Alternatives to China
Online gaming companies may be better to look at markets with fewer barriers
“A lot of online companies come to Asia and all they want to do is to get into China. But that’s probably the most difficult place to do online marketing right now,” Chris Sanderson, Managing Director of Affilitude, told the Casino Affiliate Convention held recently in Macau.
Affilitude is an affiliate management and marketing firm, focused on four core areas of business: sports books, foreign currency exchange, casinos and poker in the South East Asian, Australian and Indian markets.
“The markets in Southeast Asia are smaller, but that’s relative,” says Mr Sanderson.
“There are 72 million people in Thailand. Vietnam also has a large population.
New opportunities
“Depending on what games you’ve got, I would certainly look at countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam, which are grossly overlooked by a lot of online gaming suppliers,” adds Mr Sanderson.
“They are actually probably the easiest ones to get into in terms of the size of the population and the growth of the Internet. You’ve also got less risk of running foul of the government, or less risk of being unable to persuade them you should stay open.”
As well as the size of their populations, there is considerable use of English online, states Mr Sanderson.
“In Thailand for example, anyone who’s educated and online will be able to read and write English. It’s the same in Malaysia, the same in Vietnam. There is also a growing understanding and ease of affiliate marketing in those countries.”
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