E-Commerce Continues to Enjoys Soaring Growth—While the Cloud Makes Software and E-Commerce Platforms Easier, Faster & Cheaper
The global internet audience continues to grow steadily, with the worldwide base of broadband internet users (including fixed and wireless) standing in excess of 4.3 billion as 2019 began. This vast base of high speed internet users encourages businesses to innovate in order to offer an ever-evolving array of online services. Sectors that are growing very rapidly online include the sale of entertainment and news media, travel, apparel and consumer electronics. Even groceries have moved into the fast lane, as online grocery sales are growing quickly thanks to same-day delivery options. The most powerful trends on the internet include access via smartphones, the migration of entertainment, including TV, to the web and cloud-based software-as-a-service.
Today, consumers are more focused than ever on finding the best prices while shopping in the most convenient or satisfying manner. Consequently, e-commerce firms that offer high value at consistently low prices are well-positioned to prosper. The standout winner in e-commerce continues to be Amazon, where sales have soared thanks to aggressive pricing, free shipping for its “Prime” members and an ever-growing variety of merchandise. Amazon’s revenues soared from $34.2 billion in 2010 to $233 billion in 2018. The firm’s sales outside of North America are booming as well, despite the fact that it has major foreign competition, particularly from companies based in China.
China’s e-commerce leaders remain much smaller than rival Amazon.com
Estimated revenues 2018, billions of US$:
Amazon $233 bil.
Tencent $44 bil.
Alibaba $40 bil.
The Cloud Enables Software Industry Growth and Easier Operations for Enterprises
There is a now-unstoppable trend toward downplaying the role of packaged software that is installed on the desktop, relying instead on internet-based applications. This trend is called Software as a Service (SaaS). Microsoft, Google, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce and other leading firms are quickly enhancing their own suites of internet-based applications. The cloud is making this move possible.
Cloud computing is the use of remote servers, often owned and operated by third-party service providers, to store and access data and software, as opposed to utilizing servers owned by the user. Firms that offer cloud services run clusters of computers networked together, often based on open standards. Such cloud networks can consist of thousands of computers. Cloud services enable a client company to immediately increase computing capability without any investment in physical infrastructure. (The word “cloud” is also broadly used to describe any data or application that runs via the internet.)
Amazon.com was one of the earliest companies to offer cloud services, and it remains a leader in this field. Since it must operate immense server capacity anyway, Amazon decided in early 2006 to offer cloud computing services, on its servers, to outside parties. Amazon Web Services (AWS) have been extremely popular. Using AWS requires no long-term contract or up-front investment. Charges are reasonable and usage-based (a few cents per gigabyte per month, in the U.S.). Remote servers, remote storage and the Amazon SimpleDB database are among the most popular AWS tools.
Amazon, Microsoft and Google are investing vast sums to build new data centers for cloud services. For 2017, IBM reported total cloud revenues up 24% to $17 billion. By the third quarter of 2018, cloud revenue represented 20% of total IBM revenue. A major goal of publishing software in the cloud is for the user to be able to eliminate much of the money and effort that an organization typically invests in building, managing and updating software in the traditional manner on its computer network. At the same time, the cloud enables software providers to build steady streams of renewable subscription revenues. Salesforce, a customer relationship management (CRM) software leader, has achieved great success by selling only internet-based (SaaS) access to its tools. Among the advantages of SaaS are no software to purchase and no software to install or maintain.
Plunkett’s E-Commerce & Internet Business Almanac 2019
Available to Plunkett Research Online subscribers
See more information about the online edition here.
Also available in Almanac Editions.
Publication Date: February 2019 | Price: $379.99
Printed ISBN: 978-1-62831-485-4
eBook ISBN: 978-1-62831-808-1
See the complete listings of book contents and details here.
Plunkett’s Computers, Software & Technology Industry Almanac 2019
Available to Plunkett Research Online subscribers
See more information about the online edition here.
Also available in Almanac Editions.
Publication Date: February 2019 | Price: $379.99
Printed ISBN: 978-1-62831-484-7
eBook ISBN: 978-1-62831-806-7
See the complete listings of book contents and details here.
