Unit 33 – D1 Kojar Ahmed
In this report I will evaluate and compare how successful selected business organisations
have been in preparing for the growing use of e-business. I will look at a strong online
business and compare this to a weak one, once I have done this I will evaluate the strengths
and weaknesses of each before I draw my conclusion. The strong online business I have
chosen for this report is Netflix.
Businesses have many pressures that require them to change, arguably one of the biggest
pressures is the internet and e-business. E-business is a big competitive pressure because it
affects nearly all businesses and is a major factor in how consumers interact with the
business. E-business has also revolutionised marketing and has made it easier for businesses
both big and small to get their brand and products into the limelight, this creates huge
competitive pressure for all the businesses involved. The reason I have chosen Netflix is
because it very clearly illustrates how businesses need to adapt and how successful they can
become if they adapt in the right way. “Netflix's initial business model included DVD sales
and rental, in 2007, Netflix expanded its business with the introduction of streaming media,
while retaining the DVD and Blu-ray Disc rental service. The company expanded
internationally, with streaming made available to Canada in 2010 and continued growing its
streaming service from there; by January 2016, Netflix services operated in over 190
countries” As of the time I am writing this, Netflix is currently worth over 100 billion, this
success is down to many factors, one of these being their ability and willingness to adapt.
Netflix adapted by observing the market and analysing its current tech and social changes,
they observed that more and more people were streaming their video services online rather
than renting physical copies from physical stores. Using this info, Netflix realised that in
order to succeed they had to give in to consumer demand and conform to social changes.
Although this is not the only reason for their success, it is a major contributing factor.
Netflix is a very strong online business with a stable and loyal user base, this is because of
other factors such as customer service and constant updates which rejuvenate Netflix with
new content. Unlike other video streaming services such as Hulu and Now TV, Netflix is not
held back by its budget, allowing it to constantly pump out new original content which is
unavailable on other streaming services. A strength of this is it gives customers a valid
reason to choose Netflix over other streaming services, as well as this, Netflix allows their
users to access Netflix on a variety of devices, such as smartphones, game consoles and
smart TVs as well as the internet. Other services like Hulu and Now TV would be unable to
do this because of budget constraints and lack of necessity.
When compared to other similar less successful businesses, such as Blockbuster for
example, it becomes very clear that failure to conform and move with the times can have
extremely detrimental effects on a businesses’ success. As Netflix’s success grew even larger,
the demand for their service dramatically increased, this would come with multiple
difficulties as a large portion of the population would not be able to stream TV shows and
movies due to low speed Wi-Fi and other issues. This required Netflix to adapt their services
by setting up more servers, encouraging the government to build infrastructure that