The world seems to be getting smaller all the time and the Internet has played a large part in that.
It is also interesting to look at how the web has affected world trade.
In the beginning world trade was a much harder task.
After all it could take weeks to get a simple piece of communication through.
With the telephone, things became much faster and much easier, but there was still a long way to go.
In the beginning of the 1990s people began to use the Internet for information and gradually more people began to communicate via email.
It was a good way for people to keep in touch and businesses began to see how this fast communication could aid their commerce.
With this new way of sending information people could communicate so much faster and this meant that traders could communicate easily throughout the world.
It was inexpensive and super fast.
By seeing how email had helped business, companies began to see the benefits of creating business websites.
They could see that if all businesses had websites it would make communication a lot easier for customers and traders.
They could see that buyers, who usually may have to call up by telephone and wait for days for a reply to their query, could get the information that they require instantly online.
Things that used to matter like different time zones and speed no longer were an issue Before web hosting there were very limited options for businesses.
However, as the hosting companies grew, so too did the buyers and suddenly businesses could easily get a piece of web real estate and reach customers, who may never of heard of them otherwise..
At first the process of creating and hosting a website was very expensive, so online businesses were limited, but as competition increased, prices lowered and this enabled many more people to buy hosting and create a web page.
This allowed trade to blossom even within communities.
Buyers and sellers were able to meet within these communities and trade increased.
It did not matter where you were from, what country, what class, you could get a website and have a web presence and you could buy and sell.
Eventually there were options to get hosting for free.
These hosts are funded by advertising and this meant that anyone could create a small web page.
They could share photos and information with family and friends easily and instantly.
People could sell and buy things that they had never dreamed of before.
People could trade from home and it has opened up world trade to millions.
This has allowed world trade to grow by billions of dollars and huge companies have emerged.