The first generation of e-business was like a gold rush. New start-ups and well-established businesses alike created a Web presence & experimented plenty. Many companies utilized internet gearing up effective money making programs but only a handful brought anything to the bottom line. In early 2000 one estimate listed 21 firms with 12 month sales growth between 100% and 500%-but all had negative profits. Between early 2000 and 2002, however, more than 500 Internet firms shut down in the United Sates alone- the so called dot-com bust. It is interesting to note that, later, almost 60 percent of the public dot-com companies making it through the bust were profitable in the fourth quarter of 2003. Internet technologies had fundamentally changed the structure of the traditional brick-and-mortar retailers and several other industries. In what Business Week calls â€first wave of Internet disruption,†firms such as Amazon, Expedia, E*TRADE, and the former CDNow (purchased by Amazon) transformed the way books, travel, investments and music were sold by means of affiliated marketing programs (â€E-Biz Strikes Again! 2004). Disrupted industries in the first wave generated effective marketing tools offering tangible products that were easily compared and purchased for the lowest price. Having gone through the boom and bust in developed nations (the Internet is still the best money making tool in many emerging economies), we are now entering the Plateau of profitability. Now marketers are returning to their traditional roots, relying on well-grounded strategy, effective marketing practice & tools along with the best affiliated programs using information technology in ways that ultimately leads to the best money making program-no more throwing money at ideas that don’t return a desired amount on investment. During the dot-com shakeout from 2000-2002, the industry experienced much consolidation. Some firms, such as Levi Strauss, stopped selling online both because it was not efficient and because it created channel conflict. Now is the time that businesses demand and make money from the best affiliated marketing programs and Internet strategies. Today, the Internet is mainstream in industrialized nations. High adoption rates are occurring in the 20 nations entertaining 90% of all Internet users and most of these populations can’t do without the Web or e-mail. As well, most organizations know that they must include information technology in their marketing strategies and apply marketing tools effectively to meet the needs of their markets efficiently and competitively. Marketers who grasp what internet technologies can do are best poised to integrate Internet technology to marketing practice applying effective Internet marketing tools; mediating technology, increasing global reach, equalizing information, sensing affiliated programs, scaling capacity, ensuring open standard, deconstructing market, & initiating task automation. Compare these properties to those of the telephone. Telephone is a mediating technology, has global reach, and has network externality. In contrast, the internet has properties that create opportunities beyond those possible with the telephone, television, postal mail, or other communication media. It is these differences excite marketers and have them wondering how to convert them to the best internet money making program. In this environment, marketers want to know which internet marketing tools will result in top-line sales and bottom-line profitability. Plenty of exciting new opportunities lie ahead for making money incorporated with the best affiliated programs, for which it can be viewed as Internet: the Ultimate Gold Rush.
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