THE INTERNET AND THE MARKET

摘要

Online & CDROM Review started life 20 years ago, minus the '& CDROM', as a review of the technologies behind and the applications of online information. Then, as now, the vendors of online information were no strangers to thinking commercially: they had a product to sell and livings to make like anyone else. They could no doubt have passed on a lesson or two to the myriad companies now using the Internet to trade, whether as their sole outlet or simply as a medium for providing more product information. It is not just information that is sold online now: quite literally, anything that can be sold from a shop or a mail order service can be sold via the Internet. Companies whose products are not in the least related to the Internet still have a Web site. Yet despite the Internet's proliferation, selling things this way is not necessarily easy and is certainly not a way to make a quick buck. No surprise to veteran online information vendors — but even they may have to adapt to the new environment that the Internet brings. Several speakers at May's Internet World UK conference in London tackled the problem of the Internet and the market: building an Internet market, selling goods and services in that market, how that market is different from others ...