Week 7 -- CyberCommerce
Academics and students have already found a home on the Web.
But for the Web to truly become a feature of the media mix, it
needs a viable economic model. That is, like any other medium, it
must pay for itself and provide a modest return -- profit -- to
become a mass medium. So far, there's been little revenue-- and
less profit -- from the Web. The exception is those who have
published magazines and books about the Net or who hold
conferences and who design web sites. 
This is an unusually heavy reading load. But the notice of Cybermedia as a commercial medium, just as the traditional media, is central to in what form it will survive, whether it will thrive, and how it will affect our own ability to use this resources. I think you will find most of these article short and readable. It should be worth the time. I promise some some later weeks will make up for this week's bulk.
First, Negroponte, Chapter 13 and 14
Evan Schwartz, "Webonomics 101," Wired 4.02 (Feb 1996). New sites on the World Wide Web are cropping up at the rate of one per minute, but there is still no clear understanding of how content providers (publishers) can earn any money via the Web. Transactions, subscriptions, and advertising revenue are among the revenue streams being tried. Evan Schwartz' article (soon to be a book) tries to get at the root of the revenue side of the Web.
Stuart Elliot, "Advertising After Breakthrough for Interactive," The New York Times, Dec 20, `95. Among other issues, the boundary between editorial and advertising can very blurring on the Web. Check out the Toyota site linked in this story and go to the Life Style Magazines. And check out the Ragu site some more. What are they doing here?
Dan Stets, "Study forecasts
Internet gloom, citing lag in users, advertisers," Philadelphia
Inquirer, Sept 22, 1996 A dose of reality? Or wishful
thinking? Meanwhile some hard numbers indicate tat Web
advertising grew almost 300% in 1996, there may be less there
than meets the eye. And advertisers tend to be advertising to
each other. See the short NYT article, Internet
Advertising Growing Slowly. The Wall Street Journal
has a different perspective in Web
Advertising Gains Ground,
Prompting Return to Net Stocks.
Of course, before advertisers invest big dollars on Web advertising they want to know who is seeing their ads. This need conflicts with the culture of privacy on the 'Net. First, read a concise overview, "1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi: How to Measure the Web," The New York Times, August 10, 1996. TV has had the Nielsen ratings. But how do you know who is looking at Web pages? And what is a relevant unit of measure. Check out this article and some of the links.
Then, for a more in depth look, click to part of a study I did, Trends of the Internet and Its Users. The helps explain the various services and approaches that have been tried to learning more about how many people are online and who they are.
To overcome one of the big unknowns (whose look at our advertising?), the hot idea is to use a "push" technique over the more familiar "pull" of the Internet. This tries to bring us full circle to to the broadcast model of the media. Could control of what your see on the Web change back to the providers from us users? Who is at the controls on the 'Net?
Of course, advertising is only one potential source of revenue. There has been greater--but diminishing -- hope that users will pay for the content, much as they pay for newspapers, magazines or books. See "Testing Whether Internet Readers Will Pay" If The Wall Street Journal can't get 100,000 online subscribers at $49.95, is there hope for anyone?
Finally, there is the expectation of actually selling stuff online. Some merchants claimed some success last Christmas, according to More Yule Shoppers Skip Malls for Net. And see a very brief article that suggests that the woes of a software retailer show the promise of Internet commerce, but also reflect its limitations.
See what Ask Bob has to say about the subject.
Deliverable: Send to the Listserv by Friday, March 7 the URL of at least one site that is selling something you can order directly from the Web (except flowers). In your e-mail, explain whether the Web site offers any advantages or disadvantages over purchasing the same product or service at a store or via print catalog.
3/5/97
07/18/97