Male Dominance Over Women Traced Back to Roman Times :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Male Dominance Traced Back to Roman Times Women are enigmatic. Their complexity is evident in their very anatomy; at least it was according to Plato. Therefore, as what is alien is often feared and what is feared is often subject to aggression, perhaps the men of Rome attempted to dominate women in every facet of life because they feared the possibility of women usurping power. Gender, as suggested by Women's Life in Greece and Rome and "Elite Male Identity in the Roman Empire," is not anatomy but power. Yet how can one be more powerful than an unknown entity? Men can only hope to dominate a species they do not even understand through carefully crafted treatises on anatomy, laws, education, and the unbreakable chains of culture and tradition. Plato boldly states that women are simply underdeveloped men. He does this through the argument that blood creates heat in the body and heat sustains and strengthens the body; so, because women lose blood through regular menstruation, women are cold and therefore weak. Moreover, women are created through a "deficiency of heat" in conception (qtd. in Lefkowitz et al. 228). Plato asserts that because "all concoction works by means of heat" and "some of the body's parts are 'principles'" (qtd. in Lefkowitz et al. 229), a lack of heat will affect concoction which will, in turn, affect a principle body part. This is crucial to the development of the body as "once a principle has been 'moved' (i.e. changed), many of the parts which cohere with it must of necessity change as well" (qtd. in Lefkowitz et al. 229). Therefore, no heat in concoction, or conception, creates a woman, and a woman, subsequently, has no heat in her body. Plato reinforces his theory of heat's effect on the body with o bservations of other body parts. For example, humans go bald on the front part of their head only because, "the brain is there" (qtd. in Lefkowitz et al. 229), and the brain's fluid absorbs the very little heat necessary for hair to exist. Women cannot go bald, on the other hand, because they are incapable of creating the most heated substance that the body can produce: "seminal secretions" (qtd. in Lefkowitz et al. 229). This argument makes logical sense within its own confines, and Plato is able to successfully defend his assertion that "a woman is as it were an infertile male" (qtd.

Overpopulation, Population Control and Public Policy Essay -- Explorat

Overpopulation, Population Control and Public Policy The population explosion in the last one hundred years is a well-documented, and well-examined subject matter. All sorts of agencies have devoted time and resources to studying, problematizing, and strategizing in order to deal with the threat of overpopulation. Diverse groups, including the United Nations, have developed plans to encourage population control and decreased fertility rates. I will not go into the specifics of these plans here, as I will be examining them in detail in my presentation next week. However, I will say that population control in Third World nations have become an essential component of public policy, and have taken on many forms around the world. However, it seems possible that we are all jumping the gun. What if the population explosion is a self-correcting problem? There is some evidence that global fertility rates are naturally declining, even in areas without family planning and population control. Could the improved health and education in many countri es be achieving this goal without specific population control measures? Or else, are changes in the environment simply lowering human’s fertility? In addition, some people argue that it doesn’t matter how whether the population is exploding. There are those proponents of the â€Å"tech-fix,† who believe that human ingenuity is capable of dealing with any human population, and therefore the population explosion is not a problem. Malthusians are faced with many opponents in the modern day, and it does not seem to be likely that experts will reach a consensus on the danger of population growth any time through. However, I am not sure that this should put an end to the notion of family planning and popul... ...gnificantly positive benefits around the world. First, it may be able to slow the spread of AIDS and other STDs by spreading knowledge and condoms to places where the AIDS virus is prevalent. In addition, birth control and family planning is a key element in the improvement and increase in women’s rights. I do believe that a women’s right to reproductive freedom was a monumental victory for the feminist movement here in America. In addition, the benefits of birth control to women’s physical health are also very important. The decrease in number of pregnancies, and the increase in time between births are important in making childbirth safer and healthier for women. Population control may be useless and unnecessary when it comes to actually addressing the â€Å"population explosion,† but it produces positive side-benefits that may be as important as its primary objective.

