. Supposedly to silence the skeptics. If it goes ahead (and is run properly), should be a real boon to the area.
A stone, that’s progress for you 😆 All that’s needed now is some real investors 💡
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Well if everyone is playing at being a psuedo moderator I shall have my tuppence worth.
There is room for both threads. However when about 6 posts in a row just contain links without any discussion it looks like bumping, wouldn’t you agree? Otherwise it just becomes a LIST, not a discussion forum. It seems some are implying that no-one should post on it if they don’t have any good news, however tenuous that news may be….that’s not the spirit of the forum is it?
AMEN
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I really had to post the following headline on this thread because it is some kind of good news for Spain but hilarious 😆
Sex is the way forward for Spain’s economy 🙄 Whatever next ❓
http://www.care2.com/causes/how-sex-workers-are-trying-to-fix-spains.economy.html
Yes you heard it here first ‘prostitutes can bring about a positive change in the Spanish economy’ 😆 😆 Sorry about the LOL’s but this warranted them ❗
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I may be away from here for a little while, due to family matters.
In the meantime here’s a video taken of Martin Varsavsky yesterday, in which he explains how the current situation is good for start-ups in Spain and certain businesses in particular. He may work from Madrid, but he doesn’t whitewash anything and he talks about difficulties (particularly the banking system and the lack of funding he’s found in Spain) as well as opportunities. He also has the credentials to talk about business – he’s built up several in Spain including Jazztel and Fon (the world’s largest supplier of wifi network equipment). Indeed last weekend he advised buying Telefonica shares – they were then at 8.90 a share, now they are 9.63 – but bear in mind he said he had those shares for the long run, so we’ll see if his tip works out.There is some feedback/interference in the first minute of the clip but it becomes ok after that (and very interesting).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5IUUqURewRQ
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@angie wrote:
Found you steviedelux, I know you’re here under an alias, I can smell WUM’s from miles away, especially if they’ve come from similar forums, a ringer perhaps!!!! What do you do all day at your computer? 😆 Will you keep re-inventing yourself to have pops at regular posters??? 😡
What’s a WUM?
You can keep making all the accusations you like – I contribute to several forums, as indeed does another poster here (one who hates Spanish good news stories too). The stories, videos etc I link to are valid and you’re tearing up the wall because you can’t discredit them. Why do you hate to see good news and opportunities for a people of 45 million?PS there have other posters who say they enjoy at least some of the business opp stories I’ve linked to. Because of an illness in the family I may be away for a while, but you are certainly not going to shout me off the board because you can’t face the truth. Only Mark can decide if someone is abusing the board rules or not.
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To quote Michael Winner ‘Calm down dear, calm down’, I wasn’t accusing you of anything DBM, but if the cap fits, wear it, are you saying you are also steviedelux? Overreacting or what?
I love good news that’s why I posted the link about the prostitutes doing their bit for the economy too, it might work, you never know 😉
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On a lighter note for steviedelux I found this headline from The Olive Press which may be the answer to Spain’s economical woes if more of these can be found, it would be very good news for the country 🙂
http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2012/06 … -tortilla/
Ole, Ole, 😆 😆
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@DBMarcos99 wrote:
The video on the Spain Startup & Investor Summit (first day) is now on Youtube
It’s a long vid, over 8 hours, and covers many exciting startup projects. However better to start at approximately 47:30 minutes if you don’t speak Spanish, or don’t want to hear the govt propaganda. Some of the speakers are Americans (and at least one today is British, working with Nanogap). But don’t worry, the presentations are in English even when the speakers are Spanish, as it’s an international presentation.
The second day video of presentations is now on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTikKsMWBq0
This type of small business/startup is the thing that will bring back economic growth and employment to Spain. Although tourism, property and even bank capital ratios are important, it’s these type of businesses that will provide Spain’s future. The opportunities and jobs are to be found where you have a big startup scene – in Spain the main areas are Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and (surprisingly) Mallorca, although there are companies on the up in Cordoba, Seville, Valencia and Galicia.
Not all of that second day youtube track contains presentations. I’ve noted the rough time of each presentation so anyone interested can skip to relevant presentation. A lot of them are targeting the international market (which is very logical, as money is obviously limited in the domestic market). A couple of them appear to be enterprises started by non-Spanish too! I suppose an international startup can be launched from any country.
1:40 Quark Robotics -Design and supply of robots for industrial cleaning and maintenance purposes
6:40 Cognicor – Artificial Intelligence System for dealing with customer complaints (a presenter made a joke that Ryanair would find this system useful…)
11:16 Emtrics – Opinion sourcing using smartphone apps.
16.20 Doctor Doctor – Web Booking systems for medical clinics.
21:10 Invoost – Virtual Trading platform, allowing the best players to change virtual money into real cash
26:57 NimGenetics – Genetic Diagnosis
31:55 Womenalia – Networking system for professional women
37:35 AlphaSic – Instant med reporting feedback system
[break]
1:17:50 Flockmob City mobility intelligence analysis
1:24:07 RGS – Rehabilitation Gaming system for those suffering from brain damage eg strokes
1:32:14 Super Truper – m-commerce platform for shopping comparisons instore via smart phone apps.Of course there are a lot more presentations on the first day video, but I think people interested in new business developments will enjoy the clips I’ve indicated above.
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Now this is excellent news, I’m sure all will agree, regardless of which country it comes from.
Spanish firm comes up with smart bed that makes itself!
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/item/27691-spanish-firm-comes-up-with
For those of us who find it hard enough to peel ourselves off the mattress every morning, let alone make our bed, Spanish furniture maker OHEA has come up with the ultimate in self-indulgence, a smart bed that will apparently make itself in 50 seconds, mechanically.
According to the company, its smart bed is equipped with a mechanical device that enables it to automatically straighten out its bedding once one gets up.
The device, it claims, will mechanically straighten out the bed’s bottom sheet, duvet, plus the pillowcases. Meanwhile, the bottom sheet will stay straight because it will attach with Velcro to the mattress cover.
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There is a special feature on Spain in the FT (you may need to register to read articles though)
An economy in good shape, with great strengths, has fallen in the world’s estimation, says Victor Mallet
It reports on how certain parts of Spanish economy – exports, tourism, wine – are remarkably resilient. But also how Spain’s reputation has fallen recently.http://www.ft.com/reports/spain-2012
The following vindicates what I have been saying
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/370367c0-ab46-11e1-b675-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1xW5RAhQc
Start-Ups: Future looks bright for entrepreneurs
The article states that while many start-ups have been founded by Spaniards, a growing number are run by foreigners, attracted by Spain’s attractive cities, lower salaries and a good talent pool.
It seems there is virtually nil unemployment in the IT start-up sector (compared to the national 25%). However this may be something that could be a limiting factor in future growth.. -
Seems the Japanese are looking around for ventures to buy up…
Rakuten, the Japanese e-commerce juggernaut that is often referred to as the Eastern version of Amazon, this morning announced that is has acquired Spain’s version of Netflix: streaming and video-on-demand company Wuaki.tv.
Good news from Inditex too:
Inditex Surpasses Telefonica as Net Tops Estimates
Inditex SA (ITX) rose the most in two years in Madrid, retaking the crown as Spain’s largest company, after the clothing retailer reported a 30 percent gain in first- quarter profit, beating analyst estimates.Analysts are upbeat about their future too, despite a volatile market
“In a very volatile market environment, Inditex has a very flexible business model and is much better positioned than the likes of H&M and Esprit,” Simon Irwin, an analyst at Liberum Capital, said in a phone interview. “That advantage will accelerate.” Irwin also cited rising e-commerce sales and the company’s sourcing model.
Inditex CEO Pablo Isla said today he has “full confidence” in the future of the Spanish economy, speaking on a conference call with analysts.
