I've always found it very funny that their first link is a GEICO ad. I think he sees the humor in that too, he's no stoic.
Edit: Just finished the letter and he sure is ever the salesman, closing the letter with "cousin" Jimmy Buffett's pontoon party boat, exclusive 10% discount for shareholders!
When I first started to look into this Berkshire Hathaway company and this Warren Buffett person, of course the first thing I checked out was the website. I was immediately sold. Damn, the world would be a much much better place if all websites are built like this. (And text.npr.org)
I didn't know about this, thanks. I wonder if the origins of this version of the site go back to 9/11 - I remember specifically that CNN had to switch to a text-only website because they were getting hammered with traffic that day. Maybe they kept this around in case another similar event takes place.
They're much more recent than that, dating to about 2017.[0] CNN's main website in 2001 wouldn't have needed a text-only site because it was already so lightweight.[1]
I suspect a component of it is simply that the sort of investors they want don't actually care, and that they're happy not to deal with people who do care enough to not do business with them.
> "If you have any comments about our WEB page, you can write us at the address shown above. However, due to the limited number of personnel in our corporate office, we are unable to provide a direct response."
Reading that from them is hilarious. The message might be about being a bootstrapper and not spending frivolously.... or simply saying they don't care, who knows?
They are famously lean staffed at head office. Something like 40 staff. Apparently if you call at like 7 or 8am you'll sometimes get Buffett answering the phones himself.
I like that approach where you just randomly get the top person. Like anyone could just email Steve Jobs at Apple and sometimes he would personally answer when he felt like it.
FWIW, I've seen a few stories of people - nobodies - sending a letter as a thank for the knowledge provided, the inspiration or what not and getting a genuine letter back. Obviously not a whole spiel, but a sentence or two indicating intent. Despite their massive notoriety, I wouldn't expect he's getting swamped by letters (tho I could be wrong) so I'd find it quite plausible and in-character he'll take the time to read a handful a week (a lifetime of 10-Ks would make anyone a proficient reader) and write back (I guess with some templates to go off from). I'd be surprised if sending a letter to Meta reaches Mark - tho maybe, I guess he receives fewer thankful ones - but that lean HQ culture of Berkshire seems rather unique with a measly single and modestly sized floor to manage one of largest balance sheets out there.
Totally unrelated to BRK's website, but something that it brings to mind:
I sometimes wonder if launching a new B2C startup that provides utility, but that doesn't look that good or modern, might succeed not just in spite of the lack of attention to design, but because of it.
I'm talking 1996-2002 era tables and gifs. Nothing fancy.
Would consumers trust it?
Would the usability be greater or worse if it was just plain HTML?
I'm building https://regattapages.com right now with a similar philosophy to what you described. The majority of my users are highly educated, technical, and over the age of 50 on average. They're not afraid of some monospaced text and a console-like input, when it makes sense.
The majority of my layouts are plain text, HTML tables and forms, and some SVG charts spruced up with a little bit of JS if it's enabled (everything should still work without it).
Performance is fast and it looks modern enough so long as I use modern CSS and some reactive design, but makes people feel at home because it doesn't FEEL like big tech.
I will shamelessly add that this is the first time I've publicly posted https://regattapages.com, and it is still heavily under construction. I did my first live demo at a Regatta this past weekend in St. Petersburg, FL.
I am looking for extremely small seed-level funding so I can continue to build out the site full-time until I am able to sell it to the large number of prospective customers I have (this summer, sailing doesn't happen in the Chicago winter).
A lot of websites from that era are unusable from mobile phones. Whatever your business or marketing strategy, there's a significant chance the first time a new customer clicks on a link to your webpage, he's doing so from a mobile phone.
I think it’s the only time I’ve seen him do it, and it’s the best. One of the richest men in the world. That’s my no-nonsense boy, right there. Love him or hate him, but his no-frills frugality is refreshing.
Is it really a design choice or is it more that he probably barely knows how to operate PowerPoint or Keynote or even a computer for that matter? I suspect it’s actually the latter, and he’d rather not learn how.
[0] https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/