The growth of new technologies, especially the Internet and social media, has made changes in how
business works in our society, how they sell the product or how customers buy products. These changes,
if large, may affect the ecosystem of businesses and operations. The company, faced this challenge, can
put at stake its reputation and sustainability. Contrast this, for business start-ups, this development is an
opportunity to be exploited, because they tend to have limited capital, but in need of a quick victory for
the growth strategy and increase sales. Here, utilizing the Internet and social media are relatively
inexpensive. The challenge is how to choose the appropriate internet and social media strategy to grow
and increase their sales.
The purpose of this study is to further investigate this issue and gain a better understanding of how the
Internet, especially social media, can really affect ecosystems and operations of start-up companies. A
quantitative research using surveys have been used as a method of research. Survey questionnaires were
collected from 104 start-up companies. Early findings indicate that the start-up company has started using
the internet and social media as an integral part of their business ecosystem and to increase sales.
However, its impact varies across the business with fashion and F & B as the types of businesses that
benefit most from using the internet and social media in their business.
Keywords: Internet, social media, business ecosystem, operations, business strategy