Globalization And The Rise Of Multinational Corporations

Doing business around the world for multinational companies has implications for marketing to and communicating with consumers in different countries. Of course, the issue of culture has long been a factor. “Communication and culture are inseparable”. This has not been lost on those who are involved in international business, in which communicating to business partners, clients and potential customers can be a complicated task. The digital revolution has truly changed the way the world does business. It allows companies to provide customized service to consumers, by actually enabling their customers to “serve themselves in their own way…according to their own tastes”. There are companies who provide the infrastructure and hardware for this new technology, but there are also those companies that thrive on the very bonds that the Internet creates with every other part of the world. Examples include search engines like Google and Yahoo, auction sites like eBay, and networking sites like MySpace, whose products can include intangible things like knowledge or friendship. These companies too are taking advantage of global markets, as eBay now receives fifty-one percent of its revenue from outside the U.S., while seventy-five percent of Google’s page views occur in other countries.