Forum Moderators: phranque
what would you say the best internet business website to start would be? Which market do you think will be moving the most in the next 5 years?
I am in the green orange area so I would suggest you to start in the red apple market.
Seriously, those who know how internet future will look like in the next 5 years--if those people exist--will not tell you for the simple reason that you and others will start competing in that same area.
The Indians and Chinese are not only coming, they are here. "Outsourcing" is a thing of the past, being replaced by "insourcing" - hiring Indian and Chinese companies directly.
I also think Database Science is crucial in the next 5 years. So many database systems are still rooted in mainframes and AS/400 systems, and will need to be overhauled and replaced. Again, most of this work will go to Indian and Chinese computer engineers unless YOU, not your company, have the skills to compete.
The biggest challenge in the next 5 years is not in what widget you want to sell. It's how to compete with 15 year old Stantic in Bulgaria who has DSL, knows how to write software, built a website and has an email address. He can do everything you can, probably for less money.
The Global market is upon us, faster than anyone expected. When I can be sitting in my living room, in my bathrobe at midnight, and chatting with a business associate in Hong Kong in real time, you know the world has changed.
I guess the only advice I have to offer is twofold. First, read Thomas Friedman's article in the NY Times called "It's a Flat World AFter All", and second, get off you a** and start learning.
Porn
And chances are that it will be the one that outlasts them all...
This is not the industry for me, but let's face it, it's a pretty big money maker! If you think you've got what it takes, go for it... at least you won't have to worry about your content getting "outdated" :)
PS: I think communications is going to be the best growth sector in the comming years, especially cheap, internet based communications for the "masses".
You can do almost anything with a website today and you can do it from anywhere.
Mobile phones have internet access, you can send text messages to phones from websites, you can send faxes from a website, you can create a cron job to automate dynamic functions.
Anything that you can imagine can probably be done (or managed, or maintained, etc.) with a database, some dynamic code and a web server.
How do you get paid? Subscriptions, payment processing where you skim a percentage off of the top, memberships, etc.
How do you come up with a system?
Find something you want to manage for yourself. (affiliate items, inventory, etc.)
Find a way to sell something that OSComerce can be customized to sell.
Create a system to track generic things.
Create a system that just has features and let people set it up for themselves.
-Then make it handle multiple accounts.
I don't think there is a topic that your site should be about for the next five years. I do think there is a service that your site should be able to provide and it isn't going to be about text content and information.
