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10 Questions

with Radek Přikryl
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June 13th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Radek Přikryl's Topfun is one of the industry's leaders for digital downloads, offering many titles.
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Digital entertainment is quickly expanding. For providers ranging from specialized companies to telecom operators, this field continues to produce high revenues.
The Přikryl file

Job title: Co-owner, Internet entertainment provider Topfun
Age: 34
Nationality: Czech
Education: Studied management and marketing in high school
Family: Married

Topfun is one of the leaders in the field, offering digital downloads of movies and music to broadband customers. Radek Přikryl, co-owner of Topfun, talks to The Prague Post about potential of online distribution, the problem of movie piracy and his surprise that adult films are not his company’s most demanded download.
➊ What got you started in the Internet entertainment business?
It came from my company’s work in DVD rentals. We began developing a network of DVD rental shops several years ago. We wanted to differentiate ourselves based on our competent approach to customers, rich portfolio of offered titles and the unified interior of our shops.
Our success drove us to find other investments. We were wondering how to further upgrade our business when we realized that the Internet was the way forward. So we launched an online video rental under the Topfun brand, since this label gives us more space to offer different kinds of online entertainment, be it movies or music. Topfun lets people enjoy music or movies from the comfort of their homes or offices on their PCs or MP3 players. No similar online rental, combining movies and music, existed here. So we decided to become pioneers.
We didn’t look for inspiration abroad too much. Conditions in this country are so specific that we couldn’t implement any foreign schemes here.
➋ Who does Topfun target, and who are your typical customers?
Topfun’s magic is that it can attract almost every age group, from young kids and teenagers to seniors. Our most frequent customers are between 16 and 45 years old. Also, you have to consider our pioneering position in this sector. Our offer is new to many customers, so it’ll take some time before they become aware of our existence and comfortable with downloading.
➌ What are the most demanded products in your portfolio?
Our library now has about a thousand titles from the following genres: kids, comedy, family, action, thriller, adventure and adult. Against our original expectations, the most demanded titles are not from the adult section. Instead, they’re Czech movies, be they modern or older. As for the size of our portfolio, we aspire to offer services common for regular video rental shops, but in digital form.
Last fall, we launched sales of digital music. Our site is the only one in this country that also offers video clips.
➍ How are things trending in the field?
Experts are predicting a boom in online video rentals. People here will take more advantage of modern technology. And the increasing speed of Internet data transfers will allow us to offer movies in two different qualities, regular and DVD quality.
We are working on a major deal with a mobile operator. Our effort must be not only to sell movies, but also to lead an information campaign that depicts how easy, quick, safe and cheap it is to buy a song via the Internet.
➎ What are the biggest barriers providers like Topfun are facing in the country?
It’s access to good, quality movie content. If we don’t get good movies from the publishers, the business can hardly develop. Another obstacle is the method of payment. Our site offers different payment methods, such as through SMS, audiotext and payment cards. Among the most popular are the least advantageous: SMS payments. If a customer pays 79 Kč [$3.76] this way, Topfun only receives 45 Kč of that payment. We’re now working toward replacing less advantageous payment methods with better ones.
➏ What do you think is the most effective way to curb illegal downloading of music and movies?
Our system is built on DRM [digital rights management] technology. It enables a customer to open the particular content only after making a payment.
It’s also possible to put movies online without releasing them on VHS or DVD. What will people do then? Will they give up watching them? Of course not, they’ll rent them online. This option will bring publishers more profit than today, when people exchange movies and music and copy them.
➐ Shouldn’t copyrights be better protected by the government?
Some time ago, I called a representative of a music publishing company and told him about a Czech Internet domain that’s offering free downloads of tens of thousands of MP3s, including recent songs. I was surprised when he told me that he was aware of the site but could do nothing about it.
In our country, things are more often spoken about than done. If there were a state authority responsible for dealing with illegal downloading, it would take only few days to block particular domains and IP addresses.
➑ Many people, especially older people, tend to think that downloading music from the Internet is complicated and risky. How would you argue against that?
Just try it. Everything new seems complicated at first sight. I remember the early days of cell phones. Our grannies used to say that their children bought them mobile phones but they did not know how to use them. Today, the same grannies are sending SMSes, smilies, etc. So, try it!
➒ Internet companies are often run by only a few staffers. How many people help run Topfun?
We’ve got 17 staffers and also several interns.
➓ Are you planning any improvements in the near future?
There are many things. Given that our competitors are quite aggressive and flexible, I can’t reveal too much. We plan to introduce several new payment methods and also to make use of our regular video rental shops. With franchising, our network should expand to 100 shops by year’s end.
However, the most significant upgrade will be in our film offerings. I’m looking forward to the moment when I can announce that bestsellers from the cinemas are available in our portfolio, too.
Want your top manager to answer our 10 Questions? Send a message to Paul Voosen at
pvoosen@praguepost.com


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