LinkedIn competitor offers to drop Russians into same legal trap that caught LinkedIn When misfortune befalls a market leader, smaller companies often exhort Register hacks to report on the wonderful alternative they offer readers seeking safe harbour from the latest SNAFU. And so it was over the weekend when, in an attempt to capitalise on LinkedIn's troubles in Russia, rival social network for businesses “ …
Publicity does not always win business especially when the post points out that the little guy will run afoul of the same law that LinkedIn did. Free publicity works when the service accurately describes itself and accurately describes what makes it different and hopefully better and this reported in a post. Opportunity was trying to capitalize on LinkedIn woes instead of highlighting why one should give them a look. Since I do not live in Russia, problems with Russian privacy/data location laws are a minor concern to me.
At least they managed to ride El Reg and get themselves a bit of free publicity.
I don't think Opportunity knocked here, though (sorry, someone had to say it) - El Reg spotted the obvious problem and pointed it out.
In my experience, you can try to get El Reg to report on something, but you'll have to expect them to look a bit further than just your marketing waffle. If what you offer doesn't stack up to a critical eye you have only yourself to blame if El Reg points that out.
Unless it's DevOps (evil grin)..
> In my experience, you can try to get El Reg to report on something
I can't even convince them to report on a usual suspect engaged in amazing IOT idiocy. Sigh. The industry is so full of shit it's understandable that they can't cover it all, at least not until it hits the fan.
Maybe they're still investigating and fact-checking. (Should I use the Joke Alert icon?)
And as the gentlemanwomanorchild without a cool name says, they have managed to bag some free publicity amongst those not affected by Russia's blockage¹ of the "professional network" spammers.
Even if the article does not pain them in the best of light (or provide a link) no doubt *some* people have already gone over to take a look, and maybe the odd one or two will think "why not" and sign up. That's a net win for that business.
Not quite at the "we'll insult our passengers for the free publicity" level mastered by a certain Irish airline² but a good attempt nevertheless.
¹ Personally, I wish we did the same in the EU. It is very annoying to know that, although I never signed up for any of them, all those companies (Linkedin, Farcebook and the like) know exactly who my friends and acquaintances are, from their habit of slurping people's phone contacts and email addresses.
² Paradoxically, it is a very good airline from an operational point of view. Speaking as a former first officer with a competitor, in the airline world RYR aircrew are highly regarded and sought after, due to their rigorous training, high level of professionalism, and efficiency (I certainly never turned around an aircraft in less than 40 minutes, and not for want of trying. RYR do it in 20, and their checklists were more exhaustive than ours).
"All publicity is good publicity" is true if, and only if, you don't have any other marketing plan.
If, on the other hand, they were a serious business with an actual clue about how to sell themselves in major markets, then they have just fornicated that particular hound something shocking.
> "All publicity is good publicity" is true if, and only if, you don't have any other marketing plan.
As a general statement that's a bit, well, too general. It is not a trick that I would like to try, but done properly is no less serious or effective than any other marketing plan.
> If, on the other hand, they were a serious business with an actual clue
I'd never heard about these guys before and not being either a competitor or a potential customer, or a customer of a competitor, it really is no skin off my nose, but why do you say that? I'd be interested to hear any insights you might have.
PS: I did not understand the main clause in your conditional. Either it's too early or your grammar is a bit suspect, but I parsed it as something to do with having intercourse outside marriage with hunting dogs.
" “Opportunity” got in touch with news of its lifeline for those whose business networks have just been sent to digital Siberia."
Are you suggesting there are businesses - other that LinkedIn itself - that actually have a use for LinkedIn ? That there are people who touch it with a bargepole ?
I recall Poland using a similar scam to abuse privacy to create its own little protected market, but they soon got whistled back by the EU which told them that such would not fly for an EU member.
Russia can do this as it's not a member of anything that seeks to protect Human Rights (that said, in all honesty, neither is the US, it's only pretending), but it does, of course have consequences for those who seek to genuinely protect their privacy. It also has consequences for any interoperability as anyone with Russian customers would have to invent a new solution - it could prove more profitable just to geoblock the country instead.
For me that would not be much effort - I already have geoblocking on all admin interfaces, it's not much work to expand that.
> Russia can do this as it's not a member of anything that seeks to protect Human Rights
Have you actually *lived* in Russia? It is an interesting place in many respects, but at the end of the day it is pretty civilised and definitely more bound by the rule of law than let us say Spain, more transparent than France, and more respecting of individual privacy than the UK¹.
I have lived in all the above countries, so speaking from personal experience not from what Western, and especially UK, media may or may not say.
¹ While in the RF the State may spy on you (either with judicial oversight or by breaking the law, if you're enough of a high-value target, your local council can't).
Putting aside the "privacy slurp" aspect (after all we knowingly sign up to that) there are important benefits of social networks in keeping professionals in touch with their peers around the world. Deciding to block or at least make it harder for, lets say, Russian research scientists to collaborate beyond Russia's borders damages Russian science more than the global scientific community.
On the other hand it makes the job of Russian spies a lot easier - travel outside Russia (or use a VPN), access the banned internet sites and the spymasters are thrilled with the vital information you have stolen from the West.
I was in Moscow recently and found numerous sites blocked including my mobile phone provider and a local newspaper (I think it was the Matlock Mercury).
> there are important benefits of social networks in keeping professionals in touch with their peers around the world.
Some professionals seem to disagree with you: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/jobs/quit-social-media-your-career-may-depend-on-it.html
A service provider I use fell for this, they put servers on Russian soil, all seemed OK for a while, then came the demand for details of people using the site.
The company declined and this went on for several months, then came the raid, all thei servers were stolen by the Russian authorities and they could not get out of there fast enough.
Luckily their servers were encrypted but who knows.
Russia does NOT present an opportunity if your business is going to be blackmailed, raided and maybe execs put in prison.
So leave them to their pathetic 143m market, most of which are poor, meanwhile continue to keep up sanctions because they invade sovereign states.
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