Internet Economy: Existence from the Point of View of Micro-economic Aspect

Abstract

Unlike the traditional product, Internet product has its specificity expressed in non-material nature; low level of information carrier; connection to its source; unlimitedness of distribution and application; exterritoriality; multiple meanings of consumer characteristics; single character of purchase and multiple character of use; durability and relative aptitude to moral ageing of information. Internet economy is peculiar for two points of balance that denote balance in the market of licensed products and counterfeit products. As a result, licensed products suffer from reduction of demand, which leads to decrease of the volume of their manufacturer’s profit, as at a certain point its large share starts to go to manufacturers of counterfeit products. At that, “pirate” activities have also a positive side, as the price set in this market is closer to the notion of “justice”. Any price the value of which exceeds the volume of marginal costs leads to profit of manufacturers of information counterfeit. Mutual estrangement of commodities that are manifestation of average equivalent labor expenses is replaced by the phenomenon of expenses distribution. The wider the circle of those interested in consumption of information resources for the purpose of desobjectivation, the larger the total volume of specific expenses spent for their production. Thus, relations of Internet economy are a system of quickly developing interaction that is something larger that a phenomenon that goes beyond the authority of the main economic laws: cost, marginal usefulness, demand and offer, and decreasing feedback of production factors.