This paper identifi es the technological and commercial foundations of the new category of online applications commonly described as Web 2.0 or Social Media. It examines the relevance of Web 2.0 for Marketing Strategy and for Direct Marketing in particular. The issue is not a clear-cut one: while several observers saw in Web 2.0 a new stage in the evolution of the internet, others simply rejected it as a new High-Tech hype while there is still no generally accepted defi nition and demarcation of the term. Paradoxically, even without an accepted defi nition and despite lack of extensive research, the corporate world seems to embrace the Web 2.0 concept: high-profi le mergers and acquisitions have already taken place or are under way while corporations are rushing to integrate various forms of social media into their marketing planning. The experience so far, based to a large degree on anecdotal evidence, is that Web 2.0 has a substantial effect on consumer behaviour and has contributed to an unprecedented customer empowerment. The consequences are far reaching, affecting not only the area of technology development but also the domains of business strategy and marketing. From the academic but also the practical point of view, attention must be placed on the demarcation and evaluation of the new technologies and trends so that the real value of Web 2.0 as a component of the modern marketing can be determined. On the 2nd of April 2005, The Economist published an article titled ' Crowned at last ' and TIME magazine, breaking a tradition of almost 40 years, assigned the title of the 2006 Man of the Year not to any particular personality but to the modern virtual consumer. The underlying theme of both publications -and many others that followed -was the effect of the new kind of internet applications on shaping a new class of consumers increasingly integrating the web into
In REF , the authors state that it is essential for marketers to look to Web 2.0 as a challenge rather than a threat and consider it as a new domain of commercial strategy.
Web 2.0: Conceptual foundations and marketing issues
Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice
Business