The FINANCIAL — Company My Star LTD, offering the naming of stars after individuals says that it may suspend its operations in Georgia because of reduced demand. Since January 2007, when the service first appeared on the Georgian market the company managed to name only 32 stars with Georgians names. A number of those namings were gifts from the company.
“I did not expect to become a millionaire when starting this business but hoped to earn a more fair amount of profit than I actually did. We have not even earned enough yet to cover the expenditures of the advertising campaign we ran when entering the market,” Shota Bezarashvili, Founder and CEO of MyStar told The FINANCIAL.
Bezariashvili says that soon the company will suspend its operation in Georgia. He advises any interested to buy stars now while the service is still available.
“Compared with 2007 prices have sharply reduced. During the first months of our sales the cost of our service was USD 600. Reduction of demand caused a decrease of prices. Now it costs USD 250,” Bezarashvili states.
Usually demand for naming stars rises during the Christmas period and for Valentine’s Day. Soon the price for a star will go back up to USD 500 or 600.
“People are just afraid to spend money at the moment. There are still many people though who are able to pay USD 600 for such a unique present.”
From the total number of stars sold 30-40% were sold for USD 600, the rest for USD 250.
“When I first heard about such a service, I thought it was some kind of scam. You can find many companies on foreign websites offering the naming of stars for just USD 20, but those websites are not legitimate,” Bezarashvili claims.
“Naming a star does not mean that it becomes your property. It is a symbolic present. It has not been abolished according to the law. Whereas previously naming stars was only permitted by those people who discovered it. Scientists do not actually care what the name of a star is. Coordinates are what’s most important for them. We offer our customers the naming of stars according to their zodiac signs. It raises the cost of naming stars. Actually most of our customers choose stars regardless of their zodiac signs,” Bezarashvili says.
“The list of star’s names is published annually abroad. We want to do the same in Georgia. We also plan to launch a programme on our website allowing our customers to observe their stars. We promise to launch this service for our customers in any case, even if we close our business,” Bezarashvili says.
On published certificates the company notes coordinates and customers can look at their stars by telescope in an observatory or from foreign websites.
“The largest number of stars was sold in the first months of our entrance to the market. Actually it’s a common tendency of Georgian customers that there is huge interest toward a new service which later slackens,” he declares.
According to Bezarashvili such a service does not exist in Ukraine, Azerbaijan or Armenia. “We thought to occupy the above-mentioned markets, but did not manage to accomplish the goal. We have not had a successful run with our service in the Georgian market and are currently working only in winter,” he says.
Bezarashvili says that he has a position of employee at another job which he enjoys. “Our service is not a business worth spending much time at work on.”
According to the latest trends buying plots of land on the moon appears to be booming. Bezarashvili says that there are Georgians who have bought space on the moon.
“I think that selling space on the moon has big prospects. It could be a successful venture to invest money in,” he says.
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