Centralization of the Internet and its impact on the process of creating a media image of an enterprise: the case study of a mobile application development company AppDev

The Internet, which used to be perceived as a democratic medium, allowing the huge dose of freedom of expression, has recently transformed into a very centralized medium. It can be noticed that some websites dominate the web spectrum in terms of traffic and this process is getting stronger and stronger, while other websites are isolated and can only be visited by typing in the URL address. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the Internet architecture currently looks like and how it can influence the methods of creating a media image of an enterprise. The case study methodology was used to describe the communication processes of one of B2B companies, a mobile application development enterprise from Poland, and its ways to succeed in the ever-changing Internet environment. The time scope of the case study was two years: from April 2016 to April 2018. The communication practices studied included the whole range of the company’s promotional activities online, including blog posts, sponsored articles, social media, forums etc. Such a research made it possible to notice the trends in the enterprise’s communication, the challenges it faces, and the tools it uses to create the company image. The case study may serve as a good example of how an enterprise, which promotes its services exclusively online, adapts to the changing architecture of the Internet, trying to find its way in the changing environment. It can also suggest a new, emerging model of Internet architecture – a polycentric model