virtual goods. Virtual Goods

The analytical company InStat conducted a study according to which the global market
virtual goods by the end of 2010 will amount to $7.3 billion. Thus, compared with 2007, it will increase by $5.2 billion (an increase of 245%, that is, two and a half times).

Virtual-real billions

By 2014, according to the forecast of the same analysts, users around the world will spend a fabulous amount of $14 billion on goods that cannot be touched and that can only be seen on the screen of their computer or communicator. , music and software downloaded from the Internet. We are talking exclusively about intangible goods sold on social networks and computer games for real money. In games, this can be advanced weapons, armor, magical artifacts, vehicles, or other virtual goods that make it easier to complete the levels of the game. In social networks virtual goods- these are, basically, gifts, representing, as a rule, drawings that can be placed on the page of the person to whom you give this gift. However, all these virtual pictures and armor cost real money.

A dark horse

One of the most prominent (financially) examples of millions in virtual goods trading is the sale of Celestial Steed to World of Warcraft in April of this year. The Celestial Steed is an in-game virtual horse that the player character can ride. In terms of its game characteristics, it absolutely does not differ from the top horse in the game. The difference is only in appearance.
The cost of this horse is $25, €20 or £17. In the first three hours of sales, this horse brought the developers $2.5 million. We emphasize once again that it does not provide any game advantages - only aesthetic satisfaction, if suddenly someone buys this horse only because of its beautiful appearance.

How about us?

There are successful examples in Russia. Interesting data is given in issues 30-31 of the magazine "Expert" in the article "How to sell a virtual cow." According to journalists, the well-known game from the VKontakte network called Happy Farmer brought its publisher, i-Jet, about $20 million as of August this year. This money is made by selling additional plots, guard dogs, etc. Of course, this is not $ 2.5 million for three hours, but it’s also very good, considering that The Happy Farmer, frankly, is not the most difficult game to develop.

Fully virtual business

Players can buy virtual goods not only from the administration of the games, but also from other players. In this area, the world record was set on November 12, when the Club NEVERDIE asteroid (which hosted a virtual nightclub) was sold for a mind-boggling $635,000 in the Entropia Universe game. Previously, the owner of this asteroid, John "NeverDie" Jacobs, bought it in 2005 year for $ 100 thousand, for which he had to mortgage his house in Miami. At that time, this deal also held the record for sales of virtual goods.

The current price at which John Jacobs sold his virtual asteroid is not taken from the ceiling - Club NEVERDIE brought its owner about 100-200 thousand dollars a year. In fact, the asteroid was not sold at once, but was sold throughout the year in parts, that is, in installments - and the last part was recently sold - 8 (out of 20) bio-domes, a stadium and a nightclub. Previously, 12 bio-domes were sold for $25,000 each. The reason for the sale was the desire to get money to invest in John Jacobs' own MMORPG - ROCKTRopia. Thus, in the virtual business community, almost the same laws apply: you can buy on credit, in installments, and also justify your expenses in the future.

Online games have given rise not only to entertainment, but also to a new type of income. If the sale of gaming property for hundreds of thousands of dollars - so far unique cases, about which the press writes, then the sale of upgraded game accounts and game property is a streamlined process. So, in the countries of Southeast Asia, where a few hundred dollars a month for a young person is decent money, playing MMORPG not for pleasure, but for the sake of making money is a fairly common phenomenon.

As for another type of virtual goods - virtual gifts in social networks, then it would be appropriate to recall the story associated with Ramzan Kadyrov. In June of this year, he started a LiveJournal, but comments were disabled at that time.
It was impossible to evoke a reaction from official Kadyrov in any way. But LiveJournal users found a way out - they began to give him a pig (the cost of all gifts in LiveJournal is $0.99). By the way, now the pig has disappeared from the list of virtual gifts in LiveJournal.

Forecasts for the future

Let's get back to the In-Stat study. According to analysts, over the past 12 months, 13% of all Internet users have bought virtual goods. Each of the people who bought virtual goods spent an average of $92 per year on them (again, according to analysts' calculations). According to forecasts, in 2011 the number of people making this kind of purchase will increase to 21%.

