Race for Jamaican web content again

Ingrid Riley

I THINK I now believe that being a first mover in any marketplace doesn't guarantee you anything, except of course that, all of your potential competitors are watching your every move, taking notes on your failures and successes.

I say this because there is now such overwhelming evidence that HomeView as a pioneer, really blew open the eyes of many and has helped them to the see the awesome commercial and community potential of Jamaican Content on the Web.

HomeView was the number one Caribbean site on the Web period. Its high traffic, quality and diverse Content made it so, and while I am somewhat biased, having been its Chief Content Officer who led a team that created the soul of site, and prior to that was part of a two person team of women who brought to the table and sold the HomeView moneybags on how to bring and keep traffic to the site through original and Jamaican flavoured community, activity and utility type Content - HomeView with its 9 global sites worked while it was live online.

Now, I have the pleasure of watching others follow in our pioneering footsteps. A few are now actively exploring and successfully bouncing and beaming audio and video live or serving it up archived. The more notable ones are Downsoundsrecords.com that has been webcasting some of their reggae sessions and concerts live, medium4.com that has a Reggae TV show which is archived and then there are other sites that simply allow you to access a preset Reggae play list.

It has also been interesting to watch Jamaicans.com grow its community base of Jamaicans online, with Lycos Caribbean about to launch themselves into the portal fray with the Lycos brand, traffic and marketing muscle behind it, and by the way who are in the island sniffing for Content. We're waiting to see what Caribbeat.com.jm/Carib-beatradio.com is going to come with. The big news this week though should be about Tropicom, the New Kingston-based Wireless Communications Provider who won the rights to webcast live and archive Reggae Sumfest for the next 7 years. Whoaa!

So the question remains the same, can you profit from Jamai-can Content on Web - yes, now subscription and sponsorship is in, advertising and freeness is out. And when we say Content we mean text, visual, audio and video. In fact so far one of the few Jamai-can Content sites which seem to be bubbling on the money train is Rudejam.com - an adult sex site.

My bet is on anyone who can snag the top radio stations and anyone who offers unique text and visual content that people will pay money to subscribe and receive. Interesting times ahead.

Ingrid Riley is a writer, and CEO of MIND FULL Press a Caribbean Media and Publishing Company, that is the premier source for Caribbean Tech News and Information. She is active in the Caribbean's hi-tech and business communities. Send comments to her at:

ingridriley@yahoo.com.

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