Guide to Web Research and MLA Essay

The World Wide Web is the broadest source of information today. Other than this fact, it is also accessible through the computer, given that it has Internet access. Since it has a broad source of information, people use it for academic research, besides its use for entertainment. However, one major problem with Web searches is the published material’s credibility since it is often open to a wide variety of audiences and contributors. Since the students’ reliability on Web research is increasing, then there is a need to address the issue about the web sources’ credibility. One way to ensure the sources’ credibility is to evaluate the details on the website itself—like the author, date published, and web site title. These details can help one to understand the worth and uniqueness of the information on the website since some information tend to be rehashes of the original one. To make things simpler, it is quite advisable to look at academic websites—like university databases—and online scholarly journal sites. Most of the time, the information here is quite credible since the authors from such websites have the credentials to prove their words’ worth. I believe everyone already had their fair share of frustration from web research. More often than not, the information that appears on the first page tend to come from websites ranging from slightly reliable to non-reliable. Other than that, I have also encountered links to websites wherein payment is required in order to gain access to the information—like many online libraries. These problems can discourage students and force them into accepting the information regardless of its credibility. Furthermore, it can also exhaust the energy of students, making them more timid. The Modern Language Association or MLA is a language and writing institution developed in order to create a common guide of academic writing that the students, scholars, and members of the academe could follow. It basically provides a network upon which members from different places could share information and academic trends with others (MLA, 2008). Since the organization has a myriad of members wherein most are experts in the academe, their guide becomes a requirement in order to help the students and other members of the academe to organize their academic papers properly. Fighting Until the Very End of Life The poem Do not Go Gentle into that Good Night by Dylan Thomas shares the struggle of a dying person or a person’s grief on the gradual loss of a dying loved one. Basically, the poem centers on the theme of not giving up and fighting until death. Once a person succumbs to the thought of death, then he or she may already be considered dead. In a nutshell, the first stanza entails a persona telling the reader (or to whom the poem is dedicated) to not give up easily and go fight against death and weakness—basically, to become fierce. In stanzas two to five, the persona gives out specific examples of fierce men never giving up, which in turn supports the first stanza. In stanza six, the persona addresses the reader (or to whom the poem is dedicated) to show him or her the fierceness that he or she once had, or the fierceness of his or her soul, which would make the persona happy (Thomas, 1971). The persona of the poem may be Dylan Thomas himself, as he wrote this poem for his dying father—growing weaker from old age and blindness. Throughout the poem, he sought to encourage his father to fight on for his life, no matter how inevitable death was (citation). Besides him being the persona, it could also assume the role of a dying person who encourages others to fight on and to never give up until the very end. The persona assumes a sad yet encouraging tone throughout the poem. The phrases Do not go gentle into that good night and Rage, rage against the dying light are also reiterated throughout the poem in order to give emphasis to the theme of the poem. The persona also constantly reminds the reader and the target person to never go down without a fight since giving up life early would mean that the person is just as good as dead already. The two connotative words that have been heavily used throughout the poem is night and (dying) light. Basically, night here could be referring to the dying person (not the persona) accepting his or her fate peacefully, although there may as well be other connotations for this word. On the other hand, light or the phrase dying of the light could be pertaining to death, or at least weakness. The poem follows an alternating rhyme scheme, wherein the key words to follow are night and day. There is also a repetition of the two phrases Do not go gentle into that good night and Rage, rage against the dying light which gives more emphasis to the theme of the poem. The poem’s form and tone seem too soft and gentle for the poem’s subject which is death. This creates an irony that the persona is asking the dying person to become enraged against death. Metaphors and personifications are used throughout the poem, in order to give a hopeful tone for the persona’s beseeching of the dying person, instead of a tone associated with grief and loss. An example would be the stanza: â€Å"Though wise men at their end know dark is right, / Because their words had forked no lightning they / Do not go gentle into that good night† (4-6). References Thomas, D. (1971). Do not go gentle into that good night. Poets. org. Retrieved July 4, 2009 from http://www. poets. org/viewmedia. php/prmMID/15377. MLA. (2008). About the MLA. Retrieved July 4, 2009 from http://www. mla. org/about.

