As a place to do business, the internet is really hitting it’s stride
One of the most frequent questions I get asked by people at the moment is, “how’s business?” It’s an easy conversation starter, but I also think people are worried about the economy, jobs, the future; they’re looking for data points. You just know that they’re expecting a mildly negative response, accompanied by some grumbly comments about how tough life is at the moment, but that’s not what they get. What they get is, “pretty good, actually”, followed by a smile.
The reason is simple. I live in the UK, but that’s not where I do business. When the economic statistics are compiled, they’re always done on a country basis (because only countries have offices of national statistics) and we always see league tables of countries and growth. China is currently the world’s second largest economy and growing at over 9% per year. The UK is sixth and not really growing at all.
But an increasing number of people are working in an economy that isn’t based anywhere. It’s called the Internet. I think about the Internet as an economy in it’s own right, just as I would the UK or China or the US. According to McKinsey, if it was listed as a separate place it would be bigger than the Spanish, Australian or Canadian economies and it’s growing faster than Brazil. All around me, I see armies of well educated people working really hard to build out the infrastructure, services and communities of this place called the Internet. Some of that activity will be unproductive, a lot of it will change the way we live our lives. That’s why, when asked about business, I can smile and say, “pretty good, actually”.