Marketing Strategies in the Age of Web 3.0

Innovations In Icts And Marketing: The New Dimensions Of Communication

Nowadays electronic communications (telecommunications and television) represent more than 80% of the worldwide turnover of communication industry. The gradual migration “from atom to bits” is evident if we take into account the last five years: from 2008 immaterial communications have registered an annual growth rate of over 4%, while in the same period of time publishing and postal services have lost more than a percentage point per year (Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni, 2013). The range of services offered through electronic communications’ networks and the value generated by businesses and users of these facilities are continuously increasing.

Thanks to the spread of broadband and wireless networks, applications for mobile technologies and the emergence of mobile devices¹, the Internet has become a means to give and receive targeted and multimedia content and information, to buy and sell products and services, as well as to communicate with communities and know better the characteristics of customers². As a result, the ways to socialize, communicate, gather information and learn through the Web have changed, especially among the younger population (Sassoon, 2012). During 2012, in Europe the main services for Internet users were emails and search engines (representing the prevalent use for respectively 89% and 83% of the total), but other online activities are assuming the size of “mass” services among the Internet users. At the EU level, 61% read online newspapers, 54% use e-banking services, 52% write messages using social media and 50% use travel services (Eurostat, 2013).