“Despite a softening market trend in Spain, we think Inditex continues to take share from independents on account of its newness,” analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch including Richard Chamberlain wrote in a report today. “It should continue to benefit from its increasing online and Asia exposure.”Lastly, the Ibex is up again today! (perhaps they should read here first, then they’d be jumping out of windows…)
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Some retail investment in Spain.. Ikea to put 60 million into a new shopping complex in Tarragona (good news for folk living there?). Article in Spanish
And the export and sales overseas success continues to grow. Spanish oil engineering company Tecnicas Reunidas gets a $561 million deal to build a petro-chemical plant in Saudi Arabia
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/09/sabic-abs-idUSL5E8H90CB20120609
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We should have a better idea after the Greek elections on Sunday as to the direction of the Euro-zone..or perhaps not..it does seem to drag on, doesn’t it?
Meanwhile more investments in Spain. First one is not entirely unexpected. Inditex, as reported above are doing very well on the world stage which means they will be able to invest in their headquarters in Galicia, and their logistics plant in Catalunya, thus creating 900 new jobs
http://www.thecorner.eu/2012/06/inditex-invest-e290-million-spain/“Inditex redoubled its commitment to investing in Spain with the commencement of construction work on the expansion of the Group’s headquarters in Arteixo (Galicia). The new extension will add 70,000m2 to the existing 90,000m2 which house the Group’s shared corporate services and the sales, creative and design teams of Zara and Zara Home. The extension, which will entail an investment of €100 million, will generate around 400 new jobs
“Elsewhere, the state-of-the-art logistics platform being built by the Group in Tordera (Catalonia) to accommodate Massimo Dutti’s operations will begin to operate in September. The Group will invest a total of €190 million in the Tordera expansion, generating around 500 jobs.I’m a bit more surprised by the following investment – just a little surprised that Fiat operated in Spain. They are to double production of their Iveco heavy truck range in Spain, leading to 1,200 new jobs.
http://www.automatedtrader.net/real-time-dow-jones/102553/fiat-industrial-to-double-truck-production-in-spainFiat Industrial SpA (FI.MI) said Friday it plans to invest 500 million euros ($628.9 million) in Spain to double production of heavy trucks under its Iveco brand, leading to the creation of 1,200 jobs.
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I saw on the the news the other evening that a Spanish solar power company is doing really well in California.
There are some really clever, dedicated, professional Spanish people….the trouble is that due to the ‘property boom’ most have been tarred with the same brush of being bent crooks.
So sad to hear my childrens great grandmother and her cousins talking today about how all her grandchildren and great grandchildren need to learn english and move away to make a life for themselves. It was quite sad to hear her talking about how we are moving away to find work. She made her money in Francos days, often walking all night to a market town to buy fruit/veg to take back in a cart to sell in her town. She made enough money to buy each of her four children a house. Very clever lady but without any formal education. It’s a pity the dodgy corrupt lot didn’t think about how much their elders had suffered and that the Spanish economy could have been still booming now if they had built steadly to demand and with quality building.
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@itsme wrote:
I saw on the the news the other evening that a Spanish solar power company is doing really well in California.
There are some really clever, dedicated, professional Spanish people….the trouble is that due to the ‘property boom’ most have been tarred with the same brush of being bent crooks.
So sad to hear my childrens great grandmother and her cousins talking today about how all her grandchildren and great grandchildren need to learn english and move away to make a life for themselves. It was quite sad to hear her talking about how we are moving away to find work. She made her money in Francos days, often walking all night to a market town to buy fruit/veg to take back in a cart to sell in her town. She made enough money to buy each of her four children a house. Very clever lady but without any formal education. It’s a pity the dodgy corrupt lot didn’t think about how much their elders had suffered and that the Spanish economy could have been still booming now if they had built steadly to demand and with quality building.
Indeed you’re right – there’s a lot of Spanish technology being used world-wide. I think the example you refer to may be this one:
http://www.pv-magazine.com/services/press-releases/details/beitrag/gestamp-solar-begins-construction-of-a-pv-plant-in-fresno–california_100007259/#axzz1x8LFJNRG
This tidal development by Iberdrola off Scotland looks very interesting – there is an obvious drawback to wind power, so if we can harness the power of the sea…
http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2012/06/11/spanish-company-increases-tidal-power/and here’s another contract for Technicas Reunidas
http://www.spaintechnology.com/icex/cda/controller/pageGen/0,3346,1549487_6719796_6728280_4590746,00.htmlTécnicas Reunidas (TR) has won a contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of bitumen upgrading facilities north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada.
This plant will be designed and built using modular technology in order to reduce the onsite construction time required as well as the overall execution time, given the extreme cold weather conditions in Alberta.It all shows that Spain can compete on a global scale. Indeed, the rail people are going to bid for some big high-speed lines this summer – hopefully the success in winning the Saudi contract can be repeated.
The downside as you quite rightly point out is that within Spain many who are suffering from the housing boom, will not benefit directly from these successes. It’s either a case of migrate to find a job (like the Tebbit call “get on your bike”) or start an internet business that can compete internationally. -
They can’t be doing all that well. Iberdrola mentioned above was downgraded by Moodys along with 7 spanish provinces and Engas!
http://www.diariosur.es/rc/20120616/economia/moody-baja-calificacion-siete-201206152336.html
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….harness the power of the sea…..
Isn’t that a little bit why the Gib problem is getting worse….the power of the sea in that area could be used for creating electricity?
The Brits here who work from home via the internet seem to be the happiest and families can enjoy their ‘dream lifestyle in the sun’ together at least. They can work all day and enjoy their life in the sun whilst earning decent money. One pops back to the UK every two months to meet with all his clients. Seems to work well so far. Now I just have to suss out what I could do online……????
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@itsme wrote:
The Brits here who work from home via the internet seem to be the happiest and families can enjoy their ‘dream lifestyle in the sun’ together at least. They can work all day and enjoy their life in the sun whilst earning decent money. One pops back to the UK every two months to meet with all his clients. Seems to work well so far. Now I just have to suss out what I could do online……????
You could start up a spanish property site 😉
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There’s a new site been set up for international real estate investors to network https://www.belbex.com/Public/AboutBelbex.aspx But I for one won’t be joining – it seems to be aimed at corporate investors.
Meanwhile, some more investment news. Firstly Orange have announced they’re going to invest 300 million Euros in building up the fibre optic network for domestic users, in places like Madrid, Barcelona and other big cities
(Article in Spanish)
http://www.expansion.com/2012/06/15/opinion/editorialyllaves/1339791308.htmlNext article is in English. The online Madrid startup “The Mad Video” has won $585,000 in Angel funding, to help with their expansion plans in the US.
http://www.finsmes.com/2012/05/mad-video-closes-585k-angel-funding.html
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Some more investments announced this week in Spanish companies or new sites ..
Isis Innovation, the technology commercialisation company of the University of Oxford, opens up in Madrid
http://www.isis-innovation.com/enterprise/IsisonSpanishBusinessTVasMadridOfficeOpens.htmlValencia mobile apps company HoopTap gets 500,000 investment (article in Spanish)
http://loogic.com/500-000-euros-de-inversion-en-hooptap/Foreign investment in Spain in the last year grows 62%, according to Ernst&Young (article in Spanish)
http://www.cincodias.com/articulo/economia/inversion-extranjera-espana-crece-62-ernst-young/20120621cdscdieco_2/ -
The new online site for sportswear DeporVillage, triples its turnover in a year, allowing it to gain 350k in funding. They are targeting 1.5 million in sales for 2012. (article in Spanish)
http://www.todostartups.com/actualidad/deporvillage-com-triplica-su-facturacion-al-ano-de-cerrar-su-primera-ronda-de-inversionEuro-ads buys the Spanish affiliate network Geazen (article in Spanish)
http://loogic.com/euroads-compra-la-empresa-de-afiliacion-espanola-geazen/Two out of the three winners at LeWeb2012 (held in London) are Spanish – Cognicor and ChangeYourFlight. Full list of participating start-ups here:
http://www.rudebaguette.com/2012/06/08/tech-all-stars-12-startups/ More on Cognicor here: http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2012/06/20/ai-system-automates-consumer-complaints/ and here’s the report in TheNextWeb – it appears Cognicor was the overall winner! Enbuenahora! http://thenextweb.com/eu/2012/06/22/smart-complaint-resolution-service-cognicor-wins-the-european-commissions-new-grand-startup-prize/ -
Here’s an interesting article (in Spanish) by Emprendedores magazine, giving 12 new companies it believes will succeed.
http://www.emprendedores.es/empresa/empresas_de_exito/empresas_que_triunfan
EMITE
XARALEIRA
EL TALLER DE PINERO
BIONCOTECH
ORBITAL AEROSPACE
ELASTIC RIGHTS
BLUE AGRO
PEER TRANSFER
ABBA GAIA
INFINITEC ACTIVOS
STEL
WAKE STUDIOS -
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I saw on Spanish news yesterday that Barcelona has been visited by more tourists than previous years.
