2011年11月9日星期三

The final reflective statement of e-business

How time flies! I can still remember that I felt curious and excited when I had the first lecture at Wesfarmers theatre with known and new friends. Actually, I thought e-marketing is quite similar with e-business, I did not even know the differences between those two before I started this unit. However, because of the first quiz, I have to go through the first several chapters of textbook, now I know the differences clearly and can also distinguish e-marketing activities and e-business activities. Be different from e-marketing, e-business focuses on the general process of online business including supply chain management, e-procurement, e-marketing and customer relationship management. I don’t want to mention what I have learnt from each lecture here, the section which interests me the most is the Second Life. To have an online lecture with Swiss students through SL is a fantastic experience, and it is my first experience to feel the attractiveness of SL. Now I know why many people spend more time on Second Life, rather than real life communication. I have met several friends (not classmates) on SL; they are patient to teach and tell me about SL, how to buy and sell lands, how to teleport to the place that I have never been to, and how to make my avatar more attractive by fancy clothes. Based on my own understanding of SL, the main reason that many people prefer to spend more time on SL is that they can achieve their dreams easier than in real life. However, this reason has been providing a great chance for online promotion. Until now, only several famous cities have opened their landmarks on SL, the people who do not have chance to visit those cities in the real world can realize their travel by SL. This is a real opportunity for the local governments to spend less money on achieving greater awareness, attracting more visitors in real life thereby. For example, my hometown is Tianjin, the fourth biggest city in China and 30 minutes from Beijing by high-speed train, but due to the location is quite near to the capital, much fewer foreign visitors go there and most of them think the two cities are pretty similar. However, the fact is that my hometown is quite different from Beijing, and the reason for bringing illusions to those foreign visitors is short of international promotion. I think SL is a great chance for promoting the international awareness of my hometown, we can design and build a virtual Tianjin on SL and spend money on putting Tianjin as a “hot spot” of all SL landmarks; more people would visit virtual Tianjin by being attracted. For building Tianjin on SL, we may focus on its history and special culture; emphasize the local living style and tourist attractions. In general, the city design in SL is the first sight for potential visitors; we have to put more effort on the characteristics and local culture. Moreover, the cost is relatively low when compare with advertising promotion and international tourism fair.

Actually, this is a chance for me to know much more about and think about SL, and this virtual platform has the potential to be the most attractive online activity in the future. Well, under the pressure of more fierce competition in traditional promotion area, SL provides an alternative option for those marketers and companies. I would like to continue to pay attention on the future development of SL, even I may never have another chance to link my assignment with it. And for e-business unit, this is a fantastic experience and it gave me the future perspective of online advertising and promotion, and also the possibility of travel around the world by internet.  

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