Being sucessful on the Internet is rather like doing business, you know? You find a demand that has insufficient supply, and you cater to it. If people like what you do, more people patronize you. Soon after you get the funds to expand, whether it be from donations or advertising revenue, and you grow. Yet many people don't realize it. They try to stick to the tried and true methods and decide to compete with the giants who pioneered the method, thinking they could stand a chance of being on even ground or even better. Sure, a small handful succeed, but how many have crashed and burned in the process? We don't need another fast food chain, or more Minecraft videos on YouTube. What we need is innovative ideas to whet our appetite for more. Success is being innovative, not a copycat.
Speaking of the Internet and the business world, it makes me wonder why there hasn't been many virtual economies springing up in the decades of its existence. The Internet is such a powerful tool to teach economics and games like Team Fortress 2 has shown that it is indeed possible to build a whole new economy that does not necessarily have to involve any spending of real money. Prices fluctuate much like real life, based on in-game updates, release of new content, even which items an in-game celebrity enjoys using and some players are even able to predict these changes by taking note of whether supply of certain items might drop or rise in the future and act accordingly. Virtual economies are so similar to its real life counterpart, that similar concepts can be applied to both. So perhaps it is time we stopped seeing the Internet solely as a tool for entertainment, but also a powerful tool for education.
Think about it.
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