Article: The State of the Internet

I believe that the Internet will eventually become just as strong and powerful as television. However, this will not come as quickly and easily as investors had planned. Major changes in thinking and economics will have to be forced upon advertising executives, causing them to rethink their entire advertisement strategy and outlook. The market is much too young right now to command any sort of financial stability or maturity. Traditional advertisers have no clue how to market campaigns or gather target data. The knowledge and experience to operate a successful, proven online campaign isn't popular knowledge that is taught in colleges across the globe. While the industry is currently collapsing under the weight of countless failed ad banners, I think there's light at the end of the tunnel. However, this light is still a ways far off, and the industry will continue to get worse before it gets much better. Networks and advertisers that fail to adapt will fail to survive.

The Future.

Despite this positive outlook of the future, countless more networks and dot-coms will continue to implode until the technology and advertising know-how catches up with them. Startups that were founded on absolutely no firm foundation or business model have all but died out already, tightening the market. Companies are beginning to slowly realize that bulk banner ad campaigns do not work, and are moving to other forms of promotion such as semi-targeted campaigns, virtual stores, and closer partnerships with the sites they are advertising on. To survive, the industry must look back at what didn't work and change their policies accordingly. If networks continue to remain adamant and unyielding in their outlook towards advertising campaigns, they will continue their previously established path of failure. The market is changing, maturing, and restructuring itself. If the Internet fails to develop technology which supports targeted campaigns and supports the collection of data which helps advertisers plan an ad campaign, it will continue to falter and implode. A happy medium must be established here, and it merely takes time to stumble upon such a solution. Hopefully the online entertainment industry can hold out until this compromise is discovered.

- Lowtax

– Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka