Estratégias competitivas na internet: estudo de caso de provedores de acesso

Abstract

Abstract: With the beginning of commercial access to the Internet in Brazil, in the mid-90s, several companies began to offer this service, building a segment that would soon be the scene of intense competition. Initially, the search for a greater number of subscribers generated a dispute based on price reductions, causing a decapitalization of the sector and forcing the closure of activities of several small providers. Parallel to the dispute based on price, with the presence of large media groups in the access service, competition arises regarding the offer of content and additional services. As a result, the trend towards concentration in the sector became even more accentuated due to the greater need for investment and infrastructure. Given that the Internet generates a large amount of telephone traffic, telephone concessionaires have recently started to establish operational agreements or other forms of participation with providers, generating new forms of competition. Seeking to gather elements that enable a better understanding of the forces that drive competition, this work used the case study of the iG provider as a way of establishing a structural analysis of the access segment in the country. In this way, a historical cut is made from the end of the 80s (through the analysis of companies that would later act as the first commercial providers in Brazil) until 2001 (when large providers had already signed agreements with telephone and telecommunications companies).