In Russia, according to estimates by another analytical agency, J'son & Patners, the market for paid content in social networks will grow from $105 million (data for 2009) to $1.51 billion in 2015. At the same time, the share of virtual goods and services will decrease from 73, 2% in 2009 to 65.4% in 2015, while the share of social games and other applications will reach 34.6%.

In general, it seems that a way to make money out of thin air has been found: draw a beautiful horse and sell it at a rate of $ 2.5 million in two hours. True, you will first have to invest $25 million in the creation of the most popular MMORPG in the world.

However, it is worth talking about how market volumes are sometimes calculated. One international analytical agency with a branch in Russia decided to calculate the volume Russian market online games. To do this, market players were sent a questionnaire, where, among other things, there was a question about the company's income. For firms that did not fill in this field, agency analysts tried to determine the company's revenue by indirect signs. As a result, for one of the companies that did not indicate its income, agency analysts estimated its revenue to be 90 (ninety) times higher than the real one.

Mobile online games s bring 70-80% of the revenue to mobile app stores (App Annie data), and the most successful games earn several million dollars a day. They are very different from classic PC games. A mobile phone (tablet) is always at hand, but a relatively small screen and the lack of convenient controls do not contribute to a long pastime for mobile games. Mobile games are characterized by frequent but short gaming sessions.

Now there are more and more mobile games that are themselves free. But during the game, the user is constantly offered to buy something - some quality of the character, some desired subject etc. Of course, theoretically you can play without it, but then the passage of some levels will be delayed for a very long time.

The study showed that if any intermediate currency between the buyer and real money is introduced into the game, for example, "game crystals", then it becomes difficult for the buyer to estimate the price of the transaction. Additional support objects, or "layers", make the task of accurately assessing the situation even more difficult for the buyer's brain, especially if the player experiences additional stress caused by a lack of time, "lives", or other game resources.

Essentially the player is placed in a very uncomfortable or undesirable situation and then offered to get rid of the problem for some amount of money. This money is almost always laid out in several “layers”, because if the buyer is shown openly the total price and the purchase process, most likely he will not fall for this trick and simply leave the game.

Comparing this short-term "headache relief" to the long-term cost of playing is a mental exercise related to activity in the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain usually completes its development by the age of 25. Thus, consumers under the age of 25 will always be the most vulnerable, and the younger they are, the more they are at risk. While players over the age of 25 can also fall for well-built models. forced monetization, especially if they are unfamiliar with them (for example, the first generation of players on social networks), the target audience of these products is generally under the age of 25 years. For this reason, these products are almost always presented with cartoon graphics, children's characters.

While the monetization of underage players (under 18) is associated with an increased risk of payment cancellations, adult players under the age of 25, who have not yet fully developed the described part of the brain, are considered adults with full rights. It is unlikely that someone at that age, who has already tasted the delights of adulthood, will go to the bank for a refund with the words "I'm not old enough yet." That is, this group is the most vulnerable buyers who are not protected by law from impulsive spending of money, and therefore the technique is aimed specifically at them. It is no coincidence that buyers at this age are actively attacked by credit companies in order to hand over credit cards and offer other ways to spend. more money than you would like.

Note that these methods can be very successful with a young and inexperienced audience, but they can fail with older and more experienced players, and this audience is a group of people with high incomes and potentially very large gaming budgets. In contrast to the above scheme, products with the active use of Goods for Excellence are offered here. These products target the broader age group that can fall for these baits. The target audience for such games are casual players with low self-esteem who need the boost in self-respect that comes from winning the "skill" game and who, for whatever reason, do not recognize the cash game. Some of the developers in the gaming industry believe that this is just a form conspicuous consumption(exemplary status spending of money).

Skill Games vs Cash Games

"Skill" games are those games where your ability to make a quick and successful decision basically decides the outcome of the game. Games for money - where success in the game determines your ability to spend money. Consumers are always trying to play "skill" games, for obvious reasons. The key skill required when implementing a forced monetization model is the ability to hide the game for money under the guise of a game of “skills”.

