The Industry Standard Is GoneWritten by Rob Spiegel
Amid flood of information on how Internet companies performed and contributed in aftermath of attack on September 11, was a small item about Standard Media closing Industry Standard Website, once epicenter of Internet economy. Certainly it was no surprise after company ceased publishing its weekly print magazine last summer. The Website had been run by a skeletal staff while Standard Media, in bankruptcy, sold last of its assets.It was also no surprise when Standard ceased publication. Just two years old, company had quickly swelled as it succeeded in becoming major business publication tracking Internet business. But a $40 million revenue projection for 2001 just wasn't enough to cover bills. I suppose $40 million in sales is a crushingly small when you've budgeted for $100 million. Yet it still hot me as a quiet blow when I read that Standard Website had gone dark. I know it's a tiny blip of a news item. Like rest of country, I'm still struggling to absorb staggering magnitude of last month's attack. I'm still trying to understand new world we entered on September 11. Plus, economy, already a confusing bird, has suddenly entered very mysterious waters. So who cares about last whimper of passing Internet economy? Call me a sentimentalist, but I'm nostalgic for those heady new-economy days that came to an abrupt end just 10 months ago, It seems like ten years. The Standard was flagship of a burgeoning business publishing boom, leader among a flowering of magazines and Websites that got it. Remember when you could divide world into those who got it and those who were hopelessly brick? I spent a happy couple years scribing in middle of delirious mess of a tech boom, first drafting twice-daily dispatches as a correspondent at Web-based news service Ecommerce Times, and later as a senior editor at Ecommerce Business, a Cahners fortnightly pub trying to do Standard one better by focusing on ecommerce, bleeding edge of Internet-based business. I had trillion-dollar beat, B2B.
| | Research Roundup TimeWritten by Rob Spiegel
So what's up with Internet? Is it a fad that is slowly diminishing? Or is it still a stunning revolution that will change human history entirely? The dot com crash certainly put some tarnish on ole boy. But it seems smudges are only on perception of Internet. It seem that online consumer and business growth continues unabated, even in midst of a treacherous high-tech meltdown.My new favorite analogy comes from auto industry. At one point early last century experts predicted there would be more than 500 automakers. When consolidation began to hit in nineteen teens and 1920s, with automakers failing and getting gobbled up right and left, many feared auto revolution would come to an abrupt end. So much for expert opinions. So let's look at some recent research to see what is actually occuring on Internet. E-consumers become "power shoppers" Online "power shoppers" spent an average of $1,200 online during 12 months prior to a spring survey by iCustomer Observer. This compares to all other e-shoppers who spent an average of $480 online during same year. These power shoppers constitute top 33 percent of Internet consumers. The average age of this high-dollar consumer is 38, with an average annual income of $67,000. Regular e-shoppers are an average age of 55 with yearly salaries of $34,000. Net usage dropped slightly when school let out Internet traffic dropped by 1 percent worldwide between May and June 2001 according to a usage report from comScore and Diameter, DoubleClick's research group. The study reported there were 128.4 million unique Internet visitors in U.S. and 296.5 million worldwide in June 2001. The study attributed slight decline in U.S. traffic to summer vacation. The report did note that travel sectors experienced a lift of 2.2 percent between May and June, with 84.5 million visitors worldwide checking travel websites. High-speed connectivity grows For those who believe Internet won't come fully into its own until consumers experience power of high-speed connections, good news continues. An August 2001 report from Parks Associates finds that as of mid-2001, there are 8.6 million U.S. households using high-speed Internet connections. That's up from 4.8 million U.S. households last year. The company predicted number will reach 11.3 million by year-end.
|
