Sawatdee Network is For Sale

[bkkguy]

I have no idea

the rest of your post supports this so you should have just stopped there

I know it is still considered perfectly reasonable for Internet startups to have no idea about their real target market and even less idea of how to build a revenue stream from that target market but give me a break - a high quality web site with the combined features of facebook and Ashley Madison but just for gay Thailand that is going to drive its membership by spamming pickup apps and get its revenue from other dating web sites beating down its door wanting to advertise?

one thing you are right about is it is a massive project that is never going to be achieved by some "expert"/wanker in Nakhon Nowhere after buying the software scraps and handful of eyeballs from Sawatdee Network with his life savings

the gay market is fragmented and complex in most countries and both experienced old media (print/TV) and new media (web) companies still have problems understanding and surviving in this market segment let alone Internet startups with their head in the clouds (or usually the "cloud")

the Thai gay market is even more fragmented and complicated and then there are the language issues etc ... you just need to look at the casualties in the mainstream print media, the freebie print media and web sites over the last few years - but not just in Thailand, pick any other SE Asian or other Asian country

if you really want to address "all things gay in Thailand" you are going to need significant resources, skills and capital and it is still doubtful that the revenue stream will ever be there to justify the investment, else stick to tightly focused sites that require limited resources and can survive on limited revenue or just play at the hobby level like many sites do now - not just the English language forums!

bkkguy

[lego]

Ah well Lego, it must be great to know everything.

That's not at all how I meant it. After you've lived and worked in Thailand for some years, you simply know more - not everything - about local laws and customs than your typical visitor. That's why it's unlikely that i would walk into a defamation trap. Getting scammed could happen to me, too, but maybe it would be more likely to happen in Malaysia or in Vietnam, where I only travel occasionally and don't know a lot.

[Tobi]

That said, a board focussing on all things gay in Thailand really ought to have a much, much larger market. No-one yet seems to know how to achieve that!

Where's the successful board focussing on all things gay in America or the UK? For the younger generation, there's less-and-less of a gay/straight divide, they don't base their whole identity on being gay. It's only niche pursuits that aren't addressed by mainstream media sites, for example the gay sex industry that now drives traffic to boards such as this. The average lgbt tourist to Thailand is more likely to simply flick through the latest online copy of Thai Puan http://www.thaipuan.com/ and be good to go, rather than ask questions or dig through posts on a forum.

[arsenal]

Were this my board, which it isn't and nor will it ever be, but. I would simplify it right down to two forums. Thailand and everything else. Too many forums means interesting things get missed and are therefore less likely to be posted on. Indeed I myself have posted some Nobel standard writings on some of the less visited forums and thought is it really worth the effort considering how few actually read it.

[Manforallseasons]

As topics in The main forum on Thailand almost alway meander to content other than Thailand why not just have the 1 main forum?

[arsenal]

MFAS: Personally I think we need/like a forum just devoted to Thailand but we also want one to talk about all the other stuff. For example Scottish and I need somewhere to continue throwing saucepans at each other.

[Manforallseasons]

Arsenal why not do it in the main arena if one is not interested they needn't look!

[cdnmatt]

if you really want to address "all things gay in Thailand" you are going to need significant resources, skills and capital and it is still doubtful that the revenue stream will ever be there to justify the investment, else stick to tightly focused sites that require limited resources and can survive on limited revenue or just play at the hobby level like many sites do now - not just the English language forums!

Isn't that basically exactly what I said? It's a massive project, would also be a huge gamble, and not one I'm interested in. Nonetheless, the current membership of this board is dieing off (literally), so unless it's revamped to somehow attract a broader audience, it's most likely going to be offline within 24 months. Simple as that.

[lonelywombat]

Were this my board, which it isn't and nor will it ever be, but. I would simplify it right down to two forums. Thailand and everything else. Too many forums means interesting things get missed and are therefore less likely to be posted on.

As topics in The main forum on Thailand almost alway meander to content other than Thailand why not just have the 1 main forum?

I agree totally with both of you and others that have suggesting this for some time

Why do we need a listing for gay romeo Why not keep it as another thread in Thailand

Two threads and one for the political rubbish for those who need it.

[fountainhall]

Two threads and one for the political rubbish for those who need it.

I've always been in favour of several threads. There are readers - those living here as well as visitors - who like/want to travel to other parts of S. E. Asia, for example, and who appreciate othersтАЩ experiences. Having to wade through a host of Thailand posts to try and find the latest info on Myanmar or Vietnam etc. might be a turn-off. And even though existing boards have search boxes, they do not always seem to throw up precisely what one is looking for.

On the other hand, the title of the site makes it is clear it is about Thailand. So perhaps info on neighbouring countries could be seen to loosen that focus. Yet it does seem that the more you focus exclusively on Thailand gay issues, the less attractive the Board becomes to possible new members. To stay alive and relevant and at the same time maintain the sense of camaraderie that Scottish mentioned, surely a Board surely has to be open to as wide a range of topics as possible in as readable a format as possible.

the current membership of this board is dieing off (literally), so unless it's revamped to somehow attract a broader audience, it's most likely going to be offline within 24 months. Simple as that.

I am sure others believe this is the root of internet Board problems. Unless the list of active posters can somehow be increased, is there a future? As Tobi pointed out, the average lgbt tourist nowadays is unlikely to go through a site like this. They have so many other more targetted info sources. They are also certainly likely to be younger and increasingly far more likely to be Asian than the existing readership. Leaving aside the cameraderie issue, has this Board ever had an Asian member? gaythailand has just one, I believe, and he posts only very occasionally. Earlier I mentioned the Singapore blowingwind site. Its Traveller section has a huge 96 pages on Bangkok alone with some very detailed info on gay places, and a further 3 on Chiang Mai. Frankly, it has more info for the gay traveller - understandably the younger gay traveller - than any of the existing Thailand-based forums. Most there speak good English. Shouldn't at least some of these Asian tourists who often come here two or three times a year be part of Sawadee's target market? I believe that makes sense. But how then does an existing Board like this maintain its sense of camaraderie without alienating potential new members who feel they won't fit in?

I wish I had some answers!