ODEX is stupid. Don’t buy their animes and they won’t last and they die out of funds.

If anyone cares to try, Spoof your IP address and download animes. see how will ODEX will trace all the way to South America.

Just a question since I am not a singaporean, Is ODEX part of the Goverment? or just another company?

For those who care, tune in to 938Live’s Talkback programme from 8.15am to 8.45am 24 Aug (friday) for a debate on this issue. Call 6691 1938 to share your thoughts. Abstract from Today papers:

Is Odex stretching the law in its actions against illegal anime downloaders? Considering the age of some culprits, would a warning letter be enough? What trail has Odex blazed for other Intellectual Property owners? These were questions raised by TODAY commentator Thomas Koshy and other readers in the past week.

Here’s another update:
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Courts%2Band%2BCrime/STIStory_151108.html

Would watching streamed anime videos online be considered as “breaking” the law? How does one define the term downloading these days? I mean, if I watched anime on YouTube or any other websites like that would it mean that I am downloading the videos? Its not like I’m distributing these files or pirating it.

Many thanks to those who can answer.

2)another example is to make an anime channel dedicated to giving free episodes but this time they sell the figurines and merchandises.

*LAST THING
if they like making the vid quality so poor, i rather them not continuing
as all these would not work out if the quality is not there[this is a quality not quantity world =D]…

try to sync wif the fans Odex or else ur business will go bust…..
well thats frm me[my pt of view] sounds stupid lolz

To differentiate your product is not that difficult. All you need is to bundle some attractive anime freebies with your DVDs and you will start seeing money rolling in. This is just a very simple illustration, of course. You see, there ARE people who would buy the DVDs JUST for the freebies. I know of such people around me, so who says this approach will not work, sceptics at Odex? These freebies could inclue posters, figurines, keychains, etc…Is it that hard to do that?

And one thing to note, why still VCDs? That’s so pirated…VCDs gives the impression of piracy which gives a bad image of Odex. Secondly, everybody has DVD players by now, this I can say for certain. So who needs that crappy VCD? The reason why VCDs prevail in Asia years back was because no one is ready to buy a DVD player just to watch a few movie titles; DVD players are too expensive back then, and so are the DVD titles. However, in today’s context, the cost of producing DVDs are comparable to that of VCDs, if not lower, and with higher quality than VCDs. And show me are they any stores who only sell VCD players? In fact, sole VCD players no longer exist in the market. So tell me, Odex, what’s your strategic move about sticking to VCDs?

Complaining that the $9.99 bundle being not well-received is not good enough; sounds more like a whine to me than anything else. As with all kind of offers and product launches, there can be many considerations as to why it fails. Let me just name a few:

(1) Maybe you don’t know how to advertise your products better? Look, your website hasn’t even been updated for ages, so which sane idiot will keep checking your website when for months, nothing changed? Why not follow the footsteps of your counterpart in USA? They do it mostly free through the fans! That’s free WOM (Word-of-mouth) advertisements for you! And better still, from the mouths of fans, now that gives you more credibility than anything else. Odex, you really need to go to school.

(2) Perhaps, your already bad public image about the historical quality of your releases has affected your sales? Now, you better not dismiss this. Customers are paying for your products, and you better have a good reason for them to buy. Don’t expect to produce releases that are far worse than fansubs and expect anyone to pay for them. Fansubs are produced by fans on their free time and if they can do a better job than all your “experts” (if you can really call them that), I suggest you hire them…

(3) Is your company concerned about your customers? I highly doubt so. You do not participate in any anime discussions or even attempt to build rapport among fans, so how do you expect to have the fans on your side and supporting your company financially. In this regard, look at how the US companies respond to the same situation you (Odex) is facing. Just look at anime review sites, they gladly help to advertise for the US anime companies. Why? Because they feel that the companies are actually in sync with the fans. They feel that the companies ARE anime fans themselves. On the Singaporean side, we feel that Odex simply wants the money but does not want anything else to do with anime. We feel that you are not anime lovers yourself; there’s simply no connection between us fans and your company. Now that’s a very dangerous perception that is painted in the minds of consumers; Odex is like the bad guy here now. And with the recent pursuit to hunt down downloaders, it just serves to erode your already very bad image. If you learn in school, companies such as this will NOT survive for long in a free capitalist market. It’s been proven…

Conclusion:
Odex, what you need to do is to change the image that the public has of you. Follow what the US companies are doing. And btw, if you continue your current course of actions, you are digging your own grave to hell. Singaporean fans sees you as a fcuked-up (fcuk means french connection united kingdom; it’s a product brand not a vulgarity… company and you have just served to fuel the camp fire into a forest fire; it’s gping to get out of control. Now the fans hate you, so what are you gonna do? Continue what you are doing and you are doomed for failure. The times has changed and if you ever been to school, strategic management will tell you that change is inevitable and that you should anticipate and embrace them rather than resist. Resisting changes is going to be very painful, if not fatal. Go and do your PEST and internal assessments again before you choose an appropriate strategy. Your current one is a very bad move…

I believe that the core problem with ODEX is the clear impression toward others that their goods are low par. A sweeping “perception problem” is not going to do it, nor acknowledging it being a good tactic. What is important is to nail it right at the community and somewhat prove them wrong, especially on the quality part.

I don’t know, maybe I just have high standards, but personally I find that whilst ST is probably one of the best local newspapers around, that doesn’t actually account for much, considering how few publications we have. I suppose I’m just disillusioned since I often come across articles that are often of the “brainwashing” type (price increase not at all due to gst increase, anyone?), simply have bad writing, or evidence of some shoddy editing. (Such as paragraphs which are repeated) I do recognise that most of the time it’s often not the fault of individual journalists, since they have to conform to the newspaper’s standards and often the newspapers themselves have to answer to the government, but it still disappoints me when I compare the quality of writing in ST to some of the newspapers I read in the UK. But I digress, this is probably not the best place to talk about this since this is an anime blog. :p

Anyway, after reading your entry and a few others on the subject, I agree that it’s not entirely fair to completely place all the blame on Odex, since they ARE experiencing financial difficulties and as a company it’s simply natural for them to attack what they see as the root of the problem quickly and efficiently. From what I see, though, what upsets most anime fans is the fact that Odex’s business model is sadly lacking - subpar quality products, bad marketing tactics and refusal to take into account constructive criticism from the targeted consumer is always a no-no for ANY company. That and the fact that the attitude of some of the people in Odex is a indicative that they don’t have a clear grasp on their targeted consumers’ mindsets - whilst I do think it’s true that a lot of Singaporeans are only willing to buy things if they’re cheap (sadly, it’s just part of the Singaporean culture that’s firmly impressed upon most, if not all, of us), I think it’s common sense to realise that if your products are of good quality, people will be more willing to buy them. The fact that the Odex spokesman keeps harping on the issue of price shows that they’ve a lopsided view of the situation.

That said though, I agree with you that if Odex gets their act together, the fans will probably be willing to forgive them since after all the ARE the main producer of locally released anime and it would be in our best interests to ensure that they survive. Hopefully after this entire fiasco they would at least be more willing to take the fans’ feedback into account when trying to “reinvent” themselves.