The internet was never supposed to be used for a commercial purpose; at one point, it was illegal to even send advertising emails. In fact, as Professor Waldo mentioned in class, Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel were among the first to send “spam” emails in 1994. Before this period of time, a certain set of rules were followed on the internet. There was a certain etiquette, or a “netiquette”, if you will, of being polite and avoiding spam. As we now know, the internet is inundated with trolls and advertisements, and the Canter and Siegel email is said to have been the trigger.
Nevertheless, the commercialization and monetization of the internet is not a bad thing. Sure, spam email sucks, but the internet has become the world’s largest and most accessible marketplace, selling everything that you could possibly imagine. Companies like Amazon and EBay have shut down retail giants who seemed intractable in their spaces, such as Borders and even Sears. Consumers have begun to use these stores as showrooms to check out products and then order them from online. In the end, the Consumers win because they have more choice, they have more flexibility, and they have more efficiency. And, best of all, they can do all this while sitting on their bed in their pajamas.
This has sort of led to a philosophy of instant gratification among younger people with myself included, unfortunately. We want stuff done now. Amazon Prime’s two day shipping has spoiled us. Instant communication and a vast swath of immediately available information at our finger-tips has led us to believe that problems can be solved instantaneously. But, alas, this is a bigger issue than can be tackled by a feeble blog post.
Meanwhile, it’s become easier for smaller companies/producers to access a larger base of consumers under the Long Tail Effect. This is probably the coolest part of economics on the internet. Anyone can sell anything… to anyone. Websites like Etsy, Kickstarter, and EBay expose the entire world to products and merchants that they could have never heard of before. Local and regional marketplaces have expanded into nationwide and worldwide marketplaces. Companies like the Dollar Shave Club can go viral and can reach millions of consumers without investing heavily in advertising; the word-of-mouth chain has become infinitely more accessible. Most of these online-only producers sell one or two products.
Pebble is a perfect example of a product taking off from Kickstarter and growing into a full-scale company. It began as a small project that Eric Migicovsky took through the Y-Combinator project to turn into a larger company. Eventually, due to failing to gather investors after a rebranding, Pebble moved to crowd-funding via Kickstarter and blew up into the multi-million dollar company it is today with several products.
The internet has, simply, become the coolest place to buy and sell products.
Thank for your great article, keep posting