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The late 90’s saw the meteoric rise of the Internet. Large amounts of money and hopes were pinned on this phenomenon, which was predicted to change the world. The name of the game then was to offer free content and get as many eye-balls as possible - online advertising would do the rest. Or so it was thought. The result was inevitable. By mid 2000, the boom turned into bust.
The King is dead...
Over the last few quarters, a silent revolution is happening in the Internet space. What happened around the latest Harry Potter book foretells the power of this medium. Within two hours of becoming available for pre-order on January 15th,
the book became Amazon’s bestseller ever! And the e-tailer logged orders for more than 500,000 copies a month before its official release! A feat that cannot be matched by a brick and mortar retailer. (Emarketer, a US based research aggregator estimates that US Internet-based e-commerce alone generated more than $480 billion in transaction volume in 2002.)
E-commerce is not the only business model that is thriving. The web gives compelling advantages to business. Its ability to bring people together cheaply and often anonymously has also spawned several new business models. Bargain hunting, on-line gaming, dating services and places to meet old friends – ventures around all of these are now turning out to be paying models.
Content is no longer free and online services now come for a charge. Last year alone, US subscribers paid $1.2 billion for online content (excluding gambling and pornography).
The Internet is here to stay.
Long live the King!
Rahul Swarup
President
Sify Enterprise Solution
We
welcome your comments and suggestions.
Please e-mail us at esbmarketing@sifycorp.com
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