The Internet as a Technology and Catalyst for Growth

Abstract

The Internet is often assimilated, or restricted to the dot-coms, considered creator of new business, of new rules and new worlds and fail to see how it has done so much more than that. How it has influenced dramatically the way we do business and the way we live our lives, keeping within the frames of our old business strategies or life paths. It has changed our rhythm. The Internet is to the business world what access to water or medical care is to population. It is the impact of the Internet that makes us take a close look at its development and raise the question whether the Internet represents a new business model, a new business era, significantly different from b.i.e. (before the Internet era), a completely new alphabet or it is a technology that makes new stories possible, written as they may be in the same old business alphabet. The worldwide penetration of the Internet gives it the global impact and we are going to address the importance of the Internet and the dimensions of the phenomenon, its impact on growth. We will afterwards talk about its history and the peek of the dot-com era. The mature stage of the Internet and its numerous uses draws us to our conclusion that although the Internet did create new viable business models, it does more than that. It is a technology that influences present time the same as electricity shaped the world starting with the XIX century. I will draw a parallel between the Industrial Revolution’s electricity and the Third Revolution’s Internet.