Page 235 - Business Principles and Management

Unit 3

Web-based business activities have resulted in many new kinds of jobs as
well. Today, you can become a Webmaster or Web applications developer, which
wasn’t possible just a few years ago. A number of jobs are directly related to
the development and management of Internet operations in companies. These
include technology-related jobs such as programming, database management,
and Web design. In many cases, a number of workers within a business maintain
and expand the company’s Web site.
Companies such as Dell Computer Corporation and Charles Schwab, an
investment brokerage company, have emerged as industry leaders in their fields
as a result of their moves into e-commerce. E-commerce companies such as
Amazon.com, eBay.com, and Buy.com have taken advantage of these new types
of business activities to dominate online consumer sales.

LEADING INTERNET BUSINESSES
As you learned earlier, consumers currently purchase billions of dollars’ worth
of products over the Internet each year. Customers are more likely to purchase
certain types of products online than others. The top Internet retailers for 2005
are listed in Figure 9-3. As you can see, books, office supplies, computer hard-
ware, and electronics are the most frequently purchased items.
A big change from previous lists of top Internet retailers is the growth of
bricks-and-click businesses. These include Office Depot, Sears, and Wal-Mart.
Other rapidly growing product categories for consumer purchases on the Inter-
net are travel, investing, and services like education.
In business-to-business Internet sales, computers and electronics have the high-
est sales volume, as they do in consumer sales. The other top categories in business
sales are utilities (electricity and gas), petroleum and chemicals, vehicles, office sup-
plies, and shipping services.

INTERNET ADVERTISING
Another rapidly growing area of Internet sales is advertising. In 1998, businesses
spent less than $2 billion to advertise their products and services on the Internet.
By 2005, that number had grown to $12.5 billion. In 2005, the top Internet
advertisers were Vonage (cell phone company), the University of Phoenix Online,
Classmates.com, and Ameritrade. Some advertising costs are hidden, because many
small Internet businesses use bartering to place their ads
on another Web site. In return, they run advertisements for
business note the cooperating businesses on their Web site. No money is
exchanged between the companies to pay for the advertising.
You have probably noticed when you go online that
the Internet is filled with advertisements. Because space
You would never know it by looking at on a Web page is limited, companies compete for the
Google’s search engine page, but Google is attention of Internet users. They try to place their adver-
one of the Internet’s top advertising revenue tisements on pages that prospective customers are most
sites. Advertisers pay for placement based likely to visit. They also use creative advertising designs.
on the search terms used. So if you are inter- Varied sizes, colors, and placements of advertisements
ested in soccer shoes, your search will bring encourage Internet users to stop and read the company’s
up sites that sell these shoes. These links are information. Advertisements now include moving text
called AdWords. In addition, every time you and graphics plus links to more detailed information.
click on the link, Google gets money for the The Internet Advertising Bureau has established stan-
click-through. dards for the size and appearance of Internet advertise-
ments. Internet advertising is measured in pixels. A pixel,
short for PIX (picture) Element, is one or more dots that

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