This is the question I get asked all the time, and it is hard to give a succinct answer to why Australian businesses should be lagging behind their US and Western European catalogues. There are, however, a range of possible explanations which may all be contributing to the adoption gap:
- It may simply be the case that Australian business is always a follower rather than a leader when it comes to innovation in the areas of management, human resources and communication
- Poor Australian broadband coverage and speeds mean that participation in social media overall is less.
- Australia’s political system, with compulsory voting, ‘closed’ party preselections and tight party discipline, discourages the sort of citizen participation that flourishes through web 2.0. This is important because corporates tend to learn new communication techniques from their political colleagues.
- Related to number 3, Australia has long had a restricted media diet and a tendency to rely on, and be comfortable with, a small number of information sources.
- Consequent on 3 and 4, Australia has a fairly tame civic culture with limited debates and a preference for avoiding great public controversies, a suspicion of public intellectuals and an inordinate respect for ‘authority’.
- Consequent on 3,4, and 5, Australian businesses feel a lot less need to get involved in public advocacy around issues that affect their businesses. This is also evident in the fairly limited activity levels of business groups like the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Industry Group.
- Most of the people active in corporate affairs functions in Australia have spent most of their careers in the relatively calm, and small, ponds of Australian media and politics and they are in their comfort zones in these closed clubs. They actively discourage business interest and adoption of social media.
There may be other reasons too?
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Some other reasons which have been suggested to me this afternoon:
The overall level of competition is less here in Australia than in the more intense markets of the US and Europe, so there’s less emphasis on engagement with your customers.
Australian SMEs just don’t do customer service very well, and while they’ll happily spend $10k on print advertising they still baulk at a $5k website.
The slower penetration of “real” broadband could certainly have something to do with it. Longer page load times certainly discourage interaction, especially when we have pay-per-volume download charges which are far less common in the US. Business users are afraid to “use too much Internet” lest they get hit with extra charges or they slow their entire Internet link for the rest of the month.
I also wonder whether the super-keen entrepreneurs simply just up shop and move to San Francisco or Shanghai rather than try to be innovative in the sceptical Australian market?
Could it simply be that Australian business (e-commerce or not) has just not seen the mother lode often promised by internet marketers and web development firms.
Chief among them is a failure of business to understand the power of a professional online business presence and a failure to invest an appropriate portion of their marketing budget online.
Too often I hear small & micro business owners bawk at spending $5,000 – $10,000 on professional web development and marketing, while at the same time talking about their $10,000 Yellow Pages ad or the same amount on local newspaper ads or Tradeshows.
This suggests that privately owned businesses in emerging markets are under pressure.. We never heard about Australian market status rather we always seriously watching how businesses are in US, UK and China, etc., Reasons mentioned here are common as well but they should be avoided for Australia’s healthy future.
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