Alright, I am sure most of you (or maybe all of you) already know Hi5. Let me just
http://www.hi5.com/
Hi5 was created in the year of 2003. However, Hi5 just began to boom heavily in Thailand around the end of 2007 by only 1 sole reason. It has Thai version. As far as I know, more than half of Thai youngsters could not understand and communicate in English properly. This is why Hi5 has never been in young teenagers' mind until it came up with Thai version last year. And since then, Hi5 has been a big talk of the town among teenagers since it is the first SNS website available at that time.
I don't think I need to explain how Hi5 is a viral marketing, but I just have to tell you all first that I used to like Hi5 because it existed before Facebook, but now I just hate Hi5 and love Facebook a lot more. But here is the funny thing that I like about Hi5.
One of my friends in Thailand came up to me early this year and told me "Draft, you have Hi5 yet? Everyone is playing now man, you should also get one." I laughed softly and replied "Hey, I have Hi5 account since 3 or 4 years ago already." He was very surprised because he has no idea Hi5 existed that long already. I also added, "And now I don't play Hi5 anymore. Facebook is far better than Hi5 man." Off course, he has no idea what Facebook is, lol.
One more funny fact about Thai youngsters and Hi5. They know English so little that they call Hi5 and Hi-ha (Hi as in ひ and Ha is 5 in Thai).
3 comments:
Just found out that Hi5 is really booming in Thai. In Indonesia we have Friendster since like 2003(I think it's also popular in the Phillipines) although gradually Facebook is gaining more popularity.
I think localizing content should be one of the most important marketing strategy that drive the growth of SNS. Hi5 case reminds me that knowing who your customers are (target market, and market segmentation) will definitely add value to a marketing plan.
Make your Notebook fast
Make your notebook fast.
http://ccnotebooktips.blogspot.com/
Post a Comment