Monday 30th
November 1998
AUSTRALIAN NET ADS ON THE
RISE
According to a report by
APT Strategies, an astonishing
$US6.3 million is currently being spent on Australian online advertising
campaigns - and this is expected to grow to $US95 million within the next
24 months. The results - drawn from APT's 'Online Readership Study' - show
that the profile of the average Australian Internet user very closely matches
the general Netizen demographic reported in the USA and elsewhere. According
to APT, who drew their study from the survey responses of 3,500 Internet
users who visited 33 leading Australian web sites in August and September
1998, 54% of Australian surfers are male, 46% female. In addition, 64% of
those surveyed said they made the principal purchasing decisions for their
households, and 57% said there were also no children in their households.
APT also found that 47% of their survey's respondents work in the private
sector, 23% are self-employed and 21% work in the public sector, with 69%
of all respondents living in urban areas. In other news: Australian
Cybermalls was relocated to a faster server this weekend. This move took
us off air for 12 hours and zeroed all our counters. We apologise to anyone
who was inconvenienced by this yesterday.
Friday 27th
November 1998
CELEBRATE AUSTRALIA ONLINE
DAY!
Australia is celebrating its
inaugural Online Australia
Day today to draw the attention of offline households to the attractions
of the information superhighway. Organised by the National Office for
the Information Economy (NOIE), the event has attracted the support of
more than 4500 schools, most libraries and hundreds of volunteer organisations
nation-wide, as well as many of Australia's most popular web sites. The day
of celebrations comes hard on the heels of Wednesday's announcement by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics that close to 4.2 million Australians are
now online - approximately 25% of the population. Australian Cybermalls'
Managing Director Dafyd Martindale (who also happens to be celebrating
his birthday today!) will be contributing to the event at the Hervey Bay
IT Expo, where he'll be speaking at two introductory Internet sessions and
an advanced session on effectively marketing a business on the Net at the
invitation of Queensland's Department of State Development. This month Australian
Cybermalls will break the 1-million-visitors-a-year barrier, a little less
than 33 months after the site began broadcasting in April 1996. All talks
are free and open to the public.
Thursday 26th
November 1998
AOL BUYS NETSCAPE FOR $US4
BILLION
America
Online (AOL) reached an agreement today to acquire
Netscape for $US4.2 billion
through a share swap which will give Netscape's owners 0.45 AOL shares for
each Netscape share they currently hold. Sun Microsystems will assume control
of Netscape's software technology, repaying AOL with an ongoing royalty stream
from the sales it generates. AOL, in turn, will take over control of Netscape's
NetCenter portal site and what is probably the Net's best-known brand name
and still its most popular browser. To the surprise of many analysts, AOL
said that it intends to keep the bug-stricken Internet Explorer as
its browser for the present because its deal with Microsoft assures AOL a
prominent place on Microsoft's Windows95 and Windows98 online services folder.
However, analysts speculate that another reason may be that Netscape's browser
doesn't currently allow the level of badging and customisation that Explorer
does, and cautioned that AOL's position may change when Netscape provides
these facilities. The takeover - foreshadowed last weekend
- came only days after Netscape had announced that it was downsizing
the Australian office it opened only 18 months ago in Melbourne and relocating
its main Asia- Pacific offices in Singapore.
Wednesday 25th
November 1998
AUSTRALIAN NET AUDIENCE HITS 4.2
MILLION
The number of Australian households
with Internet access increased by 46% between February and August
this year, according to the Australian
Bureau of Statistics (ABS). In a new study released today, the ABS
estimated that there are now 1.25 million households connected to the Net,
covering approximately 18% of the country's population. According to the
ABS, almost a third of the total Australian adult population - around 4.2
million people - accessed the Net at some point during the year to August.
Of these, 1.9 million accessed the Net from either work or home, with 935,000
accessing the Net from a friend or neighbour's house, 933,000 accessing it
from a tertiary institution and 395,000 people accessing it from public
libraries. The ABS also found that 425,000 adults used the Net to buy or
order goods and services this year, executing an estimated 1.3 million
transactions. The ABS also found that 77% of Australian online shoppers paid
for their purchases over the Net too, with 68% of buyers ordering from home
and 69% of purchases being made overseas. In a setback for bankers, however,
the ABS also found that so far only 1% used the Net to pay bills or transfer
money (against 35% who do so by telephone, 60% who use EFTPOS and 69% who
use ATM machines for the same purposes).
