Hoodwinking the masses

Anyone who`s driven in my car knows that I am a hoarder of pamphlets, flyers, and the assorted detritus one is bombarded with at traffic lights. It has nothing to do with any type of compulsive behaviour, but rather with simple curiosity. One never knows what one will be met with at the hands of non-discriminatory mass marketers, and every now and again, a veritable gem of information will emerge from the collected morass of junk mail.

ITWeb`s name has been used to promote something without permission - this must mean we`ve made the big time.

Basheera Khan, journalist, ITWeb

I find it quite useful to know the range of services provided by the business sector in various neighbourhoods. It still amazes me that there can be so many different, valuable services on offer in one city block. It`s even more surprising when one of those service providers uses one`s own company as an example of success, to motivate its own new business development.

ITWeb, along with NetFlorist, bluebean and Auto.co.za are cited as successful e-businesses in a particular flyer, encouraging the average motorist to start a business on the Internet. The flyer`s originator is of the mind that anyone with a good idea, or with the will to run a business from home, or expand an existing business to the Net, can do so at low start-up cost. It offers Internet and graphic design services, e-business and online shopping solutions. And to put it bluntly, it had me freaking my bean for most of the day after I`d received it.

Yes, one can implement an appropriate business plan online. Yes, one can design Web sites and tack on shopping catalogues and e-commerce capability without too much hassle. But to expect profitability from a pureplay Internet start-up, in the wake of the dot-com demise and the more recent Nasdaq tech stock readjustment, in a limited e-commerce market such as SA`s, is to my mind, extreme optimism at best, and sheer lunacy at worst.

I may be guilty of underestimating the average South African, but based on my experience, not many people outside of the IT industry follow tech stock markets, or research Internet business trends, or follow the rising (or falling) fortunes of online businesses. It`s only in the last six months that Internet-related news - other than anything to do with Yahoo or Amazon.com - has begun to make mainstream news headlines. I`d ascribe that primarily to the fact that it`s only in that short period that the Internet and related technologies have begun to have an effect on ordinary people`s lives.

Any e-marketer will tell you that the early adopters in any new technological trend are those who have been involved in IT-related ventures long enough to grow comfortable with technology as a whole. Some have reached the point where anything new is exciting and something to be tried out as soon as possible. Others are of the opinion that anything new will be short-lived, and take the innovation trend as seriously as I did that flyer.

Regular people, like my sainted aunt, know what the Internet is, and have a vague understanding of how it works. And though consumer education drives are consistently ramped up and rolled out, there`s still an overwhelming majority of people who have an even vaguer understanding of e-commerce, and the implications involved in running an e-business, let alone making it profitable.

What irks me most is that the ventures mentioned in hope of inflaming some poor schmo`s dreams of being the next Jeff Bezos (although, I`m not sure many people want to be him, these days) have all been developed over a number of years, with dedicated teams driving the initiatives. They`ve had corporate backing in some cases, and venture capital funding in most. It`s taken one of the companies mentioned years to develop a sustainable business model - the others are young, or unproven, and the last time I checked, ITWeb`s core business was IT news provision. That the site has an online auction and that our sister Web site CareerWeb supports e-commerce functionality does not a "successful e-business" make.

Alas, I wasn`t able to check the legitimacy of this particular company`s advertised offering - its site has been down since last Wednesday. On the upside, ITWeb`s name has been used to promote something without permission - this must mean we`ve made the big time.