Week 5 Questions - Business Models

Brokerage - Brokers are market-makers: they bring buyers and sellers together and facilitate transactions. Brokers play a frequent role in business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), or consumer-to-consumer (C2C) markets. Usually a broker charges a fee or commission for each transaction it enables.

Advertising - The web advertising model is an extension of the traditional media broadcast model. The broadcaster, in this case, a web site, provides content (usually, but not necessarily, for free) and services (like email, IM, blogs) mixed with advertising messages in the form of banner ads. The banner ads may be the major or sole source of revenue for the broadcaster. The broadcaster may be a content creator or a distributor of content created elsewhere. The advertising model works best when the volume of viewer traffic is large or highly specialized.

Infomediary - Data about consumers and their consumption habits are valuable, especially when that information is carefully analyzed and used to target marketing campaigns. Independently collected data about producers and their products are useful to consumers when considering a purchase. Some firms function as infomediaries (information intermediaries) assisting buyers and/or sellers understand a given market.

Merchant - Wholesalers and retailers of goods and services. Sales may be made based on list prices or through auction.

Manufacturer (Direct) - The manufacturer or "direct model", it is predicated on the power of the web to allow a manufacturer (i.e., a company that creates a product or service) to reach buyers directly and thereby compress the distribution channel. The manufacturer model can be based on efficiency, improved customer service, and a better understanding of customer preferences

Affiliate - In contrast to the generalized portal, which seeks to drive a high volume of traffic to one site, the affiliate model, provides purchase opportunities wherever people may be surfing. It does this by offering financial incentives (in the form of a percentage of revenue) to affiliated partner sites. The affiliates provide purchase-point click-through to the merchant. It is a pay-for-performance model -- if an affiliate does not generate sales, it represents no cost to the merchant. The affiliate model is inherently well-suited to the web, which explains its popularity. Variations include, banner exchange, pay-per-click, and revenue sharing programs.

Community - The viability of the community model is based on user loyalty. Users have a high investment in both time and emotion. Revenue can be based on the sale of ancillary products and services or voluntary contributions; or revenue may be tied to contextual advertising and subscriptions for premium services. The Internet is inherently suited to community business models and today this is one of the more fertile areas of development, as seen in rise of social networking.

Subscription - Users are charged a periodic -- daily, monthly or annual -- fee to subscribe to a service. It is not uncommon for sites to combine free content with "premium" (i.e., subscriber- or member-only) content. Subscription fees are incurred irrespective of actual usage rates. Subscription and advertising models are frequently combined.

Utility. - The utility or "on-demand" model is based on metering usage, or a "pay as you go" approach. Unlike subscriber services, metered services are based on actual usage rates. Traditionally, metering has been used for essential services (e.g., electricity water, long-distance telephone services).

(Answers sourced from: BUSINESS MODELS ON THE WEB, Michael Rappa)http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html#Brokerage

1) What is the Mobile phone use /100 population - compare Australia, USA, China, India, Your Country

Mobile phone use per 100 population describes how many mobile phone users there are for every 100 people.

Australia is 102.5, China is 41.2, USA is 83.5, India is 6.9

2) Internet use / 100 population - compare Australia, USA, China, India, Your Country

Australia is 54.2, China is 15.8, USA is 71.9, India is 20

3) Compare main strengths and weaknesses of Australia or your home country in the survey

Australia seems to be one of the world leaders when it comes to technology and accessibility.

4) What does the survey suggest to you about the Information Technology readiness of Australian business compared to Australian consumers?

Australia seems to be lagging behind when it compares business to individual readiness. The data suggest that we are ranked further behind our counterparts when it comes to readiness for technology in the business sector.