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."
