January 21
Entrepreneur Urges Singapore to Lead World in Free
Internet Access
Electronic commerce will define global trade in the next century, and
Singapore can lead the world by making Internet access free of charge,
according to Wong Toon King, managing director of Internet firm
SilkRoute Ventures.
“It will be the cyber-equivalent of our duty-free port. By providing free
Internet access to businesses, we will be in a different league in the
world and become the nation to conduct electronic commerce with,” said King.
Also speaking at the forum called Trade Development Board International
Day, Minister for Trade and Industry Lee Yock Suan urged companies to
“quickly re-position themselves to take advantage of electronic commerce.”
Asian Crisis Fallout: IBM Sees Opportunity in Internet
Markets
John Callies, IBM’s general manager for small and medium-sized businesses
in Asia-Pacific, says Asia’s financial crisis could boost sales of
efficiency-enhancing information technology among SMEs (especially
manufacturers) in Asia, thus unlocking an $80 billion market for
information technology.
Smaller companies are hoping to use computer networks and the Internet to
offer their products in new overseas markets such as the United States.
(Dow Jones News Service; January 16, 1998)
French Prime Minister Pushes For Government To Get
Networked
French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin has said it is vital for France’s
public administration to get wired.
The government has unveiled a plan to boost the use of information
technology in local administration, companies, schools and universities.
“If we don’t get our act together now, the jobs of tomorrow will be
destroyed, because a rich seam of future jobs will lie in this sector, not
in the car sector,” an advisor to Jospin said.
A new version of the Web site for the prime minister’s office was recently
launched.
(Reuters News Agency; January 16, 1998)
Indian Department of Telecommunications Finalises ISP
Policy
India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has finalised the standard
licence agreement and application form for ISPs.
The forms will be available for sale from February 18, 1998. Three
categories of licences will be issued. Category A includes the whole of
India; Category B includes each one of the 20 territorial telecom circles
and the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai. Category C
service areas include
Secondary Switching Areas (SSA).
There will be no caps on the number of licenses. Foreign equity in ISPs
will be restricted to 49 per cent. ISPs will be free to fix their own
tariff, subject to a review by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI).
Direct interconnectivity between two ISPs has been permitted but
international traffic shall flow only through DoT’s Internet nodes or
VSNL’s Internet gateways. DoT has banned voice traffic over the Internet.
(Business Line, Indian Express; January 15, 1998)
China’s Attempts to Control the Net
Continue
China’s Ministry of Public Security recently released “sweeping new
controls” criminalising the use of the Net in “making falsehoods or
distorting the truth,” “promoting feudal superstitions,” “leaking state
secrets,” and “injuring the reputation of state organs.”
The Net is now a major focus for commerce as well as a flash point for
intellectual debate in China. But the bigger the network, the harder it is
to clamp down upon.
“There is almost no way to control it anymore. If people want to find a bad
address, they will,” says Xu Rongsheng, deputy director of the Institute
for High Energy Physics.
The practice of using proxies to bypass site blocking is well known among
the user community in China.
(Salon Magazine; January 14, 1998)
British Telecom in Tie-Ups for Internet
Security
British Telecommunications has come to an agreement with U.S. encryption
specialist Verisign–reportedly the first such agreement in Europe–to
market digital certificates facilitating Internet commerce.
The services will also allow secure e-mail transmission, and offer secure
access to home banking facilities, online trading services, and private
information on corporate networks.
BT also has an agreement with British-based software group Futuremedia to
develop and market an Internet-based learning service for worldwide
corporate training on the Internet and Intranets.
(Reuters News Agency; January 13, 1998)
Telstra Signs Up 13 Web Content Partners for Cable
Delivery
Australian telco Telstra, which has been selling cable modems for the past
9 months, has announced partnerships with 13 Web developers to create rich
content specifically for cable users.
The focus is more on corporate content. Most of the Sydney-based Web
developers including HotHouse Interactive, Mainstreet, MultiNet
Interactive, New Toys, Radiant Productions, Rhythm Media, and Tech Talk,
are talking in terms of Intranet and ExtraNet applications, re-engineering
business solutions to take advantage of the high bandwidth, and of
replacing distribution of data, video, audio files and software via CD-ROM
or video tape, with the ability to download directly over cable.