Tuesday 24th
November 1998
BANDWIDTH INQUIRY GETS THUMBS
UP
The outrageous cost of Australian
bandwidth - which has forced many of the country's most successful web sites
into being hosted from the USA, and severely restricted the options of rural
consumers - is to be examined by a high-level Federal Government inquiry.
A spokesman for Communications and IT Minister Sen. Richard Alston
confirmed today that the minister was reviewing potential terms of reference
for the inquiry and what form it would take, but hoped to have these matters
resolved before Christmas. The inquiry will attempt to gather a broad range
of submissions from carriers, service providers and industry associations
and will look at alternate delivery mechanisms including cable, satellite
and wireless. In Australia, the current effective wholesale rate for bandwidth
varies between 16.8c and 19c per Mbyte. The current US rate, however, is
closer to 2c to 3c per MByte. In other news: Australian Cybermalls
affiliate ARTUFRAME changed its name to Art.Com yesterday.
The move was prompted by the company's recent acquisition of the domain and
its search fore a shorter, more memorable URL.
Monday 23rd
November 1998
AOL, SUN IN NETSCAPE BUYOUT
TALKS
Newsweek and the Wall
Street Journal both reported today that Netscape, AOL and
Sun have been locked in serious buyout talks over the weekend. Although
all companies have refused to comment and experts have cautioned that the
deal is still not "set in stone" and could fall apart before a formal
announcement (which is expected to be made later this week), both media report
that under the terms of the takeover deal AOL would acquire Netscape's NetCenter
portal site and browser technology for a $4 billion stock swap, and would
then pass Netscape's business software operation on to Sun Microsystems in
exchange for a share of ongoing royalties. If successful, the deal would
give AOL a portal with potentially more grunt than MSN.com (Microsoft's portal)
and put the world's largest ISP on a level footing on the Net against Microsoft,
the world's largest software company. Since AOL would also be likely to dump
Microsoft's troubled Internet Explorer browser in favour of Netscape's
Communicator if the deal goes ahead, any buyout would also strip at
least 10% to 15% off Explorer's market share, reducing it - once again -
to the ranks of a bit player in the browser market. The move would also likely
put and end to Microsoft's attempts to build a "WinTel Java" - and attempt
that the company to lose in court last
week.
Friday 20th
November 1998
INTERNET BRANDS EMERGE
According to a survey of 10,000
randomly-selected Net users conducted by research firm
Intelliquest, Amazon and
CDNow are now the most commonly recognised product brands on the Internet.
Furthermore, a number of new and emerging "e-brands" now have more consumer
recognition than many of the off-line retailers they mimic. However, the
study also concluded that there were "no clear leaders" yet emerging, and
cautioned that it's only early days in identifying leading Net brands. The
survey found that a small number of vendors commanded much greater awareness
levels than others, and that more than 400 different branded sites and products
held a share of mind in the survey sample group. However, the following leaders
were identified: Amazon.Com (books), CDNow (music), Microsoft (software),
Dell (hardware), The Gap (clothing), AOL, Yahoo and Travelocity (travel)
and Yahoo (cars). The survey also found a growing acceptance of online buying
amongst consumers, with over 63% reporting that they had already made at
least one online purchase, and over 80% saying that they intended to make
an online purchase in the coming year.
Thursday 19th
November 1998
MICROSOFT LOSES JAVA
CASE
Microsoft
have lost the first round in a suit bought against them by
Sun over their attempt to splinter
the Java language by producing a "WinTel Java" that only runs on Microsoft
platforms. A US District Court judge ruled today that Sun Microsystems is
likely to prevail on the merits of its licensing case against Microsoft,
and ordered Microsoft to either modify every product the company sells which
incorporates Java technology so that it passes Sun's Java compatibility suite,
or withdraw them from the market. This includes all versions of Windows98
and Internet Explorer, Microsoft's Java development kits and several new
products the company has ready for release. In a stern 31-page ruling, Judge
Ronald Whyte also prohibited Microsoft from "advertising any product
that contains, implements or emulates the Java technology as the 'official'
Java reference implementation." Whyte also ruled that Microsoft must also
notify all its customers of the order within 15 days, but said that the company
will be allowed to seek an extension of the 90-day period if it can show
good cause. Microsoft immediately issued a statement saying that it will
comply with the ruling, but adding that no products will need to be recalled,
nor will there be any impact to customers currently using Microsoft products.
