10 Years of Innovation and Evolution
10 Years of Innovation and Evolution
10 Years of Innovation and Evolution
For those of you who don't know, affiliate.com's parent company (Media Breakaway, LLC) will be celebrating its 10th anniversary later this year. I've been with the company for half of those years and have been in the online marketing industry for more than a decade. As I look back on the internet and online ecosystem from back in 2001, it is incredible how much has changed. We often talk about how fast the internet evolves, but it is only when you take a step back and look at how many things have changed that this fact really sinks in. So, I thought it would be interesting to consider a few of the major changes since our company got its start in 2001.
1. The rise of affiliate marketing.
Whatever company you think invented affiliate marketing (PC Flowers & Gifts, Amazon.com, CDnow.com or one of the other companies that often gets credit) the industry truly came of age over the last 10 years. From the early days of various e-commerce websites offering to pay publishers a bounty on site subscriptions or product purchases, the industry has evolved into the wide variety of performance-based methodologies that we know today. From the emergence of affiliate networks to the massive expansion of the number of affiliates, the industry has had a huge impact on online business and continues to grow.
2. Mobile marketing became more than ads on the side of a bus.
While many of us may remember Miami Vice, Wall Street and other 80's representations of a so-called mobile phone, the mobile industry didn't really impact the lives of most consumers until the 90's and then exploded with the emergence of smartphones beginning in 2001. I think back to the old Nokia I was using that year and compare it to my current iPhone4, and it is hard to imagine how we got from point A to point B in less than 10 years. Add devices like the iPad and other mobile gadgets to the list and this market bears little resemblance to its appearance in 2001, when the main feature of mobile was the ability to make a phone call.
3. Media became social.
In 2001, the concept of social media was in its infancy, but it would take the launch of Friendster in 2003 to give internet users a first look at approximation of the social networking sites we all know today. Much like other capabilities and services that we see as essential parts of the internet today, the idea that half of all people in the U.S. would have an account on a social network would have seemed like science fiction back in 2001. I can only imagine what people would have thought of a concept like Twitter back then. Although it would probably have been pretty similar to what the Twitter bashers say today ("I don't care what you had for breakfast today!").
4. Dial-up went broadband.
While some developments are more obvious from a physical sense (smartphones, touch screens, etc.) few have had more impact on the development of the internet as a whole than the spread of broadband into consumers' homes. As recently as the late nineties, most internet users did not have anything like a high-speed internet connection from their homes. Their best chance at having a decent user experience online was if they happened to have something like a T1 line at their offices. At home, many people were still making do with dial-up access. So many of the internet applications and capabilities that we take completely for granted today would have been virtually impossible for users to access 10 years ago.
5. One-to-many evolved into one-to-one.
One of the biggest changes in the online space over the last 10 years has been the shift from a one-to-many broadcast communication model (like TV, radio, newspapers, etc.) to the more personalized one-to-one model we all have become accustomed to today. While the walls to the traditional media's castle hadn't fallen yet, the cracks were starting to appear as individual consumers began to generate their own content online. Today, the traditional media industry continues trying to figure out how to make their business models operate successfully in a world where anyone can be a publisher.
6. Search turned out to be more than just a way to find stuff online.
There was a time when search was just a way to find information online. Back around the turn of the century, few could have imagined that search would become the most powerful way to drive traffic online and a multi-multi-billion dollar industry all by itself. Google was still the new kid on the block (having only just launched AdWords in 2000) and hadn't yet overwhelmed and replaced every other search engine in its path. Today, search is one of the cornerstones of the internet economy.
What are some of the biggest changes you have seen to the online world over the last 10 years?
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