Thaivisa Was An "Accident From Start"

[webfact]

GEORGE TALKS

He's an institution: George, founder and owner of Thaivisa.com, Thailand's probably most popular website among foreigners with its unique forum.

George is the brain behind the success, but success invites envy and jealousy, so not all you read about Thaivisa is milk and honey.

I recently had a talk with George and here is what he says about Thailand today, Thaivisa's sometimes debatable moderators, politics, etc.

George say, how did it all start with Thaivisa?

It was an accident! It started with an experiment with SEO (search engine optimization) in 2002, I wanted to see if a forum like this would be able to reach the top of search results without any cheating (it's called "white-hat SEO"). As we only had myself and a few friends in the very beginning, we started to ask each other questions and answered each others topics. Most forums actually start this way, even if it does sound a little strange. At that time there were not many Thai related forums around and mostly they covered the bar scene, and we weren't interested in that and wanted to offer something completely different. I invested a lot of baht in marketing the site during the first three to four years.

Thaivisa has some dream stats. Can you share some of the Google Analytics data?

We have around 35-45,000 unique visistors per day, and we are approaching 6 million page views per month. We grow approx 10-15% per month, but some months are more or less due to seasonal variations and how much we spend on marketing. Around 50% of our traffic is from within Thailand. Most of our revenue is reinvested in server infrastructure and online marketing.

You seem to be constantly online. You're hooked? Can you ever take a day off from your site?

Well, I do try to take days off, but yes, I am hopelessly addicted. However, we have a great team on Thaivisa and I know that it's in good hands. My normal working day is between 12 and 16 hours per day, a bit less on weekends or when traveling. I went to China for a week recently and had severe withdrawal symptoms. smile.gif I have promised myself to "get a life" soon though …

Who are the key players within Thaivisa?

Our members, and of course the moderating team which help keep the forum a welcoming place for newbies and older members alike. Also our admin team take care of servers, sales, marketing and support. The sponsors pay our bills and bandwidth, a big thanks to them.

Thaivisa has become a remarkable enterprise with an innovation every few months. You sell insurances, organize parties, now the cooperation with The Nation. You're way ahead of the competition, if there's any. Has it become too stressful to manage Thaivisa?

No, not really, I have a great team backing me up, its certainly not a one man show. Some of the services we offer are outsourced to third parties who do an excellent job.

You have any competition? I mean the hate and distrust between the major expat forums in Thailand seems to be deeper than between red and yellow Thais.

We don't hate any other forum, we don't really have the time or energy to worry too much about what other forums are saying or doing. More than 87,000 members keep us busy!

What local sites are you reading? Nah, you don't have to mention absolutely Bangkok.com ..

Most of the English Thai dailies and blogs. A lot of good content ideas comes from social networking like Twitter and Facebook. Thaivisa takes most of my time really. I've been a member of webmasterworld.com since day 1. I read 2bangkok.com and Stickman's weekly column to name a few examples.

Thaivisa's commercial tie-up with The Nation, a newspaper quite often so one-sided it asked for the creation of Not The Nation: Wouldn't the Bangkok Post have been a more appropriate partner of choice?

Our tie-up with The Nation is strictly a marketing/media issue. We have a few new exiting things in the pipeline with them.

A recent example with our tie-up with The Nation and The Phuket Gazette is the new SMS service we started a few weeks ago, targeting expats and their need for news in Thailand. We already got a few thousand SMS subscribers and the feedback has been very positive. We wouldn't get rich of premium SMS services, but we will be able to employ one or two full time native English speaking editors in the near future.

The Bangkok Post is not willing to cooperate with Thaivisa on posting news so, unfortunately, they do not have a voice on the forum. We are still in talks with them though, and there is no hard feelings.

Read the full interview here: http://absolutelybangkok.com/george-talks/

-- absolutelybangkok.com 2009-11-19

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

[londonthai]

a fruitful accident, must say

[zzaa09]

Good on ya, George!! Keep on truckin'!!

[MHM]

Is it still accidental?

[Changian]

AB: Thai authorities must love you. Hardly anything about nightlife, no controversial politics topics, sometimes Thaivisa reads like an official publication of the governments public relations department. Don’t you need some more zesty content to become a more “credible” source of information? You can find lots of yellow, shall I say: propaganda stuff in Thaivisa. The reds don’t seem to exist.

G: Yellow propaganda stuff? We try to keep a level field and do not believe you will find more of one side or the other here than in any other mainstream source . . .

So what you're saying is that you are no more pro Democrat / anti Thaksin than, say, The Nation for example.

[BIGTOE3]

I have only met George once at an unofficial TV Piss Up at the Crossbar and he was a complete gentleman.

He bought all members of TV present a drink or two.

I have only met good members here, who have become great friends over the years and have learned a lot of very good information especially regarding Visa's etc.

Good on you George - keep it up.

BT

[Kan Win]

Well done George and the Team. Thank you for having me on your forum

I joined by 'accident' 2003 , new to forums then, but ThaiVisaDotCom gave me a veiw in them days, years ago what a forum is all about.

Joined a few foums since then, but alas I do not post on them any more only in the Photography Forums that I am in.

Good Luck to ThaiVisaDotCom

Thanking you for all that you have done for me and our Members.

Sawadee Khrup

Kan Win

[angiud]

Good job!

I just regret to discover ThaiVisa not so long time ago.

[neverdie]

Thanks for that webfact, interesting read.

