Database Reference
In-Depth Information
table 9.2
Pricing Models
Name
Description
E-Commerce
The sale of real and electronic merchandise through the medium of an
electronic shop via browsable catalog.
Subscription
The customer pays for a predetermined amount of money for use of the
service; the ownership of the merchandise is not transferred to the
customer.
Charges on
per use basis
The customers pay each time they use the service such as video on
demand; ownership of the merchandise is not transferred to the customer.
Charges on
usage basis
The customer pays based on the duration of usage as in the case of playing
interactive games; ownership of the merchandise is not transferred to the
customer.
Advertisement
The customer indirectly pays via interested vendor companies purchasing
advertising space on the Website to target the visiting customers.
Sponsorship
This is akin to the advertisement model except that the space is purchased
only by the sponsor companies and advertises only their messages.
Public support
The public interest Websites are typically supported by donations from
general public and social and government institutions.
Indirect
The customer pays indirectly not for use of the website but indirectly via
the use of telephony, search, survey response, etc.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INTERNET
It is not easy to speculate on the reasons that the Internet is begetting the revolution-
ary changes that we have witnessed in the past few years. What gives it the power to
drive the massive changes that have been witnessed in the last 5 years, while similar
changes in the past have taken ages to sweep across the globe?
In the earlier topic Implementing SAP , I had proposed that the fundamental reason is
that a medium is always more powerful than a message. It may be that, at certain stages
in history, messages (and their messengers) have had a determining effect on the course of
history, but these passages have been few and far between. The impact of the medium has
always been more powerful and long lasting than any message. Throughout history, the
powerful have always recognized this truth and have concentrated on controlling a medium
as the most powerful facet of governance, rather than becoming martyrs as revolutionaries
with a new message to tell to the world. The print medium has outlasted all ideological and
technological revolutions seen in the past centuries since the dawn of civilization. In one
form or another, this has been a known fact in all fields of human endeavor, but Marshall
McLuhan brought this out much more forcefully for the electronic media in the middle of
the last century.
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