“The virtual products of social networks and their impacts”
Introduction
The project introduces the virtual products of social network in the past, present and future and examines their impacts on users’ lives. The definition of social networks is that there are some websites on the Internet where members can display their photo and express about their personal thoughts, emotion, lives, and activities for others to see and participant. Virtual products mean that users only buy and use them on the Internet because these products do not exist in the real life. For example, users of the Facebook take virtual products as convenient and cheaper social tools because they can buy a virtual product like a cake and send it immediately to their friend of the social network on his/her birthday to express their congratulations.
If you search the Top 20 websites in USA and in Taiwan, you will discover the most part of them are social network websites including Myspace, thefacebook, Youtube, Craiglist and Wikipedia etc. The data reveal that social network become the mainstream idea of websites gradually. Therefore, Schultz (2007) said marketers are hungry for collecting the demographics of the social network website and they invested a lot of money and effort in the area. Above all, virtual products are one of the most potential marketing on the social networks.
Because social networks and virtual products are very new, major evolution will be traced back to other previous methods of trade in the first paper. In the past, people usually use traditional ways to buy some stuff such as “exchange”, “face to face”, “mail/phone order.” At this time, people still buy materialties which exist on the real world to satisfy their needs. However, people start to use virtual product to satisfy their needs after online social networks thrives. Therefore, this paper will research the use of virtual product on the social networks and their impacts to figure out they will lead us to spend less money and have more convenient lives or spend more money on unnecessary virtual items.
Past
At this time, people usually buy some real things by using three traditional ways such as “exchange”, “face to face”, “mail/phone order.”
1. Exchange：
At the first beginning of human history, people were always self-sufficiency. It was a special economic society of exchange what people had for what they didn’t have. For example, if farmers’ crops were abundant, they exchanged crops for meat from butchers. The problem of exchange goods was hard to find a standard of exchange to follow, so people in this society always exchanged goods in their ways. For example, you can exchange 2 pounds crops for 1 pound meat from A, but you exchange the same pounds of crop only for 0.5 pounds from B. The phenomenon sometimes brought a lot of unfair business and broke harmony of the society.
At the moment, there was no technology to involve in, but the relationships of people were closer and more innocent than any other stages. For economic, the society also closed tightly than any other stages because people of this society didn’t need any goods from other places.
2. Face to face：
After the self-contained stage, people started to sell and buy stuff by face to face. At beginning, people gathered at the scene of plaza to bargain goods with each other. For customers, the advantage of this business strategy is that you can examine the goods you want to buy and drive a bargain with the seller. For sellers, they can introduce their goods directly to customers and answer their questions.
At the moment, there was still no technology to involve in, but the relationships of people were still closer because there were a lot of opportunities to let people contact with each other. For economic, the society opened gradually. All kinds of people from different places can gather around the plaza to sell and buy some goods. The action not only stimulated the economy, but also improved the interaction of different cultures.
3. Mail-Phone order：
About twenty years ago, it was very popular that people saw some catalog and then order the goods from these catalogs by mail. Furthermore, you can watch shopping channels on TV and orders stuff by phone. Companies receive the orders by mail or phone and then they delivered the goods to customers.
At this time, there were some technologies to involve in such as telephone and television. The relationships of people started to become estranged because there was not necessary anymore to be in touch with people closely in order to get goods. For economic, the society still kept opening. You can buy many things from all kinds of countries around the world through shopping TV channels. Of course, companies can also sell their products to all kinds of customers no matter how far distance they have. The business model not only enhanced the economy, but also improved us to understand and accept different cultures.
The second paper will not only introduce the present and future statements of virtual products on the social networks, but also explore cultural context and compare the different habits of users about virtual products between U.S.A and Asia. In the end, I will presume and draw the future of virtual products and impacts. Moreover, I will give some new directions that might contribute to development of virtual products on the social network from the consumer behavior and gratification of consumers.
An annotated list
James R. L, Jon M.H. (1985). Retailing Without Stores: An Examination of Catalog Shoppers. Journal of Business Research, 13(2), 139. Retrieved November 9, 2007, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1156444).
It describes and analyzes the behavior of mail order shoppers. The article will help me to explain what the mail-order is and why it became so popular at that time.
Robert B S, Pamela L A, Denny E M. (1994). Consumer perceptions of mail/phone order shopping media. Journal of Direct Marketing, 8(3), 30. Retrieved November 9, 2007, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 51696).
Franklin S H, Jule B G. (1987). Marketing and Exchange [2]. Journal of Marketing, 51(4), 3. Retrieved November 9, 2007, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 585326).
Anil P, Nikhilesh D. (1992). An institutional theory of exchange in marketing. European Journal of Marketing, 26(12), 19. Retrieved November 9, 2007, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 394484).
Schultz D E (2007). Social Call. Marketing Management, 16(4), 10-11. Retrieved October 16, 2007, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1314361691).
It describes the phenomena found in participatory and self-expressive Web sites – such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and he believe social networks are very potential in the future. It will support my statement about how important to do research on the social networks and its virtual products. Moreover, he also said that some marketers started to create a social network that engaged people to purchase products or services. It will help me to describe the consumer behavior in the social networking and how the marketing of social networking on the Internet will work out.