Family Therapy Model Essay

Family therapy models of psychotherapy can be divided into three classifications—ahistorical, historical, and experiential (Griffin & Greene, 1998, p. 3). The ahistorical classification includes structural family therapy, strategic family therapy, behavioral family therapy, psychoeducational family therapy, and communication models (Griffin & Greene, 1998, p. 3). The historical classification includes object relations theory and Bowen systems theory (Griffin & Greene, 1998, p. 3). The experiential classification contains only one model—the experiential family therapy model (Griffin & Greene, 1998, p. 3). While the historical models focus on changing the family’s patterns of interaction as a means of removing the presenting problems, the historical models are rooted in psychoanalysis, with a longer therapy intervention in which the therapist is less involved than in the other classifications (Griffin & Greene, 1998, p. 3). Experiential models, on the other hand, are more concerned with the patient’s growth, a process of both experiencing and monitoring internal problems, and the patient’s self-identity development within the family context (Griffin & Greene, 1998, p. 3). The history of the models and the therapist’s role in each differs, so given the size limitations of this paper, a separate history on each is not feasible. Each theory has its own major contributors. Among the ahistorical models, structural family theory, for example, was influenced by Gregory Bateson, who focused on verbal and nonverbal communication; the Palo Alto Team, which developed the concept of â€Å"family homeostasis;† and Salvador Minuchin, who saw families as functioning to socialize children and facilitate the mutual support of married couples, suffering problems when boundaries were either too porous or too rigid (Werner-Wilson, n.d., pp. 2-4). Of the historical models, object relations theory was influenced by Melanie Klein and later by Otto Kernberg, who focused on drives and the consolidation of Freudian and non-Freudian object  relations theory, respectively (Griffin & Greene, 1998, p. 3; Tribich, 1981, p. 27). In the experiential model, Whitaker redefined symptoms as â€Å"attempts at growth† and used modeling to offer â€Å"fantasy alternatives to actual stressors† (Griffin & Greene, 1998, p. 12). Three of the five key concepts of family therapy models are embodied in Schutz’s Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation, or FIRO model—inclusion, control, and affection (Hafner & Ross, 1989, p. 974). Parr (2000, p. 256) refers to the affection concept as â€Å"intimacy† when she states, â€Å"The family FIRO model hypothesizes a paradigmatic view of the family’s relationship organization around the three interrelated core needs of inclusion, control, and intimacy.† Inclusion involves a feeling of belonging within the family context, and it requires a sense of connectedness, a shared belief system, and an organized structure that the family incorporates to handle issues of roles and boundaries (Parr, 2000, p. 255). The concept of control involves the way the family interacts in terms of power and influence, as when these are used to resolve conflict in the areas of â€Å"discipline, role negotiations, and problem solving† (Parr, 2000, p. 256). The affection or intimacy concept demonstrates the family members’ needs for interactions that allow them to be open with each other about their feelings and areas of vulnerability (Parr, 2000, p. 256). Another key concept is communication theory. There are varied types of communication theory, but the one that is most appropriate to family therapy is family communication patterns theory, which serves as a model of family communication based on relational connections among communication behaviors (Fitzpatrick, 2004, p. 175). Finally, the concept of networks is an integral part of the family therapy approach. Networks provide support during family therapy when the family itself is under stress. As Goldenberg and Goldenberg (p. 12) point out, â€Å"The support of a network of friends, extended family, clergy, neighbors, employers, and fellow employees and the availability of community resources often contribute to family recovery,† and â€Å"even chaotic, disorganized, abusive, and multi-problem families have resources.