​10 Technologies That Have Changed Our Lives in 20 Years

[jisansorkar12]

You and I are very lucky. Or not. Over the past 20 years, life has changed so much that in comparative proportions it is equal to a good hundred years before. Back in 2000, we rewound cassettes with a pencil - because it was faster, and the tape recorder needed a rest. And now we are unhappy that online video is slow at 4K. We offer a retrospective. This article will be useful to everyone who wants to be surprised again by technical progress and evaluate its impact on life and business.

Social Media and Digital Marketing
Facebook appeared in 2004, but it seems like it has always been there. The initially uruguay whatsapp list primitive "face book" has turned into the most detailed and convenient catalog for advertisers. In October 2020, there were 4.14 billion social media users in the world who log in every month.

There is a saying: "If you get something for free, you are not a customer, you are a product." In May 2019, a European Parliament directive equated the collection of personal data with a form of payment, after which Facebook removed the slogan about free access from the registration page. This is fair: in all major social networks, we trade privacy and ourselves as consumers of advertising for the convenience of communication and content.

Social networks allow you to personalize your advertising message and show it only to those users who are more likely to click and buy. Billboards, banners on websites, TV and radio commercials are like shooting at sparrows from a cannon. Targeted advertising on social networks is aimed shooting. It takes into account not only general data like age and city, but also specific data such as a set of interests and even the type of device the user uses to access the social network. A small bakery in a residential area should not spend money on advertising all over Moscow. It is unlikely that anyone will go to, say, Yasenevo specifically for your croissants.

Or imagine that you have a gardening equipment store. People come in, check the prices, some buy, the rest leave. And you hire a person to monitor those who just looked at the products. Then he will “accidentally” meet potential buyers in the subway and show them the products, find them on Instagram and show an ad for that very garden wheelbarrow and barbecue. Cool, but implausible, right? But such a specialist does exist. This is a Facebook pixel - a “spy” on the site that records all user actions: transitions from the social network and back, viewing products, adding to the cart.

How it was before

Clumsy advertising was shown to everyone, which is why it was ineffective. But the sites sold impressions, emphasizing the number of contacts the audience had with your advertising. You could waste budgets on banners and videos in anticipation of a miracle. A user who left was almost always equal to one who did not buy. Smart webmasters tricked entrepreneurs into expensive business card sites and online stores, taking advantage of the technical illiteracy of customers. Now you can often do without a separate store, selling on social networks or marketplaces.

Marketplaces and delivery
If an online store can be compared to a stand-alone pavilion, then marketplaces are large railway station markets. Here, you can also rent a point and sell. It is much faster to do this than to create your own online store: register, pay, post photos and descriptions of the product. The platform most often brings the audience itself: it is interested in having many sellers and buyers here.

2020 has become the year of commercial delivery. Only the lazy have not organized it in their company: restaurants are opening "dark kitchens", retailers - "dark stores". Both the first and the second work exclusively for delivery. Quarantine has also given birth to so-called contactless delivery: you can ask the courier to leave the parcel near the door and then pick it up yourself. Hundreds of couriers in colorful jackets scurry around the city, delivering food from restaurants and bars.