THE BUSINESS WEEK

024 BTW
OLYMPIC TIX ON THE FRITZ
Remember the empty seats at the
2004 Summer Olympic Games
in Athens? It’s safe to say that’s
not going to be a problem in 2008,
when China (pop. 1.3 billion)
hosts the games. On Oct. 30,
Chinese who didn’t get lucky in
an earlier round of Olympic seat
sales (run by lottery) got a second
chance. Sales started at 9 a.m.
at Bank of China branches, on
the Web, and by telephone. But
after selling 9,000 tickets in two
hours, the system collapsed under
heavy demand. In the first hour
alone, Beijing’s Olympic Web site
got 8 million hits and the ticket
booking hotline was flooded with

if it’s Friday, it must be your page 2 million calls. At 9 p.m. the Web
site was still down, asking visitors
to “please come back later.”
Employees at Serena Software in San Mateo, Calif., aren’t just fooling –Chi-Chu Tschang
around with Facebook. On Nov. 2 the $255 million business applications
company launched Facebook Fridays. The idea is for Serena’s staff of
900 (average age, 41) to spend an hour each week on the popular social
networking site—updating their profiles, collaborating with colleagues
and clients, and hunting for recruits. The company is also setting up an
employees-only group on Facebook as a kind of alternative corporate
intranet.The portal will be used to exchange documents, update corpo-
rate information, and share marketing videos. Senior Vice-President
René Bonvanie, who, with CEO Jeremy Burton, came up with Facebook
Friday, says some staffers considered the idea frivolous when it was first
proposed. But by using social networking seriously, he says, “we believe
we can get people to communicate and collaborate more.”–Heather Green

why hugo
hates hummers
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has
vowed to curb imports of Hummers, pro-
claiming on Oct. 8 that the luxury car is an
affront to his revolution. But oil-rich Ven-
ezuela might be better off putting a dent in
all domestic car sales, not just the General
Motors SUV. Thanks in part to an economic
Chavez has boom fueled by government spending,
vowed to curb
has doubled, to about 2.8 million gallons
daily—at the subsidized price of 18¢ a gal-
lon. Given Venezuela’s falling oil output,
this points to less oil for export—and fewer
dollars in the Treasury. As for Chavez’ at-
tack on pricey car imports, to be mounted
by limiting access to dollars used for luxury
goods, analysts say it may be motivated by
CREDIT HERE

imports of
auto sales are set to hit a record 400,000, embarrassment: Many of the 500 Hum-
Hummers from 228,000 in 2005. The downside: mers sold this year in Venezuela went to
Gasoline and diesel fuel consumption government officials. –Peter Wilson

BUSINESSWEEK l NOVE M B E R 12, 2007