† An evaluation of family therapy from the Christian perspective reveals that it is compatible with Christian principles. Because it is a mode of therapy predicated mainly on understanding the dynamics of family life and helping family members to change their dysfunctional behavior, there is little in family therapy that  runs at cross-purposes with Christian thinking. Inclusion, control, and affection are all Christian concepts as well. Everyone is included in the group of those eligible to be Christians, and one only needs to choose to belong. Control of one’s actions is integral to the Christian perspective, with manifestations of a lack of control being regarded as problems. Affection is a hallmark of Christianity, and Jesus displayed genuine affection to people, urging his disciples to do the same. Communication theory is more than relevant to Christianity, as evidenced by the vast amount of communication that takes place in the Bible and the many interactions that are recorded there to help believers understand both desirable and undesirable forms of communication. Moreover, Christianity is a community-oriented religion in many ways, urging believers to help those in need and to love others, so its precepts fit neatly into the concept of the support network, as well. Jesus traveled about the countryside, as did His disciples, taking help to people in various towns along the way, and there is a palpable sense of community in the Christian way of life, which considers other people’s feelings, welfare, and interests as well as one’s own. Finally, there is in Christianity a strong family model, as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are essentially a divine family unit, and thus family therapy models are intrinsically structured to relate to the Christian model. References Fitzpatrick, M.A. (2004). Family Communication Patterns Theory: Observations on its Development and Application. The Journal of Family Communication, 4(3/4), 167-179. EBSCO Host. Goldenberg, H., Goldenberg, I. (2007). Family Therapy: An Overview. Florence, KY: Brooks Cole. Griffin, W.A., Greene, S.M. (1998). Models of Family Therapy: The Essential Guide. New York: Routledge. Hafner, R.J., Ross, M.W. (1989). The FIRO Model of Family Therapy: Implications of Factor Analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45(6), 974-979. Klein, M., Tribich, D. (1981). Kernberg’s Object-Relations Theory: A Critical Evaluation. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 62, 27-43. Retrieved on March 25, 2010 from: http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=IJP.062.0027A Werner-Wilson, R.J. (n.d.). Family Therapy Theory. Retrieved on March 25, 2010 from: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~hd_fs.511/lecture/Sourcebook20.ppt

High School and Kyle

Being rich, famous and good looking has its up and downs. Kyle Kingsbury is a high school student who is currently in the ninth grade at Tuttle. He has the total package he has blonde hair blue eyes, he is good looking, tall, and rich. Kyle is the most popular boy at his high school. He is very rude to people that he considered were ugly. In his mind he thought that no ugly people should have a conversation with him. Kendra Hilferty decided to teach Kyle a lesson by punishing him for being rude to people. Kendra cast a spell on Kyle. The spell turned Kyle into an ugly hairy beast. This spell would last for two years. Kyle had to find someone who loved him for his personality because he now looks like a beast. She must also prove her love through a kiss to break the spell. He would not be able to use his money or his good looks to help him out in this situation. If Kyle does not find someone to love him for his personality within two years he would live a beast for the rest of his life. Kyle appearances as a beast are just as they seem. He walks upright almost as if he were a human. His teeth are now fangs. His fingers were now claws. Kyle hair was all over his body. I can’t touch Kyle in person, but I imagine that he would feel like a furry dog or monkey. Kyle voice became deeper as a beast. He would roar from time to time when he became upset. He would more than likely to have the smell of an animal such as a dog, monkey, or bear. I wouldn’t know what he taste like because he is a human beast that is not edible. Kyle would be treated differently as a beast because he was ugly and hairy. Most people wouldn’t want anything to do with him. They would be afraid of how big he was. His own father disowned him so you could imagine what a stranger would do for him. This spell will teach Kyle not to go around treating people differently just because they looked different, didn’t have any money, or didn’t fit into the particular popular crowd. Kyle is a young man that thinks that the world revolves around him. He was rich, good looking, and popular. He did not associate with people who he thought was ugly. He was rude to people on a regular basis. Kendra thought she would teach Kyle a lesson by casting a spell on him to turn him into a beast. He would now see and know firsthand what it feels like to be ugly and unpopular.

