“Amazon’s reviews are about more than money.” – Porter, “Designing For The Social Web
This is a very interesting observation to me. Not just in the context of Amazon, but also in the light of our ever-changing economy. The fact that individuals volunteering their time and effort challenge the principles of economics is an interesting shift in how work is perceived. Money isn’t the driving force behind personal reviews. It is a willingness and desire to share personal experience with complete strangers that seems to be influencing reviewers. They are doing it not for financial gain, but for a more basic human need to share information. Professional economists must be picking their chins off the tables. I bet they can’t understand how or why all these people are contributing to the marketing of goods without any compensation. I find it very amusing that the “volunteers” are beating the experts, to paraphrase Benkler, in this new web economy. The money must be made somewhere else from now on.
The way that technology is changing the economy is reflected all over the place. With computer graphics and illustration software becoming less and less expensive and increasingly user friendly it becomes more and more accessible. The ability for individuals and smaller businesses to, let’s say, design their own logos and advertisements takes away from the big ad agencies who might otherwise be doing their marketing. More power is being put into the hands of individuals who can now also reach a larger market with a few well chosen tags in their website. This shift in power will surely continue as accessibility grows all over the world. Big companies will always find a way to make money, but they may have to settle for a bit less profit in this socially and technologically shifting market.
Great post. I think that the need to convey one's opinion is a somewhat innate characteristic. Particularly in this country, it is part of American culture to make our voices heard. When it comes to user reviews online, I do not have time to write them - but I love that they exist, and rely heavily on them for making major purchase decisions... Kudos to these people - but I do feel that the compulsion to publicly voice ones opinion (unless a warning) about a consumer good, is probably driven by a more than healthy ego. Another point that you touched on is the devaluation of intellectual property - courtesy of technology. While the internet has made it possible for a huge number of independent artists to gain an audience, it has also had hugely detrimental effect on the mainstream art, design, music and film industries. There are always some winners, but what is indicative at the top of the economic scale is usually amplified once you reach the bottom...
ReplyDeleteWebsites like Amazon that are user friendly and leave spaces for users to comment on products is very effective. It is awesome how people can also do this for restaurants. It let's people gauge what a product or place might be like. It allows people to see many responses and it gives them a chance to decide whether the product or place is worth spending their money on. People believe other people's responses and they will most likely take comments from people into consideration rather than from the company that makes the product. Comment's from people create powerful responses within others.
ReplyDeleteI personally love when things are reviewed. Its definitely a reason why I will or won't buy something. The commentary on WHY people feel the need to review everything and share their opinions is interesting as well. A part of me wants to say, What makes you think your opinion is so important? But the other part of me is sitting there reading what they have to say anyway. I definitely think these "volunteers" are beating the experts. It'll be interesting to see how advertising plays out in the future.
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