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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 6, 1999)
„ » • Sæ ** ......... <• -» M *• «*•>.» I Oct. 6, 1999 ''National ¿M inority 'business 'W eek C3 WHO NEEDS THE WEB? B y J erry D awson — of N ew I n k The <Clfe JJortlanh (0bseruer ■ q ¿/t - Ä' ■ by J frry D awson loHdav si C onsum ers will spend a total < billion, according to analysts fror season, up from last y e a r’s S3.1 pingis expected to i of the future opj îalysts say the $6 bill! billion by 2003.” teractive erce is 12 to 15 times g reater than consum er m arkets. roup estimates th a t I $ Y o u d o .lt really is that simple. If you are in business today you must be on the Internet, m uch like you had to be in the Yellow Pages in the past. Now m any people look first, and only, on the web w hen re se a rc h in g b u sin e ss n eed s and pever even use the Y ellow Pages. If your business is not on the Internet, you are never going to get the chance to m eet these cus tomers. < And is it enough to ju st be on (he Internet? N ot any more. You fhust be able to conduct business there, too. E -com m erce in the p n ite d States is grow ing 30 tim es {he rate o f the overall econom y. O ver 53 m illion US adults are Internet users and m any o f them are not ju st brow sing - they are buying and selling goods and ser vices online. How can businesses m ake cer tain they have a strong, functional Internet presence? Get an expert to help. If your site was created for $500, it probably looks like it, too. If cu sto m ers can not p u rch ase in a secu re, fast, re lia b le en v iro n m ent - they w o n ’t pu rchase at all. R em em ber, y our co m p etitio n is lite ra lly ju s t a m ouse clic k aw ay. W hat w ill ex p erts do for you? T hey can m ake c e rta in th at the kejl ele m e n t o f in fra stru c tu re , c u sto m e r e x p e rie n c e , an d site d esig n are w ell im plem ented. In fra stru c tu re is c ritic a l, as m any w eb r e ta ile r s d is c o v e re d la st C h ristm as w hen they co u ld not handle the tra ffic th e ir sites w ere g en eratin g . Experts w ill plan for scalability and tig h t in te g ra tio n into your a c co u n tin g and fu lfillm e n t sy s tem s. In co m b in atio n w ith your co m p a n y ’s talen ts and av ailab le re so u rc e s, th ey w ill c o n stru c t your site w ith an eye to the fu ture. W hat gets put chased m ost online? Books, music, softw are, airline tickets, clothing, videos, electronics, stocks, sporting goods, and cars arc the top categories. Business used to make sense. There used to be rules. If you followed those rules, y ou’d succeed. But today the rules are gone. They arc in the process of being written, erased and rew ritten, over and over by bold, Innovativ e companies and individuals who are challenging conventional wisdom in every industry, capturing the im agination of the m arketplace and finding new ways to create w ealth. It’s the “ Wild. W ild, W est” of opportunity and risk. C usto m ers w ill leave the site that keeps them w aiting more than 20 seco n d s and w ill never return to a site that c a n ’t deliv er w hat they o rd ered in days rather than w eeks. C u stom er experience is c ritic a l. P ro d u c t in fo rm a tio n , sim ple and quick steps to pur ch ase, and availab le custom er service are all a m ust. Y our site sh o u ld com pel people to return b ecau se you have given them value. A poo rly designed site will drive people aw ay from your busi ness. Y our site is your face, and som etim es yo u r only face, pre sented to the customer. Experts can thoroughly explore y o u r b u sin e ss co m m u n ic a tio n needs, and based on that research, define the project, com plete with technical requirem ents, tim elines, and budget considerations. Ex perts w ill focus on brand, content, trust, reliability, security, privacy, and know ledge management. B e fo re y ou ca ll an e x p e rt, though, you can always do some research on the web yourself. Some o f the top sites based on “unique v isito rs p er m onth” (users are counted once no m atter how often they visit) are Yahoo!, Amazon, Blue M ountain Arts, eBay, GO, M icrosoft, Lycos, and AOL. They obviously are doing som ething right - take a look and see for yourself. Internet Usage Projection fi.: J*-* * H- re» ’ •A B y D avid M atthews T he In te rn e t p o p u la tio n c o n tin u es to grow w o rld w id e. At the c u rre n t p a c e o f g ro w th , the In te rn e t w ill h av e a p o p u la tio n g re a te r th a n th a t o f the U nited S ta te s in the firs t q u a rte r o f 2003. By 2010, the In te rn e t p o p u la tio n w o rld w id e w ill be o v e r 1.7 b illio n . T his is b ased on the c u r rent N ie lse n /N e tR a tin g s figures w hich in d ic a te th a t the In te rn e t is g ro w in g at a ra te o f .54% p er week. T he ra te o f g ro w th o f the In te rn e t co u ld be a ffe c te d by new technology that will make it cheaper and easier to make Internet access available w orldw ide. O ver the next 3 years, new tech nology is likely to increase the rate o f grow th o f the Internet. If the average rate o f growth rises to .64% per week from the current .54%, then the population o f the Internet in 10 years will be over 3 billion people, or appox. h a lf the world population. Statistics for the w eek ending September 19,1999: A c tiv e I n te r n e t U n iv e rs e 44,768,130 •Current Internet U niverse Esti mate 109,992,692 »» » » •-?« •/.'. 1 Statistics for the week ending September 12,1999: •A ctiv e I n te r n e t U n iv e rs e 47,196,450 ■Current Internet U niverse Esti mate 109,403,300 Internet U niverse One Week Growth: 598,392 (.54%) Estim ated Universe in 52 weeks at current growth rate: 144,761,218 Increase o f 35,357,918 (average o f 679,959 per week) Estim ated Universe in 2 years: 191,546,418 E stim ated U niverse in 3 years: 253,452,069 E stim ated Universe in 5 years: 443,751,111 Estim ated Universe in 10 years: 1,799,900.452 V? • a V *-/ Bis « B anking O n A merica “ Jammin’ That’s America to me. & <6 hi Bank of America Supporting Minority Business Enterprise Week. x’T ■ *7' S.,.‘ >A-. & $ f t •i & * H| I