CReATION: Dim outlook for China sites

Websites in China are almost a dime a dozen, however, their future appears clouded because of a lack of measurement, creative and production support. Mr Phil Ren, founder and chairman of WiseCast Media and WiseHorse Media, said that in terms of the number and types of sites, the mainland market was "severely over-supplied". But he said the main problem was the fact that there was what he called an incomplete industry add-on service: buying agencies, measurement services and creative and production support. "There are very few specialised buying agencies for the Internet, and for the few who are in operation, they lack evaluation tools. Creative and production facilities for online is few and far between too," Mr Ren said. He said that this had a knock-on effect: it was therefore more difficult to persuade advertisers in traditional media to allocate even a small part of their budget for online activities. However, Mr Ren believed that the Internet would become as strongly entrenched in China as any other country of the world because the number of people taking to 'Net was growing strongly. Eventually, a critical mass would be achieved when advertisers no longer could ignore the Internet as a medium on a par with television and print, he added. "By then, the Internet should have the peripheral support it needs," Mr Ren said. However, he believed that the mainland would not be able to support a vast number of websites indefinitely and that a consolidation as has happened in the West and in Hong Kong would likely occur. "A lot of people will fail. But after the market consolidates, the situation would be more healthy for all."

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