If the transition from the "skill" game to the cash game is done quietly enough, the player's brain may not realize that the rules of the game have changed. If all the baits are cleverly placed, the consumer will spend more and more, believing that he is still playing the "skills" game and just needs a little paid help. Prices also continue to rise until the buyer realizes that he is playing a game for money.

In cash games that contain a social "layer", this "layer" is used as an additional incentive to show their "skills" to other players who are not yet aware that they have entered the game for money. This is the goal of all mini leaderboards.

The game can continue as a "skill" game, but everything changes as soon as one of the players has spent enough money to switch it to a money game. At some point, the players keep raising the stakes (contributions), in the hope that other players will give up. The “winner” (actual loser) is the one who makes the highest bet. It's not uncommon for winning bets to reach over $5,000, and some Asian game developers only make betting games, and VIP-only sections, which require the player to spend over $3,000 per year to enter.

"What did I buy?"

This monetization scheme has one interesting feature. Suppose a gamer bought some especially “valuable” cartridges, killed all the enemies, but due to some error on the server, he could not save the game. As a result, the level is not passed, the money wasted. Only formally there is no one to complain about. The purchased cartridges were given to the player, but no one promised the performance of the free service.

A virtual product still continues to be not quite a product - in practice, it obeys some of its own laws, often different from generally accepted norms. Economists pretend that the problem does not exist in principle. And to the usual philistine question “What did I buy?” they answer either with silence or with lengthy and, alas, completely abstract reasoning.

Based on materials from sites gamedev.ru, gopractice.ru, pcweek.ru

From the author: In the last tutorial, I showed you how to add physical products and affiliate products to a WooCommerce store. In addition to physical goods with delivery, you can add virtual goods that cannot be touched. Buyers access these products through a download or a link. WooCommerce product uploads offers 2 types of intangible products: virtual and downloadable.

Sometimes a product can be virtual, and sometimes it can be virtual and downloadable, for example:

Subscription to the site will be a virtual good, but not downloadable

The service will be virtual but not downloadable

The e-book will be both a virtual and a downloadable item

In this tutorial, I'll set up both product types and show you how to add them.

What you need

To complete the lesson you will need:

Installing WordPress with Access to the Admin Panel

Installed and activated WooCommerce plugin

Customized WooCommerce

Adding a virtual item

First, I'll add a new product via the Products->Add New screen, set a title, description, and upload an image:

Product data - basic

On the general tab, add the price, SKU, and tax as you would with other products.

Since the goods are virtual, you do not need an inventory. Can you uncheck the Manage stock checkbox? on the inventory tab:

Product data - advanced

There is no need to add related products and attributes for this product, so I'll go to the advanced tab:

Here I wrote a note that will be sent to the buyer of the goods. I'm selling a subscription, so I included a link in the text that the buyer needs to follow to complete the subscription process.

Note: If you want to sell site subscriptions, the WooCommerce Subscriptions premium add-on will help you, with it you can charge recurring payments. With the free Groups plugin, you can manage scopes for users on your site, and the premium Groups for WooCommerce extension integrates this feature. Alternatively, you can manually manage the process and create profiles for everyone who has purchased a subscription.

Click update to save changes and open the product:

Adding a downloadable product

Virtual goods are almost indistinguishable from physical goods in terms of customization. The only difference is that they cannot be sent. Downloadable items are more different from physical ones, as you will have to customize the download process.

To create a downloadable product, set the appropriate type, title, description, and image:

In the Product Data block, select virtual and downloadable.

Product data - basic

After making changes, the shipping tab will disappear, and additional fields will appear on the general tab:

In addition to price, SKU, and taxes, you also need to add download details. You can do this in two ways:

Click on choose file to upload the file to the store. Handy for small files you want to store on your site

Item Data - Inventory

My product is not limited by the quantity in stock, so the inventory must be turned off on the inventory tab:

Just clear the Manage stock? checkbox to disable this feature. In some cases, you will need an inventory. For example, to sell tickets for an event.

Product data - related products

You can add related products to downloadable products in the same way as you would for physical products. The related product may not be downloadable.

