Digital Media, Economics & Tradition Pitted Against Another
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| Israel's Calcalist daily (also The Marker) is a take off on The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times |
Israel's digital adoption is spotty at times. Amazon and e-Bay did not become the big shopping sites in Hebrew. But Google and WordPress are as strong here as anywhere else. So is Facebook, Twitter and WhatsUp and other mainstream global digital names. Adoption of smart phones and mobile apps is strong and moving faster every day. While Apple's iPhone was a big seller, the Android push from a few companies, not just Samsung, is relentless. Prices of handsets is going down as well as mobile service plans. Golan Telecom, a company founded by a French immigrant wanting to bring European prices to the Israeli market is leading the charge. Add to the consumer digital world the strong technology and start-up activity, which gave Israel the moniker "start-up nation" (after the book), and you got a seemingly digital life here. Hold on skippy (as they say in Texas), not so fast... digital life is useful in many places, but tradition and lifestyle habits are still holding back certain market sectors.
For the most part, digital shopping is not as strong as in Europe and North America. Simply put, Israelis love shopping and malls. Israel's strong economic growth in the middle class steady rise, is making shopping and spending a national obsession. Materialism is on the rise and companies want to sell here. This makes the traditional marketing and sales effort push toward more face-to-face sales and less virtual digital development.
On the media side, digital publishing, news, magazines and audio-video format use is strong and pushing hard at the traditional paper publishing world. Newspapers here are in dire financial state. Magazines have already taken a beating and the ones left are struggling. Television and radio, especially the state owned channels are feeling both pressure from the market and from the state's need to cut expenses. With one channel essentially "shutting down" to be replaced by a "new organization" and the others mostly reduced to low cost productions (i.e. talk radio/TV) or airing foreign shows. Israeli (Hebrew) internet portals and applications are growing at a faster pace than worldwide. Not simply because of growth in mobile use, but growth with new uses. More use of digital content in education, business and services (banking, health, insurance) is everywhere. The competition for Israeli consumers and their wallets between new digital merchants and the traditional business world is not going to end any time soon. As waves of excitement about digital devices and services wash over the market here, more traditional sectors will either have to change or to find an alternative way of life. So goes progress, even in traditional societies.
For the most part, digital shopping is not as strong as in Europe and North America. Simply put, Israelis love shopping and malls. Israel's strong economic growth in the middle class steady rise, is making shopping and spending a national obsession. Materialism is on the rise and companies want to sell here. This makes the traditional marketing and sales effort push toward more face-to-face sales and less virtual digital development.
On the media side, digital publishing, news, magazines and audio-video format use is strong and pushing hard at the traditional paper publishing world. Newspapers here are in dire financial state. Magazines have already taken a beating and the ones left are struggling. Television and radio, especially the state owned channels are feeling both pressure from the market and from the state's need to cut expenses. With one channel essentially "shutting down" to be replaced by a "new organization" and the others mostly reduced to low cost productions (i.e. talk radio/TV) or airing foreign shows. Israeli (Hebrew) internet portals and applications are growing at a faster pace than worldwide. Not simply because of growth in mobile use, but growth with new uses. More use of digital content in education, business and services (banking, health, insurance) is everywhere. The competition for Israeli consumers and their wallets between new digital merchants and the traditional business world is not going to end any time soon. As waves of excitement about digital devices and services wash over the market here, more traditional sectors will either have to change or to find an alternative way of life. So goes progress, even in traditional societies.
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