t appeared in Time Magazine in December of 1999. This article is written by Joshua Cooper Ramo; it is an explanation of why Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, is Time Magazine’s choice as Person of the Year for 1999. Ramo uses this article about Bezos to make two general claims about the Internet: namely, that e-commerce has changed the way that society shops, and that e-commerce has a very promising future.Ramo cites several grounds to support his claims. First, he discusses consumer dollars spent on goods online—about $15 billion worth; he also points out that businesses have spent $109 billion buying from each other last year. Ramo also notes that Americans spent over $5 billion on Christmas gifts in 1999, more than twice that of 1998. He describes the “New Economics of Internet Commerce”; how the buyer, not the seller, has all of the information if he or she knows where to look. New auction sites are also causing Internet users to change the entire way that prices are set. Informed consumers can decide what something is really worth, and cause the price to change to more accurately reflect that value. Ramo offers the example of an antique calculator that was posted on eBay (an online auction house) for $100; soon after, collectors had driven the price up to $6,500. He also delves into the history of shopping in order to illustrate his claim. “The last great retail revolution was mail order,” he says, which effectively distanced the consumer from the company. With the Internet, the speed of communication makes it possible for consumers to once again feel in close contact with a company—even if that company is thousands of miles away. It is interesting to point out a comment that Ramo makes about Jeff Bezos: he says, “back in the day when you—frankly, when everyone—was pooh-poohing the idea of online sales, there were a few who believed.” He goes on to d...