Product Data - Attributes

For each attribute, you can select terms from:

Select an attribute from the Custom product attribute dropdown list

Click add

Click on the Value(s) field and select the appropriate terms from the dropdown list

Note: You can add new attributes. To do this, before clicking on add, select Custom product attribute. Next, enter the details of the new attribute. The attribute is added to the list on the attributes screen. Remember that attributes are taxonomies, not terms. Do not use this method to create new terms for existing attributes.

Product data - advanced

Last advanced tab:

Here you can specify a note for buyers that they will receive after the purchase, enable or disable reviews, and also set the order of products on archive pages. I added a little note about the purchase.

After making all the changes, click publish and view your product:

My product has related products. I set the price to 0, so on the product page it is displayed as free (free!).

Downloadable Products - Purchasing Process

When someone buys your downloadable item, they will receive a download link. After the purchase, users will see the following screen. An email will also be sent to:

After a successful purchase, buyers will see the following:

There is a link on the page where you can download the product. I set the download limit to 1 in the Product Data - General tab, i.e. The link can only be used once. This prevents the link from spreading through friends.

Conclusion

This tutorial showed you how to add virtual and downloadable products to the store. The process is not much different from adding physical goods. You do not need to provide delivery information, and for downloadable products, you must provide a link or upload a file to the site, as well as set the number of downloads if necessary. You are now ready to sell virtual goods with WooCommerce!

, virtual worlds and online games.

Encyclopedic YouTube

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✪ What are digital goods?

✪ Putin V.V. (2014.10.02) - The United States produces its main product - dollars

Subtitles

If you have opened your online store, in addition to selling real tangible goods, you can also sell so-called digital goods. What are digital goods? These are, for example, audio recordings, books in in electronic format, movies and more. What is the benefit of selling digital goods? Let's explain with an example of audio recordings. In order to produce one CD, respectively, the company needs to order, design the cover, print it, order the printing of the discs, burn the music to the disc, and then somehow deliver it to the store where you go to buy it. Accordingly, the additional cost of the goods, in addition to the cost of the content of the audio disc, is about 70% of the cost. That is, if you pay $10 for an audio CD, then $7 of them you pay for holding it in your hands, and only $3 for music. This guided Apple company when she opened her own music hypermarket called iTunes. If it is not so important for you to hold a CD in your hands, you can literally download an album of your favorite artist on the Internet for just $ 2. Of course, there are pirate sites where you can download this content for free, but this is a direct violation of the law. And yet, you need to show some kind of responsibility regarding the fact that if you download the music of your favorite artist, then there is a violation of the law, and simply from the point of view of morality, this act is incorrect. Now on the Internet, content like an audio, video or e-book is bought in digital form. What are the benefits? Again, this reduces costs for the manufacturer, it reduces the cost for the buyer, and we can say that this saves our environment in the sense that you yourself know how much paper is needed to produce one book, paper is made from wood. The book can be bought and downloaded electronically, and not a single tree will be harmed. Therefore, environmental organizations are lobbying and promoting e-books and other digital content in every possible way. Also, in digital goods, a separate category can be distinguished, which is called “virtual goods”, these are intangible objects that are bought as part of a video game, or, for example, you can make a gift to a friend on a social network, and they have no real value. the world. What is the difference? That buying e-book, you spend money, it does not physically exist, it is also intangible, but nevertheless it has a certain value. Let's say you can then resell it to your friend. Virtual goods, as a rule, are bought in some context, that is, for example, this is some kind of item in an online game. You cannot resell it in the real world, because it has absolutely no value outside of this virtual game. It is worth saying that the virtual goods market is underestimated by many, in fact it is millions of dollars, since so many online games are insanely popular, such as World of Warcraft. That is, there were cases when certain items of equipment or weapons were bought and sold for a lot of money. One of the trends this year has become coupon clubs that sell discounts on goods or services. What is the benefit for an entrepreneur who organizes his business? For example, you opened your own hairdressing salon, your client flow is not very large, but you are ready to work to zero, ready to work for the cost of the service. Therefore, you reduce your price list by 50%, refer the offer to the coupon club, negotiate with them, and they organize a promotion where they sell discount coupons to your beauty salon at half the price. What's the benefit to you? You receive a large flow of visitors. As a rule, a person who came to a restaurant or a beauty salon and liked it there will come twice and tell his friends. What is the benefit to coupon clubs? They have a percentage of sales. That is, conditionally, users buy a discount for 1000 rubles, of which 30-40% goes to the coupon club. What is the benefit to the user? He actually receives a service for 1000 rubles at a cost of 2000 rubles. This is a wonderful image move, many entrepreneurs use it today, coupon clubs have proven their effectiveness. The daily attendance of the highest coupon clubs is absolutely unthinkable, it goes off scale all reasonable limits.

