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

Topic 4 - Digital Design

1. In two paragraphs explain why a customer centric Web site design is so important, yet so difficult to accomplish.

One thing i hate is a website that is hard to navigate, the common benefits of creating a 'customer centric' website are increased sales. If a customer can easily navigate your webpage and you have the product they are looking for that increases your chance of a sale. The website must offer a easy transaction from start to finish which is appealing to the customer (from finding the item, information regarding the item, reviewing the item, purchasing the item, or giving feedback)

Why is it so hard to find? Simple, everybody is different. A design that suits someone isn't going to suit someone else, that's life. What businesses need to do is find a design that balances between different people. The design needs to be easily navigated and offer a smooth process. If customers like your site they will continue to use it and recommend it to their friends.

2. Define the term ‘presence’. Write an additional paragraph that describes why firms that do business on the Web should be more concerned about presence than firms that operate in the physical world.

presence - pres·ence - (The Free Dictionary, 2013)

• The state or fact of existing, occurring, or being present in a place or thing.
• Immediate proximity in time or space.

Website presence means having your page positioned so it can be found when a customer searches for it, chances are if your site isn't seen in the first few pages of a search it wont be found at all. A organisation who runs a a internet only site needs to ensure they have a well found website presence so ensure success of the business.  

3. Usable Doesn’t Have To Mean Ugly ‘for a web design to be truly beautiful, it has to be functional, have purpose and contribute in some way to the website’s intuitiveness, usefulness and branding. All of these things contribute to the overall effect of a design’. This is a quote from one of the articles on web design linked on Web pages that suck. Find a web page that ‘does not suck’ and discuss the features that make it work. A website i LOVE is THEICONIC. Possibly the one of the best sites, i think even my Nan could use this site. It is easy to navigate around and takes less than a minute to find something, and buy it. Features of the site: Offers a search bar to search for what you are looking for. Offers a livechat help function which has a maximum wait time of 3 minutes Has the 'Contact us' Number in the header of the site which is easily visible on all pages of the site Is NAB and Norton Security approved so it is safe Has paypal purchasing - which is the safer, easier way to pay.