My husband would hit the roof if he saw me writing this but it does seem to me that Barcelona is the model of what Spain should probably aspire to be? Andalucia take note…. ? Or, those who know more about it than me…. is Barcelona subsidised by Spain so that they can be seen to do better because they are ‘keeping it in the family’ so to say?
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@itsme wrote:
I saw on Spanish news yesterday that Barcelona has been visited by more tourists than previous years.
My husband would hit the roof if he saw me writing this but it does seem to me that Barcelona is the model of what Spain should probably aspire to be? Andalucia take note…. ? Or, those who know more about it than me…. is Barcelona subsidised by Spain so that they can be seen to do better because they are ‘keeping it in the family’ so to say?
Barcelona had better links to other major European countries because it is closer. Madrid (and to some extent Barcelona) also benefit nowadays from international air links to other continents. So it’s understandable that major company head offices and new ventures tend to head for one of those two, the same way that London attracts the majority of international newcomers to the UK. I don’t think in any way that Barcelona is subsidised by the rest of Spain (they claim it’s the other way around) but they’ve had a geographical advantage for many years, and consequently attracted talented and hard working people there. There are an awful lot of Andalucians and Extremadurans who went to work in Barcelona , so much so there is a slang word for them (can’t remember the word just at the minute).
I can see the appeal for techies to live/work there as it’s close to the beach, but with a lively city scene (and the company can attract IT workers from different parts of Europe to work there).
Edit: It appears I was mis-informed – the chairwoman of Mozilla announced she was moving there, but it’s not the whole company (although it’s already been announced that Telefonica will be co-operating with Mozilla to bring their browser to mobile devices).
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More investments taking place in Spain:
The Restalia group (who operate 100 Montaditos, now expanding in the US and Latin America) are to open 70 new bar-restaurants in Spain this year called La Sureña. These will offer cheap beer promotions (5 small bottles in an ice bucket for 3 euros) with large racion portions
http://www.gruporestalia.com/blog/cervecer%C3%ADa-la-sure%C3%B1a-prev%C3%A9-finalizar-2012-con-70-restaurantesThe number of foreigners starting up a business has increased this year Jan to May, and now 44 businesses daily are opened by foreigners. The Chinese are the biggest group, followed by the Brits and the Rumanians
http://www.portalparados.es/iniciativa/22393/2012/06/25/autoempleo-emprendedoresGood news for Spanish workers (unfortunately bad news for their counterparts in the UK) as an MoD air tanker contract shifts from England to Madrid.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/22/ministry-of-defence-air-tanker-contract-spain
Because the Airbus site in Getafe near Madrid has already proved adept at carrying out the work rapidly, the consortium decided to move the process to Spain. Cobham will seek to redeploy as many of the project’s directly employed staff as possible, either to Spain or to the RAF Brize Norton air base in Oxfordshire to service the aircraft.
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@DBMarcos99 wrote:
@itsme wrote:
I saw on Spanish news yesterday that Barcelona has been visited by more tourists than previous years.
My husband would hit the roof if he saw me writing this but it does seem to me that Barcelona is the model of what Spain should probably aspire to be? Andalucia take note…. ? Or, those who know more about it than me…. is Barcelona subsidised by Spain so that they can be seen to do better because they are ‘keeping it in the family’ so to say?
Barcelona had better links to other major European countries because it is closer. Madrid (and to some extent Barcelona) also benefit nowadays from international air links to other continents. So it’s understandable that major company head offices and new ventures tend to head for one of those two, the same way that London attracts the majority of international newcomers to the UK. I don’t think in any way that Barcelona is subsidised by the rest of Spain (they claim it’s the other way around) but they’ve had a geographical advantage for many years, and consequently attracted talented and hard working people there. There are an awful lot of Andalucians and Extremadurans who went to work in Barcelona , so much so there is a slang word for them (can’t remember the word just at the minute).
I can see the appeal for techies to live/work there as it’s close to the beach, but with a lively city scene (and the company can attract IT workers from different parts of Europe to work there).
Even a view of my Madrileño friends admit that the Catalans tend to have more of an entrepreneurial spirit. I do get the impression that they tend to seek out and exploit business opportunities more than the rest of Spain.
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@DBMarcos99 wrote:
Good news for Spanish workers (unfortunately bad news for their counterparts in the UK) as an MoD air tanker contract shifts from England to Madrid.
[/quote]
…………….and as a counter balance Easy Jet in which I invest has announced they are leaving their base in Madrid. Win some, lose some. -
More investments in Internet start-ups. The creative talent crowdsourcing site Adtriboo (use them if you want to hire a designer, voice-over in Spanish or create a video etc) has just gained a million Euros from investors. Article in Spanish
http://loogic.com/1-millon-de-euros-de-inversion-en-adtriboo/
In case we’ve missed the investments from the first quarter, this site (also in Spanish) has listed the major funding of that period.
http://www.eureka-startups.com/blog/2012/05/14/inversiones-startups-2012-primer-trimetre/
It includes:
Blablablacar.es 7.5 million Euros
vLex 4 million Euros
Zyncro 1.6 million Euros
and Simbiotika 525,000 Euros -
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, multiple offers to purchase real estate has returned. I don’t know if this is a correction or a bubble in the making.
http://blog.pacunion.com/multiple-offers-are-back-%E2%80%93-but-with-a-twist/
Of course, this could be related to our shrinking supply of places for sale. A couple in one of our more exclusive cities just purchased a large, $4.2million home to tear it down. They live next door and wanted the land for a garden and also, the home was blocking some of their views of the bay.
http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_20920769/belvedere-couple-pays-4-2-million-yard-and
Anyway, I’m posting this here to remind people that there are always peaks and valleys in every industry. Two years ago, nobody would believe that ever again we’d be seeing multiple offers. What has changed? There is a lot of investment into Social Media and many companies are locating in San Francisco, creating jobs and demand for housing and services. This can happen anywhere.
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@logan wrote:
Here’s some good news.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9363900/Debt-crisis-Germany-caves-in-over-bond-buying-bank-aid-after-Italy-and-Spain-threaten-to-block-everything.htmlYes, looks like Angela Merkel had to yield in the end, not surprising as she had Obama and Cameron on her back as well as the Latin bloc in the EU.
Shares in the Ibex up 4% this morning; the bond premium that Italy and Spain have to pay is substantially down. I wonder if it will last though. -
@Chopera wrote:
ppeal for techies to live/work there as it’s close to the beach, but with a lively city scene (and the company can attract IT workers from different parts of Europe to work there).
Even a view of my Madrileño friends admit that the Catalans tend to have more of an entrepreneurial spirit. I do get the impression that they tend to seek out and exploit business opportunities more than the rest of Spain.[/quote]
my dad is catalan and has that same spirit. Catalans are no different then other spanish (hell most of them or their parents are from outside of Catalonia). What Catalonia has done well is create the right conditions to allow entrepeneurs to thrive.
