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Ch ch ch changes
That the internet is revolutionary we know; just how revolutionary will only become clear in time. The changes will touch just about every business and go far beyond the ways in which companies produce, market and distribute their products. They'll affect at root level the very relationship a company has with its customers.This was made clear in a blog post which argued that Google's differentiator is its attitude to search. Google wants you to find what you're looking for as quickly as possible, which of course means giving you links elsewhere. MSN, Yahoo and the rest just aren't as focussed; if they were, their home page would have far fewer distractions designed to keep you right there.
MSN and Yahoo epitomise the old way of doing business, Google the new. Google understands what we want and gives us that. It knows this is how you build loyalty, get repeat business and ultimately make money. The old school approach uses marketing to persuade us to want their products. The new school builds its products around what we want and uses marketing to help us find them.
The other key change is that we now expect a great many things without paying for them. The number of subscription web sites is vastly outnumbered by those offering the same or better content for free. The exception is porn, though the motivating factors which cause their customers to get their credit cards our are entirely different to most other industries.
The shift in the balance of power to the consumers and the desire of consumers to get a great many things for free presents great challenges to traditional businesses. They need to unlearn some of the fundamental principles which have made them so successful. And you know what they say about old dogs and new tricks.
The challenge for new businesses is to convince others their business model will work. This has to be hard by definition. For if it were obvious it wouldn't truly be different.