Judge Whyte also slammed Microsoft's business practices relating to the
Windows95/NT logo licensing program, and its designation of its virtual machine
as the "Official Reference Implementation of Java on Windows 32-bit platforms,"
calling the former "unfair" and the latter "misleading."
Wednesday 18th
November 1998
US SME's FALLING BEHIND ON
NET
In a report which closely mirrors
conditions reported by Australian ISPs, the
Yankee Group released a
report today which concluded that American small and medium enterprises (SME's)
haven't strategically embraced the Net as a business tool yet, nor grasped
the unprecedented opportunity the Net offers to level the economic playing
field. The Yankee Group study found that although an astonishing 61% of small
businesses and 83% of medium-sized enterprises reported that they had some
form of Net access, only 30% stated that the Net was important to achieving
business goals. The report concluded that most SME's go through a 3-phase
process, using the Net first to improve internal information-gathering
and communications resources; then using it to improve customer and supplier
communications; and then moving into e-commerce. It concluded that the majority
of US SME's have yet to move into the second phase of the process. According
to the Yankee Group, which rated small businesses as those with 2-99 staff
and medium enterprises as those with 100-450 staff, SMEs account for 98%
of US business, represent about 50% of gross national product, and spend
approximately $445 billion annually on information technology products and
services.
Tuesday 17th
November 1998
AUSTRALIAN AOL CHIEF
QUITS
Mr John Cookson, the
chief executive of AOL's Australian
operation, resigned from the company late last week citing "personal
reasons" less than 7 months after being appointed, and only a few weeks after
AOL began appending its 100-hour free disks to every computer and Internet
magazine in the country. In a statement issued after Cookson's announcement,
AOL Australia said it had appointed Australian marketing director Ms Carole
Veriga to take over Cookson's job, effective immediately. Cookson, who
spent his earlier career at retailers David Jones, Woolworths and the
merchandising division at Disney, was appointed in April this year and had
been seen as a consumer marketing expert who would target AOL at mainstream
customers, differentiating the service from the 650 internet service providers
already active in Australia. He oversaw AOL's launch in October - a launch
which came under attack from some customers over AOL's $4 an hour pricing
policy soon after services began.
Monday 16th
November 1998
WORLD'S LEADING Y2K SOFTWARE OPENS
ON OUR MALL
Australian company
AllClear 2000
Pro® opened a storefront at Australian Cybermalls
today. This world-leading Y2K testing software for PCs is produced
by a small software company at Rochedale in Queensland and is one of Australia's
quiet success stories. AllClear 2000 is now being widely used by Government
departments and agencies, universities and Fortune 500 companies world-wide.
Owner Patrick Simonis has been featured in
The Australian's computer section
several times this year - most recently when his software disclosed that
most of the motherboards being shipped into Australia until
comparatively recently were not Y2K compliant and would fail
on January 1, 2000. AllClear 2000 Pro is targeted at large organisations
who need to test dozens, hundreds or thousands of PCs quickly and
authoritatively. It can operate automatically over a LAN and allow network
administrators to test network PCs remotely and have all test reports logged
into a database. And unlike almost all Y2K test software on the market, AllClear
2000 Pro issues a complete and authoritative certification report at the
end of each test to verify each PC's compliance level (from 1 to 4) and suggested
remedies for PCs that fail full Y2K compliance.
Friday 13th
November 1998
INA TO LAUNCH "BIG COLOUR NET
PAGES"
Australian .Com.Au domain registry
Internet Names Australia (INA)
have announced a partnership with BIG Colour Pages to produce Australia's
first complete, authoritative guide to Australian businesses on the Net.
The new publication - the Official INA Directory - is expected to
be launched online and in book form in mid-1999, and the partners believe
it will also be a world first. The directory will have a telephone book format
and will carry advertising, similar to the Yellow Pages. All businesses with
a .com.au domain will receive a free listing and can pay extra to have their
listings enhanced with additional details or advertising. The directory will
also contain free and complete listings of all the .org.au, net.au, .gov.au
and edu.au domains, but will omit the controversial .au.com domain maintained
by rival NetRegistry. Sales canvassing
by BIG Colour Pages staff is expected to begin early in 1999.
Thursday 12th
November 1998
GEOCITIES BUYS WEBRING
Free site hosting service
GeoCities announced today
that it will acquire Starseed and its
WebRing free web ring service
in an effort to link the enormous number of sites it hosts into communities
of common interest. GeoCities said it will issue up to 775,000 shares of
its stock and pay $2 million in cash for the deal, which values Webring at
a slightly more than $30 million based on GeoCities' current stock price.