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What Catalonia has done well is create the right conditions to allow entrepeneurs to thrive.
And if they are smart, Barcelona will become one of the 2 or 3 centers for mobile technology in the world. When I first heard the idea of building a neighborhood that specialized in technology (called 22@) I thought it was a gimmick. But the idea is maturing well and there are several new office buildings there and many appear occupied. For the past few years, the annual Mobile World Congress has had their annual conference in Barcelona and I believe that has helped convince people to move there. Barcelona has the same ‘attitude’, ‘feel’ and energy as the greater San Francisco Bay Area.
I believe that it is a good time to invest there, while all are running around yelling that the sky is falling.
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There are companies (as listed earlier in this thread) who are investing in Spain – time will tell if it’s been a wise move or not.
Two more announcements this week
Portuguese retailer Worten & German retailer Media Markt open new stores in Madrid (article in Spanish)
http://www.alimarket.es/noticia/98756/Media-Markt-y-Worten-abren-en-el-noroeste-de-MadridHonda is to build a new parts logistic centre in Barcelona, to cover southern Europe and north Africa.
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put your money in your belief and i’ll come and see you when the sky has finished falling
My home purchase in Barcelona should be complete on July 23. Of course, nobody includes the year when they write a date, and given the process so far, I probably shouldn’t assume that they meant 2012. Regardless, once that is done, I may look for “entrepreneurial” opportunities, if I have the time.
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More signs that foreign investment in job-creating projects in Spain is rising, to take advantage of a low-cost yet highly skilled workforce.
More surprisingly, Spain achieved a remarkable 62% increase in the number of projects to 273 (+ 104 FDI announcements over 2010) as investors saw opportunities in cities and regions providing relatively low labor costs and a highly skilled and educated workforce.
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Not according to this I posted 😐
http://www.diariosur.es/rc/20120629/economia/salida-capitales-continuo-abril-201206291539.html
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@katy wrote:
Not according to this I posted 😐
http://www.diariosur.es/rc/20120629/economia/salida-capitales-continuo-abril-201206291539.html
You’re confusing money movements/ bank transfers with the money being invested in factories, offices and businesses.
I agree it’s obviously important, as companies often need credit – even the big operators like Adif need it. In their case they can access credit from the EU eg this access to improve the basque Y high speed rail link http://www.railway-technology.com/news/newseib-funds-y-vasca-high-speed-rail-project-in-spain/This credit is why it was important for Rajoy to get that deal last week. If the banking sector is withholding credit, then it has to be done at a national level.
So that, for example, the Spanish Ministry of Economy has just announced it will fund 122 R&D projects – creating 240 & 465 direct & indirect jobs: http://revista.monedaunica.net/nuevas-tecnogias/3698-el-consejo-de-administracion-del-cdti-aprueba-122-iniciativas-de-id-empresarial-.html
It’s new and small startup industries that will create growth and jobs of the future. As per this article in Killerstartups on on the mallorcan incubator Mola.com “investing in innovation and entrepreneurs is the best way to economic growth.”
http://www.killerstartups.com/startup-spotlight/spanish-accelerator-mola-invests-in-ideas-and-people/Accelerators are obviously the best place to look to when you’re seeking out new companies. You may not have heard of them yet, but Mola is an accelerator that launched in September 2011 in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. They rocked their first round of funding, raising $1.6 million USD in February and they’re aiming to up the ante in September by closing in on $3.8 million.
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Strange to see this – the June fall in unemployment is a record. Of course you’d expect a fall at this time, but a record when European countries are struggling? I think the horrible weather in northern Europe is making for a good tourist season in Spain.
http://www.euronews.com/2012/07/03/spanish-unemployment-falls-more-austerity-promised/
The total number of people out of work there fell by nearly 100,000 in June.
That is traditionally a good month for employment as the tourism season begins but this was the best June on record. It was also the third month in a row the jobless rate has fallen.Seems there are still plenty of busines investments taking place as shrewd (or naiive? ) businessfolk take advantage of the situation.
Siemens Enterprise Communications recently set up Southern European HQs in Madrid (Spanish article)
http://www.muycomputerpro.com/2012/05/21/javier-santos-empac-south-cluster-manager-siemens-enterprise-communications/US-based web security company Blue Coat establishes Southern European Headquarters in Madrid (Spanish article)
http://www.redestelecom.es/gestion/noticias/1061251001403/blue-coat-refuerza-equipo-presencia-espana.1.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=20120705Some nice rail export news
The Spanish company Assignia will build several sections of Morocco’s high speed train line
http://www.spaintechnology.com/icex/cda/controller/pageGen/0,3346,1549487_6719796_6728280_4599123,00.htmlThe web startup for pets, Miscota, has gained 500,000 euros in investment (spanish article)
http://loogic.com/500-000-euros-de-inversion-en-la-tienda-de-mascotas-miscota/Lastly, this may be an opportunity for those seeking a house buyer in strange parts… A new site (well two) has been set up to sell real estate to Chinese…(ok you’ll have to know Spanish, but you already do if you live there, don’t you??)
http://www.eureka-startups.com/blog/2012/06/11/infochina-gestion-vender-inmuebles-a-ciudadanos-chinos/ -
Gloom in the banking and construction sectors, but at least that means cheaper houses.
Meanwhile the IT startup sector is going from strength to strength, with lots of funding rounds and investments taking place. A round-up of the last two months from startupspain – the article also mentions mergers and acquisitions, incubators and startup competitions.
http://startupspain.com/last-month-or-two-in-spain/
Moving up a notch to the 500k-1 million group, we´ve got three deals to mention. First, Catchoom, a visual recognition system, closed a 600k+ round that included backing from Inveready. Also, geolocation-based ad agency Smadex closed a round of 600k that included funding from HighGrowth Innovación as well as Be Capital, a new fund on the scene. Also worth mentioning in this category is Smithfield Case, an e-Commerce startup based in London who just closed a seed investment of 650.000 pounds from Edipresse and Privalia. You may be asking yourself, “Well if they´re based in London, why are you mentioning them?” And the answer is that the founders, Alex Valls and Jose Ojeda, are Spanish! Another prime example of Spanish entrepreneurial talent spreading around the world.
And now one more step up to the heavy-hitters of the last two months: companies that have raised more than 1 million €. The first mention is for Adtriboo, the creative crowd-sourcing site who raised 1 million € at the end of June from a collection of directors at big name companies including Jose Maria Dot from Liberty Seguros, Javier Juanco, former Director of Quality and Commercial Development at Telefonica, and many more. And second, we´ve got Yuilop – who we interviewed just a short bit ago here on StartupSpain – who had a huge series A funding round, coming away with 4.5 million € from Shortcut, Bright Capital, Bruno Ducharme and Nauta Capital. Yuilop, who provides mobile messaging/calling services, plans to use the newly raised capital to expand internationally and further expand their solutions.
Also worth noting in the 1 million+ category is Kuapay, a mobile payment application. The company, which is US-based, was funded by Joaquin Ayuso de Paul, whose name you probably recognize as the founder of Tuenti. Kuapay is his newest venture, and at the very end of June, they raised a $4 million fund from a single, private investor.
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And here’s a more balanced report on the Spanish economy. Private sector is fighting back it seems, although there is still a lot of public debt to be sorted out
Spain is often spoken of as the next Greece, but this isn’t the case. While Spain’s public debt is rising as the economy undergoes a recession, at least the private sector is no longer borrowing. And by next year we expect exports to exceed imports and external interest payments, which effectively means Spain becomes self-financing,” said Hetal [economist for Legal & General]
http://www.thecorner.eu/2012/07/recession-euro-area-milder-2008-lgim/
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Lot’s of good news today, despite the VAT rises. Perhaps the best news for people with income from the UK is the pound continues to rise against the Euro.
eCommerce sales (excluding paypal transactions) grow by 26%. Travel music and electronics appear to be the big gainers. Article in Spanish
http://tecnologia.elpais.com/tecnologia/2012/07/07/actualidad/1341659252_488234.html
Spanish exports continue to mark new records, according to this blogger
http://ibexsalad.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/spanish-exports-continue-to-mark-new.html
And in Madrid various stores will open around the clock. For instance Carrefour, Leroy Merlin and C&A will extend their opening hours. The following article (in Spanish) states that Carrefour hope to create 1,500 additional jobs by opening on Sundays and bank holidays in Madrid province. I suspect, like when a similar thing happened in the UK, most new jobs will be just part-time, but it all helps.
