Evolution of Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing: From Inception Till Date

It is rightly said, “Where there is Age there is Evolution, where there is Life there is Growth.” ~ Anjelica Huston

Evolution is not just a process but a fact of life on earth. It has played a major role in the development of many species helping them with their existence, most importantly for humans. Nothing ever has gone vary of it, which is also the case with the world of digital marketing. Ever since the inception of internet in the early 1980s, it has constantly been on the endless cycle of updates and development.

Which is why we bring to you this article where we talk about the Evolution of Digital Marketing, how things changed over the course of time and what major developments it went through to become the booming industry it is today? We cover this article, taking the launch of Google as the reference point for Internet marketing. As there is hardly anyone who could deny the fact that, the birth of google in the year of 1998 was the most significant development the world of Digital Marketing was ever going to see.

It took at least a period of 10 years for google to launch post the time internet was made available for public use in the United States. What exactly happened in those 10 years? Today the thought of google being down for one day itself seems like a horrific internet day on its own. And back in the day people used internet for 10 long years without google on it. So, what were they doing? Who were the big game players then? How did Google, even after being so late become the biggest player in Internet marketing?

What exactly happened in those 10 years? Today the thought of google being down for one day itself seems like a horrific internet day on its own. And back in the day people used internet for 10 long years without google on it. So, what were they doing? Who were the big game players then? How did Google, even after being so late become the biggest player in Internet marketing?

Today the thought of google being down for one day itself seems like a horrific internet day on its own. And back in the day people used internet for 10 long years without google on it. So, what were they doing? Who were the big game players then? How did Google, even after being so late become the biggest player in Internet marketing?

Who were the big game players then?

How did Google, even after being so late become the biggest player in Internet marketing?

Let us take sneak peek into the past and find out.

B.G. – Before Google

A.G. – After Google

8 B.G. – This year marked the launch of the very first search engine – Archie. Yes, Google wasn’t the first in the Search Engine market, it was 8 years too late. But their growth and development made others feel 8 years too early in the industry. It was the first time then; the term internet marketing was used.

5 B.G. – This year marked the use of first ever Clickable Web-Ad Banner in internet marketing, by AT&T on Hotwired. This is what it looked like:

Do you notice the number of modifications you could have suggested if you were the marketing head of AT&T…? That’s how far we have come today!

4 B.G. – This year marked the birth of Yahoo. While it also marked development in the E-commerce world with the very first E-commerce transaction through Netmarket.

2 B.G. – This year saw the launch of a few more Search Engines HotBot, LookSmart, Alexa.

1 B.G. – This year saw the Launch of First Ever Social Media Platform, SixDegrees.com. Yes, Facebook wasn’t the first one in the Social Networking Industry. But today they are apparently second to none and are likely to continue for a very long time.

The Birth of Google (1998) – In the history of Digital Marketing, this year has been labeled as the most significant year marking exponential growth in the industry which has only continued to time. This year also saw the launch of MSN by Microsoft.

While Yahoo gave birth to its Web Search Engine. The two killer whales among small Search Engine fishes in the Ocean called Internet marketing.

2 A.G. – Just two years after yahoo and google search was born the internet bubble burst. Making sure the smaller search engine companies were wiped out and also marking the end of SixDegrees.com.

3 A.G. – After seeing an exponential growth in the Internet Marketing industry, this year marked the launch of first ever Mobile Marketing Campaign, by Universal Music. But this year also one very important development in the Internet Marketing Industry. The Birth of Google AdWords.

4 A.G. – After the failure of SixDegrees.com social networking industry had been on a quiet run which was ended by the launch of the very first Professional Social Network, LinkedIn.

5 A.G. – This year marked the launch of WordPress.com, a website which completely changed the way the internet worked and made it much easier for people to build websites. Today if stats are to be believed? Around 27% of websites on the internet are being run on WordPress.

6 A.G. – After their success with Google AdWords it was time for Google to show the world that they really meant business. And Gmail was launched, embarking a new era which till today seems to have no near end. And soon after the launch, the company went public IPO which was one of the biggest IPOs of its time.

But this year also had something more special under its blanket, of a magnitude that barely many people had known of. It was the launch of The Facebook, which took the world by storm and has not ended ever since. It has been a self-generating content machine for the time it has existed and continues to be on the same path. This really was the breakthrough point for the industry of internet marketing which turned the market inside out from offline to the online world.

7 A.G. – With the growing evolution and development in the digital marketing world, this year brought just what the Internet Marketing world needed, that was the Launch of YouTube, the place for all kinds of videos online.

8 A.G. – This year marked the launch of another social media platform, Twitter. While this also is the year when Amazon hit $10bn in sales, which had made it pretty clear that the era of digitization had begun.

11 A.G. – With the launch of iPhone and growth of Facebook it was time for google to add something different to keep up with the growing competition, by launching Google Instant. It enabled users to see real time search results and thus initiating the idea of instant gratification.

12 A.G. – This year marked the launch of Whatsapp which rocked the Social Networking Industry right to its core and adding a completely different dimension to it. It had impacted the social networking industry so bad that it forced Facebook to buy it off for $19bn. To which Facebook CEO admitted being scared, as the reason behind this buys off.

13 A.G. – 2011, the year that goes down the history, as the year which saw the number of web users overtake the number of television viewers among youth. Making it pretty clear, that the digital generation had already begun.

This year also saw the launch of Google+ and most importantly The Google Panda, the code of conduct for Digital Marketers.

16 A.G. – Another year another milestone, ever since its inception the Internet Marketing Industry had been booming with impossible to keep up with changes. And this year it managed to reach from user’s desktops to their pockets. Yes, this was the year when mobile internet usage overtook the desktop internet usage.

17 A.G. – This was the year Snapchat launched ‘Discover’ feature giving rise to predictive analytics, wearable techs etc. thus embarking a new age of wearable tech and how well does it catch up with the coming generations is yet to be seen.

But one thing that cannot be ruled out, after looking at the pattern above is that. In the Digital Marketing world, it is the one who adapts and evolves with time, will only survive. No matter how good you are today, if you don’t keep up, the digital marketing world will not keep up with you. The need of the hour in Digital Marketing is Mobile marketing & Mobile App engagement. So keep up with the change.