Money flows in the Internet ecosystem : strategic opportunities for telecom operators and other Internet agents in the digital age

Abstract

The question about where the money goes is something really interesting for all the companies in the Internet ecosystem. While there is a huge interest, no clear answers have been provided, partially because the ecosystem keeps changing. This thesis aims to answer this question by looking at how consumers spend their money in the different parts and services associated to the Internet. Besides looking at the money that consumers spend, this research also looks at the money that is in the ecosystem in things such as online advertising, which has been seen as one of the sources of revenues for many companies. Three countries have been evaluated in this thesis, to show the situation in different parts of the world. US, UK and Spain have been the chosen countries and the comparison of the results gives a very good idea of the situation in Europe and US. A quantitative analysis has been done including six main categories: wireless, wireline voice, wireline video, wireline broadband access, ecommerce and online advertising. The results show big differences in expenditures among three different countries and analyze the potential reasons. Finally, the research also aims to identify new business opportunities for telecomm operators associated to the different categories identified in the quantitative analysis. Given the current status of the Internet ecosystem, most of the business opportunities imply the creation of partnerships with Internet companies, so these recommendations could be also applicable to Internet companies.