Compiled by Vicky Nolan
Most E-Commerce Sites Are Likely to Fail
Just as the stock market has been seeing some "re-adjustments", so will the number of e-commerce sites available. StrategyWeek.com predicts that 80 percent of all e-commerce sites are doomed to fail within five years. Why? Chalk it up to poor planning and unrealistic expectations, according to an
article in Newsbytes. StrategyWeek's founder and president Karen Lake suggested many businesses aren't committed to the Internet. "They see the Internet as one department in their company rather than the integrating the Internet with their entire business," she said. "Too many entrepreneurs try to do everything themselves in the mistaken belief that saving money is paramount."
www.strategyweek.com
Is Your Privacy Policy Private?
With consumer groups and governmental agencies calling for Internet sites to implement better privacy policies and curtail information-gathering and sharing, it would seem likely that website operators would take heed and publish their privacy policies for all who click on their site to see. Not so, according to Enonymous.com, a company that provides consumers with a website rating plug-in. In a survey of 30,000 sites, Enonymous found only 3.5 percent of the sites were judged to have "four star" ratings, according to
Internet Week. "Most of the 30,000 got zero stars, which means they didn't have a policy," Tim Kane, one of the report's authors, said. "If a site never sells data, and the company never contacts you unless you request it, that qualifies for four stars." Enonymous' research also showed that businesses might have some company in privacy transgressions. Kane says the researchers found that only 14 percent of the dot-orgs and 3 percent of the dot-edus have privacy policies, compared with 25 percent of the dot-coms.
www.enonymous.com
Should Privacy Standards Be Legalized?
Online users want government intervention to develop information-gathering standards for websites, research company Odyssey reported. They found that 47 percent of online household heads strongly
agree that the government should regulate the use of personal information gathered online, while another 35 percent agree at least somewhat with the concept.
Additionally, 59 percent strongly distrust companies' ability or intention to keep personal information confidential, regardless of any published privacy policy. Odyssey President Nick Donatiello explained, "Consumers have a fundamental distrust of the companies that gather their personal information
online. Unless these companies take steps to build consumers' trust and confidence, they will force consumers to look to the government to implement standards regulating the use of personal information gathered online."
www.odysseylp.com
The Truth About the Digital Divide
The infamous digital divide? Forget about it! Forrester Research has found, regardless of ethnicity, consumers use the Internet for the same reasons and to accomplish the same tasks. "In 1999, connectivity to the Net from home increased by at least 11 percent for all ethnic groups," said analyst Ekaterina O. Walsh, Ph.D. "In fact, Internet penetration among Asian-American households matches that of mass consumer technologies like cable TV, while Hispanic-Americans are 9 percent more likely than Caucasians to be online." The immaterial impact of ethnic background on online behaviors highlights the need for sites to offer more than a generic ethnic label to attract visitors, according to Forrester. Online users have individual interests, ranging from arts and gardening to hunting and fishing, that are stronger
drivers of surfing behavior than ethnic background is. As a result, Forrester recommended ethnic-focused sites should specialize to gain an edge amid the clamor of broad-based ethnic portals.
www.forrester.com
U.S. Internet Users Join the Wireless Stampede
Cap Gemini American found the number of American cell phone users who surf the Web on their cell phones will probably increase from the current three percent to a hefty 78 percent over the next year, reported NewsEdge. Presently, one-third of Americans use their cell phone for business, of which only 11
percent are using them for data applications.
The new findings follow earlier research from International Data Corp. that showed that more than 40 million U.S. households are online, while more than 75 million people subscribe to cellular/wireless services and more than 40 million for paging services. As more people access the Internet using wireless services, there will be a fundamental shift in thinking by both the Web community and the information technology industry, IDC predicted.
Consumers Participate in Frequent Buyers Programs
The number of U.S. households participating in frequent shopper programs (FSPs) has doubled since 1996, according to the Fourth Annual Frequent Shopper Survey released this week by AC Nielsen Corp. Fifty-nine percent of households that belong to a frequent shopper program now belong to two or more - up from 57 percent in 1998," said Jane Perrin, managing director of AC Nielsen's global services. "this is putting pressure on retailers to further differentiate themselves from their competition. The retailers who are doing the best job with their frequent shopper information are those that are using it to proactively foster loyalty among their best customers."
www.acnielsen.com
Fourth Quarter Internet Advertising Rockets
Internet advertising revenues continued their rocket ride in 1999, more than doubling revenues over the previous year's growth, ending the year with a big bang - $4.62 billion. Plus, fourth quarter spending topped $1.7 billion, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau's Internet Ad Revenue Report. The report, conducted independently by PricewaterhouseCoopers, also showed that 1999 advertising revenue grew 141 percent over the $1.92 billion reported for 1998, while the fourth quarter revenues increase 161 percent over the same quarter 1998.
"Growth measured in billions of dollars is certainly terrific news for the Internet economy," said IAB Chairman Rich LeFurgy. "No longer are advertisers and marketers asking why they should advertise online, they are now asking how big a part of their budgets they should devote to online exposure."
"We are witnessing the rapid expansion of the Internet as an unparalleled advertising and marketing medium," added PricewaterhouseCoopers' Tom Hyland. "Utilizing revenue numbers on an inflation adjusted basis, in this, its fifth year the Internet with $4.6 billion in ad revenue has surpassed the
$3.7 billion for television in its first five years, and revenue this year is 47 percent of that of cable, doubling that percentage from last year."
www.pcwglobal.com