The marketing paradigm shift isn’t coming. It’s here

In 1990 a man by the name of Tim Berners-Lee created a piece of technology which would change the way in which we connect. He had developed an information space where documents and other web resources could be identified by URLs. In plain english, Tim had created the world wide web.

Now, let’s get something clear, Tim did not create the internet. Rather, he created the browser which utilised the internet’s power, allowing us to connect with others and information, and to do so in a more efficient manner then ever before. For a given company, this development was huge. Being able to promote ones expertise without the need for a personal interaction would change the game of marketing and connection.

Now, let’s fast forward 18 years to 2008. The world wide web was booming, and the overall number of users was still on the rise. However, companies like Wordpress now made it extremely easy to publish content online, causing an inverse relationship between users per website, and the number of websites. Basically, new websites were being deployed at an incredible rate, where as the number of internet users was starting to plateau.

Given the foreseen saturation, in order to market and connect with consumers, companies now needed to do something more. Their websites needed to be more accessible.

Apple had predicted this trend, and in 2008 they released a new operating system, which supported the new age website — The application. Essentially, an application was a much more user friendly, portable website. Suddenly, companies had the opportunity to market and connect with consumers while they were on the go. At this point, we entered a new paradigm.

Now let’s fast forward to right now, where there were now over 2.2 million applications on the iOS store.

However, application download rates have started to DECREASE.

Consumers don’t want to have to download ‘another’ app, for two main reasons:

1. As a consumer, you would have to learn how to use said app, which would require one to give up the one thing that they can never get back — time.
2. For every new app downloaded, a consumer experiences less utility from the download, until it gets to the point where the inconvenience of another icon on a home screen outweighs the utility of ‘app X.’ Because of this, 50% of smart phone users do not download any new apps.

We refer to this as app fatigue. Quite simply, the application market like the website, is saturated.

If we follow the same theme, what happens when a vertical is saturated? A more superior paradigm emerges.

The chat bot paradigm.

The benefits of a chat bot include the following:

• Access to over 3 billion users in messenger platforms
• More personal interaction with consumers
• Unprecedented accessibility
• Simple and easy to understand interface
• Cheap to build (for now)

Given the above benefits, the website and app saturation, it makes sense for ANY company to jump at the opportunity, and create their own chat bot.

Do not wait. The new paradigm is here.

The opportunity is now.