E-Commerce - Different Social Networking Websites - Assignment Example

E-commerce Name Date Institute Part A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES This report will present the analysis of different social networking websites like that Twitter, Google, YouTube, Yahoo! Group, Facebook, MySpace and MSN. The basic aim of this report is to discuss the revenue model(s) used by all these social networking websites, SWOT analysis and future prospects for the business management and investment for our business firm. In this scenario, the social networking refers to a way of formulating “networks” of people’s community on particular websites. Additionally, the social networking has made a wonderful place between people who desire to share political, leaning, expertness, experience or anything (askdeb, 2010). In addition, the social networking website is the set of people into particular groups, similar to small rural neighborhood or communities those are divided. Though social networking is probable in person, particularly in the universities, workplace and high schools, it is mainly well-liked online. This is for the reason that unlike most high colleges, schools, or workplaces, the internet is overflowing by millions of persons who are desiring to meet with other people, to collect plus share first-hand experiences and information regarding gardening, golfing, building friendships or professional groupings discovering business-to-business marketing (whatissocialnetworking, 2010). There are different kinds of revenue models which are used by the social and business websites today. In this scenario as an e-Commerce specialist I will suggest and recommend for the wealth management firm which of these their clients should invest in. First of all, we should know what is a revenue model? It is a set of techniques and methods intended to create revenue or profits for a business or organization. In addition, the revenue model explains the fundamental way and technique of the business organizational earnings process and its relation to the sales of products or services (Carter, 2009; Turban et al., 2005). At the present, there are a lot of different web based business or ecommerce revenue models that are used by the businesses to generate revenue. However, the initial and mostly used method is online selling of the physical goods that can be acknowledged as a solid e-business. The next method is about the online ads or advertisement in which a business utilizes its website for the promotion of other business’s services and products (Onlinebusiness, 2009). Here another revenue model is earnings per click that offer a fairly small income however its wideness can make huge businesses revenue. In this regard business places promotions and ads on other websites and pay for each user click that take the business customer to target website. Business services selling are also a web based revenue model. In addition, businesses can use this model to sell lawyer’s services, web designer, doctor, carpenter, psychologist services, etc (DuNg, 2009). Here another business model is operating on the “free” model, in which a client does not pay for this service. However,, these businesses are based on the promotion frameworks (profy, 2006; Summers et al., 2003). Approximately, the large part of Yahoo.com revenue is extracted from marketing services. Since it is a web based business so the biggest part of its earning comes from web based search advertising. In this regard advertisers bid for search terms to present their advertisements on the search outcomes. Besides this Yahoo also makes use of commission based sales and advertising revenue model (icmrindia, 2004). Now I would like to discuss different social networks and their business models. Here first social network platform that I would like to present is Facebook.com that is a top SN of this age as well as it has incorporated multiple ecommerce revenue models. In case of the FaceBook ecommerce platform this business is generating revenue by means of brand ads, ad deal with numerous businesses, self-service ads and virtual goods. However, the biggest revenue model that seems employed at Facebook is advertisement (Papworth, 2007). After Facebook, Twitter.com is considered as the biggest social network. In this scenario Twitter.com social network has adopted different commerce practices and online business methods. However, the fundamental revenue generation techniques at the Twitter are based on the Adwords and search engine based revenue models. In addition, the main part of the Twitter business revenue is generated by means of these methods (Lunn, 2008). The business or revenue generation model used by the Google.com is taken as a role model by a lot of businesses. In addition, there are a huge number of the business models those are operational through the Google. In this scenario, Google is offering online services, products and ad-Sence, AdWords, and Froogle based ecommerce business models (Carter, 2009). The world’s biggest online entrainment video portal is YouTube.com. In addition, his social network has established its place very quickly after its emergence. However, presently this social network site is generating revenue by means of sales of contents and Advertising (Mappingtheweb, 2007). MySpace.com social network is also generating the business revenue by means of the advertising. In addition, this social network website has established the affiliated advertisement networks with the Yahoo for the reason of targeting and producing business ads to its web pages. Therefore the main business model of the MySpace can be said as affiliated and advertisement based revenue models (Kafka, 2008). In case of Yahoo and MSN social networks both businesses are based on the similar looking business models. Since, both businesses have established search engines optimization based revenue generations, physical products sale, services and promotions based revenue. Therefore both businesses are using approximately all types of the revenue generation services (wealthyaffiliate, 2010). In case of suggesting and specifying the business for the wealth management firm for advising clients to invest in more effective business website. In this scenario, I will suggest the FaceBook. The main reason behind the selection of this website is the huge membership of this website. In case of investing or advertising on this website we will have biggest ads response and attraction. Here I will present the SWOT analysis of the social network website Facebook. The main strength of this business website portal is its huge number of the members. In the coming days this business website will be able to gain more revenue from the advertisement based business. In case of assessing the weakness of this business, there can be lack of more targeted marketing, because people come here for communication and pay less attention on ads. In case of the opportunity in this business platform is the growing