Icarus Studios News

What does it mean to talk about a New Media market? Is it about creatively combining present market models to reveal a new kind of service? Easier said than done! Some people focus on real world models while some push ahead to Internet-only models, but there is a time and a place for using either, and a time for a combination. Combining them in a way that will grow with Internet culture, however, isn't as easy as simply digitizing assets.

It seems that while many businesses can't help but see some sort of success on the Internet. In order for virtual markets to truly grow, new experiences will need to be crafted out of today's two main “online” business models: I-business and E-business. By I-business I mean a model that (because of its nature} cannot exist anywhere but the Internet, and by E-business I refer to a real world business model with a website and digital order form available. These two business models require very different kinds of customer and network service and, because of this, large-scale attempts at creative combinations aren't as common as one might think. Is reevaluating how we as businesses think of human resources and customer service the key?

Since “New Media” refers to a combination of cross-disciplinary, multi-dimensional topics, developer strategy as a whole shouldn't necessarily be to sell a particular tool but to sell an experience, even if it's an experience which we believe will ultimately be crafted with said tool. To that end, we should spend some time thinking about how we do or do not accept the natural flow of the Internet and support information exchange.

The economy of the Internet rests on the free acquisition of benefits. For a real world market to remain competitive in the web-space and withstand hype, it must offer the end-user something of particular and unique value above and beyond any normal consumer opportunity. The true value to the end-user often comes in the form of emotion and idea, conceptual forms of content which often call for a mixing of multiple contexts. This “particular and unique value” can be added by offering something of great value within the virtual context of the Internet.

Business in the real world, on the other hand, often rests on the exploitation of space (a tangible resource: a location, a piece of real estate, the ability to be seen), but in a sphere where space is not even the same concept, what is exploitable? It would seem that the easiest area to mine first, or at least the most stable one considering our natural draw to it, is information. When real world transactions that could normally be procured by other means do rise above the cacophony of freely shared information, it is only because the consumer recognizes additional value in the information given by the particular concept. In other words, the property or venture is not necessarily successful simply because it was accessible from the Internet (although ease of access might have something to do with the manipulation of the buying impulse).

Looking at a well known example of successful transplanted models, auction sites such as Ebay and marketplaces like Amazon not only offered obvious real world purchase opportunities, but a crafted experience that users were unlikely to have experienced elsewhere. In the case of Ebay the experience was an instant worldwide auction. In the case of Amazon, it was a custom-tailored, international consumer satisfaction experience. Those examples are successful precisely because they sell the glory of commerce on an epic scale, and do not pretend otherwise.

Today, however, buyers are familiar enough with these benefits to expect something more, or different, with each similar incarnation. In a recent example native to the Internet, the popular demand for various kinds of customizable content doesn't so much appeal to our desire for information as it does a desire for uniqueness of space: again, an experience. Google users might have an iGoogle page not because they explicitly need all the modules, or cannot find the news elsewhere, but because they enjoy the experience of being greeted by the unique interaction they had a hand in creating, even if what the iGoogle page shows them is superfluous by any other account.

Going forward, it seems to me that a good tactic will always be to brand community. Let's reword that—“branding the community” sounds a lot like something you might read about but never quite get an explanation of (especially if you have no interest in “branding” anything and you just like MMO's). It might be a different definition than what another person might use since I'm not a marketer. Then again, it might be the same and simply be a pretty obvious need. I think the phrase means two very important things: “Emphasizing Social Value” and “Serving the Messenger.”

Internet competition arises from a strength of shared concept and user experience. The user is attracted as a seller would be, by you advertising for their needs as you might offer a marketing service for a client.

Support a full range of exchange by engendering an environment where users come away feeling that something of value has been learned, not simply that something has been bought.

Rely on a more complex, human oriented design than product oriented one. By downplaying your role as the product owner and emphasizing a real time, direct dialog with the user as creation partner, you support trust, reliability, expertise level, and the exchange of expert information in a dynamic state.

Let your user do whatever it is they are best at to take care of this product they are buying and help you, as the parent company, out.

Establish a market transparency in the business dealings and work on forging a tight producer/consumer connection. The more they work the more they receive.

Create a situation where a person is proud to have an account as a badge of belonging and citizenship and less as a mark of commodity, most likely achievable by making a free rank and a paid rank equally attractive for different users in different situations.

-Miri Funderburk, Virtual Worlds Team