Friday
30th July 1999
TELSTRA SINKS MILLIONS
INTO SAUSAGE
Telstra
announced today that it intends to expand its stake in
Sausage Software and may eventually
own as much as 40% of the company. Telstra will acquire 14 million Sausage
shares for $18.9 million, and will also have access to an additional 70 million
options which - if all taken up - would see its stake in the company rise
to 40% by the end of 2001. Sausage Software rose to prominence in 1996 when
it unveiled HotDog, the world's first commercial HTML editor, and
became one of the first Internet ventures to be listed on the Australian
stock market. The company lost large amounts of capital the following year,
though, when it dabbled with a wide variety of "snaglet" web applications
which failed to excite consumer interest. In 1998 it changed direction and
began concentrating on ecommerce applications, and has been able to effect
a strong turnaround in its operations as a result. [NB: Our daily
news has been interrupted by technical difficulties over the last few days.
We apologise to all our readers for this, and regret that we may have some
further difficulties in the coming week as we resolve the problem. Thankyou
for your patience in the meantime].
Thursday
29th July 1999
CASINO LICENCE MAY BE
REVOKED
The Queensland State Government
may introduce legislation to revoke Gocorp's online casino licence
following the disclosure earlier this week that
three ALP identities stood to make million-dollar windfall profits from their
20% stake in the venture. Responding to statements by Ipswich City Councillor
Paul Pisasale that he now wished to sell his shares for a quick $1.2
million profit following the exposure of his involvement earlier this week,
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said that he felt this was "obscene"
and would move to strip all three of any benefits that might flow to them
from the hitherto hidden deal. In other moves, Clr. Pisasale was forced to
step aside from his chairmanship of Ipswich City Council's economic development
commitee and its ISP Global
Info-Links, and ministerial adviser and former MP Don Livingstone
was stood down from his position and invited to "consider his position" as
community outrage at the disclosures widened. At present, Australia only
has one Government-licensed Intenet casino (in the Northern Teritory).
Wednesday
28th July 1999
WEBMASTER TO FACE
CHARGES?
One Nation webmaster and well-known
Australian Internet identity Scott Balson may face charges after the
name of a Queensland MP currently facing paedophilia charges was published
on his Australian News Of The Day (ANOTD) web site, then later removed.
Balson was one of the pioneers of the Internet in Australia before becoming
closely associated with the far right during the Pauline Hanson phenomenon
of 1997 and early 1998. He now publishes the more controversial portions
of his site through the US-based Tripod free hosting service - allegedly
to escape Australia's Internet censorship laws. The ANOTD site has been accused
at various times of being a haven for extreme political sentiments since
its inception, and earlier this year
the South African-educated Balson was forced to defend allegations of
anti-semitism and racism after articles critical of Jewish and asian groups
published on the ANOTD site drew extensive Government and media
attention.
Tuesday
27th July 1999
GOVERNMENT CASINO LICENCE
QUESTIONED
The Queensland State Government
became embroiled in controversy today when the Courier-Mail revealed
that Treasurer David Hamill had secretly awarded the State's first online
casino licence to a company partly owned by three ALP identities last October.
Using ASIC records, the Courier-Mail showed that Ipswich City Councillor
Paul Pisasale, former Labor MP Don Livingstone and millionaire
Woodridge MP Bill D'Arcy owned a combined 20% of the online casino
company Gocorp, and that each stood to make multi-million dollar windfall
profits out of the deal when the company was partially floated, which was
planned for later this year. The Courier-Mail also disclosed that one of
the three ALP identities had prior criminal convictions for theft and assault
dating back to 1979, but had failed to disclose these to Government officials
when the Gocorp application had been made; and that another of the three
had personally lobbied for the casino licence while acting as one of the
Government's own ministerial advisers. Premier Peter Beattie said that he
was "angry" about the revelations, and has ordered an immediate investigation
by the State's Auditor-General.
Monday
26th July 1999
ONLINE CAR SALES
GROWING
More than 40% of US consumers
who purchased a new car or truck earlier this year used the Net as part of
their shopping process, according to a new study by
J.D. Power and Associates. This
compares to just 25% of new automobile consumers 12 months ago. Powers' study
estimated that in the first quarter of 1999, more than 25,000 US new car
or truck buyers a month used the Net when researching a new vehicle purchase
(up from 12,500 per month in 1998). And as far as used car buyers go, a related
study found that similar levels of growth have also occurred in this area:
26% of US car consumers who purchased a model in the 1994-1999 range early
this year used the Net when making a decision (up from 14% in 1998). The
JD Power report is based on a survey of 2,500 US consumers who purchased
a new vehicle in either January or February 1999 while the findings of the
used vehicle study were based on a survey of 10,000 consumers who purchased
a used vehicle during the same time period.
