Virtual Biz Group

The “virtual” portion of the term virtual business is actually returning closer the words original roots as technology and society’s obsession with computer driven socially interactivity increases.  As virtual business has evolved from mere simulation to real money transaction, the spheres in which it takes place is creeping back to now include the non real.  While gamers have long spent money on in-game upgrades with no tangible, physical manifestations, transactions are now being completed in a completely virtual world with its only ties to reality being the account information used to finance the transaction and the fingertips used to punch in the numbers.  The cult phenomenon of Second Life, a fully animated internet accessible realm of possibility in which users interact through customizable avatars, has opened a new door through which real people are making money by supplying products for fully fictional demands. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s virtual business market is thriving (relatively, in this economy of course), but it is doing so under a heightened sense of awareness and caution as compared to preceding eras.  As is the case with some technological advancements, forward thinkers and idea guys take off with a concept before the realities necessary to make it work truly come to fruition.  Using new business platforms to launch successful, profit turning companies requires a level of patience and thorough planning, with trial by fire businesses often quickly burning to the ground.  Rising over the course of the late 90s before crashing down in the year 2000, the dot-com bubble burst epitomizes the dangers of putting caution on the back-burner, prioritizing quick profit margins over detailed strategic planning.

Arguably the height of virtual business optimism, the late 90’s enjoyed unprecedented success for internet based companies whose stock soared based not so much on their company’s platform or numbers, but on the prefix “e-“ or suffix “.com” that attached to their name.  So commonplace was it for investors to sink money into the stocks of under-evaluated online operations, the term “prefix investing” made its way into Wall Street vernacular.  Mainstay evaluation techniques (i.e. price-to-earnings ratio) were thrown to the wind as stockholders banked on technological advancements to overcome the time tested benchmarks of success. Read the rest of this entry »

Amazon.com is not only a true heavyweight in the online commerce industry; it helped to pave the way for other virtual business entrepreneurs and pioneers to follow in its supremely successful footsteps.  Today, Amazon is the largest online retailer in the country, with little to no imminent threat to challenge the crown.  Staples, the silver medalist in the category, claims only a third of the total online revenue generated by the e-commerce supergiant.

Amazon has become a household name among pretty much any computer literate family in America, but this kind of mainstream recognition did not happen overnight.  What we now know as Amazon.com was actually founded 16 years ago, in 1994, by Jeffrey P. Bezos.  The idea was to create an online bookstore, but as time would tell, this was only the starting point of much loftier aspirations.  The website first launched online a year later in 1995, under its original name “Cadabra.com.”  At a time before online shopping was commonplace, Bezos had the innovative mind to look at the internet not as intimidating wilderness but as a vast, bountiful forum in which business could be conducted sans the inherent limitations of the typical brick and mortar company.  Without having to carry a copy of every title in a bevy of consumer accessible stores, the internet allowed for Bezos’ upstart bookstore to make a wider variety of books available to the public for purchase.  In a sense, the new company’s capacity for breadth of selection was only just being realized, expanding to sell everything from home improvement products to electronics.  The ingenuity behind Amazon’s zShops (now Amazon Marketplace) and Auctions was the driving goal to offer a one stop shop where consumers could find any item their heart desired. Read the rest of this entry »

Though virtual business in its purest form has no structural headquarters, well established companies and corporations across the globe have enhanced their already viable business models with virtual business strategies and tactics.  In fact, any company that claims it is operating at its utmost level of efficiency, without maintaining a functional website on which transactions can be converted, is either lying or outright delusional.  Even for traditional businesses, online sales often pace a company’s growth and expansion, providing new levels of reach and a widening consumer base.  After all, even the hardest working, most dedicated salesman are not on call 24 hours, 7 days a week to close sales, explain product details and features or field feedback.  A well integrated, functional website has the capability to do all of this, servicing every potential customer with an internet connection, providing, at the bare minimum, a stopgap when a salesman or agent is unavailable. Read the rest of this entry »

Though at the beginning of its origin virtual business was merely a term for simulated business transactions or transactions that do not actually take place or matter in the real world, stealing from the mother idea of virtual reality, this definition does not hold true in regards to the modern virtual business world.  While simulating business ownership and operation does have its place in the business landscape, usually as a teaching aid for business entrepreneurship classes or training application for CEOs and managers in grooming, virtual business as it is more commonly used in today’s vernacular refers to companies that do not exist in brick and mortar form, but have real expenses, make real revenue and turn real profits.  In other words, any online business that does not operate out of an actual, tangible building qualifies as a virtual business. Read the rest of this entry »