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Published on March 8, 2008

Richard Kimber, Google's Southeast-Asia managing director, was here last week promoting on-line advertising in Thailand, where the latest statistics show 8.5 million people using Internet search engines.

In a world of overwhelming information, search engines like Google are often seen as an indispensable organiser of data, capable of providing instant access to useful information via the Internet, mobile telephones and other devices.

The business model is called UAP - users, advertisers and publishers.

"We provide engineering solutions," he said, adding that ads were specifically relevant to search results sought by users.

Advertisers pay per user click, so they prove to be more cost-effective for advertisers than traditional media.

The pricing of "keywords" is also very market driven, as they are auctioned to the highest bidders and their ranking in search results are constantly adjusted to reflect their frequency used by surfers.

For instance, the highly prized keywords for Thailand are related to travel and hotels with popular destinations, especially Phuket, Samui or Bangkok, at the top.

Besides travel and hotels, financial services such as credit cards, consumer electronics, telecom, food, jewellery, furniture and textiles are among the sectors that have been tapping the potential of on-line and search ads for both retail and wholesale customers.

As the world's leading pioneer in search engines for the past decade, Google has helped create a new model in marketing worldwide in which marketing activity becomes more scientific and demand driven, rather than cost pushed.

Kimber said the revolution in search technology and marketing was just starting, but added the learning curve would be relatively quick.

At this stage, the Thailand market, for instance, is still in its infancy as far as on-line and search-related ads are concerned.

Of the country's Bt92 billion annual ad spending, less than one per cent or Bt920 million is currently spent on on-line and search-related ads.

Given its 95-per-cent share of the search market in Thailand, Google believes there is a tremendous room for growth in coming years.

Kimber predicted the local market could grow explosively in the next two to five years as on-line and search ads in other more developed markets in the region - such as Singapore or Australia - currently account for more than 10 per cent of total ad spending.

In his opinion, search technology, which has been advancing rapidly in the past decade, had helped level the playing field for small businesses and advertisers who previously could not afford to compete against the bigger competitors due to the lack of ad budgets or small budgets.

"For on-line or search ads, the cost could be as low as US$1 (Bt31.50) a day per click, and it's a low-risk model compared with traditional media," Kimber said.

The ongoing trend means ads are becoming more specific, with less dependence on demography. In addition, the science of "analytics" is being used more widely to help marketers to optimise results.

nophakhun limsamarnphun

nop1122@yahoo.com

The Nation