Web services alone do not help to solve the problem of how to persuade consumers to pay for content or businesses to pay for services, something that both remain reluctant to do. People will buy all sorts of things on the internet – and, importantly.
Come back again – if you try to sell them something they really want, absolutely need or can easily use, as simply and conveniently as possible. Companies like Amazon have understood and used this to their advantage, with judicious use of technology, to give people few reasons to go elsewhere.
By contrast, people will probably not do so if you require them to cross a cultural or commercial barrier without some hard evidence that it is worth their while, evidence that thousands of dotcoms failed to provide. Fortunately, the technical barrier that for some years dissuaded people from taking full advantage of new online products and services is at last beginning to diminish.
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