Our colonial fathers, a.k.a the British, implemented a “Divide and Rule” policy to ensure obedience and disunity among the pre-independence inhabitants of Malaysia. It worked spectacularly well for them, but the implications of that policy can be felt even till today. When it comes to Internet marketing, I find that the same rules apply.
Instead of having one big market (26+ million people), we now have many different (and fragmented markets):
- Those who predominantly read and speak in English
- Those who predominantly read and speak in Malay
- Those who predominantly read and speak in Chinese
- Those who predominantly read and speak in Tamil
It’s funny that I should list the markets according to the language that they use to communicate most often, but there’s a reason for that.
The people who only read and speak in Malay tend to watch TV programs and read books or publications in Malay only. Same goes with those who only read and speak in Chinese. Life imitates art, and therefore these groups have different set of values, different needs and wants, and a grossly divergent view of the world.
Now as an Internet marketer in Malaysia, you have to address three different markets instead of one cohesive market with similar needs and wants. Not that this scenario isn’t true for other markets like the US, where Hispanic, Black and Chinese communities each have slightly different set of values, needs and wants. It’s common in most multi-cultural societies, and variety is always great.
The only (and most important) difference is that in the US, everyone can still speak and write a common language; English. In Malaysia however, I find a lot of people who predominantly speak and write in Malay have terrible command of English, and this is a big problem. Because they hand around in communities that only speak the same language, there is no incentive form them to improve their language once they are out of high school or college.
“So what if they can’t speak in English?” you say. “What’s the big deal?”
A lot, actually. You need to understand that e-commerce and Internet marketing is a US-driven economy. Not Malaysia-driven. Not China-driven, at least not yet anyway 
And most definitely not India-driven, regardless of the fact that India produces top-notch programmers who are really good at being employees.
They are always left behind in the online world, and rely too much on others to translate their service and products into a language they can understand. But try as they may, no one can translate the entire Internet. So if they cannot understand what “Click here to continue” means, it takes massive effort and patience for them to do even simple stuff an Internet marketer does on a daily basis.
When we launched Rahsia ClickBank for instance, I never expected the response to be so overwhelming. To be honest, Rahsia ClickBank is not a new idea – it’s based on the tried and tested affiliate marketing method of writing product reviews. Similar products have been around for ages, except with Rahsia ClickBank we raised the level, produced a much better product, created a killer salescopy, and targeted the Malay-speaking market.
Based on the support emails and feedback we got, it’s clear that this market were not exposed to the idea before. It took more than 4 years to reach them.
Although we translated the main guide to Bahasa Melayu, it’s impossible for us to translate the entire Internet. When someone goes to ClickBank to register and account and is dumbfounded because everything is in English, that’s most probably the end of the journey for them.
The Internet marketers in Malaysia who can speak and write in English however, have experimented with product review websites before and already understand the concept. They can learn and progress on their own without a lot of spoon-feeding.
Ok, this is starting to sound like a REALLY LONG rant
But my point is, language and culture is a big obstacle in targeting Malaysia as your market. That’s why we’ve decided to focus on one language only (English), and try to make our products or services appeal to an International market. It’s the only way we can even hope to make a lot of money and at the same time be in the forefront of marketing technology.
However, that doesn’t mean that there is no money in the fragmented markets.
In the Malay-speaking market for example, due to lack of choice and lack of noise, it’s much easier to sell low-quality products at a cheaper price. A quick look at the Wang Cyber forum and you’ll find many doing exactly that. Most of the stuff are translated to BM from Private Label Products. But hey if it works for you, then go ahead and do it.
I just wish sometimes that things could be different.
What do you think?
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
rayman..
from ur comment..looks like the 1 guy google hired to be based in malaysia is doing a good job marketing adwords then.
unless his team now expanded already i dunno la.
the last i met him 2 yrs ago..Google was a 1 man show in Malaysia.
