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: Facts : :
Facts
& Important Definitions
The
World's Richest People
2007
It has been a busy year for Forbes' team of fortune hunters.
Strong equity markets combined with rising real estate values
and commodity prices pushed up fortunes from Mumbai to Madrid.
Forbes pinned down a record 946 billionaires. There were
178 newcomers, including 19 Russians, 14 Indians,
13 Chinese and 10 Spaniards, as well as the first billionaires
from Cyprus, Oman, Romania and Serbia.
Ingenuity,
not industry, is the common characteristic; these folks
made money in everything from IT, media and real estate
to coffee, dumplings and ethanol. The billionaires' combined
net worth climbed by $900 billion to $3.5 trillion. That
equates to $3.6 billion apiece.
The
average billionaire is 62 years old, two years younger than
in 2005. This year's new billionaires are seven years younger
than that.
India's
Internet subscribers
1998
0.7
million
2002
13.5 Million
2004-2005
30 Million
2006
56 Million
Internet
is making people rich. The 40 richest people in America
are under 40. They're young, smart and on the 'net! The
Internet is responsible for more rags-to-riches billionaires
than any other industry.
Fortune
Magazine
Despite
the recession in IT, the IT giant Bill Gates of Microsoft
Corporation is still the world richest person for the 9th
consecutive year
Forbes
magazine
Fig
shows a significant improvement in the number of networking
distributors. In 2001,
the actual increase is more than 15 percent.
In real terms, an increase of more than 5 million networkers
world wide. Just in the year 2001. An impressive result
indeed!
This was really positive growth. Wouldn't you say?
Online
education
is a booming business, according to International Data Corp.
Online enrollments are growing by 33% a year, and hundreds
of schools now offer online education. According to the
National Center for Educational Statistics, 8% of the 16.5
million undergraduates in the 1999-2000 school year were
enrolled in distance education programs. Of that group,
60% were using the Internet to do so.
E-learning
is likely to grow at 90% annually worldwide
IBM
survey
Electronic-commerce
Business was once conducted by barter. Money was invented
to make it easier but business was still conducted face-to-face.
Then along came the telephone and buying and selling could
be carried out at the end of a cable. People no longer had
to actually go to the market. E-commerce is an extension
of that cable. These days you can conduct business without
in reality handling goods or cash.
But e-commerce is much more that merely a substitute for
traditional shopping. E-commerce operates from business
to consumer and business to business. Business-to-business
e-commerce goes further and includes electronic data exchange
or interchange (EDI), a speedy, automated system of information
exchange between companies who work closely together. Another
example is standardization of specifications within a given
field, for ease of price calculations in a competitive market.
E-commerce is an ideal medium. Sending data over a network
is more efficient and much faster than “traditional” methods
and thus, far more cost effective.
E-business
This is really nothing more than using the Internet and
its related technologies to conduct normal business operations.
Whether in advertising, sales, purchasing, human resources,
marketing or management, the Internet can be used to increase
productivity, reduce costs and thus increase turnover. In
other words it’s a management tool. And what’s more, it’s
a management tool that is accessible to all businesses,
whether a one-man-operation or a large corporation.
E-banking
or net banking
This is one of the management tools of e-business. It provides
efficiency for banks and businesses and convenience for
individual customers. All banking functions can be carried
out via the Internet: checking the status of accounts, transferral
of funds between accounts, carrying out financial transactions,
even using the account for online purchases.
The
effect of Internet on business
We’ve all heard the saying “It’s a small world”. Internet
has indeed made the world even smaller and brought people
closer. Perhaps not physically, but certainly in a virtual
sense. With its communication advantages, the Internet revolution
has touched practically every aspect of our private and
professional lives. There is no doubt that its effects will
grow. Communication costs will reduce. Travel time and costs
will reduce as electronic data transfer increases. Information
availability will explode even further and education will
be available to remote areas. Trade via Internet will rapidly
increase. The market will expand and be easier to reach.
One
thing is for sure – this is just the beginning!
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