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Thursday, October 02, 2008

IS DIGITAL MEDIA DOOMED?

Although digital media hasn't really taken off to any great extent yet in Thailand, predictions of its impending demise have surfaced from the United Kingdom. Sly Bailey, chief executive of leading publisher Trinity Mirror, reckons next year could see a major industry slump of dot com bubble-bursting proportions.
Speaking yesterday in London at the Association of Online Publishers, Bailey said: "Only the strong will survive. Building new digital audiences is the right thing to do. Attracting millions of unique users to your digital brands is great. But if businesses can't convert those users to revenue and then to sustainable profit then they will simply run of cash. This is no time for vanity publishing."
I couldn't agree with her more. Unless you can turn online viewers into revenue, as a publisher you're not going to be around for very long. My worry is that with so few digital media solutions suppliers in Thailand, the opportunities for locally-based companies to work with overseas organisations could disappear if the industry does go the way Sly is predicting.

2 comments:

Anonymous 6:31 PM  

Well this sounds terrifying, but quite unlikely.

1) More and more people turn to online sources for their news.
2) More and more people shop online.
3) More and more people make their purchase decision based on what they read online.
4) More and more people are selling online.

I have no idea why Sly Bailey sees a major slump for online publishers... Based on the above 4 points (all my assumption, I have no hard data) it would be safe to assume if anything, online advertising would increase. I feel next year it would become easier for smaller publishers to monetize.

(c) 2016 Written by Andrew Batt 6:42 AM  

Sajal, I think you're right in your assumptions although personally I think it's still going to take another 2-3 years before Thailand sees the full benefit of what digital media can offer, and maybe another couple of years after that before the public starts to trust it and use it in any great numbers.

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