Products Vs. Services On The Internet - What's The Difference?
When you're offering something on the Internet - should we call it a 'product' or a 'service'? Traditionally, a product is something that you can physically touch while service was something that you'd do using your skills and efforts in exchange of money. But on the Internet - everything remains in the virtual world - so how do we distinguish between a service and a product on the Internet?
Take Gmail from Google for example. Should we call it as a 'product' or a 'service'? I think 'service' could be the most appropriate word in the Gmail's context because it lets you manage your electronic mail on the Internet. Take Facebook - the social network. I've heard a few people call it a 'product' launched by Facebook Inc. and there can be equal and opposite argument about Facebook being a service.
So is everything a 'service' on the Internet?
That's an important question, I think. Is it that 'products' do not exist on the Internet and is everything a 'service'? I'd like to hear from you.
Product Companies Vs. Services Companies On the Internet
There's always a discussion about disappointing number of 'product' companies coming up from India in the IT space. When asked to name a few product based companies, people would name Google, Facebook, FourSquare, GroupOn etc. But what these companies offer are all 'services' and not 'products'.
The term is confusing. I look forward to your opinions & thoughts on the same.
Take Gmail from Google for example. Should we call it as a 'product' or a 'service'? I think 'service' could be the most appropriate word in the Gmail's context because it lets you manage your electronic mail on the Internet. Take Facebook - the social network. I've heard a few people call it a 'product' launched by Facebook Inc. and there can be equal and opposite argument about Facebook being a service.
So is everything a 'service' on the Internet?
That's an important question, I think. Is it that 'products' do not exist on the Internet and is everything a 'service'? I'd like to hear from you.
Product Companies Vs. Services Companies On the Internet
There's always a discussion about disappointing number of 'product' companies coming up from India in the IT space. When asked to name a few product based companies, people would name Google, Facebook, FourSquare, GroupOn etc. But what these companies offer are all 'services' and not 'products'.
The term is confusing. I look forward to your opinions & thoughts on the same.
Replies
-
Anand TamariyaWordpress is a product. However, if Wordpress decided to provide crazyengineers.com a platform for hosting a forum, that would be service. That's why Google, Facebook, FourSquare are product companies whereas Infy, Wipro are services company. -
Kaustubh Katdare#-Link-Snipped-# - Right, wordpress.org offers a downloadable product; but ultimately it's something that resides on the server and is used as a service. Infosys, Wipro are primarily into the services and they're known as IT services company. We're specifically talking about product companies on the Internet.
Facebook - requires no installation and it's ultimately a service offered by Facebook Inc. Let's narrow down the discussion to be more specific -
What attributes would make 'Facebook' a product and not a service? I'll tag #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-# , #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-# . -
Saandeep SreerambatlaTo answer it in layman terns, All the companies mentioned above provide service. Like Microsoft , Facebook etc.
The difference here is, Facebook or microsoft offers services directly. They are in the business because of their products , they sell their products as a service.
So all microsoft doing is serving people who use windows. And Facebook is a free service but it is getting money in its own way.
So Facebook is a product made by their company but the product if used in the marked it finally serves you!
So they are into serving people who want to interact socially with others 😀 -
Anand TamariyaA piece of software is product as long as the market is willing to pay a price to use it as such or with slight modification - think commodities. Any company building that kind of software is a product company.
Services company, on the other hand, build application based on their clients' specification.
You are reading an archived discussion.
Related Posts
Gujarat's solar project, in the Charanka village in Patan produces 214 MW of electricity every day, which is believed to be more than China (200 MW) and rest of India....
HCL is one of the preferred technology companies in India by engineers graduating in CS/IT and electronics related branches. I see a lot of candidates are searching for the recruitment...
Dear All
we have three servers one name
AA (PDC)
BB (ADC)
CC (DB SERVER),
db server(CC) server is at pdc(AA) site the adc (BB)is on vpn ..
Recently we...
XC = 1/(2pi(f)C) capacitive reactance.
XC is inversely proportional to frequency f. Now for DC f=0. Hence XC is infinite(theoritically). Hence it blocks DC.
but any how when we connect...
What Is The Phenomenon Named "Blowback" In Inductive Loads??