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Internet Marketing Central
Internet @ a Glance
Posted: November 6, 2006
This article
provides an overview of the Internet as it stands today – a quick
review of definitions, Internet functions, usage statistics, the
explosion in local search and a look at the growth in online sales.
What exactly is the Internet? Let’s start with a definition.
 The Internet “is a
‘network of networks’ that consists of millions of smaller domestic,
academic, business, and government networks, which together carry
various information and services, such as electronic mail, online
chat, file transfer, and the interlinked Web pages and other
documents of the World Wide Web.
Contrary to some common
usage, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not synonymous: the
Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks, linked
by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, etc.; the
Web is a collection of interconnected documents, linked by hyperlinks
and URLs. The World Wide Web is accessible via the Internet, as are
many other services including e-mail, file sharing, [etc.]” (Internet,
2006, par. 1-2).
While the Internet began
as an academic and technical endeavor, public interest in it started
to grow in 1994. By 1996 the Internet was a household term and today
it is part of our every day lives. According to Internet World Stats,
over 1.08 billion people are using the Internet as of September 18th,
2006 (see Table 1). That is a 200% increase since 2000.
Net Functions
(Email, Search Engines, & Searches)
With all these people on
the Internet, what exactly are they doing? Most of the time the net is
used for leisure (playing games, watching videos, gambling, chatting
with friends, sharing pictures, etc.) and communication (email, IMs
(instant messaging), PC-to-PC calls, etc.). In fact, email ranks
second behind the telephone as the largest means of communication. The
Radicati Group estimated that 171 billion emails are being sent per
day. That means “almost 2 million emails are sent every second” (Tschabitscher,
2006, par. 2). To the dismay of many, only 29% are genuine emails. The
other “71 percent are spam” (Radicati Group, 2006, par. 1).
In addition to
leisure and personal communication uses, the Internet has also
become a great source for information (research, how-tos,
newspapers, online journals, job listings, blogs, and pretty much
everything you every wanted know about anything), shopping, and
business-to-business communications.
How do these one
billion+ users find what they seek? They use search engines (SEs).
According to comScore, Google is the most widely used SE, followed by
Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Ask. Google, with 47.3% usage rate, receives 91
million searches a day (see Graph 1 and Table 2). And, when you tally
all searches performed on the Internet per day it comes to a whopping
213 million. That represents a lot of people looking for a lot of
information. With all this traffic, the Internet is now an essential
component of any business or organization’s marketing plan and
communications strategies. Whatever you have to say, share or sell,
the Internet is the place to do it.
Local Searches
One important trend in
user searching behavior relates to local searches, that is, users
looking for information, products, and services provided by businesses
in their local geographical area. A study done by comScore shows “63
percent of U.S. Internet users (or approximately 109 million people)
performed a local search online in July [of 2006], a 43 percent
increase versus July of 2005” (comScore Networks, 2006, par. 2).
Google and Yahoo! were the SEs of choice for most of these local
searches, followed by Microsoft and Time Warner Network (see Table 3).
“Based on a recent
comScore Search Satisfaction study, 41 percent of those conducting a
local search were searching for something in their home area, as
opposed to searching for information on businesses in locales that
they intended to visit. Additionally, among those searching in their
home area, 59 percent indicated they were searching for a restaurant
or something entertainment-related, such as a theater, theme park or
an attraction for sightseeing. Another 52 percent said they were
searching specifically for a business phone number or address. Two
out of five local searchers (41 percent) were looking for
information on a local service in their home area – services such as
car rental offices, dry cleaners, veterinarians, florists and
lawyers.
The same comScore
study also found that performing a local search drives consumers to
take action. During the second quarter of 2006, 47 percent of local
searchers visited a local merchant as a result of their search
behavior, while 41 percent made contact offline. More than one-third
(37 percent) made contact online as a result of conducting a local
area search” (comScore Networks, 2006, par. 3-4).
Jack Flanagan, executive
vice president of comScore Media Metrix, said, “‘Local search is
experiencing strong growth as more consumers adapt to the ‘always on’
nature of their broadband connection, which enables them to quickly
find information on local businesses. With approximately 849 million
local searches conducted by Americans in July, local advertisers have
a sizable market that can be reached through leading search sites’” (comScore
Networks, 2006, par. 5).
There is no longer any
business, however small or local, that could not benefit from a
presence on the Internet. In fact, the time is near when the lack of
such a presence will be interpreted by customers as a sign that the
business is not current. Local businesses without web sites may begin
to lose business (if it isn’t already happening) to their local
competitors who are embracing and using this media to their advantage.
E-Commerce
“Some of the biggest
companies today have grown by taking advantage of the efficient nature
of low-cost advertising and commerce through the Internet. … It is the
fastest way to spread information to a vast amount of people
simultaneously. [Subsequently,] the Internet has … revolutionized
shopping—for example; a person can order a CD online and receive it in
the mail within a couple of days, or download it directly in some
cases. The Internet has also greatly facilitated personalized
marketing which allows a company to market a product to a specific
person or a specific group of people more so than any other
advertising medium” (Internet, 2006, par. 59).
“Examples of
personalized marketing include online communities such as MySpace,
Friendster, and others which thousands of Internet users join to
advertise themselves and make friends online. Many of these users
are young teens and adolescents ranging from 13 to 25 years old. In
turn, when they advertise themselves, they advertise interests and
hobbies, which online marketing companies can use as information as
to what those users will purchase online, and advertise their own
companies' products to those users” (Internet, 2006, par. 60).
The U.S. Census Bureau
of the Department of Commerce estimated $26.3 billion in retail
e-commerce sales were made during the 2nd quarter of 2006 (see Graph
2). This value was “adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday
trading-day differences, but not for price changes. … Total
[unadjusted] retail sales … were estimated at $984.9 billion. … The
second quarter 2006 e-commerce estimate increased 23.0% (± 5.4%) from
the second quarter of 2005 while total retail sales increased 6.6 % (±
0.5%) in the same period” (Scheleur, King, & Shimberg, 2006, par.1).
If you have a product to sell, the Internet is the marketplace to get
your message and products out.
Conclusion
The staggering growth in
Internet usage, email communications, and e-commerce sales underscore
the fundamental change taking place in business. The marketplace has
globalized, consumers demand more information at their fingertips, and
business without a web site to provide that information will be left
behind. Businesses and organizations hoping to grow and take advantage
of today’s information and service-based economy need a web site; it
is that simple. An effective presence on the Internet is one of the
easiest and most economical means of influencing potential customers.
To read some great
Internet Usage Statistics, check out our
Fast Stats companion article.
For more information on
taking the first step onto the Internet with your business or for
updating your existing site, contact denning
e-solutions. Sources:
see supporting data |
