Interesting video explaining the economic impact of Google in the US. I think the numbers are well-rounded (really), but interesting nevertheless. The problem with this data is that it includes the largest of well-known companies who can easily make large sums of revenues because of their brand-power. For smaller-businesses, most of the time it’s a lot tougher. Getting that 800% ROI takes time. So if you’re a SMB owner and just started using paid search, don’t get mad because you’re not getting that number right away.

Certainly one of this year’s top talked-about subjects, the H1N1 virus is both a major concern and very questionable in the minds of many. Part of the reason for it being like this is well, there are simply so many sources of information available today. While this isn’t groundbreaking news you’re reading (of course if it is, you’ve probably been living under a rock for the past 15 years or so), part of the problem is because the cost of divulging information is so incredibly low. We’re all journalists now. We are all part of the hype; no matter what the subject is. The H1N1 flu virus is a remarkable example.

I have to admit, it scared me, still does and probably will forever. While I did get the flu shot, now people are telling me it might become obsolete because of its so-called ability to mutate, therefore making my trip to the infirmary pretty much useless. Now I’m reading about people getting super sick 2 weeks after having received the shot; the next day I read about people dying from the shot…Argh! Enough is enough!

As they say…ignorance is bliss.

A good article from Mashable (here)

Gas sure is pretty expensive nowadays. I am glad to be a frequent subway user in Montreal these days. The recent numbers shown by the US bureau of economic analysis portrait a pretty grim picture of the current US inflation, mainly caused by the rising crude oil prices. As we all know, this reflects in well…pretty much everything we buy.

Fortunately, we have Internet! With the Internet, there’s no need to be worried about oil prices as we can travel all over the world without ever having to leave our seats. Technically this is true, as long as we ‘trade’ digital goods, such as images, music, HTML documents and such (long tail products again!).

The reality is we still need to be housed, to eat, to drink and to import our favourite Japanese Manga series via eBay (well, maybe not everybody, but you get the idea). Chances are they will be imported by plane or some by boat. Guess what? These means of transportation also happen to consume a heavy quantity of oil too! In other words, in the long run everything will cost more, even if you bought it over the Internet.

According to Business Week (June 30th issue), it costed 15$ to ship a ton of iron from Brazil to Japan in 2003.  Last fall, shipping costs rose to more than 90$ for the same distance.  What kind of impact will this have on e-commerce?  Can we expect a drop in exchanges over the net?   I think it may be inevitable; people are most likely to be more careful about shipping costs, especially on places like eBay, where shipping can make the difference between a great or a really bad deal.

M-A L.

A lot of collegues of mine asked me the reason why I chose the name scarcebits for my website.  The reason is quite simple: I like Internet, I like math and I like economics.  The basic and most fundamental principal in economics is (unlike the popular belief that is money) scarcity.  What is it exactly?  Quite simply the fact that it is impossible to have everything in life (unfortunately…).  To study economics is to study how an individual, a company, a government or anything else allocates his or her ressources.  What does this have to do with Internet?  Isn’t Internet’s capacity infinite?  It is true that Internet grows every millisecond.  What doesn’t though, is human attention.

There are many things I would like to discuss on this website; things like e-commerce, ad networks, web analytics etc.  Anything that is top notch and related to online economics.  I hope you’ll enjoy!

M-A L.