Markets are conversations.

UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG

5 of September 2007

Overview of WEB 2.0

Markets are conversations

Rosario Sica

e-mail: rosariosica@gmail.com

Scenario del WEB 2.0

Age of “user-generated content”

TIME December 1982

TIME December 2006

A big phenomenon: the barriers of technology fall away The era of “user-generated content”

Open encyclopaedia

60 mil. Access a day Over 5 mil of entries worldwide (+107%) (201.000 in Italy, + 80%). 4 million registered users

300 mil pages viewed a day(+122% ultimo anno)

7,5 mil registered users

400 million pages viewed a day

120 mil registered users

[Google bought for $1,6 Bil] [News Corp bought for $580 Mil]

65 mil users registered

social book marking

and folksonomy

( 2003)

business networking and endorsement

social broadcasting

( 2004)

Social networking

[Yahoo bought in 2006]

6 mil users registered

sharing photos with people

( 2003)

Web 2.0: overview

Web 1.0

Static view

Browsing

HTML

Personal site

Content Mgmt system

Directory / Taxonomy

Top down

Web 2.0

Social platform

Feed reader/Syndication

AJAX/ Portlet assembled by the user

Blog

Wiki

Tag/Folksonomy

Peer to peer

Web 2.0 facilitates collective intelligence Collaboration, Capitalization, Knowledge Sharing, Convergence Source: www.oreillynet.com

From Gutenberg to Berners-Lee Some specific phenomena

The users are the goal

Target/Segment of the market

Hierarchy

Taxonomy

Production capacity

Mass market

Top down/Bottom up

Push

Discussions

The users are the producers

Community

Social Networking

Folksonomy

Reputation and competency

Market mass

Peer to peer

Pull

Conversations

Gutenberg The era of mass media Berners-Lee The era of social networking and conversation

The cluetrain Manifesto

The end of business as usual

Naked conversations

Theses 1 – 6: Markets are Conversations ….95 theses…

Historically, the authors state, the marketplace was a location where people gathered and talked to each other (thesis 1): they would discuss available products, price, reputation and in doing so connect with others (theses 2-5.) The authors then assert that the internet is providing a means for anyone connected to the internet to re-enter such a virtual marketplace and once again achieve such a level of communication between people. This, prior to the internet, had not been available in the age of mass media (thesis 6.)

The voice of the customer: market becoming conversation

Companies are developing new ways of relating to the market, thus taking the client inside the processes of communication and innovation of the companies.

This process of innovation concerns all the companies that are already using the mode of conversation with customers to gain a competitive edge and others that are using the web 2.0 to begin a new relationship with the customer.

The phenomenon of Blog http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html Over 50 million of Blogs (as at 09/2006). Doubling every six months 75.000 Blogs created every day

Is it true that markets are conversations? The future of the brands is in the interactions with clients, not in the products” The Blog of the President of Sun Microsistems, Jonathan Schwartz http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/ The launch of the Fiat Bravo with the conversations of clients www.quellichebravo.it Innovation of new product (Lego Mindstorm) with communities of customers The Blog of the CEO of DUCATI http://blog.ducati.com/ The company answer the case Kriptonite http://www.blogs4biz.info/index.php?title=la_lezione_di_kriptonite_e_kensington&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers (Hardcover) ROBERT SCOLBE

Is it true that markets are conversations? The future of the brands is in the interactions with clients, not in the products”

Fiat: a case of innovation in the greatest turnaround of all time