GeoCities host 2.8 million member sites and WebRing has 900,000 members and
66,000 "affinity groups, expanding GeoCities' potential audience reach to
slightly under 4 million.. Reaction to the announcement was muted on Wall
Street, however, and stock in GeoCities fell 6% soon after news of the
acquisition was made public.
Wednesday 11th
November 1998
5.x BROWSERS COMING IN
1999
Microsoft
will release Explorer 5.0 in 1999 in a new push to unseat
Netscape as the most popular
Internet browser. The company, which began issuing beta versions of the software
to corporate test sites today, hopes the new Explorer will help it chip further
points off Netscape, which currently holds 63% of the market according to
Australian Cybermalls' site logs, and 50% according to Microsoft. Early betas
disclose that the new Explorer promises to be more a consolidated bugfix
for all the troubled 4.x releases than a revolutionary new product. However,
the new browser will run faster than 4.x and will incorporate URL fill-in,
a popular feature available in Netscape Communicator for some time. Meanwhile,
Netscape have also announced plans to release a 5.x beta of their product
by year's end, with a complete version timed for release slightly after
Microsoft's new browser appears. The new Communicator 5.x will bring Netscape
into full compliance with W3C standards for the first time and is expected
to incorporate a fast, Pure Java compiler to significantly speed up access
to Java sites. Both browsers will continue to be available free from Microsoft
and Netscape.
Tuesday 10th
November 1998
ONLINE SHOPPING TO DOUBLE THIS
XMAS
According to a survey released
today by VISA, 46% of Internet users expect to do some of their Christmas
shopping online this year - and up to 60% of those will be making their first-
ever online purchase. VISA's survey of 1,012 adult PC users with Internet
access at home or work was conducted by NFO Research. It found that 60 percent
of existing Net shoppers do so from home, and that 37% reported that the
most difficult person they had to shop for is a spouse or partner. However,
65% said that shopping online made it easier to find gifts for the hard-to-shop-
for. And surprisingly, the research disclosed that this Christmas clothing
(24%) is likely to outsell both CDs (9%) and books (20%). 29% of respondents
also indicated plans to purchase something online for their children this
Christmas, with 11% looking at toys. The study also disclosed that most Net
shoppers do not plan on doing much browsing over the festive season (86%
report that they will have specific items in mind when they shop). However,
the sheer convenience of Net shopping (24 hours a day and global reach) is
gradually winning over Net shoppers, with the total volume of online purchases
being made this Christmas expected to more than double over 1997's figures.
Monday 9th November
1998
GILLETT'S JEWELLERS OPENS ON OUR
MALL
Queensland's largest online
jewellers
Gillett's opened
a storefront at Australian Cybermalls today. The company, founded 30 years
ago, operates from retail premises in the prestigious Queen Street Mall in
central Brisbane. Owner Don Gillett started out as a 15 year old apprentice
with a few files, some hand tools and a progressive attitude to jewellery
merchandising, and now operates the largest online jewellery site in Australia.
Gillett's new site - which is designed to be viewed at 800 x 600 or higher
- features a large array of Australian-manufactured quality jewellery, a
free newsletter, weekly specials and a wide range of information. The site
will be regularly updated with fresh content on a monthly basis. All Gillett's
prices are quoted in Australian dollars (currently $US63c), but the company
are happy to process orders from anywhere in the world, and provide an online
currency converter, secure SSL ordering and multiple payment methods to service
customers online.
Friday 6th November
1998
MICROSOFT BUYS
LINKEXCHANGE
Microsoft
furthered its expansion plans on the Net today by acquiring the popular
LinkExchange banner exchange
service for a reputed $250 million. The surprise move follows Microsoft's
purchases of Sidewalk in 1997 and HotMail
in January this year. The deal will
provide the company with targeted information on 800,000 users of the
LinkExchange network, as well as help the software giant acquire another
channel to promote its services. San Francisco -based LinkExchange has 100
employees and was originally funded by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.
