Julian:

Thanks bro, appreciate the kind words.

The credit, with all honesty, goes to UBS on this one. They're a big bank with conservative values, and for them to see the benefit in hooking up with glocals, and to clearly say 'we want to serve expats in a better way', is a bold move.

I hope the Switzerland Banking Guide we wrote with them will really serve expats. The Guide does have UBS ads in it, but we worked hard to make its content objective and useful, and not a hard sell for any bank. Any feedback / ideas on it are very welcome.

Nir
Nir Ofek, Apr 30, 2009 @ 01:36

I would not be proud to receive money from UBS, who are involved in an ongoing fraud case

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g-Tp8tp4_lHBbQ1e7TRPqAIp8W-Q

and were hugely irresponsible with sub-prime investments

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/business/worldbusiness/22ubs.html

which cost the Swiss taxpayer. They are not interested in 'serving' expats, only in 'penetrating' markets.

The same goes for Glocals' other sponsor, from the telecoms cartel, which has a policy of confusing customers over prices, ripping them off and locking them in.

Then there's the occaisional deals with airlines and insurance companies...

I do not welcome this kind of commercial participation. Did you consider charging members and running a private site? Or running fundraising events for a new web site? Or advertising for volunteer developers?

Dirty money is always easier to find.
matslats, Apr 30, 2009 @ 03:14

Matslats:

Thanks. To address the points you raised:

1. Even Big Companies can do good stuff, sometimes...(-:
You seem to have a general issue with big companies, and that's your perfect right. However, the extreme sweeping claims you make about all these companies (such as: "dirty money", "just want to confuse users", etc) are not 'fair'. It's not my role or intention to defend any specific company here (and I don't think big companies are all saints), but let's be open to fact that even big global companies do good things (sometimes!) that we all benefit from...(-: 

2. The benefit to glocals members from this collaboration is easy to see
It's clear companies work with glocals in order to get more business out of it in the long run, and that's legitimate and obvious. However, we all benefit from it: glocals would not be alive without this help from such companies.  

3. Financing glocals
We looked at other models to finance glocals, but so far the model that seems most stable is collaborating with companies who are interested in expat managers.

4. Serving expats better?
We (glocals) collaborate with companies not only to help us finance our operations, but also cos it allows us to provide more benefits for our members, such as special deals, better info, feedback to the big companies how to better serve expats, etc.    

5. Specific feedback?
Last, if you have any specific for UBS or Orange on how they can serve us expats better, pls share them with us. We'll ensure your feedback is heard.   

Nir
Nir Ofek, Apr 30, 2009 @ 03:53

congrats to glocals, and thank you for the open communications about it.

ubs does suffer from an image perception, even more then other banks. but i salute this move by ubs and i say it is in a good direction. bon chance!!!
duckbar, Apr 30, 2009 @ 10:10

Thanks, Nir
matslats, Apr 30, 2009 @ 12:15