5 Major Impacts of Restriction over Social Media Promotion
February 19, 2020 | DWAIPAYAN REGMI
Earlier there had been an easy way of promotion through social media – you pay certain bucks to some agents within Nepal, who would boost your Facebook Page, Facebook Post, Twitter or LinkedIn pages. But, Nepal Rastra Bank is carefully monitoring this and has come up with a new policy. As a result, such agents can no longer make their fund transfer throughout. And, we don’t see too much of ‘Sponsored Posts’ these days as earlier. So, no post of Coffee Shop, Online Clothing Store, or online merchandise stores around. Nope, there is not any promotion of YouTube posts through ‘Sponsorships’ either.
After Nepal Rastra Bank imposed rules over not permitting ads on social media, there will likely be several impacts that will be directly seen over the economy. The following are the major impacts that will be seen in the Nepalese economic ecosystem.
Impact over Online Business
There had been several online businesses from clothing stores to several service-based tasks that used to be operated from the online web itself. The policy implemented by Nepal Rastra Bank has kept over direct impact over them, as the business can no longer be promoted in social media.
Nepal based online stores won’t be able to promote their product on social media – which will create impact over a wide range of social media-based businesses within Nepal. Various social media-based businesses operate in Nepal, dependent entirely over Facebook – which seems to be under trouble now.
Adverse Effect on Online Promotion and Brand Building
The promotion of products and services within Nepal is now at a halt. It is not possible to promote the brand through social media anymore. Various sponsored posts about news, music, products or services occupied social media platforms previously. However, with this new rule, this entire process has been stopped.
There had been several mechanisms to promote the brand of any organization staying in Nepal itself through the means of Social Media. From several quizzes, the competition to different sorts of social media-based activities – there were ways to keep audiences engaged. However, with this new law, it is for sure that the entire layout would be troubled.
Opportunities for International Competitors
Tootle will not have any spaces for social media promotion. But Pathao being Bangladeshi brand can promote in Nepalese market through Bangladesh itself. Naagiko Honey cannot promote itself from Nepal, but Dabur can promote its product in Nepal and make the best return out of it. Oops! This will rather give enough room for International competitors promoting them.
International competitors can promote across social media targeting Nepalese audiences following their policies developed there. But, the Nepalese organization will have no choice than staying silent over the entire movie. This will let international product turnover rise through Nepal. Nepalese movies can’t be promoted – but Bollywood movies can be promoted in Nepal – A side aspect.
Transparency over Money in Social Media
To date, it was not known about how much fund was spent on social media. Generally, this fund was supposed to be exchanged through hundi. But, this new policy will induce transparency. How much money is being spent can be easily tracked down.
The practice of money laundering through Hundi will now be limited and the economy can impose taxes over such promotion means. Else, there was nothing that Nepal could do. The promotion would be done through illegal fund transferring means and Nepal had no way to earn anywhere.
Pressures for International Payment Gateway
It is not possible actually to stay away from social media always. One day or the other they will have to come down to reality. And the only option for this would be either Nepal Rastra Bank starting its payment system or introducing separate International Payment Gateway. This could be a continuing remark anyway.
Although there certainly lies a huge risk over international payment gateway, this practice will at least generate seed discussing requirement for International Payment Gateway access through Nepal. Nepalese don’t have any access to such gateways because of which they should seek help from their friends or relatives abroad to gain funds that they earn through AdSense or PayPal. But, with this move – authorities must have thought of something better too.
Conclusion
There have been provisions of social media promotion in other nations with the implementation of service tax ranging from 15-25%. Most of the decisions will help in promoting the digital growth of the nation. Stopping such advertisements will again take back the advertisement industry within traditional means which will not count in this today’s era. It is therefore important that Nepal move ahead with digital transformation and as per the requirement of the need around. Only then, Nepal can catch up the pace of digital development in the speed that it should.