Telstra hopes to have at least five or six broadband applications up in
time for the Federal Government’s E-Commerce Summit, to be held in April.
(Sydney Morning Herald; January 13, 1998)
Internet Emerging As Banking Platform In SouthEast
Asia
Major ASEAN banks are getting serious about Internet banking, with Singapore,
Indonesia, and the Philippines hopping into this emerging growth area.
At least six of Singapore’s seven banks are getting into Internet banking.
Four Indonesian banks are testing their Internet banking systems,
but no Indonesian bank is yet offering Internet banking.
In the Philippines, many banks are evaluating Internet banking but none have
committed themselves to it. Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara, does not
allow banks to offer services over the Internet at present.
ASEAN’s Internet banking wave has attracted a new German software firm,
Brokat Systeme, to set up its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore last
year.
(Singapore Business Times; January 13, 1998)
Internet to be Key Theme at CeBIT ’98
The world’s biggest display of information technology, with more than 7,200
companies exhibiting from 59 countries, will take place at CeBIT’98 in Hanover, Germany,
from March 19 to 25.
This year’s seven-day show is likely to attract up to 600,000 visitors, and
the Internet will be a key theme. An “Internet Park” will have displays
from 70 companies involved in the Internet products and services, including
ISPs.
(Financial Times, Britain; January 12, 1998)
Close to 100 Million Users Worldwide On the
Internet
According to the Internet Industry Almanac released by Computer Industry
Almanac Inc., the number of Internet users was estimated at 99.96 million
at the end of 1997.
The U.S. leads with 54.68 million users, accounting for
54.70% of the total, followed by Japan (7.97 million users), Britain (5.83
million users), Canada (4.33 million users), and Germany (4.06 million
users).
There were six other countries with more than one million users–Australia,
the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, France, and Norway.
The report also predicts that in 1998 nine more countries, including Spain,
Brazil, and Italy, will join a list of countries with more than one million
users.
The U.S. share was nearly 65% in 1994 and over 80% in 1991; it may fall to
40% by the end of 2000.
(Kyodo News Service; Japan; January 12, 1998)
The Best South African Web Sites in
1997
South African Web sites are moving beyond brochureware, and paying more
attention to tuning in to the users and delivering value to them.
Some good examples in this regard:
Old Mutual South
Africa, LeisurePlanet,
Ecnet, LegalNET, Durban Chamber of
Commerce, Junk
Mail, CAN, Marie Claire
magazine, Iafrica.com online
news service, 5fm radio,
Tequila Records, Natal Rugby
Union, Book-a-Bed-Ahead, The Non-Violence
Project, Suburban
Mishaps, and Western Cape Schools’
Network.
(Weekly Mail and Guardian, South Africa; January 11, 1998)
E-Commerce Yet to Take Off in
Thailand
“It is a risk to offer online retail shopping today if you cannot build up
your community (of customers),” says Chatta Udomwongsa , director of an ISP
which hosts a cyber mall.
A-One Fashion, a 20-year old exporter of Thai-made children’s clothes, has
been running a Web site for a year, but the Internet has not yet helped
expand its market.
Company manager Thammanoon Wijitwikrom said customers needed to know
product specifications before ordering, and needed confidence in the
supplier. Simply reading information from an online brochure on the
Internet was not enough.
However, investing in a home page at least helps reduce communication costs.
(Bangkok Post; January 7, 1998)
Intranets Changing World Of Corporate
Training
The computer training industry has struggled for years to find the fastest,
most helpful and cost-effective way to train people.
The Intranet is changing all of this. By using standard Internet
technologies to create or buy training applications that can be run over a
corporate network, companies can offer training without the need for CD-ROMs.
According to an August report from International Data Corporation (IDC),
the West European market for infotech training and education alone reached
$5.1 billion in 1996.
This represents slightly less than one-third (31 per cent) of a total
world infotech training and education market. IDC predicts that by the year
2000 the terms Internet, Intranet, and online learning will be the prevalent
buzzwords in this services industry.
(Financial Times, Britain; January 7, 1998)
