A Brief Analysis of the Malay Content Landscape: Preparing for 2023 and Beyond In late 2019, I quit from my full-time corporate job to do freelance. In mid-2022, I returned to publishing as a part-time consultant editor. The break was essential for my mental health, but I did not anticipate the dramatic changes in the content landscape over just a few years. These changes occurred worldwide, but I'll focus on Malaysia, particularly for BM. Here are a few key observations, in three parts: First, Facebook is THE PAST - COVID-19 misinformation made FB tightened its community guidelines, inadvertently making it harder for news outlets to do their job. Content are mis-flagged, pages are shadowbanned, and it's almost impossible to connect with an actual human for a review. - Even when I boost content, it doesn't work like it used to. CPC remains low, but people are no longer sharing. I doubt that user behaviour could change so drastically, but I suspect that the audience has migrated to other platforms, leaving the passive ones on FB. - When I scroll past big BM sites like The Patriots and The Vocket, the engagement isn't as high as it used to. Some outfits have started posting images instead of links because it seems that FB is doing everything in its power to discourage users from clicking off. Secondly, Tik Tok is THE PRESENT - The recent GE demonstrated how influential Tik Tok can be as a tool for political influence. Prior to Anwar's election, I came across PN-friendly short clips that had received hundreds of thousands of views. Some of them were ceramahs or brief speeches, but the point is that the content was low-effort yet effective. - This is where Tik Tok succeeded in ways that YouTube and Facebook did not. They lowered the barrier to entry so much that everyone and their mother could create content. Even now as I scroll through my Tik Tok timeline, the viral content is quite chaplang-ly made, which demonstrates that... - There is a hunger for content. Not just fluff, but educational content as well. The success of creators such as Iqbal and Fahmi Redza gives me hope. - Tik Tok won't last forever. But at least for now I can contact an actual human rep rather than a convoluted help pages that lead nowhere. AI is the FUTURE - It's too soon to speculate, but AI being so heavily integrated into search engines could be huge. If Google and Bing respond to queries as chats, what are the incentives for users to click on links? For now, Google's business model is still predominantly ad-based, but technology is catching up. - There's also a boundless opportunity in creating content with AI. As a proof of concept, I thought of creating a one-man BM site in which AI automates the process of monitoring top headlines, summarizing, translating, and even posting the draft on WordPress. All I need to do is make minor edits and click publish. I have never felt so old, yet so excited with what's to come. > [!NOTE] Meta > Originally published on [15 Feb 2023](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/muhammadkhairul_a-brief-analysis-of-the-malay-content-landscape-activity-7031594018308325376-d-fG/) on LinkedIn.