Story

The first virtual goods sold were game items for use in the MUD game. Players can trade with each other virtual goods: swords, coins, medicines and poisons, in a specially designated non-game sector of the game; thus the game operator has nothing to do with it. So far, this practice is prohibited in most modern online games, such as World of Warcraft and Everquest, although many online games already now receive income from the sale of virtual goods.

Iron Realms Entertainment in 1998 became the first to profit from the sale of virtual goods from an auction where players purchased artifacts for the game Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands, , but after that there was a rather long hiatus until the mid-2000s, until such companies , how the Korean Cyworld was able to go the way to make virtual goods legitimate and able to generate legitimate income for their creators.

In 2009, games played by users social networks, such as Facebook, generated revenue (mostly from the sale of virtual goods) of about US$1 billion; in 2010 this figure is expected to increase to 1.6 billion.

Illegal sales

While many companies are in the business of exchanging fiat money for virtual goods, this practice is prohibited in most popular online games - such as World of Warcraft - which only generate revenue from subscriptions. However, this does not prevent many players from buying game currency from other players for fiat money, thus violating the agreement with the game operating company.

Problems of taxation

In view of the massive expansion of trade in virtual goods, the governments of many countries have paid attention to this. Australian Government Services treat virtual assets as taxable income. Symantec's experts state: "These transactions are carried out all over the world without any special control, accompanied by a simple bank transfer." An example is the decree of the Chinese Government to stop the exchange virtual money to real "to curb unregulated currency exchange". A further increase in the attention of farmers to Second Life and World of Warcraft is predicted due to their popularity and, accordingly, the demand for farmer services.

The Korean Government has passed a law banning all exchanges of game values ​​for real world values. This led to the closure of the majority of such Internet structures by the authorities. The punishment for this type of activity is 50 thousand US dollars and a prison sentence of 5 years.

A more thorough law for suppliers of virtual goods for real world currency is developed in China. The efforts of the authorities are aimed at "creating conditions for the protection and legal protection of virtual property from theft and appropriation." Wang Xiaodong, an intellectual property specialist at C&I Partners (Guangdong), said in an interview with China Daily that he is confident that the new law passed by the Higher People's Court will "protect virtual property in the future."

Also the British Government needs " strong hand to restore order in virtual worlds":

As the minister said, such virtual problems as child pornography, identity theft, money laundering and copyright infringement, as they say, need to be regulated and controlled ...
Lord Triesman declined to give any time frame for consideration of such a document. He also declined to comment on the statement that "any money in virtual worlds should be taxable." As he said, "That would be significant for the Treasury."

The actions of governments to legalize RMT, apparently, should directly affect the activities of farmers, since the exchange of currencies for virtual goods is not licensed, and therefore such income is illegal.

Further steps to establish control over the "virtual currency", according to the Internet Business and Law Center, may be as follows:

From a prosecution point of view, it is very important to know where the server offering virtual services is located. This is especially important, since it may be located on the territory of another country.

In the course of drafting the bill, consultations of qualified lawyers will be required. This is particularly important as the investigation will require access to data subject to foreign law.

We need to break down the barriers between business and government, we need mutual trust to make service providers more accountable for the traffic that goes through their channels on the Net.

Imposing an obligation on MMO publishers to record the movement of virtual values ​​and currencies will be a significant blow to farmers both in games that allow the provision of virtual services for real money and prohibit it. Regardless of the content of the upcoming legislation, what is happening in virtual worlds is likely to be of great interest to governments and law enforcement agencies.

