The dot-com meltdown has had the positive effect of sweeping a great deal of "rubbish" aside, allowing the serious business to start, says Johnnic e-Ventures CEO Neil Jacobsohn.
Speaking at the BDFM financial summit and exhibition held in Sandton last week, he said the meltdown has also done away with many unscrupulous venture capitalists and asset managers.
Jacobsohn said several lessons have been learned from the meltdown, including the realisation that "it`s about doing business". A more realistic attitude towards the Internet is now developing.
"The Internet doesn`t change everything, but it does change some things," he noted. He quoted the Economist, which said in an article before the meltdown that the most important function of the new economy is to make the old economy more efficient. Companies are now using the Internet to modernise their business.
As another example, entities such as e-Ventures company I-Net Bridge are rolling out research products which enable users to research from their desks, or have a library at home or wherever they travel. "That is a fundamental change that could never have happened without the Internet," he added.
Jacobsohn still believes the Internet is a revolution, saying that by the end of last year there were 325 million people on the Internet, with predictions that the number will rise to 500 million by the end of 2002.
"Try to imaging doing your job without e-mail, cellular phones, online content, and so on."
Internet traffic is still doubling every 100 days, even after the dot-com meltdown, Jacobsohn said.
Merrill Lynch research shows that IT spend will rise 9% this year, but spending on Internet will double as a percentage of IT spend.
Internet usage in SA was 31% up to about 2.4 million users last year. Of these, 782 000 were dial-up subscribers and 1.6 million were corporate users.
The digital divide still exists, with 90% of users in industrialised countries. Fifty-seven percent of users are in the US and Canada. Africa and the Middle East account for only 1% of the world`s Internet users.
Despite this, Jacobsohn believes the Internet does matter in SA, particularly if SA is to be part of the global economy.
It is also has an important role to play in narrowing the gap in terms of distance learning and distance medicine. There are encouraging signs from government with regard to the green paper on e-commerce, telecommunications deregulation and the schools connectivity project.
The financial services sector, as the prime driver of the economy, must be online, said Jacobsohn.
However, "most financial institutions in SA have not grasped the real value of the online revolution", he added. He noted that institutions charge users excessively for online benefits, using the technology to augment margins rather than benefit customers.
But he added that new non-traditional competitors are circling "like sharks", including telecommunications companies, financial information and content providers, non-bank companies with brand and large customer bases, connectivity providers and online networks, and Internet software developers, all of which are beginning to offer various financial services.
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