plinc business blog

Since their appearance in print last week, images of Cindy Margolis have flooded the Internet. Playboy stands ready to attempt the impossible. But, should they even bother? What’s the smart move? “It is impossible to prevent their digitization and rampant dissemination upon the Internet. It is also far beyond the capacity of even the most well-funded and determined of companies to police the unauthorized duplication and use of images upon the Web — especially when they have been so widely distributed in print… @

Assuming you know what you are making per click, the question boils down to what it costs you to buy a click, versus what it costs you to produce a page that will garner a similar click. I must draw attention to the word “similar”, since, in my experience, there is a qualitative difference between the two. But, that difference is shrinking. Here’s why… @

According to analyst predictions, the volume of purchases made electronically over the Internet will expand from $131 million in 1995 to as much as $600 billion by the year 2000, accounting for approximately 8% of all retail purchases worldwide. As companies of all sizes and in all industries gear up to do business on the Internet, technology leaders worldwide are working together to build the requisite electronic commerce infrastructure — this infrastructure spans everything from the networking technologies that will tie businesses together, to the software applications that will permit them to engage each other in commerce. While making electronic commerce a reality has posed an assortment of technological challenges, the issue of transaction security has received the most public attention. Both businesses and consumers have held it up as their most serious concern. The fear of hackers and fraud and financial exposure has taken a measurable toll. But the security challenge has also been the focus of the most innovative and creative inter-industry collaboration. Leaders in the technology, financial and credit card industries have spent the last several years creating the critical security component of the electronic commerce equation… @