Ecommerce Web Hosting Braodband and Wireless Convergence

Updated July 14, 2008

Is your e-business ready for a 'shopping matrix' - or for new multi-format marketing campaigns in a world where clear distinctions between Internet browser, television, palm device, or cellular phone no longer exist?

Sounds a little sci-fi, but ready or not, here are the issues you may soon have to deal with if you want to stay competitive on tomorrow's Internet.

As new communications companies join together to build and manage new nationwide broadband networks for video-centric IP services, interactive distance-learning and Web applications for schools and colleges, a new converging paradigm is being further developed and exploited.

It is clear to see that this is a strategy based on carrier flexibility leveraging broadband technology to help improve the ability to provide quality-of-service and class-of-service performance standards that are crucial for high-quality video delivery for education and eventually for businesses and consumers.

Once the Web hosting providers integrate and provide multi-protocol broadband IP connections they can offer, for instance, technology and curriculum resources to schools, colleges, universities, learning centers, and distance-learning institutions with video-centric programs that help students and teachers worldwide to get affordable access to the latest academic curricula and certifications.

At the moment, there are two complementary paradigms for near-future Internet connectivity and understanding them will be integral to any ecommerce business plan or marketing strategy. The first model, convergence, signals the union of various electronic media, business and leisure activities into a single, dynamic platform. While Web-TV serves as a modest prototype for the convergence model, developments in broadband technology will increasingly fuse discrete communications media (the Internet, television, phone, music and video devices) into a single online appliance.

The second model, divergence, represents the distribution of converged Internet applications across a wide range of mobile delivery devices. Thanks to innovations in wireless technology, the same communications fusion described in the convergence model will be accessible through multiple (handheld) platforms and formats.

But more to the point, convergence technologies are creating new challenges and opportunities for ecommerce, and the diversity and mobility of these platforms will transport business opportunities everywhere.

Well, besides bringing Internet, television and telephone into a single media channel (with diverse platforms), convergence will create a new marketing and communications forum that will enrich the ways in which people interact with media, advertising, and ecommerce in general. That's because electronic commerce and leisure activities are increasingly merging.

In concrete terms, many corporations are already aggressively outlining a 'marketing paradigm' based on convergence models of Internet connectivity. Google and YouTube is a translation of search engine and video.

Whether for business, information, leisure, or shopping, (or some amalgam thereof) the marriage of two or more media platforms will increasingly involve a dynamic, multi-tasking procedure in which formerly distinct 'disciplines' (viewing, listening, reading, surfing, and shopping) mutually modify each other and evolve into new forms of online interactivity. In effect, convergence technology will do more than physically alter where and how we plug into media - it will invent new kinds of media behavior.

Here, it's easy to envision 'streaming' car, travel, and fashion commercials with point-and-click links to respective business websites. But pundits of convergence technology predict a deeper, stronger union between ecommerce and entertainment industries (as we are now seeing with YouTube where businesses are putting their company presentation on Video for all to see).

It's projected that television programs and movies will 'advertise' products and offer 'embedded' links to commercial websites.

This would allow viewers to get more information on the item and transact business through converged media - complicated and usually drawn-out processes like branding, imaging, marketing and sales can be executed nearly simultaneously, and with a pre-qualified demographic already targeted.

Even print media and 'real world' advertising is joining in on the convergence phenomenon. Further blurring distinctions between traditional and digital media, we now have new hand-held personal devices that plug into your computer and that can be swept over bar codes on print advertising, on products, and in newspapers or magazines. The device reads the code and brings related websites up on your computer. Though limited in application at the moment, innovations like these will be able to link an unassuming print ad to a dynamic, multi-media online forum. In doing so, the void between print and hypertext is instantaneously bridged.

Cleary, the possibilities here are limitless. And it's precisely the power of this kind of interactivity that is driving the convergence game. For ecommerce, this means adapting marketing strategy to the new ways consumers interact with online content and advertising. With more dynamic Internet applications, e-businesses will have to take advantage of the new and diverse media formats. As mentioned above, one of the most powerful advantages of media convergence is that it allows an e-business to situate an advertisement - or an entire marketing campaign - before a carefully selected, pre-qualified audience. Unlike television viewing, this targeted demographic will already be utilizing an appliance 'loaded' with ecommerce applications, which puts viewers just a click away from the products on screen.

Bolstering optimism over convergence technologies, research indicates that the public is now prepared for multimedia convergence, and is already 'multi-tasking' between Internet and other medias. According to recent studies, a sizeable proportion of Internet users keep their televisions and computers in the same room, often go online while watching TV, and use TV as an information hub for locating new websites. In terms of providing a context for convergence, networks like ESPN have proven that the two media can be 'integrated' to produce a heavy, synergistic impact.

With consumers already bridging the gap between the Internet and other entertainment, information and gaming media, it behooves e-businesses to monitor the ways in which convergence and divergence technologies alter ecommerce trends. How convergence will reformat ecommerce, as well as impact consumer behavior, are critical issues in re-tooling for coming changes in the online landscape.

And though we may object to the total assimilation of entertainment and leisure by commercial interests, one thing is certain: ecommerce will continue to evolve rapidly - and convergence media will drive the process. For smart e-businesses, this means staying current, looking ahead, and adapting your business strategy - so you don't have to reinvent your business wheel.