It might be noted also that information is becoming a commodity with universities offering online coursework and companies online seminars.

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Yet the plummeting cost of digital advertising, increasingly reduced to a commodity by the profusion of online outlets and mobile devices, has only added to the swarm of pitches facing consumers.

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What we found when we were running Jajah is that even though telecommunications is a commodity it is wide open to online fraud.

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Shah says that marketing the exchange to commodity traders, training them how to trade online and designing contracts that are in synch with the traders' needs or familiarity gave MCX an edge.

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