Friday
23rd July 1999
MONEY IN BUSINESS SALES,
NOT CONSUMERS
A new study by
Activemedia released this
week suggests that the average value of an online transaction, across all
industries, is now around $US4,600. In a comprehensive analysis of
the online buying market, Activemedia's study identified two online revenue
'sweet spots' - transactions between $US100 and $US500 (the business to consumer
market) and those between $US1,000 and $US10,000 (the business to business
market). Activemedia found that approximately 60% of B-to-C transactions
were for $US500 or less, with fully one third at $US100 or less. By contrast,
almost 50 percent of B-to-B transactions were worth $US1,000, with a third
worth between $US100-500 and only 10% less than $US100. The B-to-B market
is also substantially bigger than the consumer market on the Net at the present
time, with estimated revenues 10 to 12 times higher than the consumer arena..
Overall, though, Activemedia found that the volume of transactions at ecommerce
sites remains fairly light, with only 1 in 7 sites reporting more than 100
transactions monthly, 75% reporting 50 or less transactions a month, and
40% reporting less than 10 transactions per month.
Thursday
22nd July 1999
TELSTRA LOSES LOCAL CALL
MONOPOLY
Telstra
lost one of its few remaining monopolies today when the Australian
Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) ordered it to open up its
local call network to competitors within 12 months. ACCC Chairman Prof.
Allan Fels said that the decision would open the door for affordable,
high-speed Internet and broadband services such as video on demand and
teleconferencing, and usher in a "golden age" of choice for Australian consumers
where selecting a telco would be similar to selecting an insurance company
or a bank. Competitors AAPT and Optus also welcomed the decision, predicting
that local call prices in Australia would drop to 20c within a year, and
steadily move even lower as competitive pressures took hold. Competing telcos
have been highly critical of Telstra's local call monopoly, and had suggested
that the company was being deliberately tardy in opening it up. The ACCC
agreed. "The dead hand of monopoly control of local exchanges has meant that
the development of (telecommunications) products has been held back," Prof.
Fels said. Telstra also welcomed the decision, though it warned that a number
of technical and management issues had yet to be resolved.
Wednesday
21st July 1999
MICROSOFT SELLS
SIDEWALK
The future of Microsoft's Sydney
and Melbourne Sidewalk
entertainment sites appears to be in doubt after the company announced
today that it had sold its US Sidewalk sites to its chief niche rival. Launched
in a welter of publicity less than two years ago, Sidewalk was touted as
one of Microsoft's key Internet properties and company executives at the
time predicted a rosy future for the concept. However, revenues failed to
meet expectations and last year the company underwent major staff shedding
in most of its Sidewalk offices in an attempt to stem major losses. Microsoft
said today that has now decided to sell the technology and content for the
Sidewalk sites to its main rival, Citysearch. Under the terms of the sale,
Microsoft will focus on ecommerce services while CitySearch's owners Ticketmaster
Online-CitySearch will provide entertainment related content to Microsoft's
main MSN.com site. In Australia, Sidewalk is produced as a joint venture
between Kerry Packer's PBL and Microsoft, and appears on the NineMSN site.
Chief rivals Fairfax are the Australian licencees of Citysearch.
Tuesday
20th July 1999
TIO SCHEME GETS
REVAMPED
The controversial
Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) scheme, designed to provide
an independent complaint- handling authority for the ISP and telecommunications
industry, has been revamped in the face of continuing
criticism from ISPs and former board members. It was announced today
that the TIO will no longer charge ISPs for calls from consumers to check
if their ISP is a member of the compulsory scheme or to obtain the ISP's
contact details. The TIO will also no longer charge ISPs for the first four
minor complaints lodged against them each quarter. According to a TIO
spokesperson, these changes will benefit the majority of ISPs - in the last
quarter, 80% of Australian ISPs had no complaints lodged against them with
the TIO at all. However, the TIO will not change one controversial regulation
which prohibits members lodging complaints against other members. Many ISPs
have said that if the TIO amended this regulation, they would lodge complaints
themselves against many of the major telecommunications companies who supply
ISPs with the necessary connections and bandwidth to run their businesses.
The TIO maintains that its role (as defined in its charter) is to settle
complaints between consumers and the telecoms industry - not competitive
or commercial issues amongst industry players.
