The Innovation and Market Expansion of Video Communications

Abstract

With the developments in ICT of recent years, collaborative ICT tools, including television and web conferencing systems, videophone and chat applications, are spreading in popularity all over the world, thanks to the development of the two core video communications and broadband network technologies as the platform. Video communications functions are included with the Apple FaceTime app, and in social networking services such as Facebook and Google+. No longer limited to the business-to-business and business-to-customer spheres, these tools are now also widely used by customers (C2C—customer to customer) to communicate with each other. Business, education, health care and welfare services are especially becoming more readily available and more widely used through broadband services that offer these new and interactive video communication systems. Not only do these broadband videos systems faithfully transmit video data, but are also a means for individual self-expression, and thus hold the promise of applications in education, health care and social services, and even convergence with art forms. They have long been in focus in the domain of developing technologies for their high potential as communications for companies, in families and between individuals, and are widely expected to enable new virtual businesses to emerge in the future.