The latest survey by KPMG, in conjunction with Yahoo! and Ziff-Davis,
shows that the extent and timing of consumer adoption of e-commerce is
being retarded by many factors: poor content; lack of critical mass; and
general scepticism.
As producers try ever harder to improve the quality of content and
services available on the web, the most difficult factor to resolve might
be the high cost of access. The price of phone calls is destined to become
a political issue again if the internet or interactive television is ever
to win mass adoption in the UK and Europe.
In the US, there is an acknowledgement of the internet’s responsibility
for more than 25 per cent of economic growth - in jobs and sales. But both
there and in Australia local calls cost a flat rate. In the UK and Europe,
the telcos are charging, in effect, a massive internet tax.
Another survey, by the London Business School, of nearly 300 new-media
experts, found that the biggest obstacles to the global growth of
interactive media are: protection of personal data; the slow speed of data
transmission; and the lack of development of easy-to-use consumer
interfaces (that is, voice-activated systems or virtual reality).
The LBS correctly sees data transmission speed as a cost issue. It is one
of the biggest inhibitors, and probably one of the only ways that it can
be overcome is by government edict, since all telcos have a vested
interest in keeping prices high on local calls.
We need another big push by the consumer movement of the sort which last
caused BT to improve its service a decade ago. What is at stake is not
just the survival of a few internet companies, but the speed of growth of
the UK economy.
Nick Rosen is a director of new media research and design company
Intervid, email: nick@intervid. co.uk or tel: 0171 240 2200.
.jpg)
.jpg)