I feel it is more and more difficult to do web hosting business and web design business in Malaysia.
Why ?
Because there are many idiots are playing cut-throat price war. If you read Sin Chew Daily, you can always find kind of advertisement : RM 299 full package include domain name, hosting, design....... RM 100 for web hosting.....
at the end , can they survive ?
Probable yes if they are one-man-show and can close many deals and leverage from the bulk orders. But when times go on, can they handle ?
People in Malaysia are funny, they want to see the salesperson, see the product before they want to buy. That's why e-commerce is still not popular in Malaysia. (among Malaysian buyers)
similarly, If you charge RM 299 to include web design, hosting and domain. Well, I think you need to travel to client site to collect the information at least once. Then, just imagine how many tolls in Klang Valley and how terrible is the traffic jam, and calculate how many clients can be approached a day and how much is the cost per visit.
So, tell me back, how much is the profit if the selling price is RM 299 ?
Of Course, from the consumer's point of view, they may love this price. But I always believe that a long term business is based on the mutual benefits and win-win situation. If kind of price jeopardize the seller, it will not survive longer.
At the end , who suffer ? The consumers.
Another key element that the consumers always ignore is , after creating a web site , what's next ? Many website owner just wait the visitors come and visit, then can get more enquiries from the visitors and eventually sell the products.
The fact is , No one VISIT !
If a website owner want to get more visitors ( traffic) to their website, just asking yourself : how do you find a company or product in Internet ? The answer : Search Engine like Yahoo, Google or MSN.
similarly, listing the website in search engine is a MUST. If you don't, then prepare to spend more money on off-line promotion : TV, Radio, Newspaper. You can still get many visitors : - but , mostly are local visitors. (unless you promote to overseas media)
That's why I recently always advise the website owner to go for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Only with SEO, your website will not turn to white elephant project.
Hopefully, the SEO service many not become the price war too in Malaysia. At least, to do SEO is not as simple as web design and web hosting.
James Tan
Malaysia Web Design Company and SEO Specialist