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@shakeel wrote:
All above is very encouraging. However the Banking sector & the paper chase is having & will have a big drag on the growth & expansion of the economy.
I agree Shakeel, and to a lesser degree it’s happened in the UK too. Billions need to be found for the banking sector, which results in cuts elsewhere. It’s not much consolation to know that the internet shopping sector is doing well, or a factory in another town has got investment, when you’ve lost your job as a care worker or a teacher. We can only hope that the private sector creates enough jobs to compensate for those lost in the public area.
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Another big announcement today has been the international launch of Tuenti by Telefonica, described as their answer to Twitter and Facebook. I’m not sure we need yet another social network, but it does offer free messaging and tablet apps.
The article from Techcrunch is well worth a read. I personally think the turnaround of Telefonica from what it was has been astounding. But when I say it will be the next Apple, well only time will tell, and there is plenty of fierce competition. At least the shares are up again (to 10.05, from the low point of 8.90 a few weeks back)The messaging option on Tuenti — allowing people to chat in real time — is part of the new set of services coming online today, and is a mark of how Telefonica wants to bridge some of its more legacy features into some of its newer platforms:
“We’ve integrated a globally competitive messaging service with our core social network, while incorporating a uniquely simple privacy model that makes it easy for users to control what they share”, said Dentzel in a statement.
It’s part of a bigger strategy at Telefonica that has seen the creation of a new business unit, Telefonica Digital. This takes the carriers’ multiple, regional digital assets and puts them under one roof in order to better capitalize on its scale, and to better position itself as a player in fast-growing space of digital media, partly to offset declines in more traditional lines of business like voice.
So far, Telefonica’s been making some bold moves: it launched a free voice and messaging app, TU me; it’s integrating its carrier billing services into popular services like Facebook, Google, Microsoft and RIM; and it has been investing millions into hot new startups to make sure it can have a place at their tables, too.
Incidentally a quick look at their jobs page show currently 10 Engineering 4 Design and User Experience 3 Mobile Services and 2 Product management positions open. Good to see they are still taking on talented young IT staff http://corporate.tuenti.com/en/jobs
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More good news in the IT industry from Barcelona – Social Point, the leading social games developer has raised a $7.4 million funding round, based on its exponential growth in the field. They will be setting developers, game designers, IT engineers and support functions, to deal with their expansion.
http://www.gamesindustryblog.com/2012/07/social-point-raises-7-4m/
Founded in 2008 by Andrés Bou and Horacio Martos, co-CEOs of Social Point, and Marc Canaleta, CTO, the Company is a top 10 global developer of social games on Facebook. In the last 18 months it has launched a number of leading social games, such as Social Empires, Social Wars and its latest hit Dragon City. The Company is launching this July the mobile version of Social Empires, and has a strong pipeline of new facebook and mobile games for the next 6 months. With all games combined, the Company has over 15 million monthly active users as of June 2012.
More on that story here:
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/07/11/spains-social-point-takes-on-7-4-million-more-to-help-it-grow-into-the-zynga-of-mobile-gaming/ -
It’s a hard job, but someone has to do it – Maintenance of trains in central Asia!
Spanish trainmaker Talgo wins billion euro contract for train maintenance in Kazahkstan (they’ve previously sold them rolling stock)
Spanish trainmaker Patentes Talgo SA won a 15-year contract worth 989 million euros ($1.2 billion) from PP Zhagiparov, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s KTZ, for train upkeep, Cinco Dias reported.
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Social fashion site Chicisimo chalks up $800,000 in funding.
Chicisimo — Spanish for “super chic” — is playing on two ideas that are very trendy at the moment: the surge in consumers looking for visually-driven fashion content online, spearheaded by sites like Pinterest, the Fancy, and Polyvore, but also many smaller players focused specifically on clothes; and the rise of e-commerce sites driven by social recommendations and curation — which at its heart is a big dat/algorithm play. There is some pedigree here, too: Chicisimo’s co-founder, Gabriel Aldamiz-echevarria, had previously been a VP and member of the board at Strands, which develops personalization and recommendation software that powers social sites like these.
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Social fashion site Chicisimo chalks up $800,000 in funding.
Chicisimo — Spanish for “super chic” — is playing on two ideas that are very trendy at the moment: the surge in consumers looking for visually-driven fashion content online, spearheaded by sites like Pinterest, the Fancy, and Polyvore, but also many smaller players focused specifically on clothes; and the rise of e-commerce sites driven by social recommendations and curation — which at its heart is a big dat/algorithm play. There is some pedigree here, too: Chicisimo’s co-founder, Gabriel Aldamiz-echevarria, had previously been a VP and member of the board at Strands, which develops personalization and recommendation software that powers social sites like these.
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This article (in Spanish) is certainly not complimentary about the Spanish business sector, but it points out opportunities for foreign entrepreneurs there. It’s an interview with the Austrian Alexander Ruckersteiger who has built up the self-storage business Bluespace that continues to grow even (or perhaps because of) the crisis. He states that because of the low professional levels in the country, it’s easy for a mediocrity like himself to triumph…of course there may be a touch of false modesty about his claim!
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This article (in Spanish) is certainly not complimentary about the Spanish business sector, but it points out opportunities for foreign entrepreneurs there. It’s an interview with the Austrian Alexander Ruckersteiger who has built up the self-storage business Bluespace that continues to grow even (or perhaps because of) the crisis. He states that because of the low professional levels in the country, it’s easy for a mediocrity like himself to triumph…of course there may be a touch of false modesty about his claim!
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Another investment in the tech sector. The California and Madrid-based startup AlienVault (headquarters is in Madrid) has attracted $22 million in funding.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/09/alienvault-series-c/
Since we caught up with the AlienVault team in January, the startup has added 60 new customers and is now working with over 300 companies and governments, including Telefonica, Metro Madrid, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, and the city of Los Angeles.
AlienVault CEO Barmak Meftah tells us that the startup doubled revenue in the first half of 2012, thanks to a 50 percent-plus upsell rate for its existing customers. The startup has also attracted attention after creating what it believes to be the largest community-sourced threat intelligence feed and database, the AlienVault Open Threat Exchange, which automatically aggregates and publishes threat data streaming in from a range of security devices, like firewalls, proxy servers, web servers, anti-virus systems, etc.
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Another investment in the tech sector. The California and Madrid-based startup AlienVault (headquarters is in Madrid) has attracted $22 million in funding.
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/09/alienvault-series-c/
Since we caught up with the AlienVault team in January, the startup has added 60 new customers and is now working with over 300 companies and governments, including Telefonica, Metro Madrid, the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, and the city of Los Angeles.
AlienVault CEO Barmak Meftah tells us that the startup doubled revenue in the first half of 2012, thanks to a 50 percent-plus upsell rate for its existing customers. The startup has also attracted attention after creating what it believes to be the largest community-sourced threat intelligence feed and database, the AlienVault Open Threat Exchange, which automatically aggregates and publishes threat data streaming in from a range of security devices, like firewalls, proxy servers, web servers, anti-virus systems, etc.
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Expansion plans and orders for a Spanish rail outfit CAF, although the manufacturing of the future will be based in India.
“Spain is one of the few countries where we have three different gauges. So, we have technologies to support both standard gauge cars like the ones in Delhi Metro or broad gauge cars as used in the Indian Railways’ Kolkata Metro,” he added.
