Introduction to Web 2.0

Beginning in 2007 with the introduction of the iPhone, e-commerce was transformed by the rapid growth of Web 2.0 — a set of applications and technologies that enable user-generated content, such as online social networks, blogs, video and photo sharing sites, and wikis. Widespread adoption of mobile devices, the expansion of e-commerce to local goods and services, and the emergence of an on-demand service economy also characterized this period.

Web 2.0 applications and services are 'social' in nature because they support communication among individuals within groups or social networks. They rely on user-generated content: regular people, not just experts or professionals, create, share, and broadcast content to huge audiences. They are inherently highly interactive and attract extremely large audiences, which presents marketers with extraordinary opportunities for targeted marketing and advertising.

Online social networks are services that support communication within networks of friends, colleagues, and entire professions. Examples include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest, each of which has developed large worldwide audiences and forms the basis for new advertising platforms and social e-commerce.

Other major Web 2.0 tools include blogs (personal web pages with chronological entries, comments, and links) and wikis (web applications that allow users to easily add and edit content, enabling documents to be written collectively and collaboratively). Together these tools define the participatory character of Web 2.0 and underpin the 'social, mobile, local' online world.