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Bucking The TrendWhat Meltdown? British Webbie looks at the the state of the industry in London. As talk of the global economic slowdown gathers pace, and the online and offline media chatterboxes help fester a decaying situation of equilibrium, I sit here and ponder… Am I to believe every single detail that I read or hear? Yes its true: "Greenspan has lowered Interest Rates at the Fed yet again", and "almost every company is laying off thousands of workers, newly hired just months previously". But what does this have to do with New Media? What exactly is going on? Here is the Net story with a distinctly European feel, and a UK-centric spotlight: At a recent gathering I attended in Curtain Road, EC2 (London) formed primarily from the staff of Lateral.net and its partner and associated companies I was able to get the real low down from some of the major players in the British design arena. It seemed to me that all the banter was fairly upbeat. All expressed little concern for the current UK and global economic situation. Yes it was apparent that there were a lot of people "out on the street", these people, however, didn’t factor into the overall equation. General consensus was that in the massive industry expansion of the last 3/4 years a lot of ‘inferior’ designers and programmers had been absorbed. I spoke with programmers who had been working in code for over a decade, and whose knowledge really counted for something and who hadn’t just fallen off the back of a truck in the East End with an MSCE certificate in their arms. I conversed with the architects of media and advertising for big name brands and their various lines, Levi’s and Ford Europe to name but two. All seemed happily resplendent in their achievements.. The Internet job sites are awash with new appointments everyday and no one seems to be in a hurry to get vacancies filled. Recruitment agencies seem to overlook every single last detail on your resume and potential employers seem to be increasingly fussy, more so when the remuneration isn’t as good as it should be. Lateral itself had just advertised a job on its own web site and received some 1500 applicants for the one job! Not withstanding any quality checks on portfolio’s submitted. And so it appeared that, in the world according to lateral.net, everything was just fine. Even the company dog seemed to be barkingly happy, with his own exposure on London daytime news porgramme (London Today) concerning his web site. And as I stroll though the streets of Soho, wandering past the offices new media firms, internet solutions providers, post production houses and advertising agencies I get the general sense that not much is changing in this city. Perhaps this reflects the perception that a core of business has simply been able to bolster their position in the market place to take advantage of new avenues through which to make money. And that these are the companies that are in effect offering the nuts and bolts that are making up the Internet revolution, not the companies selling the dog biscuits and cut price men’s underwear. Broadband access is yet to really hit the market and have a real impact here in the UK, despite the trials for ADSL in which my company was involved , ending some 2 years ago. In spite of this internet access numbers are still soaring here for first time users on 56k modems, and this does not yet look like its peaking. Market potential at a consumer level in the UK it would seem is still expanding. Globix UK Ltd has just opened its new SuperPOP in the City of London – London’s financial centre – and is forecast to open another data centre across the water in Amsterdam some time in the coming year. The business for Internet hotels is expanding, and even pre-laid plans for the biggest companies are not being cut back. Globix’s revenue is expanding it is happily signing mega bucks deals, the kind of deals with "Sony Europe" and "Time Out" dot com that are going to keep top designers and programmers in business for the next few years. Clearly market potential is increasing and a potential glut of service provision options will lead to increased competitiveness in business to business deals, which can only be good for content providers in the long run. The apparent contraction of employee numbers in the financial city might reflect a slow down in economic growth and potential for money making on the share markets, but demand for media and entertainment, in whatever form, remains. As is true of every revolution, there is always a initial burst of activity when people hear about it and try to get rich quick on the back of it, before the first slump. In that initial burst a lot of wealth is generated. Over the years following that initial slump that money is reinvested back into the industry and the real long-term benefits of the ‘gold rush’ begin to kick in, and it is only after 10-15 years that the real benefit of that initial rush can actually be visualised. For those of us working in what may seem a very young industry and to whom this is a first real down turn in fortunes, I tell you not to worry. Ups and downs are part of the economic cycle, they will come and go as politicians play the boom and bust game in London, Washington or wherever else. Lows will come and go and only the brave can "tough them out", those with true innovation and creativity can survive. The market is still out there and opportunities remain. Even Apple Inc., bloody nosed and unbowed, thought to be down and out after years of administration under the guidance of Amelio, was able to come back fighting under Jobs in 1997. The market is still there and opportunities are rife. Your share options may be only making "half a million dollars" instead of "a million" one year on, but then sometimes achievement isn’t just measured on financial terms. Pictures:
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