Word: traffic
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Some sites, of course, were better prepared than others. By bringing on enough servers to handle peak-load traffic, the best avoided "site busy" messages and snail-like downloads. They also kept puzzled shoppers from fleeing by providing an 800 number or offering real-time Instant Messaging chats with customer reps. And they avoided apoplectic rages by "integrating" their inventory systems so that what appears to be in stock on the website corresponds with what's actually on the shelves...
Satori Kato Instant coffee, 1901 Mary Anderson Windshield wipers, 1903 Hugh Moore Paper cup, 1908 Jacques Brandenberger Cellophane, 1908 Arthur Wynne Crossword puzzle, 1913 Joseph Block Whistling kettle, 1921 Andrew Olsen Pop-up tissue box, 1921 George Squier Muzak, 1922 Garrett A. Morgan Traffic light, 1923 Francis W. Davis Power steering, 1926 R. Stanton Avery Self-adhesive label, 1935 Edwin L. Peterson Answering machine, 1945 Earl John Hilton Credit card, 1950 Clinton Riggs Yield sign, 1950 Chavannes & Fielding Bubble wrap, 1957 Luther Simjian ATM, 1960 Herb Peterson Egg McMuffin...
...sell to the highest bidder anywhere in the world. And buyers are assured the price isn't too high because they get to choose the lowest one being offered by any seller in the world. Location becomes unimportant. You're not penalized for being a seller stuck in low-traffic, low-price Bismarck or a buyer shopping in high-cost Manhattan. Auctions also minimize transaction costs ("friction" in e-commerce-speak) and eliminate the need to operate bricks-and-mortar stores. Online auctions "wring out the inefficiencies in the supply-chain process," says FairMarket CEO Scott Randall. They also benefit...
...hooked up to from home. (The site's domain name was www.ebay.com and eBay was the name that stuck.) There were no Pez dispensers--that came later--but there were listings for a whole lot of computer hardware. eBay started out free, but it quickly attracted so much traffic that Omidyar's Internet service upped his monthly bill to $250. Now that it was costing him real money, Omidyar decided to start charging. He concocted a fee scale similar to the one eBay uses today: a nominal fee for listing an item (10[cents] back then, as little...
Economists get dizzy thinking about this. It is all so scalable. Add a few servers, a dozen more Web pages, a couple more customer-service reps, run your traffic up another digit, expand into new product lines and sell a hundred thousand more books or CDs or power tools. This kind of growth--Internet gurus like David Wetherell, enthralled by the mathematics of community, call it viral growth--defies conventional valuation and makes the usual measure of retailing--same-store sales, sales per square foot--seem like roman numerals or the abacus, relics of another...