Monday
19th July 1999
ONLINE BANKING
UNSAFE
Many Australian consumers using
online or phone banking services may have no legal protection if their accounts
are hacked or their phone lines tapped. And some may also have no recourse
if a security lapse in a bank's online banking service causes them a loss.
A special working party set up by the Australian Securities and Investments
Commission (ASIC) to look into the issue is expected to recommend by
the end of the month that existing laws covering consumers using ATM or EFTPOS
services be extended to online and phone banking services as well. The ASIC
group found that at present, some Australian banks provide close to the ATM
level of coverage for consumers, but - worryingly - that just as many others
provide none at all. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more
than 217,000 Australians used the Net to pay bills or transfer funds in the
three months to February 1999 - a 400% increase in less than a year. 5 million
Australians also used phone banking services during the same quarter, up
from 3.9 million a year earlier
Friday
16th July 1999
MICROSOFT NOW WORTH $US500
BILLION
Microsoft
celebrated another milestone today when its shares hit a new record of $US98
on Wall Street, valuing the company at approximately $US500 billion
- 32% more than the total economy of the Netherlands ($US378 billion). Further,
chairman Bill Gates will be celebrating his own milestone - a personal net
worth of more than $US100 billion - as soon as the stock breaks the $US100
barrier (which is expected to occur within the next few weeks). Gates was
worth $US19 billion less than 3 years ago. Microsoft shares have risen by
41% in the last 12 months alone, and the total value of the company has increased
more than 500-fold since it went public in 1986. Microsoft regularly post
earnings growth and profit margins in excess of 30 percent and its fourth-quarter
results - due on Monday - are expected to continue the company's trend with
better than expected results largely as the result of growth in its Internet
businesses. Microsoft is currently embroiled in a long-running suit with
the US Department of Justice (DOJ) over its business practices. The DOJ has
argued that the software company represents a new form of 21st century monopoly
which existing anti-trust laws were not designed to handle.
Thursday
15th July 1999
EXCITE! PLANS NEW AUCTION
SITE
LibertyOne, the owners
of the Australian Excite! portal,
have announced plans to open a branch of the uBid auction service on its
site by October. If implemented, uBid would become the sixth auction site
to be announced in the last 3 months following the launch or announcement
of similar offerings by NineMSN (who hope to open an Australian eBay later
this year), Yahoo, Stuff.Com.Au, I-Bid and Fairfax. Like most (but not all)
of the other launched or mooted auction sites, uBID is US-based and profits
will be repatriated offshore. However, unlike the other auction sites, UBid
concentrates on business- to -consumer rather than consumer- to- consumer
sales, allowing businesses to sell of excess or damaged stocks to the public
at bargain prices. For these reasons, LibertyOne feel that the new service
will complement and augment the current rash of auction sites, rather than
compete with them.
Wednesday
14th July 1999
AVERAGE ONLINE SHOPPER
IS AFFLUENT, MALE
According to a new study by
APT Strategies (APT),
the typical Australian online shopper at the present time is a 30-year-old
male with an income of $US46,886 (about $A70,000) who spends about $US200
($A300) a year making personal online purchases. APT, who surveyed 12,000
Australian surfers in June 199, found that about 66% of Australian Net shoppers
are currently men, and that most of these could be described as "independent
thinkers" with more than 50% in favour of an Australian republic. 43% of
survey subjects had already made at least one online purchase - and of these,
75% plan to buy books or CDs online within the next half year. The report
also found that 58% of those surveyed intend to buy adult products or services,
while 42% are also expecting to do their grocery shopping online in the near
future as well. The study also found a relationship between Net usage and
buying. APT found that experienced users were most likely to buy online,
and that 78 percent of consumers who'd been online for over 18 months had
made more than ten online purchases.
Tuesday
13th July 1999
EX-DIRECTOR CALLS FOR TIO
OVERHAUL
A former director of the the
Government's Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman (TIO) scheme has
called for a member vote to change the TIO's articles of association. Mr
Kevin Dinn, who stepped down from the TIO board after selling his
interest in ISP Zip World, said that industry dissatisfaction with the TIO
is set to boil over. ISPs are particulary dissatisfied with the TIO's complaint
resolution process, he said, where ISPs are charged $15 for every complaint
lodged against them and $1130 for a determination. Mr Dinn said that many
ISPs and the Internet Industry Association (IIA) wanted to see the scheme
changed so that when a complaint is found to be unmerited, charges aren't
levied. Mr Dinn (who is also deputy chairman of the IIA) said that ISPs would
also like to see the TIO rules changed so that they could lodge complaints
against other TIO members - such as the telecommunications carriers who
contribute the most money to the TIO's operations, and who have the most
votes. Less than 6 weeks
ago the TIO publicly named 5 "recalcitrant" ISPs who'd failed to
join its compulsory ISP registration scheme after they'd raised concerns
about the scheme's legality and method of operation.
