Networks, standards and systems

Abstract

Introduction to Part VIII: Networks, standards and systems Information products and technologies are rarely used in isolation or just for their own sake. Take the example of instant messaging (IM) services , whose primary functionality is to allow you to exchange text messages with other users over the Internet in real time. The first IM services (like AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger or Windows Live Messenger) were used on computers and often bundled with a particular web browser. With the advent of smartphones, instant messaging became increasingly mobile and a number of IM applications (like Whatsapp, WeChat, Line, Viber, Kakao Talk, etc.) were made compatible with the major smartphone platforms (Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone). Regardless of the supporting technology, adopting a particular IM service involves for users a larger set of considerations than the purchase of, say, a bag of potatoes. In particular, a user of an IM service must care about what other users are doing . The benefits of using the service come, indeed, from two sources: first and foremost, the ability to chat with other users and potentially, the additional features that can be used within the IM application (such as editing pictures, recording down moments of your life, following accounts of celebrities or obtaining discounts from tied-up partners). What is important to stress is that the benefits for an individual user increase with the number of other users of the service : either directly for the communication benefits (a larger base of users directly increases the number of potential contacts any user can have via the IM service), or indirectly for the benefits related to additional features (a larger base of users induces providers to supply more and/or better features to be combined with the IM service, which in turn raises the attractiveness of the service). We use the term network to describe the community of users whose benefits are made interdependent by the nature of the product they use. By analogy, we call goods like IM services network goods.