Biotider: going out with a Bang!

Source:SvD

Previously on "Inside the Mind of Mr O.", I asked the question: if an enterprising business falls in a near-total monopoly, does it make a sound?

The answer is hell yes! After SF decided to discontinue our server access to them, we decided to send out a carefully crafted press release to our associates and friends in the business, as well as several newspapers. The response was overwhelming; twice we made the frontpage of the online edition of Svenska Dagbladet, the #2 newspaper in Sweden, with a total of three articles and one blog; an editorial by Peter Wolodarski in the print edition of Dagens Nyheter (#1 newspaper in Sweden); plenty of blogs, chief among which was our good friend Daniel at Bloggywood, and many, many emails that really cheered for us and admonished us to continue the good fight.

So yes, we made a resounding impact, generating a lot of support and encouragement for us and bombarding SF with badwill. That is a comfort I suppose - but the fact remains, that as long as SF holds a monopoly, they can afford not to care. They can wait out this storm of bad press until it blows over and continue on with their backwards business practice.

And no matter how hard we work(ed) on it, Biotider was still a side project by three highly motivated guys with other (real) careers to consider. How much time and effort can we keep sinking into a project that cannot work as long as SF remain stubborn in being the sole proprietors of their marketing information?

The jury is in. And the verdict is...

...really hard to interpret. SF's response is a disappointment, in the sense that it is neither a positive go-get-em-tiger! (not that we expected that), nor a situation where negotiation is welcome, nor a clear-cut refusal. It's simply a very vague, very Swedish "njaaääääeeeej", non-confrontationalist "cover your bases" sort of answer.

It's sad to see a monopoly reach to the point where even positive forces are brushed aside on a whim. We're not going out peacefully.

On the next episode: if an enterprising business falls in a near-total monopoly, does it make a sound?

Biotider: Do or Die

We've worked long and hard on building the best Swedish website for films and cinema: Biotider.se. During strenuous two years we've managed to build an increasingly popular website - high visitor counts, many cooperations with other websites and cinemas across Sweden and increasing ad revenues. Cinemas sorely need all the help they can get, because it is a decreasing form of distribution for films, losing ground to peer-to-peer and home cinema systems.

Which brings us to our relationship to SF, which for all practical considerations holds a monopoly on cinemas in Sweden after Astoria went the way of the dodo last fall. From the beginning on, we expected them to be excited about our project and hoped they would participate, or at the very least, be carefully indifferent to it. I think we were surprised to receive the cold shoulder from them, but decided that the project was far too promising - and important - not to pursue.

By the end of 2007, we were beginning to attract a lot of attention, including receiving an award for one of the best entertainment websites in Sweden (InternetWorld's top 100 Swedish websites annual listing). Whether for that reason or for something altogether different, SF decided in december 2007 shut down our server's access to their viewing times, effectively crippling one of the mainstay features of the website: showing times for films for cinemas across Sweden.

We are currently in talks with SF. After all, we are promoting their services - so why the attitude? one may wonder. While the dice are rolling, we have to employ the age-old adage: "hope for the best, plan for the worst". And we are doing both.


Check out Nicolas' entry on the matter:
http://behind.biotider.se/2008/02/03/state-of-biotider/