Thomas Hardy Poem Interpretation

Poems for essay: Neutral Tones, A Broken Appointment, The Moth-Signal. Interpretation is said to be an explanation or conceptualization of a work of literature or other art form by a critic. Hardy is known for integrating personal events from his life, into his poems that allow the reader to develop a fully rounded view of what he was trying to convey in his work. Love and its effects are one of his most famous themes that are the basis of many of his poems. Hardy tends to use references to many of his loves in his life in his poems especially his first wife Emma.The context from which he writes helps immensely when deducing the meaning of his works. However, knowledge of the poet’s background is not a necessity when interpreting all poems nor does it always influence the interpretation given by the reader; this only true to a certain extent. In the poems: â€Å"Neutral Tones†, â€Å"A Broken Appointment† and â€Å"The Moth- Signal (Edgon Heath)† are all e xamples of poems by Thomas Hardy that does not require awareness of his background to be interpreted by the reader.The poem, â€Å"Neutral Tones† can be deciphered is about a man who loses his true love and thus skews his view of love forever. The first stanza may be interpreted as the setting of which this heartbreaking moment between these two lovers took place. The setting bares no identification needed towards the writer and can be easily interpreted by the reader. The proceeding stanzas basically describe the scenarios in the relationship that led to ultimately the couple going their separate ways and as a result changes the man’s perception of love as the event is relayed from his point of view.This poem is just based on a love gone wrong and does not need Hardy’s background information to be successfully understood by anyone who reads it. His personal detached tone from the poem allows this to be possible. Along with â€Å"Neutral Tones†, â€Å"A Broken Appointment† follows the same trend of love and freedom to be interpreted without having knowledge of his past loves. This poem is about a man who is now reflecting later about the time he was stood up by the woman he loved. This is an issue that happens regularly and does not need to be referenced to sometime in the author’s life to be analyzed thoroughly.This poem was also written generally so it also bore no semblance to the life of Hardy. This goes to show that the background of an author when interpreting a poem is not utter importance. In addition, â€Å"The Moth-Signal (Edgon Heath)†, is another one of Hardy’s poems that lack the need for the context from which the poet writes. In this poem, there is an affair by a woman that is summoned to her lover via a moth being burned in the flames of a candle to indicate her lover was present.Since infidelity is a common issue, the background of Hardy is not needed to influence the interpretation of th is poem. In all of the above mention poems, they all encompassed a plot that was easily identifiable by any reader. The thread of love and heartbreak ran through each and they are all poems that are relatable to all who reads these poems. This gives proof that a poet’s background does not need to be known in order to interpret a poem nor influence its interpretation.

