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Top1. The Internet Evolution
The present. The user has the power. He gets information, reads and shares content, relates, buys products, recommends them or advises against through the social media (Sultan & Rohm, 2004). He is the centre. But it has not always been this way. During the last two decades the configuration of the Internet and its possibilities have evolved. To understand the real meaning of electronic commerce, we must first know how the Internet has involved.
1.1. Web 1.0
Following the birth of the Word Wide Web (WWW), a network of “sites” that can be explored and displayed through a protocol called HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the period of the Web 1.0 emerges, which spans from 1994 to 1997.
Web 1.0 is a basic form of unidirectional communication designed to reach a large number of people who can only read content.
Static websites (which are not updated regularly) are generated, developed in HTML by people with programming skills. And the results are simply informative sites, which do not foster collaboration and user interaction.
Tanaka (2009) lists the main features that define this type of website, highlighting in particular:
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The existence of static websites, built in HTML.
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The production of content by the webmaster only.
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The dominance of text over image, usually in a GIF format.
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The presence of hypertext linking a web document to another.
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Low or no updating of content.
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The impossibility of users’ interaction, who are limited to being mere readers of the documents and who may only be somewhat involved through a forum or guestbook.
In the realm of business, companies can be seen gradually taking part, developing passive websites, limited to providing information unilaterally to users (Hepp et al., 2005). Companies turn the information in their catalogues into websites and add some additional information about the company, of a corporate nature. The websites are very poorly designed, because of the lack of tools, technology and connection needed to manage it better. Content also becomes obsolete quickly, because of the complexity of updating it.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Marketing 3.0: The one that focuses on providing value and additional benefits in the society in which it operates.
Internet: A network of networks that allows the decentralized networking of computers through a set of protocols called TCP/IP.
Web 2.0: Also called the social Web, it is a set of applications and tools that allow users to navigate and interact dynamically with information, share content, socialize opinions, bring in the construction of collective learning, etc.
Marketing 1.0: The one that focuses on the product or service to generate interest in the client.
E-Commerce: Any form of transaction or exchange of information for commercial purposes in which the parties interact using information and communications technology (ICT). That is, the distribution, sale, marketing and delivering of information about products or services over the Internet.
Web 1.0: Also called the static Web, it is a basic form of unidirectional communication designed through static content, scarcity or absence of interactivity and proprietary web applications.
Web 3.0: Also called the semantic Web, it is an extension of the World Wide Web where it can be expressed a natural language understandable and usable by software agents, thus permitting finding, sharing and integrating information easily.
Marketing 2.0: The one that focuses on the customer to establish an emotional bond between him and the product or service.