Monday
12th July 1999
COLES MYER TO MOVE
ONLINE
The giant Coles Myer group
- which currently pockets one in every five retail dollars spent in Australia
- has announced ambitious plans to build its own giant online emporium. In
a weekend statement, Coles Myer chief executive Mr Dennis Eck said
that the retail giant is currently negotiating with several media and
entertainment companies to provide content for its new site including Fairfax,
PBL, News Limited, the Seven Network and Village Roadshow. If implemented,
the new online strategy would see the retailing group attempt to expand beyond
its traditional activities to include financial services, entertainment,
sports ticketing and postal deliveries in its Internet offerings. Coles may
also become involved in alliances with movie houses and through product licensing
deals, Mr Eck said, and would probably also look at setting up third-party
agreements with other ecommerce companies to allow it to be the supplier
of goods ordered through another organisation's web site. The group already
has these sort of arrangements in place with the Australian Football League,
Sydney Olympics and cosmetics company Yves Rocher in its traditional offline
activities, he said.
Friday
9th July 1999
SPAM KING SUES
CRITIC
Former "spam king" Sanford
Wallace is back in court once again, this time suing California online
marketer March Welch for $50,000
in damages, Wallace claims that Welch unfairly harmed his new business by
publicising Verio as its host, causing him to lose his Internet service
soon afterwards. The lawsuit, filed in Pennsylvania, accuses Welch of defamation
and unfair competition. In the suit, Wallace claims that his new SmartBot
opt-in marketing mailing list service lost customers, potential revenue and
profits after Welch allegedly bragged in a newsgroup that he could get Wallace's
service cancelled by naming the host publicly. Welch has rejected the allegation,
claiming that it's simply a publicity stunt designed to attract attention
to Wallace's business. Wallace was one of the Net's first major spammers
and has had a long and troubled career in the industry. After losing a $5
million lawsuit last year, he told the media that he had finally "seen the
light" about spam and intended to get out of the segment he'd helped
found.
Thursday
8th July 1999
MOST OF NET "INVISIBLE"
TO ENGINES
Search engines may be overlooking
as much as 98% of the Net, according to a new study published today in the
scientific journal Nature. The
report, by Dr Steven Lawrence of the NEC Research Institute at Princeton,
tested 11 leading search engines to find out how comprehensive and up-to-date
their databases were. Dr Lawrence reported that the best engine appeared
to be Northern Light, but he estimated that it only catalogued 16% of the
Net (which is now estimate to contain 2.8 million sites and 800 million web
pages). This is a decline on the estimated 33% coverage that the best engine
had in a smaller-scale study carried out two years ago, leading to the conclusion
that the major search engines are failing to keep up with the Net's growth.
The study also found that the combined coverage of all 11 engines in the
test was 42% (with very little overlap); and that an average of one in every
20 answers now returned by engines is a dead link. The study found that waiting
times for listing on search engines is also growing, and that it can now
take as long as 6 months before a new site appears a major engine.
Wednesday
7th July 1999
YAHOO BACKS DOWN ON
GEOCITIES
After 10 days of growing world-wide
protests, the departure of thousands of former
GeoCities "homesteaders",
a threatened world-wide boycott of the company and possible global TV exposure,
Yahoo today backed down on its
attempt to steal its customers' content. Today it posted a revised Terms
of Service (TOS) agreement on its GeoCities site which explicitly limits
Yahoo's claims to the intellectual property of its customers. The problem
first erupted late last month when Yahoo covertly altered its TOS to give
it the right to appropriate any content posted on GeoCities for its own profit
- in perpetuity - without paying the original authors a cent. Users attempting
to upload or modify their sites were not allowed to do so until they had
assented to the new TOS, and were not advised of the impact of the change.
As a result - by the time the news became public - tens of thousands of GeoCities
homesteaders found that they had unwittingly given the world's largest search
engine the rights to their site. Over the last 10 days Yahoo tried to stem
the growing wave of anger that the move produced, first saying that the intent
of the new TOS was not to steal authors' rights (without altering the TOS
at all); then modifying the TOS in a minor way (that did not remove its "land
grab" rights); and then posting notice of the change to its TOS publicly.
