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By now we all know that dotcoms are an endangered species - but do you know why? The reason why  people are not making money from their net businesses is very simple-they have perceived their business wrongly and thus have imposed unsuitable revenue models on them which they feel will earn them the big bucks. Most websites relegate themselves to mere delivery vehicles for advertising, a snazzier way to market "stuff" to people. But is that all that the Internet is good for? Or is the Internet a truly revolutionary new medium, unlike any other, which enables individuals and organizations to do things that were simply not possible before?

The Internet started in big government and universities as a basic communication and file transfer network. With the birth of the browser, the Internet was given a new face of rich graphics and point-and-click simplicity. This simple invention allowed the Internet to spill out into the public domain where companies and individuals could point-and-click their way around to visit websites and be entertained. The medium exploded once companies started to use the Internet as a mass marketing tool.

So from just a collection of content put up by individuals or groups around the world the internet now actually serves to put the products and services of companies in front of the eyes of millions of people around the world.

But is the internet just a broadcast medium, like the TV, radio, magazines, or newspaper?

Well no, not really - It is much more than a broadcast medium. Already, the technologies associated with the Internet make it a medium which enables one-to-many, many-to-one, many-to-many, and one-to-one exchanges. Therefore it is unique and far more powerful than any other medium known to man. To limit its role to that of a lowly advertising vehicle, seems to be the mistake investors are bent on making. Normally people draw comparisons of the internet industry to two other industries:

The first is the magazine publishing industry.-where the internet's use as an advertising vehicle with the use of attractive content to draw eyeballs, is quoted. Here the publishers' profits come exclusively from the advertising revenue. So their revenue model is essentially the advertising based and therefore particularly vulnerable to the whims and demands of the advertisers. If one limits their interpretation of the vast capabilities of the net to just this and bases their revenue model on advertising alone, then they are making a grave mistake-as the competition is even more on the net where-where competitive websites abound and the costs of switching from one site to another is zero for advertisers.

The second is the cable television industry where users have the choice to pay for basic service, premium subscription channels, or pay-per-view. But in order to adapt the internet for this websites have to identify and develop content and services which are deemed valuable enough to command payment from users.

But the truly revolutionary facets of this medium are related to its ability to connect-content to the context for the community. With the information explosion on the net, it is not easy to find what you want, this is where the search engines helped to put the information in a context which was useful to the user. The user could find what he wanted. So to that extent it becomes more of a reference tool or a library of sorts. Furthermore, the Internets ability to promote one-to-many, many-to-one, many-to-many, and one-to-one exchanges is also a very important factor which makes it a medium that can be used for commerce. These two differentiators of the net are unique and extremely powerful attributes of the medium of the Internet, unlike any other.

The second crucial differentiator of the net vis-a-vis other mediums is its adaptability towards entertainment leading to marketing and interaction. Most users of the Internet derive entertainment value from browsing, or "surfing." The companies use this habit to promote the internet as a mass medium for marketing and advertising. They used entertainment to lure the customer and showcased their products and services to a global audience. This brought in the marketing aspect of the internet or e commerce. But companies are beginning to use it not only to sell to their customers but also to provide better service or to interact with them. Companies also use it to get better information from their consumers, get immediate feedback on products and services, or even have their potential customers contribute ideas to the design of a new product.

Beyond simple marketing-related interaction though, the Internet is a medium that enables and facilitates true collaboration on a global scale. For example, Boeing already uses the Internet and its technologies to design all f its new airplanes. Teams from around the world share data, images, and other vital information and collaborate in real time. Also with people working in different time zones,  round-the-clock work is possible by passing each day's completed work to the team in the following time zones.

Companies also use the Internet to collaborate with scientists and developers around the world. In this way, they are gaining access to people, knowledge, and know-how while shortening development times and reducing costs so dramatically that it has literally changed the economics of their business.

Thus, as a medium that facilitates the exchange of information, communication, and real time collaboration, the Internet is uniquely powerful. It must not be relegated to just an advertisement delivery vehicle. People should refuse to submit to the advertising revenue model, but instead identify and provide the products and services that are uniquely enabled and facilitated by this medium. The internet at the moment is a bit like an elephant which is being interpreted by blind men-each sees only one facet, the totality has yet to emerge.

Aru Srivastava

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