t is a world wide network of tens of thousands of computers, allconnected. Individuals and businesses get on the Internet by getting an Internet accountthrough a local Internet Service Provider, offering access to e-mail and the World WideWeb. The “Web” allows potential customers to visit a business’s storefront to the world,and view the company’s on-line color brochure stored in pages or files which can beviewed in both text and picture. How do businesses use the Internet? This form of advertising is used to build acompany’s on-line color brochure stored in pages or files which can be viewed in both textand picture.How do businesses use the Internet? This for of advertising is used to build acompany’s image, provide customer support, make available technical and troubleshootinginformation, develop a prospective list, conduct customer surveys, offer products, andtake orders. The Internet network is becoming increasingly popular among businesses asan avenue for marketing their products and services. The system is growing rapidly, withtwenty-five million users in 1994 and fifty million by 1998; a fifty percent rise in only fouryears.What implications and effects are in store for the future of marketing with such arapid advance in technology? Experts express both concerns and breathless anticipation. This computerized information boom has enormous potential to boost economiesworld-wide, but it also has the possibility of being exploited. Advertising and marketingon the Internet makes obtaining huge profits possible. Id Software Inc., for example, soldseveral thousand copies of its Doom cliff-hanging software game the first weekend theymade it available on the Internet. The company now has sold abut ten million dollarsworth of software via the net, while avoiding the costs of overhead that generally consumeprofits. Sellers, though, are not the only ones to reap the benefits from the Internet. ...
