Duncan wrote:Just saw this poster and was wondering if these guys are new in town?
It seems to be a Chinese media company claiming to be close to the Chinese government. Besides their ambition of being an ISP, providing internet access to the masses, they also want to be some kind of
netflix.com (TV-like service) and beyond that replicate the successes of
amazon.com,
aliexpress.com, or
taobao.com as an online marketplace.
I have had a look at their prices for internet access services:
www.supernet.com.kh. In this already crowded Cambodian market, they are just way too expensive. They will never manage to take on existing providers such as Metfone, Ezecom or similar companies in order to acquire market share.
Concerning their netflixing ambitions, I wonder how much they intend to charge for their service? Netflix itself would never take off in Cambodia. Too expensive. There may indeed be a market for streaming video services, but nobody has been able to discover how to make money from that in Cambodia. Furthermore, Supernet does not particularly sound like they would be the creative innovators, capable of solving that intractable problem. Seriously, what intractable problems have they managed to solve in the past? Any links?
There is a good reason why there are no online marketplaces in Cambodia. There is simply no way to pay online for the average Cambodian shopper. Furthermore, credit -or debit cards are a non-starter. Whatever what, Supernet are clearly recruiting the wrong profiles in order to address that particular problem. They are also in the wrong industry and using the wrong licenses if they want to do anything about it. My take is that Supernet will gradually burn through their initial capital of 100 million dollars, and when the money is gone, they will pack their bags and leave to China again, like lots of companies before them. Cambodia is truly a graveyard for companies that are obviously just wannabes in their own domestic market.