Young people and their generational differences (1980-2004)

Young people and their generational differences (1980-2004) Generation Y: people who were born between 1980 and 1994.

Generation Y is the kind who voice their opinion loud and clear. Be it the right to vote, the right to scream, the right to consume alcohol and so on. If you have a child who belongs to this generation, then you should not complain much when they turn up at home with their belly pierced. It is the most opinionated generation of all. If something is wrong, they will ask and if something is going wrong they will try to stop it. However, when it comes to right or wrong, it is their opinion and not anyone else’s that will be taken into consideration.

When it comes to generation Y and drugs or alcohol, this generation is not above trying and experiencing anything new. They are willing to experiment with drugs and alcohol and do not think that there is anything wrong with it because it is their life and they can do whatever they want with in. Therefore, generation Y has no qualms about doing drugs and alcohol and are proud about it as they will brag and talk about it with their friends.

However, it is important to understand that the generation Y expects more out of life and not less. So when it comes to compromise they are not good at it. However, at the same time if they want a better life, they will work for it.

During their time the economy, technology, health care breakthroughs, and even worldwide economic conditions were growing rapidly. Every single family was doing well and there was a boom in every kind of business. Children that were brought up during these times were financially secure and also lived with comforts. By this time there was cable television, answering machines, many models of cars that were affordable, international holidays and even private schools. These kids who were born during the economy boom do not know how to adjust with less.

They have seen their parents work hard and hence know the value of hard work. They are prepared to do anything like accepting new challenges, facing changes at work and personal front easily. However, what they cannot do is adjust to poverty and circumstances where their basic are denied to them.

However, future generations are less likely to experience major differences in technology and our social life as they did.

Generation Z: people who were born between 1994 and 2004. Many of them are in their early teens and differ from the earlier generation in many ways. This particular generation is still in a stage of evolution and they are yet to learn several things in life.

As per research this generation can be an active set of consumers. Being born during the time of consumer market boom they have access to almost all the best things one could get. They have access to almost everything such as communication tools, internet cell phones, MP3 players, IPods, and all the current gadgets. They are the children of the modern world and are also called the digital generation. They also are growing up in a world of equality and they believe men and women are equals.

Since they are leading much more structured lives than any of their ancestors, they can be responsible adults and also with high social values. This generation has embraced technology and also they are highly dependent on it. They are more inclined to the virtual world and are less likely to take to extreme measures like terrorism. If generation Z is molded properly, they can achieve a lot more than their earlier generations using the digital media. However, on the other hand they may be poor with interpersonal skills and, in addition; they may not give too much importance to family values. They are very individualistic in their characteristics.

Beyond 2020, there could be drastic changes in work culture, ethics and even values that will be set forth by the generation Z. The generation Z is not good listeners and they severely lack interpersonal skills. They use the World Wide Web mostly for communication and keeping touch. So when it comes to work, in future they may barely be seen in an office communicating with their colleagues but might live their life in the virtual world. They do not believe in land lines or email... they have instant all.

They are less oriented than the generation Y but have strong opinions and do not take suggestions well. Psychologists are noticing a drastic behavior change from generation Y to Generation Z. For the generation Y, the emphasis has always been career and studies whereas the generation Z does not believe in career and formal studies either. Their personal lives can lack communication and this lack of communication may not be very effective for bringing up future generations by them. Also by the time the Generation Z starts working there might be severe shortage of professionals like doctors and scientists. Also, such professions may not hold any value for the generation Z.

The characteristics and qualities of the generation Z has to be completely set apart from the others and they are the newest generation in their own category. Generation Z are people who were born after the 1990 and by then technology was ruling the world. The generation Z is also called the silent generation, iGeneration, generation quiet and net generation. They have several other names based on their qualities.

Today, the generation Z makes up for nearly 18 percent of the world’s population. Here are some classic qualities that the generation Z exhibits.

For generation Z, computer technologies and the Internet is the common place. All their communication takes place on the internet and they show very little verbal communication skills. Most of their formative years are being spent on the World Wide Web. They are used to instant action and satisfaction due to internet technology.

They are very impatient as they desire instant results. The Internet is there and they take it for granted. They do not consider it to be the greatest tool for mankind as it has always been there for them. Their means of communication is mainly through online communities like Orkut, Google, and Face Book. They do not believe in personally meeting their friends and developing relationships. They are capable of making huge communities and have massive collaborations using the Internet without knowing anyone personally. They may not do very well in areas of public speaking and regard privacy to the core. They may consider living with others as intrusion of space.

