An interview with Doris Pelger, one of the founders of Visual Orange Co. Ltd, an online marketing and web design company started in Thailand 2004. Doris and her team see it as their task to share their knowledge and experience with Internet marketers in Thailand. Doris has been working with the Internet since 1994 and has worked for companies such as Cambridge Technology Partners and Unisys.

Which are the three most popular web analytics vendors in Thailand?

Truehits is number one, but is in fact just a traffic measurement tool like the ones you’ll find in any hosting package in Europe or USA.

Hosting for websites does not commonly include server stats as a part of the hosting package in Thailand. For a fee of 50 USD a year, a link is placed from the web directory of truehits.net to the client website and the website with the most traffic is placed at the top of their Top 10 websites panel. To be in the Top 10 is the goal of many websites and a popular competition between Thai website owners. This service is owned by the state and people are pretty much unaware of the difference between server stats and user analytics.

Google Analytics comes in second place.

Opentracker is third.

How mature do you think the market for web analytics is in Thailand?

We launched Opentracker here in Thailand. The market is slowly opening up, more and more people sign-up and the market is growing rapidly compared to a year ago.

The reason not to sign up for real user analytics tools in Thailand is financial.

Pricing is usually based on European or American prices when it should in fact be approximately 30% cheaper in Thailand. If we could adjust prices that way it would be more realistic and accelerate adoption significantly.

We are offering search engine optimization services and SEO without good user tracking and analytics software is considerably less efficient, so more and more of our clients invest in web analytics.

There is a proven connection between usability and popularity of a website, but we all know that usability is also a neglected factor on the Internet.

When people see a direct contribution to success they’re willing to invest in web analytics if they can afford it.

What differences do you see in the approach to web analytics if you compare Thailand to Germany?

Germans think in an analytic way and are questioning the cause behind events, behaviors etc. Employees are actually expected to improve situations and inform management when things go wrong.

People in Thailand are raised not to question things, especially not if it could be interpreted as criticism by a manager, so the whole approach differs in regard to improving a situation or a condition.

There is, however, not a big gap between a small Thai company and a small German company when they are operating on the same level.

In Germany, website owners often do not see the need for a sophisticated tool, so they rely on server stats or choose a free, or cheap, solution. Then it’s not that big of a difference.

A German client said: “I have a website so I am set for the next two years.” That is an example of the attitude that we see.

Have you noticed any significant difference in web behavior in Thailand compared to Germany?

People here are used to broken links, poorly structured websites, slow loading and endless scrolling. They like it blinking, moving and colorful. People write about their lives in online diaries and strangers read it. They love sites like http://www.mthai.com/ (Thai), compare that to http://www.bild.t-online.de/ (German).

Germans like it to be functional, low key, properly structured and quick to load. A German would never keep a diary online and share it with a total stranger, or?

In some cases the Internet is even more established in Thailand than in Germany.

Example:
Small entrepreneurs in Thailand are better at using the Internet to present their company. In Germany, small entrepreneurs often do not realize the benefit of having a professional web presence. Often when they do have a a website it’s really bad and does not reflect a country that calls itself highly developed.

In Germany Geiz ist geil and this is visible in the quality of websites and how much people are willing to spend on additional costs such as web analytics software, usability testing, maintenance and changes. The result of using web analytics tools is usually more changes!

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