The company recently bagged a Rs 780-crore order to manufacture 14 rakes (each rake consists of six coaches) for Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Ltd (KMRCL). It is also bidding for all upcoming metro projects in the country.
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Expansion plans and orders for a Spanish rail outfit CAF, although the manufacturing of the future will be based in India.
“Spain is one of the few countries where we have three different gauges. So, we have technologies to support both standard gauge cars like the ones in Delhi Metro or broad gauge cars as used in the Indian Railways’ Kolkata Metro,” he added.
The company recently bagged a Rs 780-crore order to manufacture 14 rakes (each rake consists of six coaches) for Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Ltd (KMRCL). It is also bidding for all upcoming metro projects in the country.
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Job opportunities for young Spanish apprentices – although they have to go to Germany (not that bad really, I’ve known plenty of Brits who worked there and enjoyed the experience)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18825285
Germany says it will help Spain to launch German-style apprenticeships for its young people, half of whom are unemployed because of the debt crisis.
Spain’s Education Minister, Jose Ignacio Wert, signed an agreement with his German counterpart in Stuttgart on Thursday, to give more Spaniards on-the-job training with German firms.
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Job opportunities for young Spanish apprentices – although they have to go to Germany (not that bad really, I’ve known plenty of Brits who worked there and enjoyed the experience)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18825285
Germany says it will help Spain to launch German-style apprenticeships for its young people, half of whom are unemployed because of the debt crisis.
Spain’s Education Minister, Jose Ignacio Wert, signed an agreement with his German counterpart in Stuttgart on Thursday, to give more Spaniards on-the-job training with German firms.
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According to this report (in Spanish) hotel reservations have shot up by 20%, after a slow start to the season. The average spend per booking has also increased
Este porcentaje llegó incluso a duplicarse en hoteles de la provincia de Málaga, en los que los gastos por reserva subieron se situaron en el 16%, gracias a localidades que generan gran impulso turístico como Fuengirola y Torremolinos.
Is this true? Perhaps the lousy weather at home has persuaded more people to head for the Med. Or is it a case of holiday-makers choosing to stay in hotel accommodation rather than renting a villa?
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According to this report (in Spanish) hotel reservations have shot up by 20%, after a slow start to the season. The average spend per booking has also increased
Este porcentaje llegó incluso a duplicarse en hoteles de la provincia de Málaga, en los que los gastos por reserva subieron se situaron en el 16%, gracias a localidades que generan gran impulso turístico como Fuengirola y Torremolinos.
Is this true? Perhaps the lousy weather at home has persuaded more people to head for the Med. Or is it a case of holiday-makers choosing to stay in hotel accommodation rather than renting a villa?
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Claims that the new labour laws will create 300,000 new jobs…the jury will be out on this one until the autumn I think. We’ve had 3 successful months of falls in unemployment, but you’d expect that at this time of year. Article in Spanish
http://www.abc.es/20120717/economia/abci-libertad-total-horarios-201207162046.htmlSpanish exports to the US up 20% in 2011. No doubt as the US continues to come out of recession, this figure can be improved
http://www.flytobarcelona.org/?p=4284The United States, which accounted for 3.68% of total Spanish exports in 2011, is Spain´s sixth export destination in the world and the first outside of the European Community. The U.S. considers Spain a producer of top quality technology goods.
According to ESTACOM data, Spanish exports to the United States amounted to € 7.8 billion in 2011, 20% higher than the previous year. Oil exports accounted for € 2.27 billion; art, antiques, stamps and other collectables, € 270 million; wine and related products, € 253 million; vegetables and prepared vegetables, € 263.7 million, and organic chemical compounds for industrial use, € 212 million. -
Claims that the new labour laws will create 300,000 new jobs…the jury will be out on this one until the autumn I think. We’ve had 3 successful months of falls in unemployment, but you’d expect that at this time of year. Article in Spanish
http://www.abc.es/20120717/economia/abci-libertad-total-horarios-201207162046.htmlSpanish exports to the US up 20% in 2011. No doubt as the US continues to come out of recession, this figure can be improved
http://www.flytobarcelona.org/?p=4284The United States, which accounted for 3.68% of total Spanish exports in 2011, is Spain´s sixth export destination in the world and the first outside of the European Community. The U.S. considers Spain a producer of top quality technology goods.
According to ESTACOM data, Spanish exports to the United States amounted to € 7.8 billion in 2011, 20% higher than the previous year. Oil exports accounted for € 2.27 billion; art, antiques, stamps and other collectables, € 270 million; wine and related products, € 253 million; vegetables and prepared vegetables, € 263.7 million, and organic chemical compounds for industrial use, € 212 million. -
Well it seems the panic over high interest bonds is fading – could the Rajoy govt have got this one right? Most of us will have our doubts, but vamos a ver…
Spain sold 3.56 billion euros ($4.4 billion) of bills, exceeding a target of 3.5 billion euros, and borrowing costs fell after the government announced its fourth austerity package to contain the region’s financial crisis.
The Treasury in Madrid sold 12-month bills at an average yield of 3.918 percent, compared with 5.074 percent at the last auction on June 19, and 18-month bills at an average rate of 4.242 percent, compared with 5.107 percent last month.
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Well it seems the panic over high interest bonds is fading – could the Rajoy govt have got this one right? Most of us will have our doubts, but vamos a ver…
Spain sold 3.56 billion euros ($4.4 billion) of bills, exceeding a target of 3.5 billion euros, and borrowing costs fell after the government announced its fourth austerity package to contain the region’s financial crisis.
The Treasury in Madrid sold 12-month bills at an average yield of 3.918 percent, compared with 5.074 percent at the last auction on June 19, and 18-month bills at an average rate of 4.242 percent, compared with 5.107 percent last month.
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Old news, here is the latest…Spanish bond rates UP!
Still with yields, the UK’s five-year note yields fell to a record low, slipping as much as two basis points to 0.526pc, after the Bank of England minutes showed that policy makers voted 7-2 to increase stimulus and said they may consider the case for cutting interest rates again. France’s 10-year yields also apparently dropped to record lows this morning of 2.068pc.
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
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Old news, here is the latest…Spanish bond rates UP!
Still with yields, the UK’s five-year note yields fell to a record low, slipping as much as two basis points to 0.526pc, after the Bank of England minutes showed that policy makers voted 7-2 to increase stimulus and said they may consider the case for cutting interest rates again. France’s 10-year yields also apparently dropped to record lows this morning of 2.068pc.
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
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@katy wrote:
Old news, here is the latest…Spanish bond rates UP!
Still with yields, the UK’s five-year note yields fell to a record low, slipping as much as two basis points to 0.526pc, after the Bank of England minutes showed that policy makers voted 7-2 to increase stimulus and said they may consider the case for cutting interest rates again. France’s 10-year yields also apparently dropped to record lows this morning of 2.068pc.
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
Despite your screaming red ink, do you dispute what I quoted ? 😆 Almost as though it hurts you to see good news about Spain.
The Treasury in Madrid sold 12-month bills at an average yield of 3.918 percent, compared with 5.074 percent at the last auction on June 19, and 18-month bills at an average rate of 4.242 percent, compared with 5.107 percent last month.
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@katy wrote:
Old news, here is the latest…Spanish bond rates UP!
Still with yields, the UK’s five-year note yields fell to a record low, slipping as much as two basis points to 0.526pc, after the Bank of England minutes showed that policy makers voted 7-2 to increase stimulus and said they may consider the case for cutting interest rates again. France’s 10-year yields also apparently dropped to record lows this morning of 2.068pc.
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
Despite your screaming red ink, do you dispute what I quoted ? 😆 Almost as though it hurts you to see good news about Spain.
The Treasury in Madrid sold 12-month bills at an average yield of 3.918 percent, compared with 5.074 percent at the last auction on June 19, and 18-month bills at an average rate of 4.242 percent, compared with 5.107 percent last month.
