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August 28, 1998 |
Gene DeRose has radical views on e-commerceGene DeRose, chairman and CEO, Jupiter Communications, is one of the most eminent pundits of the fast-forward digital world. When he does a prognosis, the best minds in the IT business sit up and take notice. Madhuri Velegar K cornered him for a quick Q&A on e-commerce, the next big thing:How would you define e-commerce? I think we need to focus on more than that. We prefer to use a variation called digital commerce, which specifically refers to 'transactions' and transactions that are driven in terms of selling goods and services on the Net and not necessarily the advantage on the Net or access etc. What do you think of some of the e-commerce security and protocols in existence? Are they reliable? Do they cover all issues of fraud, tracking, encryption and so on... There will be newer technologies developed over time to safeguard these issues. When will these standards be determined and who will bring about the stability. Will the market decide or will a global authority prevail? This area has not been explored. It's imperative that in the marketplace standards become competitively driven, so yes, I think there will be a lot of both. When do you think the standards will finally get set? There will be, if we settle a few things now, with more bandwidth and more users, country commerce moving in down the road, it's going to be something else. When we settle on HTML as being totally anchored on computers, issue on other devices and other communication networks will take over. I don't concern myself over it, as it will never be fully and finally finalised. Can you do some visionary stuff and hazard a guess as to the evolution of e-commerce, some trends... It also means you are in a period where customer acquisition is the most important driver - getting customers, nailing your first transactions, moving business - it's a landgrab out there and we're in the middle of it all in the US. What percentage of transactions is being done electronically? Which are the primary areas that clients of Jupiter Communication look at? How exactly do you research the psychographics of the consumer whose Internet behaviours you're tracking? What are the tools that you use? A few of your clients complain about the kind of prognosis you offer. For instance, your client, Microelectrons, has alleged that your kind of prognosis has either been very aggressive or has simply panned the market. There were also instances where we were too conservative. I think there's a lot of legacy of two years at least that isn't really appropriate in today's reality. There's been a lot of furore over our online advertising projections because they can't believe how we can possibly predict such a large market. But for the last two years we've been right about the numbers, but the people just didn't see them. What is your prediction on the evolution of the Internet in India? There's a huge potential and it looks very good but I think it should be looked at very realistically. And 5-10 years down the line, people must hammer and hammer away till you get access. |
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