(based on several articles from the internet)

How can a “business model” exist “out of nothing” ?

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Chris Anderson wrote a great piece called “The Economics of Giving It Away” in which he talks about how, in a battered economy, free goods and services online are more attractive than ever.

So how can a “business model” exist “out of nothing”?

Digital goods can be produced (by crowd sourcing) and distributed (through the internet) at virtually no marginal cost; and so, by the laws of economics, price has gone the same way, to $0.00. For the Google Generation, the Internet is the land of the free and the Google Generation has built a country-sized economy online, where the default price is zero.

This is not to say companies can’t make money from nothing.

How???  The minority of customers, who do pay, subsidize the majority who do not. Sometimes those are two different sets of customers: a few advertisers pay for content so many consumers can receive cheap or free content. The concept isn't new, but now that same model is powering everything from photo sharing to online bingo. The last decade has seen the extension of this "two-sided market" model reach far beyond the media, and today it is the revenue engine for all of the biggest Web companies.

In other cases, the same digital economics have spurred entirely new business models, where a free version is financially supported by a paid premium version.

This model is used by us at STKI. STKI uses the idea of free, as a form of marketing, allowing the product to be used by the maximum number of people, while converting just a small fraction to paying customers. It's an inversion of the old free sample promotion: Rather than giving away one “virtual content” to sell 99, as our competitors do, we give away 99 virtual contents to sell one real personal service.

With products or personal service, samples must be doled out sparingly -- there are real costs to be paid.

With bits, the free versions are too cheap to meter and can be spread far and wide. That's why so many businesses (expensive!) are turning into software or virtual (cheap!), which is why my travel agent is a glorified search engine.

But this year, for the first time since 2001, the overall tide of investment and advertising won't rise. What does that do to Free as an economic model?

From a consumer perspective, it should only help.

After all, when you have no money, $0.00 is a very good price.

Expect the shift toward open source software (which is free) and Web-based productivity tools such as Google Docs (also free) to accelerate.

The new family of computers today is "net books," which sell for as little as $250 and either ship with free versions of Linux or super-cheap old versions of Windows. The people who buy them use online free office equivalents, play free online games, listen to free music, watch free video, and have killed their landlines in favor of internet phone services.

It's a consumer's paradise: The Web has become the biggest store in history and everything is 100% off.

What about those companies trying to build a business on the Web?

In the old days (before September 2008) the model was pretty simple.

1. Have a great idea.

2. Raise money to bring it to market, ideally free to reach the largest possible market.

 3. If it proves popular, raise more money to scale it up.

4. Repeat until you're bought by a bigger company.

Now steps 2 through 4 are no longer available.

So Web startups have to do the unthinkable: come up with a business model that brings in real money while they're still young.

This is, of course, nothing new in the world of business. But it is a bit of a shock in the Web world, where "attention" and "reputation" are the currencies most in demand.

The standard business model for Web companies that don't actually have a business model was advertising. Theoretically a popular service will have lots of users, and a few ads on the side that will pay the bills. But because of the low click-through rates, the price of online ads is falling exponentially and becoming non viable.

What about actually charging people for your goods and services? This is where the real innovation will flourish in a down economy. It's now time for entrepreneurs to innovate, not just with new products, but new business models.

Successful web sites will have millions of people trying the free version, and a sizable fraction of them ready and willing to pay for premium service versions.

Microsoft’s BizSpark program:  Offered in Israel through  Lgilab : A venture fund dedicated to seed internet startups in Israel : In order to contact them: http://www.microsoft.com/BizSpark/   ;  ouriel@lgilab.com   and  http://www.lgilab.com 

Microsoft created Web versions of its business software and offered them free to small and young companies. If your firm is less than three years old and under $1 million in revenues, you can use Microsoft's software without charge. When those companies get bigger, Microsoft is betting that they'll keep using its software as paying customers. In the meantime, the program costs almost nothing.

But extracting a business model from free is not always easy, especially when your users have come to expect gratis.  A year ago, that hardly mattered.  The business model was built with a lucrative exit in mind, preferably in cash.

Now the exit doors are closed and cash flow is king.

Does this mean that Free will retreat in a down economy? Probably not, but it does mean that free is not enough. Web entrepreneurs have to not just invent products that people love, but also those that they will pay for.