The Chinaman
Earlier this week, I met with this local chinese businessman. He owns several businesses from palm oil to tradeshows booths supply. A few years back, a friend of mine helped him setup his own domain plus website but now they’re all gone because he didn’t pay the annual web hosting fee.
Why didn’t he pay? Well not because he forgot or anything, he just didn’t want to. That was why he met me. He asked me if it’s possible to setup a domain name plus website, with a one-off payment. That is, he will NEVER have to pay again.
I said, of course lah possible. All he has to do is pay in advance. Of course if he wants his domain name to exist forever, that will take a lot.
But I was shocked when I found out how stingy and ungenerous this guy is.
Businessman : So this domain name. How much to pay ah?
Me : Oh. Domain name is cheap actually. Around USD$10.
Businessman : USD$10 ah? Hmmm consider cheap lah.
Me : Yeah that price is an annual fee. You have to pay every year.
Businessman : EVERY YEAR HAVE TO PAY AH???
Me : Errrrrr.. yes? That is like less than RM50 bah.
Businessman : Haiya. Die lah like that.
At that moment I knew this guy will vomit once I tell him the average price of a web hosting fee - surely he will cut his head off if I add that the web hosting fee is an annual fee too.
You might think he is a small-time businessman, just to justify why he is like that.
What if I tell you that he has an office in Shanghai?
One day he will realise that a website is not a fad that every companies want a .com. He’s missing out millions of prospective partners that he won’t be able to meet by giving out business cards during international trade shows.
If he was not being cocky, I would have explained to him what a website can do to his business but I know I will be wasting my time.
I pray and hope that he and all the other businessmen just like him, will come out of their caves and smell the bandwidth.
March 28th, 2007 at 10:25 am
my Opi, i think he doesnt reaallly understand the NEEDS or IMPORTANT of one website is… or better stil to tell him pay RM5000 once in 10 years rather than telling him RM500 for every year… hehe
pisst: ini misti klu meeting client, minum chinese tea je… yakkk..
March 28th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Ya bah, lotsa ppl especially our fellow Sabahans business ppl don’t really realize the potential of having a website … mmmm
March 28th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
Wah you are back! So, show us your home.
March 28th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Businessman : Haiya. Die lah like that.
I LOL-ED
March 29th, 2007 at 7:03 am
Ya bah, begitulah bah businessmen. Once I had a customer asking me to design a web for his resort, mind you this guy have a lot of $$$. After creating a web design & published it on the Net, he said ok. Paid. After a few days, he called asking me to change some flash graphics.. he wants the “coconut tree to dance”. I said there’ll be extra charges… he declined. Soon after, he wants to update some stuff in the web. I said there’ll be charges for every page that he wants me to edit. Again, he declined.
I saw his website again today. He changed the whole thing.. into a website that looks like it was done by a 10 year old kid. LOL!
March 29th, 2007 at 8:43 am
Kay - i’m still on a ’sporadic posts’ moment… you can check out my new house over at http://www.joeff.net.
April 11th, 2007 at 9:57 am
typical chinese is really like this…. not even in china…. but all over tha world