Comments on: Roundup: Quattrone is back and banking, LiveJournal rebellion and more

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:09:12 +0000

Is it your intention to move the word “freetard” into common parlance? Really?

By: Yuri Ammosov

Yuri Ammosov — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:57:47 +0000

Eric: I did not read the whole article, if you mean The Guardian article (I read yours and think your could provide more extensive coverage of Quattrone). But quite honestly, I’d warrant against using Guardian as a reliable source. In Britain, it has a long standing reputation of one of the most partisan papers mostly for hardcore leftist audience.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_guardian#Reader_stereotype

As to Mamut, I’ve heard another gossip: that his real fortune is an order of magnitude less than claimed.

By: Eric Eldon

Eric Eldon — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:48:49 +0000

Yuri: There are most certainly different ways to interpret articles like The Guardian’s. I’ll concede that SUP — in contrast to what many have feared — seems to not be censoring its users. I’ve added a note about that in my post, above.

However, the reality is that ownership structures in Russia are not transparent, including Mamut’s relationship with the government. There have been too many press-related issues in Russia to not mention them in the context of LiveJournal.

I’m not sure we disagree on anything else in the article.

By: Yuri Ammosov

Yuri Ammosov — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:19:33 +0000

Eric: beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but are you sure you read the source right?

***
Last year, his internet start-up SUP bought the licence for the Russian version of US website LiveJournal, the country’s most popular blog site with more than 500,000 users, and further acquisitions. …

Although Mamut wasn’t a beneficiary of the handout of state assets in the Nineties, he owes his fortune to some highly placed political contacts. The son of a scientist who helped draft the Russian constitution, he is said to be close to the Kremlin, and supports Putin.
***

HE IS SAID. This is exactly GOSSIP.

As to SUP trying to make all accounts paid — no, this never happened before.

By: Eric Eldon

Eric Eldon — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:38:39 +0000

@yuri. you haven’t convinced me i got anything wrong

1) SUP’s connection to the kremlin is more than gossip:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/dec/02/pressandpublishing.businessandmedia

2) i said “SUP has tried to charge for new accounts that aren’t otherwise ad-supported.” i never said what you interpreted me to have said.

frankly, it looks like SUP is just trying to run a real business, and meanwhile LiveJournal users are a vocal and rather crazy bunch.

By: Yuri Ammosov

Yuri Ammosov — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:51:46 +0000

Eric: two corrections to your story
1. SUP’s connections to Kremlin is gossip; there is no evidence of any.
2. SUP did not try to turn all unpaid accounts into paid; it tried to eliminate money-free and ad-free “basic accounts” that did not have any additional bells and whistles. Ad-supported account had more options but apparently few users appreciate the added bonus vis-a-vis carrying ads.

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