The Olympic Games are international sports event that take place every four years. There are two kinds of Olympic sports; the Summer and Winter which alternates each other that happens two years apart.

One of the most popular summer sports is swimming. It is a sport where athletes race in water at a designated distance. The swimmer who finishes the race in the fastest time wins the game. Backstroke and breaststroke are some of the most popular swimming strokes.

On the other hand, figure skating is one of the most popular winter sports. It is a sport that could be by pair or individual. In this sport, ice skaters perform freestyle movements in a graceful way such as jumps, toe loop, flips, and lifts.

The last Winter Olympics was held in Pyeongchang, South Korea in the year 2018. Meanwhile, the upcoming 2020 Summer Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan.

Teddy moved back to India with his father after the war ended in 1918. Meanwhile, Kaka stayed in England. During those days, many families were away from each other. So, they wrote letters to their families to stay connected. However, mails took many weeks to arrive.

Kaka sent letters to his grandchildren. When they turned five, he started to include longer sentences in his letters to help them learn to read. In his letters, he drew rare animals in India and about the inventions and technology such as the radio and the telephone. He continued sending his grandchildren letters for many years.

Kaka’s letters to his grandchildren remind people that time and distance are nothing if they make extra effort to show their loved ones that they care to keep in touch. In this day and age, it is easy for people to keep in touch and they sometimes take it for granted. But these electronic messages would not remain as treasures. This proves that handwritten letters have magic that could last for thousands of years.

In the second type of network externality, the number of users a product or service has, indirectly influences its value. The common example of this is computer software. The Windows operating system is more commonly used than Mac OS. Because of that, many people prefer using the Windows operating system to Mac OS. So, the number of users continuously increases. The battle between VHS and Betamax is another perfect example of this effect. These two were the video cassette formats in the 1970s to 1980s which were introduced at the same time. Although Betamax offered better quality, many people still prefer VHS because its manufacturers worked faster to get other companies to promote it.

This type of network effect often leads to another. This is called the de facto standard which came from the Latin word meaning “in fact.” This effect is where a standard was established and dominates the market, even without the approval of any organizations or the government. Meanwhile, consumers must be aware of this standard and consider their priorities carefully. They must weigh whether they chose popularity over quality or the other way around.

In the second type of network externality, the number of users decides indirectly how valuable a product or a service is. For instance, the Windows operating system has more users than Mac OS. Because of that, the number of people who use Windows as their software increases. It has also become the market leader for many years now. Another example of this is the competition between VHS and Betamax. Both are the video cassette formats from the 1970s to 1980s wherein both were introduced at the same time. Betamax offered better picture quality. However, the manufacturers of VHS were able to convince other companies to promote their products fast. Moreover, it provided a wider range of rental movies and a good quality for average consumers. As a result, more and more people prefer to use VHS which made Betamax eventually disappear.

In general, people would think that the popularity of products or services is based on their performance. However, their popularity is not always about quality, but it is also about the number of people who use them. For example, people would most likely choose a particular brand that his/her family or friends have been using.

If the number of people using the product increases, the more benefits the users gain. This is called the network externalities or also known as the network effect. A perfect example of this would be the telephone. Owning a telephone would be of no use if there are no other people using it. Meanwhile, if more and more people use a telephone, the more valuable it becomes because it would be convenient for people to communicate.

In one of the two major types of network externalities, the number of users of a product or a service has direct effects on its value. Some examples of this are telephones, fax machines, and all other communication services. Meaning, the value of a product does not depend on its quality but also on how much users it has.

Curling is a sport that requires great strategies. That is why it is called “chess on ice.” To play the sport, players must know the two methods which are the offensive and defensive play. The team must place the stones closest to the center of the house. Also, they need to make sure that their opponents would not be able to do so. A team that has the last-stone advantage also called as the hammer would most likely score points easily. In this sport, it is not always about having the best strategy to always score points, but it is also about ending up as a team that throws last in the next end.

Players often use various strategies that had already worked out before. While others also adjust to the strategies of the opponents during games.

People who have not yet tried playing the sport might say that it is not as exciting as compared with other sports. However, they only need to try it on their own so they could see how much strength it requires the players to play the sport.

Generally, the reason why products and services become popular is that they are better than others. However, there are cases where the quality of the products or services does not depend on its popularity rather, it depends more on the number of its consumers. An increase in the number of consumers who use a product means more benefits for the consumers. This effect is known in economic terms as the network effect. One of the best examples is the telephone. Owning a telephone would be useless if no other people use it, but the more consumers the network has, the more valuable it becomes because there are more people to talk to on the phone. As it gains more and more subscribers, its value continues to increase which reaches to the point where not subscribing on the telephone becomes inconvenient for people. Various services such as discounted price plans are being offered as a telephone network’s number of consumers increases which indirectly makes the network’s value increase even more.