WHILE CELEBRATING THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PAST, THE EXPAT ALSO RACES TO THE FUTURE. THE EXPAT ONLINE EDITOR, KATRINA MELVIN, TALKS ABOUT THE WORK AND TEAM BEHIND INCREASING AND ENHANCING EXPAT INFORMATION AND MAKING IT MORE ACCESSIBLE.

The Expat Group went online in 2002, when www.expatkl.com was launched with the aim of providing support and information to expats in Malaysia. The site was the brain child of CEO Andy Davison who spotted the same niche for a website catering to expats in Malaysia as he had spotted 6 years earlier when he first published The Expat magazine. Andy was keen to develop The Expat Group’s online presence even then, but is only recently seeing the rewards:

“I have always thought the digital side of the business was a critical component which is why we started building websites 10 years ago. However, in terms of revenues, growth has been much slower than I anticipated mainly because local businesses were slow to see the value of promoting their products and services on the internet. This is now changing.”

Since 2002, we’ve grown through three versions of ExpatKL.com which is now our biggest product, with close to 20,000 unique visitors from around the world each month. The Expat Group has also since expanded its range to include a further fivewebsites. These include SensesofMalaysia.com, which is based on the eponymous award-winning magazine, and MM2H.com, which provides help and support to potential and existing MM2H visa holders. The MM2H.com help desk has handled thousands of enquiries about the programme and over 3000 people from over 70 different countries have signed up for the MM2H newsletter. We’re also on facebook and twitter, with plans to expand our social media presence as our websites grow.

Over the years, our digital team has grown parallel to our digital products. At present, the core members are: Rusli, IT director; Zack, IT technician; Rozalin, web designer; Perina, intern; Timothy, media director; Katrina, online editor; and Nick Davison, director. (The team is also on the look out for an experienced programmer, so if you love nothing more than untangling lines of code do get in touch or visit www. theexpatgroup.com for more information.)

2010 was a year of innovation, with the digital team working to improve TEG’s online publications. The year’s biggest project was the redesign of DineMalaysia.com.The online dining guide is now sponsored by MasterCard and looks set to become one of the country’s leading dining websites. Dine Malaysia represents a new era for The Expat Group – the site is more dynamic than ever before, and we’re very excited about our smartphone dining application – the first of its kind in Malaysia.

Rusli, TEG’s IT Director and resident computer geek, worked particularly hard in the run up to the big launch, hidden away in his office with three PCs running, and more code than you can shake a thumbdrive at. Our intern, Perina, has also been working hard, updating Dine Malaysia’s database of restaurants and bars. Perina can now reel off the location, opening hours, and signature dishes of at least half of the restaurants in KL – she is a living breathing food & beverage database.

With its strong team and forward-thinking leadership, 2011 looks to be an exciting year for TEG. Dine Malaysia is set to take off, and plans are afoot to revamp our other sites to the same web 2.0 standards. ExpatKL.com will be the next big project, so look out for the new site in the New Year.

Looking ahead to the next fifteen years, both Nick and Andy Davison see digital media as representing a great opportunity for rather than a threat to The Expat Group. Nick is positive about web 2.0 and the potential benefits it offers a small publishing company:

“Some print publishing companies fear the on-going transition from print to digital media. In contrast, I think these technologies are creating very exciting opportunities for our business. Not only can we publish an article but we can establish a dialogue; with Smartphones we can create applications for our audience to get and stay connected with us on-the-go; and with tablet computers we can create mobile, digital magazines with significantly more interactivity than print versions. Ultimately, our digital media products have great opportunities not only to strengthen our current audience relationships but also to expand our reach to foreigners living all around the world who are interested in Malaysia.”

Who knows what The Expat Group will look like in 15 years’ time, but it’s sure to be something entirely unpredictable with a whole lot of challenges and change along the way.

www.facebook.com/TheExpatGroup 
www.facebook.com/DineMalaysia 
www.twitter.com/TheExpatGroup 
www.twitter.com/DineMalaysia

Source: The Expat January 2011, article by Katrina Marion Melvin

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This article has been edited for ExpatGoMalaysia.com