Monetizing the Internet For such a progressive, technological society, we do not have a progressive economy. Unemployment rates are high, we are coming out of a recession, and overall no one seems to have a whole lot of money. That’s why we must monetize the Internet. The web is our biggest resource, connecting millions around the world and allowing just about anything to be a click away. It’s eligible to be our next big source for jobs and moneymaking. Jaron Lainer delves into the topic in “Fixing the Digital Economy”. He thinks that in order to fix the economic inequality that we face, we must institute monetization methods. I’d like to know exactly how that would happen. As our middle class is struggling, it would be difficult to ask them …show more content…
It’s a currently on-going process that is very complex and requires a lot of time. Money is going to be spent and earned in many ever-changing ways and the Internet will be a key factor in that. Exploring these options and methods while paying attention to the repercussions will be the best way to see what our future holds. The oldest, most pervasive method of monetization is advertising. Humans have been using advertisements since at least 4000 B.C. and the modern ad was created in the 20s with cigarettes. Sadly, with all of the technological advancements, ads are dying. Internet ad revenues are dropping. Erik Clemons says, “pushing a message at a potential customer when it has not been requested, and when the consumer is in the midst of something else on the Net, will fail as a major revenue source for most Internet sites” (16). We all know that ads are paid for and sponsored and therefore not genuine and trustable. What other ways could there be to make money? Well, “the Net will find monetization models, and these will be different from the advertising models used by mass media” (Clemons 17). We have always come up with new ways to make money one way or another, and Clemons claims that in the end it …show more content…
The only problem with the subscription model is that it needs to be a “unique asset…[that can be protected] from easy duplication” (Clemons 26). The products that we pay for need to be worth it. They need to be something that we can get somewhere else for less money. Social networks have been hard to monetize and who knows if they ever will be. What does sell is virtual experience, or, in other words, video games. There is no other way to get World of Warcraft besides paying for the software, subscription, or even both. That is a growing industry that will see even more growth in the