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Nikesh Arora, EMEA President, Google |
According to Nikesh Arora, EMEA President, Google, online consumerism has made the need for good corporate social responsibility a key priority for businesses today and in the future. He told Leaders in Dubai Business Forum 2007 delegates that there were a growing number of examples where customers had used the power of online advocacy to force corporate change.
Arora said there were 3 major factors that were influencing the future direction of the Internet, including growing ease of connectivity; falling cost of storage and what he calls the ‘democratization of the tools of production’, where everyone had the power to create content for the internet.
With more than 1 billion people online on PCs and 3 billion using mobile phones, the power base had shifted away from businesses to the customers and many businesses still do not know how to deal with it. Along with having to develop strategies to deal with customer participation, businesses have to recognize that they are now faced with potential competition from multiple sources in ways they might not have anticipated.
