Franchising Cyberculture
One of the greatest characteristics of the cyberculture community is that it is always changing. The Internet is updated on a second by second basis and attracting millions of visitors. People are constantly on the Web for the latest news, videos, games, social networking sites or shopping online. The way a commercial entity does business online might also be changing.
In order to successfully do business in Cyberculture, international web companies might be forced to franchise their online services to specific geopolitical influences. As of Jan. 31, 2008, the Chinese government is dictating that any video entertainment Web site desiring to do business in China may franchise their business into China by agreeing to the stipulation that the state has a controlling interest in that respective franchise. Otherwise, the state could censor any commercial web site from being viewed by China's Internet market of about 164 million people.
For those companies with present and active commercial investments in China, such a franchise agreement with the state was part of the instrumental pact for doing business in China. In order to internationalize their audience, the National Basketball Association (NBA) sold a franchise to the Chinese government under a similar agreement. The state then sells franchises to basketball team franchise investors located throughout China.
Will the rest of the governments of the world follow China's e-commerce policy lead? There is plenty of money to be made in cyberculture and the web industry is still exploring ways for making money. The Chinese government may have discovered an untapped revenue source for governments albeit via censorship. Unfortunately, many other countries shall adopt China's franchising of Cyberculture.
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