I actually show this website to clients sometimes to demonstrate that just getting a functional website online is more important than mastering and zeroing in on a perfect logo, perfect color scheme, perfect layout, etc. If you waste all of your time worrying about things that people have extensively varied opinions on (anything with artwork, colors, layout, etc.) you are wasting your time when you could be selling, learning your market, and getting to know your potential customers with a basic yet fully functional website.

I see the Berkshire Hathaway website as being perfectly aimed at the kind of person who goes looking for the Berkshire Hathaway website. It looks frugal and old fashioned, which is exactly the image BH wants to project to their investors.

Contrast to the websites for their consumer brands like Geico.

>Their site reminds me of the nineties

Buffett's always been very conservative about not changing things that don't need changing for example no stock splits in the 50 years, same office for years, same house since 1958, doesn't use a computer at work - emails get printed out and handed to him - the annual report cover looks like it did in '64. I guess keeping things that aren't broken the same frees you up to work on what can be improved.

The Geico ad's new but Buffett often writes about it. It's one of the earliest businesses he's been involved with which he first went to visit in 1952, aged 22. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett#Business_career )

Their site is great, does exactly what it needs to do.

Geico is a wholly owned subsidiary of BH

They probably have other companies too. Why just Geico and why not list other companies. It seems bit out of place and gives an impression that Geico is doing bad enough that they need to be advertised.

(a) No reasonable investor believes GEICO is doing badly.

(b) GEICO is unique among BH companies in that consumers can purchase its offering immediately upon reading about it. The nearest Dairy Queen is a 30 minute drive away from me, for instance. Look at the list of BH subsidiaries and try to imagine what they'd sell on a 24/7 1-800 number.

I can think of two good reasons:

  1. A Geico sale is worth a lot more than a fruit of the loom sale.
  2. Geico is something that almost anyone visiting the site might use. Most Berkeshire Hatheway visitors own cars and need insurance.

One of the main links is a message from Buffet recommending Geico and Borsheims Jewelry. Jewelry fits the same bill: expensive, and widely purchased.

http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/message.html

Notably, Borsheim's also operates the type of business where you could conceivably pick up the phone and order immediately upon reading Buffett's recommendation.

HA this site is delightful. As is this entire shareholder's letter.

My dad was always a fan of Warren Buffett, but I never knew much about him.

After reading this, I feel the same way I do about Steven Pinker. What a delightful mind. We are blessed to have people who are both humble and can think clearly.