SWOT Analysis Tencent Limited Holding

IntroductionIn March 2010 McKinsey published an article dealing with the obsession of the Internet of the Chinese population by concluding the following statement „People in the country’s 60 largest cities spend 70 percent of their leisure time online. Seismic changes in the consumer market are likely as a result.â€Å"1 China’s Internet population increased at the end of 2012 to a total number of 564 million users compared to approximately 250 million users in 2008, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIN).2 The main reasons for this enormous growth is strongly connected with different aspects, as for instance the general growth of Gross-Domestic-Product (GDP), lower priced computers, more affordable telecom connection fees, government support to Internet usage, and low-cost entertainment aspects. This affected, that also lower income groups started to use the Internet.3 Answering to this fast development and growth of Chinas Internet p opulation, the Internet service industry is about to increase up to 17 percentages in 2013. In the last years, the Internet service industry achieved even annual growing rates up to 20 percentages, resulting of the booming demand.The Internet market seems to be quite satisfied for the moment but even in the next years researches forecast an annual growth of approximately 10 percentages. This is due to the expansion of existing offers in the area of e-commerce and advertisement services.4 Observing the numbers, 148 million people have already experienced Internet shopping since 2010 and it is expected that 30 million people will additionally make use of it by the end of 2015.5 The Economist stated, â€Å"the future of e-commerce is China†.6 Besides the e-commerce and advertisement services also the application services became more and more important over the last years because of the introduction of smartphones and tablets.7Recognizing the trends, Tencent Holdings Limited deci ded 20 years ago to enter the market and finally became the largest Internet Service Portal in China. Tencent still enjoys a quasi monopoly position, which is hardly endangered due to rising competition. That is the reason why they need to think about using new opportunities and fending upcoming threats. Consequently Tencent should carry out a Strengths-, Weaknesses-, Opportunities-, Threats-Analysis (SWOT-Analysis), which includes the study of their own weaknesses and strengths in the internal dimension and the resulting opportunities and threats giving from external influences.This paper will firstly give an overview about the internal strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore Tencent’s external environment will be analyzed and the results will be used for defining the opportunities and threats of the company Before starting with the literal SWOT-Analysis for Tencent the first Chapter gives a short explanation about SWOT-Analysis in general.2 Definition SWOT- Analysis As mentio ned in the introduction, there are two different parts of changes in the environment, which lead to affect the performance of companies. This chapter will explain the difference between internal and external environment and their interaction. Furthermore the next part will explain the so-called SWOT-Analysis in detail.Internal environment analysis points out strengths and weaknesses of a company that in turn, supports decision-making processes concerning the handling of upcoming threats and opportunities.8 Knowing which strengths and weaknesses the company has to face, the internal environment analysis studies aspects like assets, people or knowledge on the one hand and financial deadlines or gaps in capabilities on the other hand.9 Analyzing the internal environment is very important because it defines the capability of the company to deal with the threats and opportunities given by the external environment.10 External environment deals with all developments on the marketplace, inc luding political, economical, social, legal and technical conditions as well as customers, competitors, suppliers and the public. Changes in the external environment or the so-called STEEP (socialcultural, technological, ecological, economical, political/legal)  force the companies in most cases to rethink their actual strategy, to make use of the emerged opportunities and to prevent occurring threats.11 As for instance using the development of a new market as opportunity or dealing with threats as new competitors or decreasing demand.12 To use opportunities means to develop a best-practice strategy. Regarding this, companies have to decide, whether it is the best opportunity to offer something in short supply, to provide something in a better way what already exists, or to create a totally new product.13 Concerning to that, the company has to know if there exists demand, needs and wants for the product they want to provide.14 Facing threats and not trying to fend them often leads to decreasing profits or lower sales. On the one hand knowing these threats gives the opportunity to react and trying to avoid, that threats are going to influence the company’s performance.15 On the other hand firms often do not have control over the threats, which affects the company negatively like for instance new competitors are entering the marketplace. This results in giving up potential customers and thus decreasing demand.16Bringing the internal and external environment analysis together is what you call a SWOT-Analysis. The SWOT-Analysis evaluates all strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a company, which builds the base for a strategy formulation.17 Meaning that knowing the strengths and reduce weaknesses help companies to use opportunities on the one side, On the other side to use strengths and develop strategies to avoid that weaknesses will become the target of threats. After this short definition of the SWOT-Analysis the next step will be to work out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Tencent Holdings Limited. 