Internet No Longer New Born: Almost Teenager

By Rob Greenlee, Host WebTalkGuys Radio

Web adulthood is still years away, but the current teenager status is a sign of growing maturity of the World Wide Web. With the arrival of the World Wide Web in the late 1980s, consumers and commercial businesses interacted with the Internet. The quantity of computer users getting "connected" increased rapidly after the first appearance of browsers in the 1990’s. By early 1996, more than 25 million computers in over 180 countries were interconnected through the Internet and it is continuing to grow at a dramatic rate of 2 million new users per month.

Over hyped expectations of the last four years has created the negative backlash over the past 18 months. We have all heard that the dot bomb was the catalyst that caused our recent economic downturn. The perception now is that Internet business is not serious business and we will never see a profitable Internet company.

Boy, we sure had high expectations for the Web after such a short period of time.

Current conventional wisdom and media tells us that the Internet is dead and no one really cares anymore. Amazon.com doomsayers are everywhere and Internet companies continue to go down the tube. A lot business people and many millions of other people currently have decided and judged that the Internet will never be more that a place to get free music and Spam email.

It has been very difficult to fly contrary to the dark clouded twister swirling around the Internet. If everyone thinks that the Internet and technology got us into this bad economic slump, than would it not be that the Internet and technology has the power to change our economy for the better, as well. If the Internet and technology have that kind of power, than following the current wisdom only creates huge opportunity to those who can see through the fog of the clouded understanding of the changes that are fundamentally happening. Innovation and successful ideas take time to mature and reach full potential. The Internet and Web is no exception.

It has been tough to continue being an Internet and web cheerleader for the past 18 months with the WebTalkGuys World Radio Show. It has also been interesting and surprising to talk with so many successful Internet related companies on the show over the past year. The WebTalkGuys Radio show has also seen that fastest growth over the last 18 months.

I think the show is growing because more people are listening to streaming media at the office from their broadband connections and Internet usage is continuing to grow at home. I also feel that people are interested to find out what is still on the World Wide Web to explore. Another major reason is that there are less listening options and fewer folks doing innovative things on the Internet. That means more opportunity in the marketplace.
v The other deception that drove everyone to greed two years ago was thinking that an Internet year was 6 month or less and not 12 months. Everyone thought they had to move hyper fast and spend fast to get eyeballs. NOT! I am patient and willing to build my business slowly. The other important thing to do is to keep your operating costs very low.

I am in no rush, but I am getting a little concerned because the economy is starting to show improvement. The current low costs of doing business online and the decline in competition have created opportunity everywhere on the net. Economic strength and fast economic growth creates more competitors and opportunity online gets less.

My current position as Marketing Director of 10-year old Lakewood-based Personal Design Concepts (http://www.pdconcepts.com) has shown me the business opportunity waiting out on the World Wide Web. Personal Design Concepts has not really had a strong web ecommerce business up until now, but because of the growth of digital imaging and the increased maturity of online photo processors like PhotoWorks.com, Snapfish.com and Walmart.com, the potential for PDC is huge over the next 5 years. We are just now building for that future. The biggest mistake would be to walk away from Internet business right now. We are on the edge of real economic impact from Internet business.

This is a great time to build your Internet business dream. Don’t miss your chance to grab your share of the grown-up Internet opportunity.

WTG

(Rob Greenlee is founder and host of the WebTalkGuys Radio Show. WebTalkGuys, a Seattle/Tacoma-based talk show featuring technology news and interviews. It is broadcast on CNET Radio in San Francisco and Boston, on the web at CNET Radio, WebTalkGuys Radio and via the XM satellite network and on NexTel's Wireless Web.  Past show and interviews are also webcast via the Internet at http://www.webtalkguys.com).