Subscription Model - Business Models And The Internet

BUSINESS MODELS AND THE INTERNET

Business models used in the offline corporate world may or may not translate to the Internet and e-commerce. Some, including the subscription model, have translated relatively well. Others that have been successful include mail-order models, advertising models, free-trial models, and direct-marketing models. The opposite also is true; some business models are unique to the Internet and have no real use outside of that environment. Internet-specific models focus heavily on the movement of electronic information and include digital delivery models and freeware models.

Online business models vary in their suitability for different enterprises. By themselves they are not enough to guarantee success in the physical or online worlds. As Jeffrey F. Rayport explains, "Every e-commerce business is either viable or not viable. . .Business models themselves do not offer solutions; rather, how each business is run determines its success. So the success of e-commerce businesses will hinge largely on the art of management even as it is enabled by the science of technology."