I'm still surprised George didnt mention me though ....perhaps Im not being naughty enuf

[Jonathanpattaya]

This website is worth its' weight in gold.

[tominbkk]

I joined TV around the time of the last coup, or at least that's when I first started really using it. It's a part of my day, most every day. Thanks, George!

[TheAceFace]

Top job George, helped so many people. Long may it continue...keep up the good work.

[Rimmer]

Quote George:

"My normal working day is between 12 and 16 hours per day"

That's some retirement job

[opalhort]

Congratulations to George for the success TV has experienced and deservedly so.

There is no other forum that provides this kind of variety of information for foreigners coming to or residing in Thailand.

I did join in 2003 and have gained a lot of very helpful information from this forum and tried to help where I thought I could do so.

Recently I commented on issues that were frowned upon and got a big scolding as a result, but since I do not socialize with other foreigners in bars etc., this TV forum has become something of a group of friends to me and I may voice my opinion here on TV.

As for the issue of Nation vs. BP I hope this issue can be resolved eventually.

Good luck and please keep up the great work you are doing George

and also thanks to the great moderating team

opalhort

[wileycoyote]

Dear George,

Good Result & Very Good Work

Best Wishes

Wiley Coyote

[Steve2UK]

Likewise congratulations to George and all the ThaiVisa team.

A question........ In the full interview, I read: "The forum has to be a place for all members to feel comfortable posting in, without fear of flaming or cliquish behavior." OK, flaming we all know about (and don't do it) - but could George please define what he means by "cliquish behavior"?

[LaoPo]

..Nice interview and congratulations to George !

What I miss is the signature of the person who interviewed George; that's a miss !

He/she says that he/she was banned one time and I wonder why he/she starts the article with:

"I recently had a talk with George....."

Who's I ? It's quite normal to end (or start) an interview with the writer/journalist, isn't it ?

And: being a TV member for over 5 years it's still a mystery to me who "George" is; a faceless man to me (and thousands of others) and that's a pity since I never had a chance (time wise - period wise) to meet him at one of the Thaivisa parties

Why hide the face/profile of a successful Farang entrepreneur in Thailand ?

Surely, a man who says: "...................it’s nice to be called “handsome man” once in a while. " can't be that ugly to be afraid to show his face, can he?

Read more: http://absolutelybangkok.com/george-talks/#ixzz0XJoVK3kq

LaoPo

[xenomorph]

George,

Did you get your investment back?

(just curious)

[phayao]

Congratulations, George!

There are many people like me grateful for your efforts.

Keep going, long live thaivisa.com!

[Meridian007]

Congratulations George! It's nice that you are finally getting some recognition for all your hard work!

Thanks for creating my biggest procrastination tool! :D

[Thaihog]

Well done George and the team. Many thanks for all your hard work.

I'm sure that there is a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes that we are not aware of.

Cheers

[Tinkelbell]

Thaivisa Was An " Accident From Start".

So lucky me and most of the forum members who are enjoying the fruits of labor from George and the team.

Congretulations to the best team in town.

May all of you live a happy long life so we-members can have a pleasure of reading ThaiVisa for many many years to come.

[phetaroi]

I joined TV around the time of the last coup, or at least that's when I first started really using it. It's a part of my day, most every day. Thanks, George!

Similar here. It was the only way at the time to get any real sense of what was happening hour-by-hour, and as my move where was rapidly approaching I was keen to keep in the loop.

BTW, if any of your don't check out 2bangkok.com, which George mentioned in the article, do. Gives you a different take on some issues and I love their old photographs and the really wide variety to things they post.

[MILT]

I just want to express my heart felt gratitude for your hard work and that of your team/staff. But I can't resist to offer a minor critique since you have such, (me included) a wide fan base. I find that most of the members that post on TV have to be constantly aware of freedom of expression? Or maybe I get frustrated when I cannot be a real jerk Thanks George

[t.s]

This website is worth its' weight in gold.

indeed, how heavy is php.

[EnhancePlus]

wish I had accidents like this

[babuhavas]

oh..ok

good job george.

[bkkjames]

When's the IPO George?

[Samuian]

yep, good job - kudos!

Still going strong, moderation, keeping it clean, being fair, stick to the guidelines, nothing comes from nothing!

[caf]

Its strength is in its numbers. 45000 hits a day. More members than any other site.

There is competition of course but because the other sites are smaller they dont have a sufficient number of members to contribute to a full debate.

Ask a question on TV and you will get an answer quite quickly. Some may not be helpful but because there will be a lot of replies you can make a judgment and act accordingly. Try that on other sites and you will not get enough replies to form an opinion.

You get a broader range of opinions on TV than other sites. And therefore the thread can be more informative - one poster mentioned the postings during the period of the coup and that was a good example.

The flaming is a problem but one can often avoid it and not rise to the bait. And there is always the report button. The rather offensive remarks that get posted by some members when someone dies is more than regretable but the mods cant be everywhere.

I use other forums and blogs but use TV the most because there is more information here.

Some topics come across as biased but that is often because a large number of posters of one particular view are posting while others of a different view feel disinclined to post. That is certainly better than one forum - the one where the poster with the highest number of posts does not even live in Thailand - will delete posts and members who do not toe the party line. TV is certainly not in that category. Views are not surpressed. They are currently running a thread on a foreigner rape and on Chiangmai driving. So few posts on both that there is just not enough material there to form an opinion or join a discussion.

Well done George and your team.