ONLINE COMMUNITIES: AN EXAMINATION OF ONLINE COMMUNITY-BASED CASE STUDIES

Billions of people access the Internet and the World Wide Web every day. Inside this vast network, individuals interact with one another, whether consciously or unconsciously, sharing thoughts, views, and information at an unfathomable rate. The creation of Online Communi-ties (OCs) is based on this perpetual phenomenon, which happens silently in everyone's life. Without a thorough comprehension of every component triggered by these architectures, which is highlighted across disciplines, definitions, categorizations and classifications, it would be difficult to obtain a profound understanding of OCs. Intercepting such tendency, which is defined by the widespread use of OCs, is becoming a rising priority for businesses and marketers. This topic will be studied through an in-depth examination of selected case studies, which show a wide range of community uses in a variety of disruptive business models. Twitch’s analysis triggers the creation of a specific category, namely community incubator, where professional streamers can monetize their content with a level of interactivity never seen before. Estetista Cinica represents one of the most resonant cases of cultivation, investment and social influence in the OC, to the point of building a business around it. OneDay Group, on the other hand, has built its success thanks to the unique management of its OC, represent-ing their targeted customers, on which communication and marketing are continuously pro-jected. Finally, Meta has been launched with the aim of developing a metaverse, meaning an immersive virtual environment, namely, surreality. This case study suggests the emergence of a fourth classification of disruptive OC-based business models, described as the all-around OCs.