Topic 5 - Business Models

Business Models

Business models could be considered the least understood aspect of the web today, there has been talk about how the Internet has changed the traditional business model, but there is no evidence of what this actually means. Below are the 9 types of business models, their main features and a example to help you understand.

Brokerage
Brings the buyer and seller together
usually charge a fee for advertising
complete transaction 
A good example of a brokerage site is EBAY. They act as third party providers to the buyer and seller.

Advertising
Banner ad's are the main source of revenue
High level of traffic needed to be successful
A example: Classifieds for a small fee they list advertisements for items you want to buy or sell Tradingpost 

Infomediary
collects data on consumer habits and trends
assists buyers and sellers in understanding the market
Advertising networks: collects data to analyse marketing effectiveness
Incentive marketing: a example of customer loyalty schemes is MyerOne which offers incentives to customers like redeemable points which add up to gift cards.

Merchant
companies that offer goods and services
may be fixed price or auction
virtual market: solely run online The Iconic 
click and mortar: have a shop front and a online store New Generation


Manufacturer (Direct)
Manufacturer reaches the buyer directly
compress the distribution channel
is efficient, has improved customer service and has a better understanding of customer preference
a Example of this is Alice.com which eliminated the retail middle-man

Affiliate
provides purchase opportunities wherever people are on the wed
drives high volume traffic to one site
offers financial incentives to affiliated partner sites
Amazon uses banners, pay-per-click and revenue sharing

Community
Based on user loyalty
Revenue comes from advertising
Open content: volunteer workers create the content Wikipedia
Public Broadcasting: free to air radio and television Seven

Subscription
Users are charged a fee (daily, monthly, yearly)
Sites often offer free material and subscription material
Internet service providers example is Bigpond who provide Internet for payment
Content service provider example is Foxtel who provide video and audio to people for a subscription fee

Utility
Is based on metering usage - pay as you go
With metered usage you are billed on actual usage of a service, for example household utilities. (Power, Water, Gas)

1) What is the Mobile phone use /100 population - compare Australia, USA, China, India, Your Country

Mobile telephone subscriptions (post-paid and pre-paid) per 100 population out of 144 countries. 

Australia Rank 67 Value 108.3USA        Rank 95 Value 92.7
China     Rank 115 Value 73.2
India      Rank 117 Value 72.0
(The Global Information Technology Report 2013, pg 330)

2) Internet use / 100 population - compare Australia, USA, China, India, Your Country

Percentage of individuals using the Internet out of 144 countries. 

Australia  Rank 18  Value 79.0USA         Rank 20 Value 77.9
China      Rank 74  Value 38.3
India       Rank 119 Value 10.1
(The Global Information Technology Report 2013, pg 331)

3) Compare main strengths and weaknesses of Australia or your home country in the survey

Some of the things i find are Australia's greatest strengths are the capacity for innovation, our economy, availability of skilled employees and the availability of space which leaves room for growth.
The things i would consider to be weaknesses are we have a low population considered to countries like China and India. 

4) What does the survey suggest to you about the Information Technology readiness of Australian business compared to Australian consumers?

The survey suggests that Australian businesses are just as information technology ready as the consumers and world partners.  

Sources:

Knox, I. (2013). Week 5 notes. BUEBU1501. Retrieved April 10, 2013 from http://ubonline.ballarat.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=267537&inpopup=1 . 
Rappa, M. (2009). Managing the digital enterprise. Retrieved April 10, 2013 from http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html#Advertising
Beñat Bilbao-Osorio, Soumitra Dutta, and Bruno Lanvin. (2013) The Global Information Technology Report. Retrieved April 10, 2013 from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GITR_Report_2013.pdf