> From: "Evan I. Schwartz" <evan@webonomics.com>
> To: eis@webonomics.com
> Subject: WEBONOMICS STORIES Newsletter
> Date: Fri, 18 Jul 1997 10:41:42 -0400
>
> The WEBONOMICS STORIES Newsletter
>
> Summer 1997 Edition
>
> by Evan I. Schwartz
>
> IN THIS ISSUE:
> *****New Websites Still Cropping Up at One Per Minute
> *****Amazon.com on Path to $100 Million in Revenue this Year
> *****CUC Reports $400 Million in Online Sales in 1996
> *****AT&T Takes Advantage of Value-Based Currency
> *****Virtual Vineyards Reports Only "One or Two"
> Cybercash Buys per Week.
> *****IBM Shuts Down Cybermall
> *****Forrester E-Commerce Forecast Too Conservative
> *****Looking for Love? 'Push' Technology Can Help. Yeah, Right!
> *****WEBONOMICS FIVE-STAR Website of the Month
>
>
>
> *****New Websites Still Cropping Up at One Per Minute
>
> The first sentence in WEBONOMICS is: "New sites on the World Wide Web
> have been cropping up at the rate of one per minute." I'm pleased to
> report that this furious pace has continued -- almost exactly. Network
> Solutions Inc., the Virginia-based company that registers domain name
> addresses for U.S. Web sites, says that it had registered a total of
> 818,000 addresses by March 1997, up from 246,000 a year earlier. That's
> 572,000 new Web sites in a year, or 1,567 per day, or 65 per hour, or
> 1.08 per minute!
>
>
> *****Amazon.com on Path to $100 Million in Revenue this Year
>
> Amazon.com, the premier bookseller in the Web economy, reported revenue
> of $28 million for the second quarter of 1997. Add that to the $16
> million it reported in the first quarter, and we see that the
> Seattle-based company is en route to break the $100 million revenue
> barrier this year. The company also reports a smaller-than-expected but
> still sizable quarterly loss of $6.7 million. Jeff Bezos, CEO, has said
> he expects to turn a profit sometime in 1998. At this pace of sales
> growth, profitability may happen a little sooner. As an aside, I ran
> into Bezos at a conference recently and asked him about the false
> advertising lawsuit filed by Barnes & Noble against Amazon.
> Not only was Bezos confident that the suit would go nowhere,
> but he added that he's delighted by all the publicity surrounding
> it. Any time our name is mentioned along with theirs, we win,
> he said. http://www.amazon.com
>
>
> *****CUC Reports $400 million in Online Sales in 1996
>
> A spokesman for CUC International Inc., the Stamford, CT company that
> runs the NetMarket Web site, told me that the company drove $400
> million in online transactions in 1996. The company doesn't actually
> get any of that money. NetMarket is one of CUC's buyers' clubs.
> Consumers who pay $50 per year to join get wholesale prices on
> 400,000 items -- everything from cameras to camcorders to telephones
> to stereos to washers and dryers to exercise equipment to lawn
> furniture. Everything is shipped directly from the manufacturer to
> the consumer. CUC makes no money on the transactions,
> just on membership fees. This is an extremely successful business
> model, and it makes CUC the company to watch in e-commerce,
> especially as it completes its risky, $11 billion merger with HFS.
> http://www.netmarket.com
>
>
> *****AT&T Takes Advantage of Value-Based Currency
>
> As reported in WEBONOMICS, AT&T's TrueRewards program is really an
> example of "value-based currency" -- if only AT&T would move the
> program to the Web. Now, it has. Under the program, AT&T offers
> consumers one point for every dollar spent on long-distance calls.
> Customers use the points to buy stuff ranging from CDs to magazines
> to baseball cards to flowers to snow tires to mattresses to luggage to
> savings bonds. Such offers usually come in the mail every so often with
> a periodic statement. But AT&T recently turned its Web site into a
> nonstop electronic bazaar where TrueRewards points could be used to
> fund an online shopping spree. This is a prime example of the digital
> money of the future. https://www.truerewards.att.com. Two other
> Web ventures that have recently introduced online currencies
> that reward purchasing are CUCs NetMarket and a new,
> national grocery delivery service, called NetGrocer
> (http://www.netgrocer.com).