requirements and interest of people in social networks. FaceBook can have a better future through devising better policy of promotions. The main threat in case of FaceBook business is the risk of new emerging viruses and hacking attacks to the business platform. In scenario of future developments, we expect that FaceBook business will attain higher business value and market support for the effective business revenue generation and promotions. In future we expect that better ads and promotion targeting techniques will be employed to attain high market value and business support. Part B Customer centric web site design In this section I would analyze three web based businesses regarding the effective customer centric web site design of three ecommerce website businesses. Here I will categorize these three websites into good, moderate and bad ecommerce platforms. Good: Ebay.com For the analysis of a good web based business I have selected the business of “e-Bay”. The e-Bay business is a well established business that is based for better customer support and facility. Additionally, this business website is foundational upon concrete rules of the business management and customer handling. In addition, the business of e-Bay is acknowledged as a market king in case of technology products and home appliances. Here below I have presented the main page of the Ebay.com. Figure 1- Ebay.com While talking about customer centric design of the EBay.com we are able to see that this website is presenting all the new business offers in the main page that are helpful in attracting the customers for the quick involvement. On the other hand the web page design is based on much better handling and structure of the business products links. In addition, each link of the web site is offering a better and quick support to customers to get the information about the desired products because each product is categorized into different sections like books, home appliance, DVDs, fashion ware, etc1. While talking about customer confidence regarding online transaction the main page offers facility to customer to view the main strategy and policy of business that protect the customer monetary and personal information. Here business established a solid business policy that is offering greater security and protection to customer information in case of business processes and dealing (EBAY-1, 2010). For assessing customer centric deign of website we initially need to look at the business marketing approaches. In this scenario, the eBay business is making use of the auction based marketing model for its online business products. This technique offers a lot of facilities regarding business products sale. In addition, the business products advertisement is done through the online direct advertisement supported marketing policy. If we assess the structure of the eBay business regarding the customer point of view then we would be able to know that for the customer dealing facility this business offers multiple online transaction methods. Here we have the facility to pay through the Credit Card and COD (cash on delivery) based payment method, and PayPal. In overall analysis of this website we can see that this website is offering a lot of business facilities and more effective customer centric web design that effectively facilitates business customers to have better business dealing and operations online. Medium: Amazon.com Amazon.com is also one of the best online realties businesses that offer a range of business products. However, these products differ in their types. Additionally, on this web site we can have products ranging from electronic to books and also to common daily usage products. Here this business has also employed a very effective customer centric design. On this website platform we are able to have a huge rage of the business products those are available through the web based transaction. The reason for that I have ranked this website to medium stage is the complex and tiring way of the purchasing on this website. Here we have built a complete account after that we need to fill-out huge details those are really distracting for a customer. Overall this business website is really effective and offering a lot of facilities those are the basic back-bone for the ecommerce websites2. Figure 2- Amazon.com Bad: Aquarelle.com This business of Aquarelle.com is to sell gift products those include flowers, chocolates and bouquets. Additionally, this business is operational in small restricted area of UK and few other nations. This business website is based on a very simple arrangement of the ecommerce business. In this scenario, this business website is offering small customer centric design features. The factors those made this website to “BAD” category is its less effective customer support. In addition, its web site has a complex design. Here web page loads very slowly that makes the navigations much harder and distracts the users. In addition, it does not offer an effective online payment system. On the other hand, in case of customer security and confidence building there is not so effective customer privacy policy available. So, it can be said that this web based business is having some small defects in all areas of effective user centric design3. Figure 3- Aquarelle.com Part C Online business issues As Rupert Murdoch recently declared that he was going to charge for his company’s entire web content to us. In this scenario I will outline some of the main aspects of the issues regarding the web based business. In this present age of the web based platforms the biggest and main issues we are seeing is about the online business contents security. These business contents can be business information and customer data. In case of theft of such valuable business information a business can face problems. Here we also have some other issues regarding the effective implementation some better online business revenue model. In this scenario the business model is aimed to support the business for efficiency and better revenue generation. The effective definition of the business revenue model offers us a support and guide line to track the business in a much better way. Bibliography askdeb, 2010. What Are Social Networking Sites? [Online] Available at: http://www.askdeb.com/blog/internet/what-are-social-networking-sites/ [Accessed 28 August 2010]. Carter, B., 2009. The 5 Best Revenue Models in E-Commerce History. [Online] Available at: http://ezinearticles.com/?The-5-Best-Revenue-Models-in-E-Commerce-History&id=102842 [Accessed 29 August 2010]. DuNg, A., 2009. Revenue model for Google, Amazon.com and EBay. [Online] Available at: http://milkmom.blogspot.com/2008/06/revenue-model-for-google-amazoncom-and.html [Accessed 28 August 2010]. EBAY-1, 2010. Rules & policies. [Online] Available at: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/overview.html [Accessed 29 August 2010]. icmrindia, 2004. 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