Israelis love gadgets on Google

September 11, 2009 - 4:14 PM by David · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, Business, General, Israeliness, Pop Culture, Technology 

google-israel-homeEver wonder what Israelis look for on Google? If you thought it was photos of Bar Refaeli, than you’re only partially right.

According to Google Israel Ltd., Israelis are actually nerds – mostly interested in gadgets. The business site Globes reported Google’s assessment of Israeli behavior on the search engine, which found that we’re particularly interested in the…. global cellular market???

The anticipated arrival of the new iPhone in Israel and the expansion of cellular companies into the music content field with Pelephone’s Musix, Cellcom Israel Ltd. Cellcom Media and Partner Communications Co. Ltd. Orange Time have resulted in a high rate of search for these services, Google Israel media and telecom sector head Nir Korchak told the site.

“Without doubt, the biggest new buzz over the last six months was the much talked-about iPhone. The late launch did not curb the appetite of Israelis for the coveted handset and may even have strengthened it. Searches for it were astronomical and broke all records for handset searches.”

Korchak added, “We can draw conclusions from this about Israeli consumers. He loves gadgets and is quick to take up new technologies, and this trend is expressed in the largest number of searches even before the launch. In other words, the enthusiastic Israeli public sees itself as part of the global village, and does not wait for the local launch to get information about something which is already being sold abroad.”

He said, “The Israeli public uses the search engine at every stage in the purchasing process: from initial interest through searches like ‘critique of Nokia N97 through market surveys, ‘iPhone price comparisons’ and onto the order stage ‘buy mobile phone.’”

According to the study, Israelis also use the search terms ‘loans’ and ‘financing’ alot, but not in ways that characterize an economic crisis – 55% of Israelis looked for a loan to finance a vacation, 25% to renovate their home and only 20% in order to repay debts.

And demonstrating that Israelis aren’t just business minded, there have been two peaks in the last six months for searches for swine flu in both English and Hebrew – the first was after the initial outbreak in Mexico and the second was after the outbreak of the virus in Israel.

Of course, what the survey didn’t indicate was that according my own informal polling, after searching for all of the above topics, 93% of Israeli males also typed in ‘Bar Refaeli photos.’

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Summer high-tech scandal keeps Israel amused

July 9, 2009 - 1:31 PM by Nicky · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, Crime, General, Life, Technology 

Israel is agog. This week we’ve watched the best high-tech scandal to unfold since Kobi Alexander ran off to Namibia.

It all began at the start of the week when an Israeli newspaper broke a story about Bnei Brak company, Life Keeper, which has developed a heart monitor patch, selling a 37 percent stake in the company to a Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer for $370 million, at a company value of $1 billion.

Someone's not telling the truth.

Someone's not telling the truth.

In these recessionary days, journalists across the country leapt on the story. Israeli company makes good – we just love that kind of story here. There were a few puzzling things, however. Number one of which was why no one had actually heard of this company before, especially given that it was developing such cool technology – the patch apparently could forecast when you were going to have a heart attack and send your location to a doctor.

The next day the doubts began. Israel’s financial daily, Globes carried out a bit of uncharacteristic investigative reporting into the sale and discovered that the Taiwanese company, Micro-Star International (MSI), hadn’t actually reported the deal, while its London office claimed it didn’t know a thing about it.

Not so, said SafeSky CEO, Dr. Gabi Picker. “The deal is valid and alive,” he told Globes. “We hold an MOU signed by a notary by both sides from Seligman & Co. law firm that accompanied the negotiations. They have a copy of the document.”

Globes also pointed out that none of Israel’s VC funds had heard of SafeSky – the company’s parent company, and nor had any of Israel’s leading doctors.

The next day Ha’aretz waded in, pointing out that the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem – supposedly conducting clinical trials for the device – had no connection to the company or the patch.

Picker, who joined SafeSky just a few weeks ago, also seemed to be getting cold feet, hinting that company director Hagai Hadas – a former Mossad man who had encouraged him to join the firm – for the mess. Ha’aretz said Picker told confidantes that he wasn’t entirely sure that either the product or the deal were real.

Doubts also surfaced about Aharon (Arik) Klein, supposedly the inventor of the patch technology. Turns out he’s serial con man who has numerous debts and various prison sentences for fraud. Even the police in Cyprus are hunting for him.

Now the latest news in the saga is that Picker has resigned. His resignation comes after a lawyer at Seligman & Co. refused to give Picker’s attorney a copy of the document about the transaction.

So what comes next? We’ll just have to wait and see. Ah. There’s nothing like a good scandal to keep you going through the slow, scorching days of summer. Far better than stories about aliens and crop circles.

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