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the emergence of a new type of product, called virtual. These products (or services) can be created by the latest advances in information processing, organizational dynamics and development of production systems. The release of such products becomes available at any time, in any place and in countless variants of models and formats. An ideal virtual product is something that is produced instantly and targeted, at the request of the customer. common feature of this product is that it is paid by the consumer instantly.

A virtual product (both a physical product and a service) exists even before it is produced. Its concept, design and production is preserved in the memory of workers, computer programs and flexible production lines. Another distinctive feature of virtual products - the growing role of the consumer as a co-producer of products - can be traced to examples of many industries. In each case, the customer can not only control the results, but also establish strong and long-term relationships with the supplier during the production process. In just two decades, the creation of integrated circuits has gone from new designs that took months to be developed by teams of specialists and then executed in expensive laboratories, to virtual products that are created in a few hours and "built" in a few minutes by an engineer who does not need to leave his office using the desktop "factory".

Virtual products are the result of a combination of numerous and varied advances in technology. For example, new printing processes involve the use of lasers, xerography, integrated circuits, microprocessors, high-speed communication processes, display technologies, and advances in software. One of the main principles of the production of virtual products is the integration of production processes with suppliers that produce absolutely interchangeable products.

Of great importance to consumers is not only virtual products, but also the emergence of a new type of corporations designed to produce such products. In order to create virtual products, a company must completely redesign its operations, be able to control increasingly complex types of information and master new organizational and production skills. Principles of Education virtual organization are shown in Fig. 34.1.

The virtual corporation was born in the imagination of the futurists, turned into a possibility for management theorists, and has now become an economic necessity for society. This is a community of functional partners managing the design, production and sale of products and services using modern information technologies and a contract system, with independent working groups and structures. Distinctive features virtual organizations are:

The intermittent nature of functioning;

Implementation of communications and management actions based on integrated and local information systems and telecommunications;

Relationships with all partner and other interested organizations through a series of agreements, contracts and mutual ownership of property;

Rice. 34.1. Virtual organization: principles of education

Formation of temporary alliances of organizations in related fields of activity;

Partial integration with the parent company and maintaining joint ownership as long as it is considered beneficial;

Contractual relations of employees with the administration at all levels.

A virtual corporation is basically a joint ownership and strategic alliance that binds together the specific goals and coordinated efforts of all its member organizations. The basic goal of a virtual corporation is to combine key technologies and competencies in order to best meet the demand in the consumer market. Groups of workers united through computer networks are able to participate in a single manufacturing process, not only being in one place, but also simultaneously in different places scattered around the world.

New constructions of virtual character blur the formal lines of organizations, making it often difficult to tell where one organization ends and another begins. Individual organizations work together through computer programs and information technology, which makes the emergence of information supersystems inevitable and gives rise to confidence in the broad possibilities of alliances of partner organizations. Virtual organizations are increasingly subcontracting to external entities in order to take advantage of small organizations, their flexibility and adaptability. There are so many external contracts that they become the framework, the "umbrella" of the organization. This determines its main quality - a wide distribution in space and time.

It often happens that a virtual organization, thanks to information technology and telecommunications, spreads around the world. This creates conditions for working in real time, allows you to hold meetings using computer networks. Pager systems, radio and television intercom systems, modern office equipment allows you to instantly overcome huge distances, establishing communication with the right workers at a given time, anywhere they are located. Virtual organizations provide serious competitive advantages due to a significant reduction in the cost of fixed and working capital.

The virtual corporation allows companies to move away from inefficient or unprofitable areas of work (by handing them over to other companies) and focus on what is in their core competencies, such as designing a product or selling it. Such competitive advantages can be used by combining the ability of working groups, the intellectual potential of certain teams. The virtual corporation encourages firms to focus their efforts on areas of activity in which they in the best way adapted. External contracts allow you to attract those organizations that excel in other areas and perform specific jobs better than everyone else.

This approach to organizing a case can be seen in the following example. The Nike company sells sports shoes and clothing. Nike's core business is product design, marketing and sales. Throughout its existence, the company has not been engaged in the production of its products. These products are produced more efficiently with the help of a large number of supplier companies located in Asia or other regions and specialized in certain models of footwear and clothing. All companies forming an alliance are bound by contractual relations. These relationships may include partial ownership of the parent company's property, but they only last as long as the parent company and supplier companies consider it profitable (profitable).

