Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
cheap, and has grown in popularity as internet use has soared, although its
effectiveness varies considerably among national cultures (Miller et al.
2009
).
Internet advertising has proven to be difficult, in part because the Internet reaches
numerous specialized markets rather than mass audiences. However, cyberspace
does facilitate specialized companies to reach global niche markets. Yet e-com-
merce should not be seen as a realm independent of the broader dynamics of
capital accumulation: In many respects, it is closely bound up with the cultural
logic of contemporary commodity production and consumption (Leyshon et al.
2005
).
''E-tailing,'' or electronic retailing, reveals the growing commercialization of
the Internet: in 1993, 2 % of all Web sites were commercial (i.e., ''dot com'') sites;
by 2010, 70 % were so categorized. Shopping by the Internet requires only access,
a credit card (or perhaps a service such as PayPal), and a parcel delivery service.
Such a mode allows effortless price comparisons and intensifies competition
among suppliers. In 2010, global e-tailing sales were estimated to exceed $680
billion. The proportion varies markedly by economic sector and region of the
world. Shoppers using this mode tend to be above-average in income and rela-
tively well educated. Web-based banking has experienced slow growth, even
though it is considerably cheaper for banks than automatic teller machines, as have
Internet-based bill payments, mortgages, and insurance. Of course, the use of e-
tailing depends heavily on consumers' confidence that private information placed
on-line will remain secure.
The internet has also had important effects on tourism (Buhalis
2003
), which by
employment is the largest industry in the world. Traditionally the most important
role attributed to information technology in the tourism sector has been reservation
services and destinations. However, the internet has greatly accelerated the spread
of tourist information, leading tourists to change their behavior, and tourist
companies and institutions have changed their promotion and distribution channels
accordingly (Buhalis and Licata
2002
). For example, it provides new opportunities
and tools for tourist destinations to represent themselves and creates new oppor-
tunities in marketing channels. Internet-based tourism allows companies new ways
to organize their activities, including efficiency improvements, better communi-
cations with clients and suppliers over large areas, and easier agreements with
business partners, including real-time dissemination of information via the internet
and electronic payments for services. For customers, the internet facilitates price
transparency, better visual and graphic information, and time savings. Clearly the
increasing use of the Internet for travel planning has altered the behavior among
both tourists and the businesses that cater to them.
Another version of e-commerce concerns universities, many of which have
invested heavily in Web-based distance learning courses. Although such programs
are designed to attract nonlocal and nontraditional students, many of whom may not
be able to take lecture-based courses in the traditional manner, they also reflect the
mounting financial constraints and declining public subsidies that many institutions
face, which may see distance learning as a means of attracting additional students,
and tuition, at relatively low marginal costs. The largest example of Web-based