>
>
>
> *****Virtual Vineyards Reports Only "One or Two" Cybercash Buys Per Week
>
> Virtual Vineyard enables customers concerned about credit card fraud to
> pay with the secure Cybercash system, which requires special software
> and a special account. Robert Olson, CEO and co-founder of the
> successful seller of specialty wines and foods on the Web, was asked at
> a recent conference how many consumers are taking advantage of that
> service. He said: "One or two per week." And those orders are "usually
> from Bill Melton demonstrating the technology for friends." Bill Melton
> happens to be the CEO of Cybercash. Needless to say, such digital
> payment systems are not catching on. As reported in the book, more than
> 99% of Web commerce transactions are via ordinary credit cards.
> Meanwhile, Barron's reports in its July 7th issue that "not a single
> case of credit-card theft on the 'Net has been documented." Could it be
> that using credit cards on-line is actually safer than using them in
> other ways? http://www.virtualvin.com, http://www.cybercash.com
>
>
>
> *****IBM Shuts Down Cybermall
>
> As predicted on page 95 of WEBONOMICS, the IBM WorldAvenue
> cybermall has failed. Due to lack of consumer and retailer interest,
> Big Blue in June said it would shut down the venture--within a year of
> starting it up in the first place. You would think that IBM would have
> learned from the failed marketplaceMCI cybermall experiment.
> The idea of renting retail space on the Web is silly at best.
> The concept of a mall is based on geography.
> On the Web, geography is rendered moot.
> http://www.worldavenue.com
>
>
>
> *****Forrester E-Commerce Forecast Too Conservative
>
> More than a year ago, Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. had
> forecast that online sales to U.S. consumers would reach about $1.1
> billion for 1997, growing to $6.6 billion in the year 2000. Now, Bill
> Bluestein, the Forrester analyst who authored the report, tells me that
> the 1997 number is probably too low and that the forecasts for the
> future will probably have to be revised upwards.
> http://www.forrester.com
>
>
> *****Looking for Love? 'Push' Technology Can Help. Yeah, Right!
>
> Get this! Here's a great example of why so-called "push" technology is
> so over-hyped. Rich Gosse, chairman of the American Singles dating
> service (it sounds more like a processed cheese food company), seems
> convinced that single people want to be alerted instantly whenever a
> new guy or gal enters a profile in his database.
> Gosse says the Web "allows our system to work around clock selecting
> matches that are 'hand delivered' to the desktop of the single person
> looking for love. No more scouring the Web for love--it comes to you."
> Yet another reason to sit by your PC on Saturday night.
> http://www.as.org
>
>
> *****WEBONOMICS FIVE-STAR Website of the Month
>
> Here's a small business that created a Web site taking advantage of
> eight of the Nine Essential Principles of WEBONOMICS, earning the
> coveted "five-star" rating. "BuySell" is a very smart online classified
> ad service that doesn't just put the ads online but creates a dynamic
> digital marketplace for both buyers and sellers of all kinds of goods.
> The service is mainly for people in the Vancouver, B.C. area. Check out
> http://buysell.com.
>
>
> THANK YOU for your interest in WEBONOMICS. Your support has kept
> WEBONOMICS on the Amazon.com Bestseller List for 12 weeks in a row,
> and has made it Amazon's #1 bestselling business book!
>
> Feel free to send a copy of this newsletter to interested colleagues,
> just as long as the copyright notice at the bottom is included.
> ________________________
> Copyright 1997 by Evan I. Schwartz
>
> http://www.webonomics.com
----
adam@cs.caltech.edu
OpenDoc was eaten by html and Java; Jobs licked the plate and burped. :-)
-- David McCusker