eConozco Founders In Hamburg

from left: Albert Armengol, Toni Salvatella and Horaci Cuevas

Albert, Toni and Horci from eConozco gladly took up our invitation to visit us in Hamburg, get to know the people behind XING and to get to know every part of the company. I took the chance to grab the friendly, busy trio for a short interview about how to crack the Spanish market, the secret to eConozco’s success and why XING and eConozco make the perfect match.

Social networking depends on the people. Would you say that in terms of culture it’s an absolutely Spanish thing?

Toni: Really it is a worldwide thing: In most cultures, networking is really a way of life, while in others it is just a professional catalyst. In Spain, it is used to build your career, usually if you are professional with a medium and high profile.
Business schools and entrepreneur groups are the first social networking players and it’s easy to move them in an online platform after all.

How has the Spanish online market grown since 2003?

Toni:  The last four years has witnessed a great revolution on the Internet, which is related to both sites and people. Now we can find that a lot of new initiatives crystallizing under the Web2.0 concept, but really it is a natural evolution. After the Internet fright of 2001-2002, the Internet is maturing in leaps and bounds. In Spain the same thing happened on a small scale.
Currently, the major revolution comes from users not from companies. This is what happens when you transform a push market with a pull market – each time, users demand more online services and less traditional offers.

Horaci: The Spanish online market has a medium Internet usage in European terms. I think Spain is ranked 14th when it comes to Internet usage and in fact it has a low penetration in comparison with top countries. In general, this means a great deal of potential basically because we are able to growth faster than others countries.
Finally regarding the time lapse, (associated with time to start an innovation and develop technology). Spain is reducing this gap between the top countries such as USA, UK, Germany and France from 3-4 years to 1-2 years.

How did social networking for business professionals develop in Spain?

Toni: At the beginning it was an innovator market: plenty of geeks, bloggers and early adaptors of technology. We started educating people in Spain and after some media press and journalists news the markets started to growth by itself. The markets started with local focus but now it’s expanding to international sites. The barriers are low and a lot of people know the phenomenon of social networking and its benefits. In fact, almost all Internet users have their own profile online.
There are two key aspects:
On the one hand, it’s a collective more than individual movement. This means that you need to attract a prescription figure or an opinion leader and then all their mates follow them. You need to concentrate your efforts on all these people who have the potential to become heavy users of the platform.
On the other hand, it’s more useful to have more people density in your local area/city than to have many potential users spread around the globe.

The world is becoming flat and local businesses are now increasingly experiencing aspects of globalization as well. Is the working and business environment changing in Spain?

Albert: Definitely! The way people work is changing, and the old ways of doing business are becoming outdated really fast. New opportunities arise everywhere, and it’s important to be fast to beat your competition. Spain is a country that had a cheap workforce in the past, but now there are better places for that, and companies are taking advantage of it. Apart from that, many people from around Europe, especially young professionals, are relocating to Spanish cities, and working worldwide from there while they take advantage of the Spanish way of life

Horaci: Spain has always had strong cultural and business relations with Latin America, and Spain is the bridge to Europe for Latin American professionals. There is great communication between both groups of professionals on eConozco, and they take great advantage of the possibilities that Internet networking platforms give to them – something that was unimaginable less than a decade ago.

“Small but flexible” – Is this the philosophy behind what has made eConozco successful?

Toni: Yes, but in terms of surviving long-term projects. In Spain, it’s hard to raise capital. If you don’t have enough funds or a partnership with a big group, you should keep your team small: the method of taking on into less risks and entering fast into new markets or trends. The smaller you are, the faster you can go in.

Horaci: We’ve tried to keep eConozco simple and focused on it’s core use: letting our users contact in a professional context. Without a lot of resources, you should compete making the most out of your skills, and then a little but talented team can make the difference.

How did you manage to keep your clear focus on business professionals?

Albert: The features and design are important, and so are the messages you transmit. The feeling that the website transmits is important to define who may be interested and more importantly, who is not interested in a professionally oriented social network. And, of course, the people. It’s all about the people, isn’t it? If you perform a search and find highly-skilled professionals in your town, with great profiles and years of experience, then you stick to the site.

The XING brand is very powerful because our members actively use the platform as an effective tool, recommend it to their peer group and encourage us to keep on pursuing the path of innovation. What makes eConozco members special?

Albert: eConozco members are proactively finding new people or reconnecting with old colleagues, and they really like it, recommending the site to their current colleagues and friends far more than for curiosity’s sake, but explaining to them the potential of an online business networking tool. Trust is what makes a professional online network succeed, and we were surprised when reading stories about people calling their friends by phone and explaining the benefits of joining the network, how it worked for them, etc.

Is this the reason why XING and eConozco make a perfect match?
Albert: Sure! Both sites are perceived as really professionally oriented, and are used for real business purposes, and that makes a difference in the Internet social networking space.

Toni: There is also another aspect to understanding the match. We share a vision with XING – networking is more than a recruiting tool.

Horaci: And we both have green logos now too!

Thank you very much.