Gurus and Oracles by Sarvary Miklos;

Author:Sarvary, Miklos; [Sarvary, Miklos]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 3339349
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

6

Networks, Interfaces, and Search

In chapter 5 we discussed the various product formats that information sellers should explore when developing value propositions for their clients. Once the product is defined, bringing products to market requires another critical task: designing the distribution system. In information markets, this means designing how the information is physically brought to the buyer or user. This aspect of information products is often difficult to separate from other aspects of going to market. In fact, many times it is intimately linked to production as well. A firm’s decision to sell knowledge, for instance, almost entirely depends on its production technology and it is literally indistinguishable from its distribution. Consider, for example, a high-level management consulting service. It consists of knowledge produced, sold, and distributed/delivered by the same people, all of whom are an integral part of a consulting team. Or, think of a social network that induces its members to jointly generate shared content, which is then available to everyone. Another example is Wikipedia, the highly successful online encyclopedia. Its users create it. Or think of Google. Is it an information seller or an information distributor? The answer is not clear. Google does not own the information that it presents to its customers. This information is sitting on a website among millions of other sites. But through its algorithms, Google not only presents the requested information but also adds value to it by measuring its relevance. In all these examples, product design, production, and distribution are almost impossible to separate.

Despite this challenge, or maybe precisely because of distribution’s central role for this category, we need to discuss the infrastructure on which information travels between sellers and buyers. Specifically, chapter 6 looks at three key issues: (1) the link between information distribution technology and the firm’s business model; (2) recent views on networks and search technologies; and (3) interfaces, or the tricky question concerning how information should be presented to its final consumers.

Information Distribution and Technology

More than for any other good or service, the distribution of information products heavily relies on information technology. The reason is very simple. Information products are by definition digitizable. In the last few decades, information technology has provided us with amazing possibilities to store, transfer, and process digital code. Information is a prime category to benefit from this IT revolution. As a result, a large portion of the firms in the information industry could be seen as “distributors of information.” Rather than producing original information, their core competence lies in being able to exploit the latest available technology to transfer information between remote locations. In 2002, for example, Reuters launched Reuters Messaging, a reliable, high-security, high-speed instant messaging service developed specifically for the global financial services industry. Reuters, Bloomberg, and many other financial information sellers essentially take information produced at public exchanges and channel it to their clients. Their core value proposition is speed, reliability, and convenience.

However, technological competence for information distributors doesn’t simply mean that the latest available technology is used to distribute the same products.

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