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Voice economy (3): Self-media could start from voice

Colley Hwang, DIGITIMES, Taipei 0

Credit: DIGITIMES

Targeted advertising usually sells better, especially in the technology industry. Tech companies in general won't run widespread adversiting campaigns, and instead target sepcific professional groups. In addition to professional media, "self-media" has also become very popular. ds that echo our life and work will work best. Therefore, how much value will be there for professional tech ads broadcast during rush-hour traffic jams around science parks?

During a recent visit to a friend, I saw a ROEST coffee roaster at his place, and learned that it is not only a professional-grade coffee roaster, but also can store all kinds of roasting specifications on the cloud, which is perfectly in line with the habits of top techies. If ROEST advertises through IC Broadcasting radio station, it will definitely get a lot of positive responses. This machine costs more than NT$300,000, so you can imagine that a vendor of high-margin products will definitely be willing to invest in the right advertising.

Podcast advertising company Midroll was commissioned by AC Nelson to conduct a survey and found that podcast advertising is 4.4 times more effective than online advertising, and Japanese digital voice platform Radiko has similar findings. You wouldn't be offended by the sound of someone saying "Intel Inside," but it wouldn't be the same if there are too many words and images in front of you. When it comes to video production, the cost and time of post-production is likely to be to high compared to the actual benefits.

The tools are changing, so you need to know how to adjust your core business with the current situation. Most consulting firms publish basic survey statistics with the goal of selling the technology reports, while media outlets hope to have as much readership as possible.

In less than two months since acquiring IC Broadcasting, we've launched programs of interest to techies under the concept of "tech corridors," and the number of active visitors to its website has doubled, and the number of random radio listeners is increasing. Therefore, whether it is a new audio-visual platform or even a traditional radio station, the value-added audio-visual programs have become a channel for disseminating DIGITIMES' tech news. In the past, the content we produced at high cost could only be presented on the print and web pages, but now it is multi-faceted and the multiplier benefits are obvious!

People who run a business should define the scope of their business, and even the value of their life, by their expertise. I have studied semiconductors and supply chains for 36 years and have had more opportunities to meet top corporate leaders and observe the geopolitical and semiconductor relationships from the perspectives of the US, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and even Germany and India. This is a professional issue that I would not normally take lightly, but I can leverage IC Broadcasting to make my own comments at the right time.

I am personally most interested in the issues about techies' daily life. I am in touch with techies and know how they live their lives, how they make decisions, and even their characteristics in management, travel, music, and reading habits, and that's why we bought IC Broadcasting.

Taiwan, like Japan, is a society that is strongly afraid of failure and avoids high-risk investments. They wouldn't mind doing low-risk businesses with low returns as long as they can succeed. Secondly, they lack the ability to think on their own, so picking up the wisdom of others is a habit that also limits the development of society.

I believe during the develpment of voice technology, a lot of potentials have been identified. It is only a matter of time before the voice becomes as good as the text. In the future, if listeners of a program through cell phones or other personalized tools could have their heartrates and emotions judged through visual data, then the value of advertising would be even more amazing.

Colley Hwang, president of DIGITIMES Asia, is a tech industry analyst with more than three decades of experience under his belt. He has written several books about the trends and developments of the tech industry, including Asian Edge: On the Frontline of the ICT World published in 2019, and Disconnected ICT Supply Chain: New Power Plays Unfolding published in 2020.