I’m agree with you. One of the major problems is Language. Most people in Malaysia speak in their race language. And a lot of them cannot speak or write in english well. It will be one of the hardest resistent for them if they want to success in internet business world. English is more dominant than other language in Internet business
i think Ngan got confused between you and the other ‘Gobala’
)
For me, the vast market online is in English, and for the ones who want to expand will need it in English. Anyway it is still basic English and not literature. When there’s a will there’s a way. If some of the RCB members are stumped with the Clickbank registration, I would suggest you make a video in the future guiding them through everything. I know it’s sad but i believe most of them would still need it. ;o)
We already have videos for Rahsia ClickBank, bu that’s the thing. No matter how many we create it will never be enough to fill in the gaps. Filling in the gaps is easy, if you can understand English..
Gobala, I think Google is focusing on the malaysian market (esp malay) lately. I hv come accross many friends in corporate world who told me google invited the marketing dept in their companies for a free training on how to use google adwords.
Google adsense in Bahasa Malaysia next?? maybe??
“In the Malay-speaking market for example, due to lack of choice and lack of noise, it’s much easier to sell low-quality products at a cheaper price. A quick look at the Wang Cyber forum and you’ll find many doing exactly that. Most of the stuff are translated to BM from Private Label Products. But hey if it works for you, then go ahead and do it.”
This is like a 10kilos jab right onto my face. To some, it might sound degrading but this is the truth. I do agree with this.
Even when writing some simple rants in my blog previously, I always have this idea that who is the ideal audience of my writings. At times it is hard to serve different needs of differents matket segments.
But hey, problems can always be seen as challenges and opportunities aite?
Thanks for pointing this out Gobala.
Btw, I was really moved by your book and I have already taken the first step to becoming an Internet Marketer.
Looking forward to more quality articles from you Gobala !
@ Ahmad Fadhli – Definitely, different market segments mean a lot of opportunities for those who understand the different needs. And I have capitalized on this myself, not once but many times. Still, the segmentation makes Malaysia a smaller market than it should be. A lot of Malaysians are into blogging, affiliate marketing and making money online. They just choose different languages to approach the same subject matter.
You are very true Gobala, often the choice of language can affect your profits. You see I made an advertisement(CPC) regarding my product in Yahoo not knowing that the terms stated that the landing page and the ads must be in English.
So I made the ads in Bahasa Malaysia and luckily the ads succesfully appeared in Yahoo search for the first 4 days . I got 260 unique visitors(average 65 clicks per day) to my website in those 4 days.
Hope things will get better in the future.
Then on the 5th day my ads disappeared, I wondered why. So I contacted the Yahoo office in Singapore and found out why.
After that I revamped my ads and website to English with links to Malay version.
Now here is the result:
The English ads get lower click result, around 20++ clicks per day campare to 65 clicks per day for the first 4 days. Must be that a lot of Yahoo searcher who read Malay will less incline to click an English written ads.
What you said earlier is the truth and it affect your response rate.
I don see much difference between PAS, UMNO and PKR. Love it, hate it, these elites will deny their own race the need to improve on their english while they sent their kids to UK.
met a chap in college, his father is a PAS ADUN. he speaks perfect english… at home. ironic.
@ Ngan - What the heck are you saying, and how is that in any way related to the post? Aiyo.. pening lah
English memang penting buat masa ini dan puluhan tahun akan datang tetapi bahasa lain juga patut dikuasai bukan sahaja untuk “dollar n cent” malah melangkaui lebih jauh dari itu…
As long as market segments are still segmented by government policies, education and the media, we will still have this problem. Look at Astro. Catering to something we shouldn’t need, by right. So is there even a solution to this? Even the Minister Mentor of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew agreed recently that the dual language education made his people fore-go the more important language to gear Singaporeans to greater heights and purely made them weaker, in some sense. The problem with Malaysia is that it has a growing segmented market which would make things harder for Malaysians to adapt to. You have the vernacular ed’s wanting a certain medium of communication whilst another batch geared up for globalisation.
I’m in for us gearing up in to market products in English as it does bring out some sort of value in the global sphere but at the same time our country is unique as we’re made out of the 3 most populous ethnicities in the world. As irritating as it is right now that people can’t even speak English properly, perhaps with the change in the economic climate of the years to come, things could work to our advantage. Perhaps this is something else to study for marketers?
Food for thought.
@ Hafiz – For me any language is fine – English or BM – as long as it can be used to communicate with everyone. When it comes to online stuff however, BM will never catch up fast enough with the speed that everything changes ,everyday. We’ll probably see more “adopted” English words in the kamus