Dave Morgan’s eloquent article on the changes in the online world encapsulates much of what small business worry about on a daily basis asking the questions “will this approach work?” In his article, Morgan traces the evolution of online advertising where you can glean the potential for your specific business requirements. He states that “we’ve seen the online world change a lot over the past 15 years. We’ve seen several shifts in the key battlegrounds for control of the value generated by consumers’ use of online services.
Throughout the ’90s, it was all about the pipes. Access was the watchword and the business was all about providing consumers with the “pipe” to access online services. Advertising was not a big part of the picture, though charging “slotting fees” to sponsors was a big business.
By the end of the ’90s, with the Web finally displacing proprietary online services, the battle shifted to building and owning the largest portals. Aggregation was the watchword, and the business was all about amassing the most users on gateway pages providing news, information and entertainment. Advertising moved into the foreground, and the value in business shifted from sponsorship and position to a heavy focus on delivering tonnage. Raw scale was the name of the game.
Once again, we’re in the middle of another major change, and it’s going to be just as significant as the shift from pipes to portals.
Click here to read this article in full.
Filed under: Business News, Global Business, Interactive Solutions, Online Marketing, Online Sales | Tagged: Online ad spend, Online services, OpenSocial movement, People Networks, People-centric networks, Social Networks, Sponsorship