However, when the CNBC network approached Yahoo to run a story on the controversy
and Yahoo representatives refused to appear and attempt to justify their
position to protestors, the company finally backed down, ending what many
opponents were beginning to describe as "the most blatant attempted corporate
theft in history".
Tuesday
6th July 1999
KMPG LAUNCHES NEW SSL
SERVICE
KMPG
and Dun and Bradstreet officially launched their new digital certification
service for Australian online merchants today after having a prototype available
for several months. The new service - . called Enshrine - will allow
merchants who can pass Dun and Bradstreet's background background checks
(and who are willing to pay $1750 every 2 years) to be issued with a digital
certificate that can be used on an SSL server to accept secure online orders,
and an "Enshrine" badge they can post on their web site to help build consumer
trust. The new service is designed to replace Australia Post's earlier venture
in a similar area with its KeyPost digital certificates, which are
closing down on August 1st after Australia Post found there was very little
demand from either online merchants or Government for the certificates -
even at the $500 p.a. price it had been selling them for. In the USA, Thawte
and Verisign digital certificates fulfil much the same role at even lower
prices.
Monday
5th July 1999
DIGITAL ECONOMY DRIVING
US GROWTH
The IT and ecommerce industries
together accounted for one third of the USA's real economic growth between
1995 and 1998, according to a new study by the US
Department of Commerce
(DOC). While the technology sector accounted for just 8 percent of total
economic output in 1998, the DOC found that in real terms this represented
one third of the total growth once figures had been adjusted for inflation.
Further, the report found that IT workers earned 78 percent more than the
average US worker in 1997, averaging an income of $US52,920 against the average
US wage of $US29,787. The DOC also admitted that ecommerce growth had rapidly
outpaced previous projections, with online sales generating between $US7
billion and $US15 billion toward the close of 1998, compared to earlier DOC
predictions that ecommerce would not generate $US7 billion until 2000. The
report predicts that almost half of all US workers will work in industries
that either produce or use IT products extensively by 2006.
Friday
2nd July 1999
WARNERS WOOS GEOCITIES
BOYCOTTERS
Warner
Brothers have become the first major free hosting site to capitalise
on the growing wave of protest against
GeoCities by urging upset
netizens who don't wish to give Yahooo legal rights their web content to
simply pack up and leave. Last weekend, Geocities owner
Yahoo covertly altered its Terms
of Service (TOS) in a way that effectively gave it ownership of all content
hosted on GeoCities. It then refused users access to their sites until they
had assented to the revised TOS without advising users of the effect
of the change - leading to many thousands of unwitting subscribers signing
away all rights to their site before news leaked out. Within a few days,
however - after world-wide publicity had exposed the move - Yahoo publicly
posted news about the TOS modification on the front of their site. Yahoo
spokespeople have claimed during the week that the change in the TOS is
innocuous, designed purely for the company's own internal convenience and
that Yahoo never intended to steal the content provided by trusting GeoCities
subscribers. However, it has refused to alter the TOS to reflect this stated
intention. As a result, many angry "homesteaders" have now relocated
to Tripod, Angelfire and other similar services - and a number of
"Boycott
Yahoo" sites have begun to appear on the web. Warners have now stepped
up the heat another notch with a banner ad campaign that threatens to blow
the issue even wider.
Thursday
1st July 1999
AUSTRALIAN NET REMAINS
STATIC
The number of Australian web
sites remained relatively static over the last month, with only marginal
growth in all capitals and the the most growth (around 3%) occurring in Sydney.
Our monthly Australian Internet Growth Index showed that the anticipated
decline in sites brought about by last month's passage of the Australian
Government's new Net censorship law does not - so far- appear to have been
as severe as anticipated. The July 1st figures (with June 1st figures in
brackets) are as follows:
Australian
Internet Growth Index June 1999
(Figures Show Estimated Live Sites) |
-
Brisbane - 2,109
(2,102)
-
Sydney - 7,234
(7,016)
-
Melbourne - 5,054
(5,003)
-
Adelaide - 1,942
(1,919)
|
-
Perth - 2,419
(2,412)
-
Hobart - 787 (783)
-
Canberra - 1,891
(1,889)
-
Darwin - 1,758
(1,755)
|
|
During June 1999 Australian
Cybermalls hosted 62,761 visitors, a seasonal decline on May's 76,196
visitors which occurs annually as the nation battens down for the end of
another fiscal year. This was equivalent to 229,184 page displays and consumed
6.7Gb of bandwidth. Our June 1999 traffic summary
can be viewed
here.
|
