Now eBay deals with formidable, established auction players in each major market around the globe. Take free Internet access. The first successful free Internet access company was U.K.-base Freeserve. NetZero is aggressively building its brand internationally and may well compete with U.K. firm that originally conceived of the business. With companies emerging around the globe, no one can afford to ignore global markets for long.
Partnerships can provide a lot of initial leverage.
At Draper Fisher Jurvetson, we now see several thousand non-U.S. business plans per year. A few years ago we saw almost none. We and other venture firms have launched global funds in response to this market need. The need for a global strategy touches every business. As large organizations move to establish their online presence across the globe, they struggle with language barriers, brand drift, and infrastructure constraints.