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Spain’s exports doing very well, outside of the depressed Euro zone
http://www.thecorner.eu/2012/07/spanish-exports-top-euro-zone-sales-foreign-markets/
Today, the latest figures coming from Spain put the country ahead of its euro partners. In May, Spanish exports rose by 6.2 percent year on year. According to Afi analysts, the key regions where Spanish sales have improved were Latin America and Africa,
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Spain’s exports doing very well, outside of the depressed Euro zone
http://www.thecorner.eu/2012/07/spanish-exports-top-euro-zone-sales-foreign-markets/
Today, the latest figures coming from Spain put the country ahead of its euro partners. In May, Spanish exports rose by 6.2 percent year on year. According to Afi analysts, the key regions where Spanish sales have improved were Latin America and Africa,
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@DBMarcos99 wrote:
@katy wrote:
Old news, here is the latest…Spanish bond rates UP!
Still with yields, the UK’s five-year note yields fell to a record low, slipping as much as two basis points to 0.526pc, after the Bank of England minutes showed that policy makers voted 7-2 to increase stimulus and said they may consider the case for cutting interest rates again. France’s 10-year yields also apparently dropped to record lows this morning of 2.068pc.
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
Despite your screaming red ink, do you dispute what I quoted ? 😆 Almost as though it hurts you to see good news about Spain.
The Treasury in Madrid sold 12-month bills at an average yield of 3.918 percent, compared with 5.074 percent at the last auction on June 19, and 18-month bills at an average rate of 4.242 percent, compared with 5.107 percent last month.
Not disputing what you said but mine is up to date…like one hour ago. Yours was yesterdays news, something which you are fond of picking up with posters on here
Taken from the Telegraph live comment
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
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@DBMarcos99 wrote:
@katy wrote:
Old news, here is the latest…Spanish bond rates UP!
Still with yields, the UK’s five-year note yields fell to a record low, slipping as much as two basis points to 0.526pc, after the Bank of England minutes showed that policy makers voted 7-2 to increase stimulus and said they may consider the case for cutting interest rates again. France’s 10-year yields also apparently dropped to record lows this morning of 2.068pc.
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
Despite your screaming red ink, do you dispute what I quoted ? 😆 Almost as though it hurts you to see good news about Spain.
The Treasury in Madrid sold 12-month bills at an average yield of 3.918 percent, compared with 5.074 percent at the last auction on June 19, and 18-month bills at an average rate of 4.242 percent, compared with 5.107 percent last month.
Not disputing what you said but mine is up to date…like one hour ago. Yours was yesterdays news, something which you are fond of picking up with posters on here
Taken from the Telegraph live comment
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
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@katy wrote:
@DBMarcos99 wrote:
@katy wrote:
Old news, here is the latest…Spanish bond rates UP!
Still with yields, the UK’s five-year note yields fell to a record low, slipping as much as two basis points to 0.526pc, after the Bank of England minutes showed that policy makers voted 7-2 to increase stimulus and said they may consider the case for cutting interest rates again. France’s 10-year yields also apparently dropped to record lows this morning of 2.068pc.
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
Despite your screaming red ink, do you dispute what I quoted ? 😆 Almost as though it hurts you to see good news about Spain.
The Treasury in Madrid sold 12-month bills at an average yield of 3.918 percent, compared with 5.074 percent at the last auction on June 19, and 18-month bills at an average rate of 4.242 percent, compared with 5.107 percent last month.
Not disputing what you said but mine is up to date…like one hour ago. Yours was yesterdays news, something which you are fond of picking up with posters on here
Taken from the Telegraph live comment
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
Ah so you want a daily commentary on market speculation, as opposed to what Spain actually paid for the bonds – 3.918 % for 12 months, 4.242% for 18 months?
To be fair, if one day it turns out that Spain can’t sell their bonds – then there will be a serious dilemma – they will have to either stop spending or leave the Euro. I’m sure you’ll be all over the bad news thread if that happens…
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@katy wrote:
@DBMarcos99 wrote:
@katy wrote:
Old news, here is the latest…Spanish bond rates UP!
Still with yields, the UK’s five-year note yields fell to a record low, slipping as much as two basis points to 0.526pc, after the Bank of England minutes showed that policy makers voted 7-2 to increase stimulus and said they may consider the case for cutting interest rates again. France’s 10-year yields also apparently dropped to record lows this morning of 2.068pc.
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
Despite your screaming red ink, do you dispute what I quoted ? 😆 Almost as though it hurts you to see good news about Spain.
The Treasury in Madrid sold 12-month bills at an average yield of 3.918 percent, compared with 5.074 percent at the last auction on June 19, and 18-month bills at an average rate of 4.242 percent, compared with 5.107 percent last month.
Not disputing what you said but mine is up to date…like one hour ago. Yours was yesterdays news, something which you are fond of picking up with posters on here
Taken from the Telegraph live comment
Conversely, Spain’s 10-year yields have ticked up 2 basis points to 6.739pc.
Ah so you want a daily commentary on market speculation, as opposed to what Spain actually paid for the bonds – 3.918 % for 12 months, 4.242% for 18 months?
To be fair, if one day it turns out that Spain can’t sell their bonds – then there will be a serious dilemma – they will have to either stop spending or leave the Euro. I’m sure you’ll be all over the bad news thread if that happens…
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@katy wrote:
I thought thats what you were hoping Spain would do seeing as you are looking for property…aren’t some hoping for about 350 pesetas to the Pound 😉
I’m not “hoping” Spain leaves the Euro, although I admit I thought it would have done by now. A difference between opinion and desire. Property prices are coming down, so no need for a currency devaluation.
I actually see a bright future for Spain within or without the Euro currency. Too much talent. You can see this by the strong export results of the last two years, despite the sneerers trying to paint Spain as uncompetitive. I’ve worked with many Spanish people both in the UK and in Spain, and generally they were talented and diligent workers. Not to say there aren’t uncooperative or lazy examples out there (I remember some staff in a Valencian restaurant who weren’t up to it), but I really don’t recognise this stereotype some Brits have of the Spanish people.
I see the king is off to Russia today, to see if he can help the Spanish win a 17 billion rail deal. Of course it’s not a done deal, and someone like the French may clinch that particular project. But to win a competition, you have to be in it to stand a chance. Spain is rising to the challenge. It’s been said in various quarters (not just from Spain) that Spain will exit the crisis quicker and sooner than many people expect…
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@katy wrote:
I thought thats what you were hoping Spain would do seeing as you are looking for property…aren’t some hoping for about 350 pesetas to the Pound 😉
I’m not “hoping” Spain leaves the Euro, although I admit I thought it would have done by now. A difference between opinion and desire. Property prices are coming down, so no need for a currency devaluation.
I actually see a bright future for Spain within or without the Euro currency. Too much talent. You can see this by the strong export results of the last two years, despite the sneerers trying to paint Spain as uncompetitive. I’ve worked with many Spanish people both in the UK and in Spain, and generally they were talented and diligent workers. Not to say there aren’t uncooperative or lazy examples out there (I remember some staff in a Valencian restaurant who weren’t up to it), but I really don’t recognise this stereotype some Brits have of the Spanish people.
I see the king is off to Russia today, to see if he can help the Spanish win a 17 billion rail deal. Of course it’s not a done deal, and someone like the French may clinch that particular project. But to win a competition, you have to be in it to stand a chance. Spain is rising to the challenge. It’s been said in various quarters (not just from Spain) that Spain will exit the crisis quicker and sooner than many people expect…
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Big deal for Spanish company, this time in Sheffield
This division of Ferrovial will be responsible for maintaining 1,900 kilometers of roadway, 68,000 streetlights, 500 traffic signals, 600 bridges and other structures, 2,400 retaining walls and 35,000 trees along the roadways throughout the city. The contract is worth more than 2,000 million Pounds (2,425 million Euros) and will create 170 jobs. With this contract Ferrovial reinforces its internationalization strategy, which has already resulted in 55% of the company’s revenues coming from outside of Spain.