3 SWOT-Analysis of Tencent Holdings Limited3.2 Internal Environment AnalysisAs mentioned in the Introduction the Internet Industry in China is booming. To cover all possible marketplaces in the Internet Tencent offers a broad range of products and services. Besides the most popular service, the instant Messenger called QQ including numerous added services, Tencent provides online media, (wireless) internet value added services, interactive  entertainment services, especially in the online-gaming sector, e-commerce platforms and services as well as online advertisement services.18 Tencent also follows latest trends, as for instance launching a mobile application of a messaging service and added games and a mobile payment system, because of the latest development of using smartphones and tablets instead of personal computers.19 Tencent is one of the oldest Internet corporations in China and wi th its QQ platform the company reached 798,2 million user accounts by the end of 2012.20 As a result, Tencent influenced the communication world in China fundamentally. Another strengths lies definitely in the broad product and service offer of Tencent and the way in which they create synergies. The company offers seven main business lines, starting from instant messaging to online advertisement services. Besides just offering free services, Tencent tries to bind their users to the company’s value-added and paid services, in order to make profit.21 The strategy aims to offer the Internet population the possibility to use a wide variety of services in one company.Furthermore Tencent could gain a lot of experiences and knowledge over the past 20 years as one of the first providers in the Internet service sector, which significantly strengthened the company’s research and development abilities. Despite having already the mature technology in the market, half of the employ ees of Tencent belong to the Research and Development department, to ensure Tencent’s current market leading position and sustain this competitive advantage. Additionally to that the Tencent Research institute, which is China’s first Internet institute with the main goals in research and development of core technology on the Internet, supports the corporation in being innovative.22 Another strength of Tencent is their workforce as Tencent sees them as the â€Å"most precious asset and emphasized on the training of employees† by using different Training Systems.23 Moreover Tencent Holdings Limited is the third largest Internet operator in the world and the largest listed company in China.24 Benefitting from many advantages due to the companiescompany’s size there are also weaknesses the company has to face. In the following part the internal environment focuses on revealing the weaknesses of Tencent.Regarding the large variety of the product range Tencent, Tencent faces the fear of cannibalization because it creates a competitive situation in between their products. An example can be giving by the different instant  messaging services WeChat and QQ or TM and RTX, which serve the same purpose. Besides that QQ mobile messenger gets more and more the look of WeChat, which makes it even more competitive and leads to higher confusion for the consumers.25 Moreover Tencent greatest weakness is being not really innovative rather than being a â€Å"copy cat†. This occurs with the fact, that Tencent copied a lot from successful western companies. QQ for example is a copy of the Israeli invention ICQ and SOSO, the search engine of Tencent uses especially Google as a model.To conclude the internal environment analysis, one can summarize, that Tencent is a highly developed company with a lot of market power due to their long existence. On the opposite Tencent can notcannot convince with real innovative power. To get an idea what influence s TencentsTencent’s decision externally the next step will be to analyze the current market situation of the Internet market in China.3.1 External Environment AnalysisTencent operates in a highly challenging and rapidly changing environment. To get an idea what external impacts Tencent has to face it is important to know, what external factors the Chinese Internet market is about. As already mentioned China, faces a fast growing market in e-commerce because of the increasing number of Internet shoppers. The government noticed the importance of this growing market as well and plans to â€Å"upgrade the technological capabilities of e-commerce†.27 Another importance opportunity lies in using the governmental support, which is communicated in the 12th five-year plan and includes the support for the â€Å"new-generation IT† and additionally the advance of the information networks, mobile communication and the Internet.28 China is nowadays the largest Internet market in the world, which implicates that it is also one of the most competitive markets in the world.In addition to the high development of the Internet scene many companies entered the market in the last years, which leads to a highly competitive situation in general. Chinas Internet population is still growing but the annual growing ratio halved already from 20 percentages in the last years to 10 percentages as forecasted. Besides that, more and more  startups enter the markets, which results sooner or later in a fully satisfied market and a loss in profit and market share.As an example for the highly competitive market, the image below shows the current competition situation on the search engine market in China.There are already eight providers only for search engines on the market including international companies like Yahoo and Google. The low market share of these international companies underlines the fact, that there are still restrictions from the government concerning the fu lly market entry of these companies.Image : China Search Engine Market Share in August 201330Even if governmental