This business organization made it possible for Nike to focus a large amount of capital on investing in production equipment for other companies, while at the same time offloading the core company in order to ensure efficient sales. If any particular type of product loses its market, Nike may withdraw from the alliance with the manufacturer. The biggest advantage is that Nike can focus on the things it does best: designing, marketing, and selling products. As a result, Nike has perfected its product marketing operations.

The parent company may have temporary alliances in a variety of areas. The most important features of a virtual organization in this case are its temporary nature and partial integration with the parent company. The global coverage of workgroups, small and medium organizations allows you to vary capabilities, abandon inefficient production processes that are not performed well and transfer them to other partners. In different parts of the virtual corporation, there is a focus on those functions and phases of the production process that can be carried out in the best way there.

Virtual organizations require a new way of thinking for leaders: the rejection of all-round control, the transition from subordination to informal coordination, mutual trust, the prevalence of efficiency over career aspirations, overcoming the remnants of hierarchical management.

In structures of a virtual nature, it is important to support and promote the development of a new element - knowledge management. With its help, a two-pronged task is solved: 1) the acquisition of knowledge that raises the level of the organization's activities; 2) their storage, distribution and transformation into a form convenient for internal use. This can be achieved through a carefully designed concept of centralization, institutionalization and practical use of accumulated knowledge. In the practice of companies, there are known cases of introducing the position of a full-time expert (the so-called knowledge broker), who acts as a coordinator between the areas of supply and consumption of knowledge. In the interests of knowledge management, cross-functional project teams are formed, special computer systems are created. Activity on the use of already accumulated knowledge and ensuring the receipt of new information creates the prerequisites for the formation learning organization.

In a virtual organization, job responsibilities will constantly change, as will authority. Even the definition of an employee will change as customers and suppliers spend more time in a company than the company's employees themselves.

The markets for complex products of the 21st century will require a prompt and global solution to the issues of targeted delivery to consumers variety of options products. These products will differ not only in form and function, but also in the related services provided, including the ability of the customer to be present during the development of product design. The manufacturing company will not become an isolated site, but rather a point of intersection in a complex network of suppliers, customers, engineers, and other functional services.

The only way to provide the customer with virtual products that meet changing needs is to maintain an integrated and constantly changing database of customer, product, production, and design methodologies. This implies new, more sophisticated forms of market research and new product design features that are of interest to the customer. One of the main challenges for many companies is to develop systems and software that allow the customer to take on design responsibilities that used to fall on the manufacturing company.

In this regard, we can talk about a virtual corporation as a model of information and relationships. The creation of virtual products will require the use of a more advanced information network that collects data on markets and consumer demands, combining it with the latest design methods and integrated computerization of production processes. This system is powered by an integration network that includes not only highly skilled employees of the company, but also suppliers, distributors, retailers and even consumers. That is why there is a need for profound changes in both the distribution system of the company and its internal organization, requiring a stronger focus on the consumer. From the outside, the network of suppliers should be integrated precisely with those customers who have common equipment, projects, and trade secrets with these suppliers. Obviously, suppliers will be highly dependent on customers, but for this reason, customers will be equally dependent on their suppliers. Ultimately, unlike today's prototypes, virtual corporations of the future will act not so much as a separate enterprise, but as an ever-changing center of concentration of common activities in a huge structure of relationships.

Corporations that expect to remain competitive must quickly improve both the information they use and the system of relationships with partners. Technology alone, without appropriate changes, will not bring success to the rest of the corporation. That is why the process of corporate modernization should be comprehensive, covering at the same time research and development, production, marketing, sales, service, distribution, Information Systems, finance. The requirements for employees of a virtual corporation are changing significantly. These corporations will need a large staff of highly skilled, reliable and educated workers - people who understand and apply new forms of information, able to adapt to change and cooperate effectively with other market agents. Virtual corporations will only function successfully when they work together as a team in which employees, management, customers, suppliers and government agencies strive to achieve common goals.