Commonplace Internet: October 12, 1998 issue of New Thinking

October 12, 1998 New Thinking:
Commonplace Internet

Website content management

Home I About I Services I Clients I Contact

New Thinking Home

Subject Classification
Reader Feedback
Subscribing
Unsubscribing
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996

Books by
Gerry McGovern

Content Critical

Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content

The Web Content
Style Guide

The essential guide
for online writers, editors and managers

October 12, 1998

Commonplace Internet

By Gerry McGovern

As the taxi from New York’s John F. Kennedy airport was nearing our hotel, an ad for some financial website came on the radio. “Dot com, doh huh,” the taxi driver cursed. “Just another website trying to get your money,” he huffed as he abruptly switched the radio off.

The next day we got into another taxi as we headed to the Javits Center for Internet World. After ascertaining that we were from Ireland, the driver asked what we were over for. “The Internet!?” He laughed and shook his head. “God damn, everyone’s into the Internet,” he said with an air that implied that working in the Internet in New York was more common than driving a yellow taxi.

This evening, as I got out of yet another taxi to catch my plane back, I saw in front of me a group of young people hugging and saying goodbye. “Email me, email me!” one said excitedly. “Make sure and email me.”

Of course, Americans reading this will say, so what? Well, it’s just to remind my fellow Europeans and others outside the States that the future is happening and that the rest of us are still well behind the game.

I have asked this question on many occasions and I would really love a positive answer. Can you name me a major non-American brand on the Internet today? Is there anything even approaching a Yahoo or an Amazon? I haven’t come across them anyway.

And they call it the “World” Wide Web? It’s like saying that we have a world wide road network. Strictly speaking you could say that’s true. But some countries have great roads and good cars, while others have poor roads and old cars. While growing and becoming more multicultural, the Internet is still very much American and very much English language based.

What can the rest of the world do? Cheap computers, cheap access to the Internet, local content. A tall order. Is the game over? Are the American Internet mega-brands destined to dominate all our futures?

Yes and no. I talked to someone from Japan this week, who said that Japan is very behind as well. He talked about how Japanese companies didn’t “get it.” He mentioned as an example a major Japanese company who seemed at sea on the Internet. “Why is our website so unpopular?” they asked. He recounted how the leading Japanese web directory was brushed aside when Yahoo entered the market.

But all is not lost by any means. If the Internet is to truly grow within any country it has to have local information. Local information is not really the domain of mega-brands but rather of local publishers, organizations and individuals. Gradually, the Internet will begin to thrive at a local level, as, for example, old people in a neighborhood chat and plan a birthday party for one of their members, ordering a birthday cake from the local bakery as they do.

America has taken the lead in the mega-brand league, but that’s nothing new. I believe that long-term there’s a healthy enough marketplace for those who focus on the local and the unique. Sadly, many web businesses who are doing just that are suffering the pains of being early and waiting for the marketplace to arrive.

Gerry McGovern

Next issue: Country hackers
Previous issue: The great divide
New Thinking homepage

New Thinking Newsletter
Subscribe to this free weekly newsletter covering the role and function of content on the Web.
More info | Privacy policy
Read the current issue

Email Address:

 Subscribe  Unsubscribe

Content management seminar feedback
"Gerry's presentation was very well received by the more than 400 higher education delegates. I've chaired this meeting since 1994 and very few speakers have generated the same level of enthusiasm. Wit and wisdom is always an unbeatable combination."
Bob Johnson, American Marketing Association

“Excellent presenter ... thought-provoking and relevant. I hope we can persuade him to visit us again one day.”
Malcolm Davison
The British Association of Communicators in Business

"Hearing Gerry McGovern speaking, one can feel that he truly masters the subject of content management. He was voted ‘best speaker of the conference’ by delegates."
Toon Lowette
European Association of Directory Publishers

Find out more about Gerry McGovern's seminars

I believe that long-term there’s a healthy enough marketplace for those who focus on the local and the unique.