For the past year, the Microsoft has been significantly ramping up its Net
efforts by launching and acquiring a number of Web properties to join its
existing commerce and information sites such as CarPoint, real estate service
HomeAdvisor, and travel resource Expedia. In July, Microsoft announced that
all of these sites would be moved onto its otherwise lacklustre MSN network
site in order to offer advertisers larger packages with greater reach. All
the re-packaged Web sites will have "MSN" added to the beginning of each
name, allowing the MSN.com portal to incorporate and promote more Microsoft
content under one unified brand. Microsoft is currently embroiled in a legal
battle with the US Justice Department and 20 US states, which have charged
the software maker with using its dominant position in the operating systems
software to control the browser market and possibly the fledgling Internet
market.
Thursday 5th
November 1998
OPTUS OPENS INTERNET
SERVICE
Cable & Wireless Optus
has become the latest telecommunications carrier to launch its own Internet
service, following in the footsteps of Telstra's Big Pond, One.Tel's One.Net
and Primus' HotKey. Yesterday Optus launched two Internet products for
householders and announced that it intends to debut a retail Internet service
on November 13th. Optus will be offering a prepaid product called Optus Internet
Express which will provide monthly Net access in 3, 8, 20 and 35-hour blocks
for $10, $20, $35 and $50 respectively. But consumers who prefer a
"pay-as-you-go" approach will be able to use Optus Direct Access, which has
an hourly rate of $5. As with other telcos, Optus will be offering consumers
the opportunity to have all their accounts - phone, fax and Internet - serviced
on one monthly statement. At present, the Optus Internet service is dependent
upon Telstra's monopoly over the trans-Pacific cable to provide international
Net connections. However, this is likely to change late next year when Optus
open their alternate Southern Cross cable.
Wednesday 4th
November 1998
KIDS USE COMPUTERS MOSTLY FOR
GAMES
According to a new study released
by the Australian Bureau of
Statistics (ABS), 85% of frequent computer users between the ages
of 5 and 17 use a home PC for games, compared with only 44% of adults. And
a full 93% of the estimated 408,000 frequent computer users in Australia
between the ages of 5 and 9 use their home PC for almost exclusively for
games and entertainment. The ABS found that contrary to popular belief, very
few young children currently access the Net, with less than 4% between the
ages of 5 and 9 reporting any online access at all during surveys conducted
in February and May this year. And in older groups of children, Net access
is still very limited. The ABS concluded that half of all Australian children
now frequently access computers. It also found that as children matured into
teenagers, learning activities via computers increased. The ABS surveys found
that 84% of 17 year olds used computers for learning, rising to as high as
93% around exam time.
Tuesday 3rd
November 1998
MOST WILL STILL USE MODEMS IN
2003
Analog modems will still be
the primary means of accessing the Net in the USA in 2003, according to a
study by the Gartner Group. The study predicts that the number of
Internet access lines in the US will reach 46 million by 2003, with 63% of
US consumers continuing to use an analog modem to connect to the Internet
at that time. Of the 37% using higher speed connections Gartner estimate
that 14% will use a cable modem, 12% will use an XDSL line, 8% an ISDN line,
while the remaining 3% will access the Internet via a hybrid satellite
connection. Gartner also believe that the Internet will also be the dominant
means of conducting business by 2003. The Net, however, will continue in
its present form: TCP/IP based, with 80% of companies using virtual private
networks to gain remote access. However, changes are in store for the Net
industry and Gartner expects that by 2004 the majority of companies will
begin to provide extensive intranet services, available in-house, and extranet
services, available to paying clients.
Monday 2nd November
1998
AUSTRALIAN NET EXPANDS IN
OCTOBER
The Australian Internet rebounded
last month after a succession of diebacks over the winter (as reported in
previous months). According to the engines we monitor to construct our monthly
Australian Internet Growth Index, all capitals showed a rise over
the last month. Sydney - with at least 8000 sites - is now the nation's
undisputed site leader with Melbourne (at 5900) a distant second. The November
1st figure (with October 1st figures in brackets) are as follows:
Australian
Internet Growth Index October 1998
(Figures Show Estimated Sites) |
-
Brisbane - 2,387 (2,043)
-
Sydney - 8,013 (7,076)
-
Melbourne - 5,881 (5,123)
-
Adelaide - 2,171 (1,843)
|
-
Perth - 2,651 (2,347)
-
Hobart - 883 (821)
-
Canberra - 2,031 (1,460)
-
Darwin - 2,159 (1,588)
|
|
During October Australian Cybermalls
hosted 76,807 visitors, up 14% from the 67,291 visitors we hosted
in September. During the month we also displayed 318,920 pages of information
on our servers and consumed 9.11 Gbytes of bandwidth. Our October 1998 traffic
statistics
can be viewed
here.
|
