First European media market goes online
e-farm.pl, a Polish internet incubator that specializes in business-to-business ventures, last week launched MediaX, its first platform.
"We've created a trading environment that can help the buying-and-selling community do their job," said David Williams, president of MediaX (http://www.mediax.pl.)
According to Jowita Dzus-Korocinska, the company's media director, "MediaX is an internet platform that provides continual access to the media market in Poland."
The aim of the site is to bring together media buyers such as advertising agencies and media houses with media sellers such as the press, radio, TV, outdoor ad companies and cinemas. In addition to providing a platform where they can meet, MediaX also allows them to conduct transactions.
All media professionals need is a computer, access to the internet and a password for the platform. Once a buyer or seller has logged on, they can then communicate directly with other users.
"The basic idea behind MediaX was driven by a media scene that is growing very rapidly," Williams said. "It's a $2 billion market and still growing." He said that Poland's dispersed media market makes it difficult for companies to communicate efficiently.
Apart from aiding the communication process between users, the platform will also allow participants to post company information such as price lists. In addition, the platform gives media companies a chance to devise an entire advertising campaign, from defining a target group to coming up with a complete media plan, online.
"There are something in the region of 7,000 companies involved in buying and selling media (in Poland)," Williams said. "What we have seen is the huge growth and success of media companies, but no real development of the communication infrastructure between them."
Williams said that until now media companies communicated via "rudimentary" forms such as faxes or over the telephone, but due to the sheer amount of information that passes between firms these days, those methods are no longer fast enough. "So we saw opportunities in something that would allow for much easier and more rational communication between the parties," he said.
"We are not a market maker; we do not create the prices and structures, we do not negotiate discounts, what we do is facilitate transactions," Williams said. "It is still between the buying and selling parties to do their own negotiating."
The platform will also offer a number of tools for selling or buying ad space, such as online auctions, forums and last-minute purchases.
"Transactions are free of charge for buyers," Dzus-Korocinska said. Sellers pay a fee but only after the transaction is finalized. "The commission (that MediaX charges) depends on the type of media being transacted," Dzus-Korocinska said. She refused to reveal any details about the commission range, saying only that MediaX's commission wouldn't be expensive.
While MediaX is the first platform of its kind in Europe, two similar sites, One Media Place and Buy Media, are in operation in the United States, Williams said.
