Happy New Year, Let It Be a Really Happy One for Everyone!

Of course it is quite difficult to argue that 2008 has been a very challenging year for many, especially with the global financial crisis bursting out later in the year. Many of us have been affected, some actually hit heavily – people working in many industries have been damaged to a certain extent and internet is no exception.

And of course it is pretty difficult to hope that the simple fact that we are entering the New Year, the year 2009, in a few hours will actually mean that the crisis will somehow be resolved and the situation will at least begin to normalize. Unfortunately I have not seen any predictions for the near improvements in the financial environment – or I would have been much more enthusiastic now that the New Year is approaching.

But anyway now that families are getting together at the large tables here in Russia where the New Year tends to be a more important holiday than Christmas is and everywhere else in the world summarizing everything that happened to us and making wishes and stating goals for the New Year, I think we should still hope for the best.

Crisis or no crisis, the hope still remains and the more people join their hopes and efforts, the closer the achievement of the common goal will be, after all. So I would like to wish everyone reading this a very Happy New Year. I hope you will enjoy the celebration tonight (if you do celebrate) and I hope that the next year will be a lucky one for you and your beloved ones with successes accompanying you everywhere.

And to the technology community I wish some patience to survive the crisis and I also hope that we will still see new startups launched – supported either with funding an entrepreneur is lucky to receive or with pure enthusiasm which can be a viable alternative as well. I do believe it will be an exciting year – a challenging maybe but enjoyable anyway. Happy New Year!