A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

Questions

1 

Select one country that i‑to‑i operates in and sum‑

marise the main types of sites and businesses 

involved using a marketplace map (Figure 2.4).

2 

Review the different factors that i‑to‑i will need 

to review to gauge the commercial effectiveness 

of its online presence in different geographic 

markets.

Mini case study 2.3 gives a more recent example an e‑retail failure with serious 

consequences.

Why   dot-  coms  failed

At the end of Chapter 5 we review the reasons for failed digital business strategies and, in 

Case study 5.3, we examine the reasons for one of the most spectacular  dot‑  com failures –  

Boo.com. We will see that in many cases it was a case of an unsound business strategy, or 

ideas before their time. Many of the  dot‑  coms were founded on innovative ideas which 

required a large shift in consumer behaviour. A rigorous demand analysis would have shown 

that, at the time, there were relatively few Internet users, with the majority on dial‑up con‑

nections, so there wasn’t the demand for these services. We see in the Boo.com example that 

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