Life 4.0 is about clicks and more clicks
LIVING in Thailand has never been easier whether you are Thais or foreigners as these days the things people need in their daily life can mostly be found online.
The other day Mr A’s car’s windshield had been hit and broken by a bit of rock while traveling on a highway.
Soon after returning to Bangkok, he searched Google looking for windshield repair and found a long lists of shops providing such service. He spent a little bit more time to look at what people were discussing about this topic at the popular Pantip website and found out that there are options on whether you should replace the windshield or, as some recommended, repairing it as it did not cost much.
A few posts recommended experts who come and service your car at home. Mr A checked those names and found out they either have Facebook or Line accounts or both which enabled him to look into the details on their services and obtain their phone numbers.
Eventually he decided to call a man who said he could be at his home within two hours and the repair service would cost only 600 baht.
Upon arriving in a sedan, he spent less than an hour fixing the broken windshield with a guarantee also provided. Mr A asked him if fixing is better than replacing the windshield, he said fixing is better as the replacement parts are mostly from China. That’s why it is as cheap as 4,000 baht but the quality is no match for the genuine parts from the manufacturers.
Mr A told him he phoned a windshield repair shop but was informed that the repairman worked part time and he must make an appointment before driving his car to the shop. The man said repair shops are not doing well these day because there are many specialists like himself providing service at the client’s site. He said on a busy day he traveled to as many as six locations to service his clients.
This is just one example of business or service being advertised online through Facebook or Line or websites. Nowadays people can find any kind of home or car repair or services or anything they want in life online with more applications being created for us to browse on smart phones. Don’t want to eat outside, just call for a delivery of any kind of food you love.
This is a megatrend which has severely affected the traditional media as business and professionals providing goods and services are increasingly using online media like Facebook, Line and Instagram.
Therefore advertising spending in all media outlets fell by 6% to 76 billion baht in the first eight months of the year. Among the different segments, Internet saw the highest year-on-year increase in ad spending of 88.24%, followed by outdoor media at 48% and movie theatre at 31.24 in August, according to Nielsen Thailand. In contrast, magazines in August faced a decrease compared to that of the same month last year by 37.4%, cable/satellite TV -39.62% and newspapers -14%.
As a result, many popular magazines have been closed including Seventeen Thailand, Image, Cosmopolitan, Praew, Viva! Friday, Star News, Candy and Volume. And after 61 years, one of Thailand’s oldest magazines Sakulthai has just informed its readers that it will publish the last and special edition, 3237th, on October 31, 2016 citing unfavorable economic conditions as well as changes in readers’ preference to read things online.
CAPTIONS:
TOP: Lots of money is now flowing out of online marketing. Photo: SEOPlanter (CC-BY-2.0)
INSET: This graphic shows the Internet marketing cycle. Photo: Created by Jessica Lee for Bruce Clay, Inc. (CC-By-2.0)
By Kowit Sanandang
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