regulations already have relaxed a bit, Chinese Internet sector faces still a lot of restrictions. Chinas Internet companies benefit by this, because many foreign websites are still blocked and they are not exposed to powerful competitors like Facebook. This in consequence creates the possibility to develop and strengthen own applications. On the other hand it could become a threat as soon as the government decides to abolish this restrictions. Chinese Internet companies then have to face the full international competition against global players as for example Google.31 After giving this overview about the external and internal environment the next chapter will use this information by concluding recommendations about Tencent’s future strategy.3.3 SWOT-Analysis and RecommendationsTencent entered the Internet market in many different dimensions and accordingly place s their product and service offering. Due to the previous analysis, there are especially three main product categories where Tencent should use their opportunities in further expansion. Firstly, Tencent should, due to the growth-intensive market segment, expand their e-commerce offer by developing for instance their website Papai.com. To even attract more possible Internet shoppers, they also should expand their online advertisement services. Thus, they can make use of synergies they already created through their broad offers, by linking their advertisements services with the shopping sites they own. This second measure, leads to the creation  of new potential profit zones.Thirdly, Tencent should not only focus on expanding existing offers but also develop new products, as for instance in the sector of cloud computing. By doing so, they can fully exhausting governmental support. Taking into consideration, that the market will be opened up in the long-term, Tencent should emphasis their innovation process on new products and services for the national and also international market. This should not be very difficult to accomplish, since Tencent disposes of a highly experienced workforce in Research and Development. This in consequence will enable the company to expand international and compete with other global players. If Tencent wants to keep their position as the third largest Internet company in the world they have to continue growing their business. Considering the slower growing Internet population in China, Tencent needs to go international to keep their growing position.Tencent did this by investing in foreign companies as for instance in the case of FAB.3233 This expansion should be continued in order to gain international market share and increase their portfolio in other Internet based services, as well as to improve their overall operational capability. Another possibility to do so is by expanding through strategic alliances†¦ By building strat egic business partnerships within China and gaining market share in several sectors Tencent is also able to fend the threat of market entry by international Internet companies in turn. Tencent furthermore has got a highly influence on the communication world in China as one of the oldest Internet company and built already a lot of barriers for international companies.Taking the messenger service QQ as an example for the mostly used messenger in China it enjoys a very high customer liability. Consequently Tencent could prevent loosing their position in China because although of the feared abolishment of several governmental restrictions concerning the entry of international companies. Additionally Tencent should try to avoid that QQ gets more and more the look of WeChat. As already explained, this could tempt users to change to competitors because of confusion. In this case, Tencent should favor cannibalization by offering differentiated products of the same purpose, to avoid losing costumers to competitors. The image below shows a summery of the named points and what the SWOT-Analysis and recommendations for the Tencent Holdings Limited contain.Image 2: SWOTs of Tencent Holdings Limited344 ConclusionInternet business in China is still one of the fastest growing industries in the world and Tencent used and uses this opportunity a lot in expanding existing products, launching new services and developing better solutions for the internet population in general. These actions are supported by the try of going more and more international. Even though the external environment analysis showed that the Internet market is influenced by many factors, which co-determines the performance of Tencent an all the other Internet companies. To reach the best performance they could get, Tencent has to use its strengths and to improve its weaknesses to make the best out of every trend, meaning using opportunities and fending threats.To summarize what the work pointed out in the pr evious chapter, Tencent shouldTencent should expand their e-commerce and their online advertisement services. Moreover there is a big opportunity to create national and international strategic businesses trough the investments or the development of own innovations, which should be easily possible due to he strong research and development activity of Tencent. Additionally to that, Tencent already is the third largest Internet company worldwide, which makes it easier for them to enter international markets and gaining new customers all around the world.Regarding the governmental aspects, Tencent needs to use the supports given by the government and stress the development of new systems. Furthermore Tencent should definitely try to further build their market entry barriers. As a conclusion, the SWOT-Analysis of Tencent Holdings Limited showed, that the company is rightly positioned at the top in the world ´s largest Internet market, due their numerous strengths. But in times of liber alization, globalization and an almost satisfied domestic market, Tencent has to fight against the identified threats in the upcoming years.