People are constantly being entrepreneurial, seeing potential in new ideas, products, or services, and then turning them into something more valuable and appealing to the market.
Since the invention of the wheel, which generated the creation of transportation services, or electricity that led to the light bulb companies.
However, the internet was a completely different story. It ranks alongside the automobile in terms of impact on how we live, work, and communicate.
With the extravagant success of companies like Google and Amazon, there came a growing awareness that ordinary people had access to customers worldwide.
A global market of at least 3.2 billion people at your fingertips, from the comfort of your living room. Internet users started doing business in their pajamas, and honestly, it worked for them.
All of this led to an explosion of digital entrepreneurs, especially with the advent of smartphones.
Although not many people achieve the same level of success as Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, nowadays anyone can be an entrepreneur and start an online business.
A digital entrepreneur leverages the reach and power of the internet to offer their products and services, hoping for financial income.
Digital entrepreneurs have characteristics of traditional entrepreneurs; they talk about the vision and mission of their companies, work on their determination, perseverance, and creativity. But they also have other key characteristics that set them apart from traditional entrepreneurs.
We will talk a bit about them:
Successful digital entrepreneurs target very specific markets or target groups and then, as they succeed with their venture, expand their market and scale their product or service.
A perfect example of this is Amazon. The business started as an online bookstore and became a global multi-purpose marketplace.
Another similar story is the case of Facebook, which initially targeted a very specific niche, Harvard students, then expanded to other universities in the area, and later broadened its market to the United States and Canada. And today, it is a global platform with 2 billion active users, thanks to its scalability.
The internet is a laboratory for digital entrepreneurs and startups, allowing us all to see evolution in real-time.
This can be, for some like Airbnb, a rise to success, but for others, unfortunately, it can be a direct path to failure.
If we look again at the case of Facebook, we can see how the company adapts regularly to achieve its goals. They have scientists analyzing user behaviors and needs, which is why we see constant updates and changes.
The company now takes advantage of and sells its data, shares it with integrated applications and platforms, offers pixels to businesses so they can retarget ads to potential customers who have visited their websites, provides real-time video ads, a publishing platform, virtual reality services, and meticulous market segmentation, sponsored posts, among many other things.
In other words, Mark Zuckerberg took Facebook from a simple social media platform to a complete B2B marketing platform.
Therefore, Facebook is a perfect example of enviable adaptability and an excellent eye for innovation.
This is one of the biggest challenges for digital entrepreneurs: a winning vision goes hand in hand with extreme flexibility.
Digital ventures are a long journey; it's not just about developing an application and letting it run on its own. It's like having a child, and you have to accompany it throughout the process.
Uber, an excellent digital venture, has faced difficult moments worldwide, with protests from competing taxi services and even bans on its services in some countries.
Another example is the case of Facebook, which quickly loses the younger demographic group that prefers other social networks like Snapchat or TikTok. The challenge for Facebook is to attract this audience through the acquisition or development of applications that truly interest the younger generation.
Therefore, digital entrepreneurs must learn that just because something works well today doesn't mean it will continue to work well tomorrow. External forces, changing user preferences, laws, or competition can negatively impact a business model that once worked perfectly. They must be prepared for this and be willing to iterate if necessary.
Google started as a search engine and became one of the biggest drivers of digital entrepreneurship and online businesses.
By working with constantly changing algorithms that control who or what appears in their online listings, the company controls how people build, populate, and market their websites. When Google implements a major change in its algorithm, many business owners find that their once fully optimized website for search engines is now practically invisible. As a result, business owners have to resort to paid ads.
On a smaller scale, the best digital entrepreneurs use disruptions like this to their advantage and find ways to alter the market and use the new rules they have established to profit. Netflix displaced Blockbuster in this way, Airbnb became a headache for hotels, and Uber is reinventing private transportation rental options.
Although nowadays almost all entrepreneurs have a website and some social media presence, not everyone can be considered true "digital entrepreneurs." It's a challenging and ever-changing game with unclear rules and enormous rewards. Those who succeed have vision, adaptability, and an enormous capacity for innovation.
You can read the blog here: 8 Tips to Become a Successful Digital Entrepreneur.