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Big deal for Spanish company, this time in Sheffield
This division of Ferrovial will be responsible for maintaining 1,900 kilometers of roadway, 68,000 streetlights, 500 traffic signals, 600 bridges and other structures, 2,400 retaining walls and 35,000 trees along the roadways throughout the city. The contract is worth more than 2,000 million Pounds (2,425 million Euros) and will create 170 jobs. With this contract Ferrovial reinforces its internationalization strategy, which has already resulted in 55% of the company’s revenues coming from outside of Spain.
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In an industry where it can take a good 10 years before coming profitable (or even never as in the case of Yahoo) it’s good to see a Spanish start-up achieve it in around two years. Ticketea.com the web portal for ticket buying and selling, has a write-up in El Pais commenting on its success, and it’s good to see it now employs 22 workers, after starting with just two. It’s this type of business that is the future.
http://tecnologia.elpais.com/tecnologia/2012/07/12/actualidad/1342105049_672619.html
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In an industry where it can take a good 10 years before coming profitable (or even never as in the case of Yahoo) it’s good to see a Spanish start-up achieve it in around two years. Ticketea.com the web portal for ticket buying and selling, has a write-up in El Pais commenting on its success, and it’s good to see it now employs 22 workers, after starting with just two. It’s this type of business that is the future.
http://tecnologia.elpais.com/tecnologia/2012/07/12/actualidad/1342105049_672619.html
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@katy wrote:
22 workers…wow
Why is it not headlines 🙄It’s a growing company. Even companies like Apple and Microsoft started out with just 2 or 3 founders!
Or are you saying I should just concentrate on Spanish start-ups that already employ 100s? Privalia with 400? Tuenti with 220? Idealista with 200? Bodaclick with 150?Admit it Katy, you just hate good news regarding Spain and its people. Makes you sick doesn’t it? 🙂
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@katy wrote:
22 workers…wow
Why is it not headlines 🙄It’s a growing company. Even companies like Apple and Microsoft started out with just 2 or 3 founders!
Or are you saying I should just concentrate on Spanish start-ups that already employ 100s? Privalia with 400? Tuenti with 220? Idealista with 200? Bodaclick with 150?Admit it Katy, you just hate good news regarding Spain and its people. Makes you sick doesn’t it? 🙂
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marcus: eh! I have friends and relatives there. I just like the truth and that people aren’t conned into believing things are better than the reality in Spain right now.
What I find strange about all this supposed IT success in Spain is that it hasn’t filtered down to the public. Even some Government websites are difficult to navigate. media links leading nowhere, slow sites etc. and most spaniards seem incapable of answering an e-mail.
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marcus: eh! I have friends and relatives there. I just like the truth and that people aren’t conned into believing things are better than the reality in Spain right now.
What I find strange about all this supposed IT success in Spain is that it hasn’t filtered down to the public. Even some Government websites are difficult to navigate. media links leading nowhere, slow sites etc. and most spaniards seem incapable of answering an e-mail.
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Another Spanish rail company – CAF – doing well in world contracts
http://www.thecorner.eu/2012/07/cafs-spanish-trains-rails-world/
The Spanish multinacional Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF), experts on design, manufacture, maintenance and supply of equipment and components for railway systems, has been able to weather the current economic turbulences by means of an ambitious internationalisation plan that started in 1995. This bet on the outside market has enabled the company to take advantage of the worldwide boom of railway transport, a sector that is currently showing a positive outlook in the medium and long term. In the last decade, this manufacturer based in the Basque Country, in the province of Guipúzcoa, has taken the sales and profits fast track, swelling its order book up to €5 billion, with more than € 3.7 billion in foreign countries contracts.
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Another Spanish rail company – CAF – doing well in world contracts
http://www.thecorner.eu/2012/07/cafs-spanish-trains-rails-world/
The Spanish multinacional Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF), experts on design, manufacture, maintenance and supply of equipment and components for railway systems, has been able to weather the current economic turbulences by means of an ambitious internationalisation plan that started in 1995. This bet on the outside market has enabled the company to take advantage of the worldwide boom of railway transport, a sector that is currently showing a positive outlook in the medium and long term. In the last decade, this manufacturer based in the Basque Country, in the province of Guipúzcoa, has taken the sales and profits fast track, swelling its order book up to €5 billion, with more than € 3.7 billion in foreign countries contracts.
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@katy wrote:
marcus: eh! I have friends and relatives there. I just like the truth and that people aren’t conned into believing things are better than the reality in Spain right now.
What I find strange about all this supposed IT success in Spain is that it hasn’t filtered down to the public. Even some Government websites are difficult to navigate. media links leading nowhere, slow sites etc. and most spaniards seem incapable of answering an e-mail.
This is perhaps the best article I’ve seen (in English) on the Spanish start-up scene.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/03/us-spain-start-up-idINBRE8721PQ20120803
These are Spain’s technology entrepreneurs, and they’re positive about the future – even as Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tries to avert a full international rescue for a country beset by recession, a property market collapse and a banking crisis.
Almost all plan to expand beyond Spain’s borders, if they aren’t operating internationally already. For domestic and foreign investors in their ventures, the dire state of the nation can even be an advantage: put bluntly, young Spanish entrepreneurs come cheaper than their U.S. and British rivals.
“There is no crisis. The crisis is outside. But here what we have is people working, setting up companies and creating employment,” said Gonzalo Martin-Villa, global head of Wayra.
This article also describes how the harsh economic situation is persuading the Spanish to become more entrepreneurial
http://www.marketwatch.com/Story/Story/?guid={C17EA7D6-BF8F-11E1-98EF-002128049AD6} -
Record breaking month at Alicante airport
http://www.euroweeklynews.com/services/axarquia/item/82032-record-breaking-month-at-alicante-airport
IN June Alicante’s El Altet airport had the largest number of passengers in its history. More than 880,000 passengers used the airport in June, representing an increase of 7 per cent for the same period last year. During the first six months of the year, El Altet has recorded a total of 4,180,169 passengers, which is up 3.5 per cent over the same period last year.
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All these business start-ups as I have said before they must happen in any country, especially in the West. Saw this on BBC this morning, also mentions other world cities too.
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@shakeel wrote:
good news for Alicante & Spain. Like all statistics in Spain one has take it with a lot of salt !!!!!.
Difficult to clear the fog from spanish stats. especially tourist ones. Last week there was an article re. andalucía which said they were predicting August to be as high as last years figure which was 2.7% down….hang on, until recently I was reading last year tourism was up 😕
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Some good tourism numbers – at least from the Germans. It seems that Catalunya has been the place benefiting most
http://lifestyle.xin.msn.com/en/beauty-fashion/spain-enjoys-record-tourist-numbers-in-july#scpshrtu
Tourism numbers from Germany surged by 9.7 percent to 1.18 million, accounting for 15.2 percent of the total. “It was the main driver of the increase for the month,” the survey said.
Not quite in the same category, but may amuse people here – the five most common tourist complaints in Gran Canaria
http://www.grancanariasunshine.com/2012/08/the-five-most-common-tourist-complaints.html
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Another article pointing out that Spain is not just relying on tourism or casino projects to get out of the mess. The tech and web sector won’t affect the coastal property market, but it’s one of the few areas where young people can find good job opportunities.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/02/spain-start-up-idUSL6E8J15AM20120802
Foreign investors are drawn to Spanish tech companies, unworried by the crisis, as location is generally not important for start-ups planning to operate internationally.
Spain’s problems can even work to their advantage. While overall unemployment is just short of 25 percent, the highest in the euro zone, the rate among young people is double that. In short, unemployed talent can be contracted cheaply.
While the price may be low, the quality is not. Many of the entrepreneurs interviewed by Reuters studied at top universities abroad, especially in the United States and Britain, before returning home to Spain to work.
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