USE OF THE INTERNET

Global Company's Use Of The Internet

Global Company's Use Of The Internet

This paper discusses how cultural, political, or geoeconomic challenges might affect a global company's use of the Internet.

CulturesWhen we refer to cultures, a global company has to use the competence of their foreign employees to develop the web sites in a “correct” way for each country. Even if the globalization today is increasing and people are traveling more, the basic cultural differences are still essential. For instance, what the company writes or shows on its site should respect the culture of the foreign country and have its site translated very carefully in the foreign country's language. Moreover, as discussed by Eric Nee (2004) in a recent eWeek article, the number of U.S. homes with a broadband connection is expected to increase from 23% last year to 31% by the end of this year. This can be seen as a cultural challenge, as people's habits and lifestyles are changing, and they are now viewing the Internet as a obvious part of their lives. When almost all businesses and one-third of all consumers have high-speed Internet access, demands for new products and services will arise. At the same time, demand for conventional products and services will decrease, increasing the burden on companies to quickly accept new conditions and adapt to the situation. A global company has to do research on the markets it wantz to capture and use the expertise in the cultural diversity inside the company.PoliticalA global company should take into consideration the laws (or other political issues) of a country and adapt to them. For instance, in China the information that can be taken from the internet is not as free as it is in the Western countries and the information might be controlled by their Government. Therefore, ...