At that time there was a cartoon about several beggars in New York begging, people passing by from time to time to give them some coins. One of the clever beggar is different, he hung a sign on his chest, which simply wrote “.com”, and he received is actually a cash check after another.
Burning money is a new term generated in such a context. Such a situation is what was called the Internet bubble.
The dot-com bubble reached its peak in March 2000 when the NASDAQ Composite Index, which was dominated by technology stocks, climbed to 5048. The dot-com bubble began to burst on March 10, 2000, when the NASDAQ Composite Index climbed to 5048.62, more than double what it had been a year earlier.
The bursting of the dot-com bubble caused technology companies represented by .com to evaporate about $5 trillion in market value in just over six months from March 2000 to October 2000.
In fact, the dot-com bubble refers to a kind of investment bubble. For investment, the bubble is only related to the frenzy of investment, but not to the object being invested. Even the best investment object will have the so-called bubble in the face of crazy investment.
Take Microsoft as an example, it is undoubtedly an excellent investment object with good prospects and good revenue. But if the fanatical investors speculate Microsoft’s share price to 100,000 yuan a share, then Microsoft will also become a bubble in the capital market.
From the industry’s point of view, there are still different voices. Many argue that the time is not ripe to carry out IoT, which is actually a result of observing IoT from a narrow perspective.
Disagreement of conclusions is the result of different observation perspectives
Those who believe that the time is not yet ripe for conducting IoT are assessing IoT from the perspective of whether a company as a production unit should enter a completely new field. From this perspective, their view has sufficient merit.
Just like our country has established a development zone, the first thing to do in the development zone is to build up the basic environment, including access to water, electricity, access roads and level land. It is obviously unrealistic to say that the development zone is a fertile ground for investment if water and electricity are not yet available.
For the Internet of Things, what we lack now is such a suitable objective environment for development, mainly in the following aspects.
First, the standards issue has not been resolved. This is equivalent to a game without rules, not only let the entrants feel at a loss, but also hides a huge risk, the initial investment is likely to be reduced to nothing because of changes in standards.
Second, there are still huge obstacles in the hardware equipment. This is mainly reflected in a variety of sensors either in technology or in the cost has not yet entered a virtuous cycle of the track, and these rely on the market to cultivate.
Again, there are difficulties in software. The key technology of data processing - artificial intelligence technology, as far as the current level is concerned, is still far behind the requirements of people for it. More importantly, it is still conceptually under the guidance of a fragmented and mutually closed mindset. Without versatility and interaction the result is naturally no need for interconnection. Who would access an endpoint that does nothing for them?
One of the main characteristics of the network economy is the economy of scale. A large number of users and a large number of applications is a prerequisite for the utility of the network economy to be realized.
For the Internet of Things, which is an extension of the Internet, it naturally follows the general principles of network economy. As a new thing, IoT does not have these basic conditions in its current development environment. Therefore, it is understandable to think that IoT is just an over-the-top concept.
Real-world IoT needs
If we look at it from a needs perspective, it would be another story. Do you prefer to use an old-fashioned push-button TV set, or do you prefer to use a TV set with a remote control?
I’m afraid that few people would choose the old-fashioned TV sets where you have to get up from the warmth of the blanket, walk to the TV set, and press the channel selection button by hand to change the TV channel. Everyone would choose a TV set that allows you to switch channels by pressing the remote control while you are under the covers, right?
This example illustrates the need for people to increase the range of control over their capabilities, and hopefully expand their range of capabilities to a larger space and geography. An important role of the Internet of Things is to increase the range of control of people’s capabilities.
For example, real time dispatching of vehicles performing transportation tasks through IoT is an example of increasing the range of our capability control. What it reduces is the distance in space.
The development of IoT has a solid foundation because of the tangible existence of people’s need for IoT.
The improvement of the objective environment is not something that can wait out
Take the familiar Internet industry as an example, in the early stage of Internet development, there was no good development environment like now, no strong technical support means, no predictable profit model, and no support from the vast user community. There was only a practical need for the Internet - an expansion of the range of capabilities, similar in this respect to the Internet of Things today.
It was in this environment that the pioneers of the Internet went forward and backward, and a series of problems plaguing the development of the Internet, such as environment, technology, theory, and profit model, were gradually solved under the support of demand. The reward is a list of IT heroes such as Yahoo, Amazon, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.
Now the Internet of Things is similar to the beginning of the development of the Internet, if there is no brave warriors who dare to innovate, the Internet of Things will undoubtedly become a flower in the mirror. The pie will not fall from the sky by itself.
With the support of demand, most of the problems faced by IoT can be overcome. Technical problems can be solved by innovation; cost problems can be solved by scale; the number of users can be solved by increasing the number of applications; business model problems can be solved by practice.
Compared with the beginning of the Internet, the environment in which the Internet of Things is now located can be said to have been greatly improved to some extent. After all, we already have the experience of successfully navigating the digital economy, and also the experience of successfully using the characteristics of the network, under the guidance of these experiences can make the Internet of Things in the whole development process to take many detours.
Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that rather than being a bubble, the IoT is an opportunity, whether for a country, a company, or an individual aspiring entrepreneur. Of course, the world of IoT is very windy and turbulent, with reefs and rapids everywhere, and the slightest inattention can cost you your money. Profits are always proportional to risks.