MEDIA-I: Rumours of Delirium layoffs rattle Taiwan

<p>TAIPEI: The fragile confidence of Taiwan's interactive industry has </p><p>been dealt another blow by a fresh round of layoffs, this time at </p><p>recently merged web shop DeliriumCyberTouch. The company laid off 10 </p><p>people, after earlier saying that it expected to grow by 50 per cent in </p><p>Taiwan this year. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The merger, which took place in early May, saw the 80 staff of Delirium </p><p>join forces with the 20 of Cybertouch. The company has been dogged by </p><p>recent rumours of massive layoffs, causing panic in the country's </p><p>internet community. General manager Linda Yu admitted that there had </p><p>been a streamlining, but said that 10 people had gone, rather than the </p><p>more extravagent figures that had been rumoured. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Last January, director of the Institute for Information Industry's </p><p>Market Intelligence Centre (MIC) Victor Chan announced that 80 per cent </p><p>of Taiwan's dotcoms had folded or were lingering on in the hope of being </p><p>acquired. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Even worse, Chan expected only 10 per cent to survive. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Then, on June 12, MIC revised its forecast for the year's online </p><p>advertising growth, cutting it from a cheery 105 per cent to a gain of </p><p>less than 50 per cent. In 2000, online ads totaled NTdollars 870 million </p><p>(USdollars 25.4 million). </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>MIC added that most online ads will be placed on Kimo, Yam and Yahoo and </p><p>other large portals, leaving most content sites in the cold. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"We are already halfway into the year and the industry outlook is poor," </p><p>said Jack Lee, business director, OgilvyInteractive. "All we can hope is </p><p>that it holds at the current level. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"It's a necessary restructuring," Lee added. "Many of the experienced </p><p>marketing people who entered the field during the boom are realising </p><p>that the concepts and methodologies are different. To make money, there </p><p>has to be more than clicks. There also has to be some serious bricks and </p><p>mortar involvement." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The industry still has core clients, such as P&G or Unilever, that are </p><p>committed to interactive marketing. Other business sectors, such as </p><p>telecoms, are continuing to use the web aggressively, said Lee. But the </p><p>drying up of online advertising is forcing most consultancies to move </p><p>away from the front-end to the back-end of the business, and focus on </p><p>technology. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Managing director of Ionglobal Taiwan, Mike Rogero, expects "the major </p><p>focus of 2001" to be enterprise information portals. His company has </p><p>started its first such Taiwan project for Mercedes Benz. </p><p>DeliriumCyberTouch's Linda Yu agrees. "We are seeing a move away from </p><p>e-branding and websites," she said. "This year most of the value is </p><p>coming from consulting and implementation of applications services." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This general view is shared as well by the advertising community. Soh </p><p>Yew Peng, director of interactive marketing at Saatchi & Saatchi, said: </p><p>"The age of pure web design and banner production is over, and the new </p><p>business model seems to be total integrated internet solutions." </p><p><BR><BR> </p>