The CEO of Ello, which is an up-and-coming social network, described Facebook as an advertisement platform rather than a social network. Among all the social network companies, Facebook is no doubt the leading company that occupies most of the social network market. Despite the multiple failed attempts of other social network to take over Facebook, Ello drew a huge portion of Facebook’s customers, which mostly consists of annoyed Facebook users tired of the endless advertisements on the site. This is very  accurate because many Facebook users have complained about the excessive advertisement

First time experiencing Ello, it has many advantages including no countless advertisements, simple to read (wide and white) and user friendly features… etc.

When being asked about customer’s dissatisfaction with Facebook, CEO of Ello Paul Budnitz  answered that he considers Facebook as an advertisement platform more than a social network, therefore not considering it as a competitor. Budnitz also talked about how social network has been violating and overloaded with useless information but instead it should be place where friends can simply communicate with each other. Indeed, social network is where friends can communicate with each other; however, Ello is not in the position to say that because its social network website does not have a chat feature while Facebook does.

Also Budnitz shared his plan to make money off special features instead endless of commercials. Although Ello has the decent intentions to create the social network many desires, making money off selling special features and outrun Facebook ? I don’t think so.

Ello’s homepage

Article: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-30/interview-ello-ceo-wants-to-be-the-anti-facebook#r=read

Famous burger chain Burger King has recently acquired the Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons for 11 billion dollars. The Miami-based burger chain plans to relocate to Canada. Hearing this, many U.S politicians believe Burger King’s real purpose behind this acquisition is to avoid American tax, which is 40 percent while Canadian tax is 26 percent. However, Burger King disagrees with this accusation.

“We don’t expect our tax rate to change materially, this transaction is not really about taxes. It’s about growth.” said Daniel Schwartz, who is the Chief Executive at Burger King. What Schwartz is saying can be be proved; The Brazilian private firm 3G bought 70 percent of Burger King’s shares and practically owns the burger chain. For the past few years, together Schwartz and 3G expanded Burger King in China, Russia and Brazil.

Personally, this Burger King- Tim Hortons deal will only be beneficial if the two use each other to climb up the ladder. What this means is that, for example, Tim Hortons can make use of Burger King’s stable place in the foreign market as an advantage to develop and become a more successful franchise. Likewise, Burger King can improve on its breakfast business by implementing similar products from Tim Hortons. By any means, Burger King made the correct choice to purchase Tim Hortons.

Burger King buys Tim Hortons for $11 billion

Article: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-26/the-burger-king-tim-hortons-deal-isnt-about-taxes

Google, an international corporation that concentrates on Internet products and services, launched a seven-city tour in Europe to seek advices from experts regarding Internet privacy. Google has planned this trip to Europe for a long time because the European top court has called for Google to allow individuals to erase results that may expose their identity; however, at the same time, Google needed to assure the availability of information for the world.

Google is facing a tough decision between protecting individual’s privacy while allowing people to access information. This situation perfectly touches the term “business ethics”, which, to me, vaguely defines a list of ethical principles and problems. Personally, I believe Google should simply follow the orders of the European top court and allow users to erase personal information. The Internet is a very convenient spot for criminals to commit crimes and Google makes it even easier because anyone can simply type in a name and gain access to his or her basic information if not, private information. To conclude, if a person uses Google for any unethical purposes, Google should be held accountable for it because it is against business ethics to allow such action.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/google-seeks-views-in-europe-on-right-to-be-forgotten-1410268827

Eric E. Schmidt, Google’s chairman, with Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister

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