How the Internet Changed Business :: essays research papers

How the Internet has Changed Small Business Forever Ten years ago, the Internet as we know it hit screens. It was 1995 when Explorer and Netscape emerged as the leading browsers for Internet users. Of course, a lot has changed since the days when it took several minutes to load one Web page. Today, URLs are as common as phone numbers for most businesses. During the last decade, we’ve been to the top of the world—during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s—and back down again, when it all fell apart a few years later. But with the bad came the good: The Web forever changed the business world. The following small-business owners are shining examples of how Web-based technologies can be a businessperson’s best friend. 1. E-mail Because it changed the way we communicate in business Phoenix-based PMP Tools ( http://www.pmptools.com ) provides test materials for project managers studying for professional certification exams. Test takers can find prep courses, review books and study tools on the site, which employs 11 people. Brent Knapp, the site’s founder, started publicizing PMP Tools by posting information in Yahoo Groups chat forums and by buying lists from Hoovers and Forbes for marketing mailings. His results were decent, but not perfect. He got a 3 percent response from what was then a $3,000 monthly project that took three days to complete. â€Å"We spent time designing the mailing and printing it. And then we all sat around stuffing envelopes and calling companies to get the right contact person to mail it out to,† he says. Last year, Knapp decided e-mail might be a better option. At the very least, he would save $2,950 per month and three days of manpower; the template and automation tools he uses take all the legwork out of creating a newsletter. He saw results almost immediately. Now Knapp sends a daily newsletter to about 12,000 people, a number that has climbed 10 percent each month. The newsletter contains a project management review, crossword puzzle and product promotion. Sales have gone through the roof since it launched, topping $1 million last year. The company also benefits from e-mail in another way: employee contact and customer service. â€Å"We literally have no incoming calls—ever,† says Knapp. â€Å"Everything—99 percent of what we do—is handled via e-mail. People don’t want to call in. People don’t want to wait on hold. We have a one-hour e-mail policy, so our customers get an immediate response.

Game Industry Forecast Shows Solid Growth

The global game industry will generate $60 billion in revenue for 2011, and is growing at 10% annually according to a new research report by industry analyst Colin Sebastian for RW Baird. That growth rate should see overall industry revenue hit $80 billion by 2014, but the some areas of the business will remain flat or even decline, while other areas will be growing at an annual rate of 15% to 20%. The growth areas that Sebastian sees are in online and mobile games, â€Å"driven primarily by downloadable content (DLC) and mobile games† and social games to a lesser extent.These areas will be growing annually at a rate of 15% or more for the next several years, Sebastian believes. Unfortunately, other areas of the game business won't be faring as well. He sees packaged software sales staying flat this year, with the growth in Xbox 360 and PS3 sales being offset by the decline in Wii and handheld game sales. This quarter will see strong sales with many big titles coming out, but that positive sales picture will only be enough to pull the sales out of the loss category for the year.The good news for the game business is that it's the only media business with a strong positive growth forecast for the next several years. Newspapers, magazines, music, TV and other media businesses are struggling with the transition to a digital distribution model, but the high level of innovation in the game industry has kept the overall picture positive. That's not to say there are no problems; Sebastian sees â€Å"many video game companies will continue to struggle through this transition. † Sebastian sees the mobile market as bringing in $2 billion in revenue this year, with growth continuing due to rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets.He cites studies showing that games are the leading applications on smartphones, and consumers consumers have been very willing to pay for games or for in-app purchases with â€Å"freemium† hgames, which now represent the ma jority of revenues for mobile games. Sebastian believes tablets can be the next great market for games, given that the form factor is better than a smartphone for playing games. Studies also show that gaming is the number one usage of tablets, with over 70% of tablet owners playing games on the devices.The difficult business climate for traditional game companies means there are fewer clear winners to invest in right now. Sebastian sees GameStop as a good holiday play given the large number of AAA titles coming out this quarter, and beyond that he picks Activision and Electronic Arts as the best performers for long-term investors, followed by Take Two. The nature of the game market is changing in the USA, according to studies cited by Sebastian. He points to the Entertainment Software Association study showing 72% of US households play games, with the average age of gamers being 37.Additionally, more than half of gamers play on their phones and other handheld game devices, and women now represent 42% of the gamer population. † It's a far cry from the traditional â€Å"our market is teenage boys of all ages† that used to be the only demographic for game companies to care about. Sebastian sees hope for the core games segment, in that the broad appeal of casual games may get more people interested in gaming, and eventually looking for the deeper experiences that console games and PC games can offer. He sees the PC game market doing better in 2012, mostly on the strength of hit releases like Diablo III.Handheld devices, lead by the Nintendo 3DS and the Sony PSP (and soon the PS Vita) will be flat in 2012, with the launch of the PS Vita helping to offset the shift to smartphones, at least for a while. Sebastian believes the PS Vita may be able to take the leading position from the 3DS. Finally, Sebastian sees social games continuing to grow and develop in depth and richness, eventually being able to appeal more to core gamers. Console games will add mo re social elements, too, and eventually social games outside of Facebook will become more popular.He sees growth rates surpassing 10% annually for the next 3-5 years. The current leaders are Zynga, with 262 million monthly average users (MAU), followed by Electronic Arts with 203 million MAU. Overall, it's a complex portrait of a rapidly growing and changing industry. Clearly there are dangers ahead for many companies as business models are changing, and once-profitable businesses are seeing their audiences depart for other types of gaming. Successful companies will be the ones who stay flexible as conditions continue to change rapidly. What's your opinion on the future of the game industry?

Economic Gaps Globalization A Real World View - 986 Words

Eric Novak Video Paper #1 Economic Gaps: Globalization-A Real World View The main sociological issue depicted in the video is globalization. Globalization deals with social changes that affect the world on an international scale. This is regarded as the most important social change of the 21st century because the entire world is connected and can communicate in a matter of seconds. This eases the flow of ideas, people, and material objects and allows a small change somewhere to spread and have far reaching effects. This video examines how globalization has unequal effects on the quality of life for different populations of people all around the world. The living situations for a citizen in Malawi is vastly different from that of a citizen living in Beverly Hills. A specific example of the how globalization was created and how it can having varying effects on populations is how the Europeans conquered America and extracted the resources by force. To the casual observer, globalization can be thou ght to have a positive impact on the entire world. This statement is definitely true for most of the developed countries, such as the United States of America. However, there are many countries that have suffered severe negative consequences as a product of globalization. For example, the â€Å"first globalization† occurred when Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztec Empire and exploited the local populations and African slaves to mine the silver reserves. China, the economic powerhouse atShow MoreRelatedGlobalization: An Ideology of Western Elitists? Essay examples1229 Words   |  5 PagesGlobalization, both as an ideology and process, has become the dominant political, economical and cultural force in the 21st century (Steger, 2002, 6). 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