History

Internet Marketing History

Internet Marketing is the term used for a specific type of marketing that uses internet as its platform. I am saying it ‘specific’ cuz it uses web as platform and different strategies for marketing. If we talk about the history of marketing, we got to know that, Internet Marketing came into existence way back in early 1994, but actual use of internet marketing started late 1994 when Rick Boyce started organizing his efforts to sell banner ads. Many internet savvy feels that Rick Boyce was the person to start first keyword ad way back in 1995. 

Before internet marketing boom, internet was used only for sharing files and sending emails. People thought; making money on internet would be impossible, until Netscape’s shares went public and its co-founder, Marc Andreessen was suddenly worth $100,000,000. After that internet grow very fast. Buying and Selling on Internet was the next big thing on Internet, which in turn produced the term ecommerce. Ecommerce consists of buying and selling of products and services over the internet or computer networks. Now, the exponential increase of trade on internet gave birth to Internet Marketing. But initially, a small part of the entire trade was done on internet. Maximum part was done offline. But in early 1980s, with the advent of Electronic Funds Transfer, more part of the ecommerce, was done online.

There is no fixed date about the existence of Internet marketing, but one can say that with the advent of banner ads Internet Marketing came into existence. With the advent of Banner ads, companies started using internet as a source of advertising. Companies started placing ads on other websites to promote their products. Soon affiliate programs (early 1996) and pay per click (early 1998) became popular, making the presence of Internet Marketing stronger.