Business-to-Business Internet Marketing, Fourth Edition - Lifecycle ...

12 BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS INTERNET MARKETING
in the United States, which will capture 38% of the global market by
2004. GartnerGroup (www.gartner.com) forecasted that b-to-b e-commerce
sales alone will reach $8.53 trillion by 2005.
Imagine the impact on b-to-b marketing if, with this kind of future,
marketers begin to significantly shift their promotional dollars from
traditional media to Internet-related advertising and marketing activities.
Surely, that is inevitable.
Television has long been accepted as the world’s greatest marketing
medium for reach, but at some point in the not-too-distant future, the
Internet could possibly overtake television or converge with it.
Actually, convergence is already here. WebTV (www.webtv.com),
now owned by Microsoft (www.microsoft.com), provides easy television
access to the Web via a set-top “terminal.” WebTV also provides
Internet access at a variety of price points, similar to Internet service
providers. It is part of Microsoft’s strategy to own emerging Internet
channels of distribution. In June 1999, Microsoft invested $30 million
in Wink Communications, an interactive TV data service that
could enable TV-based e-commerce. Other entries in this emerging
market take a different approach. WorldGate Communications
(www.wgate.com) feeds Web pages directly through a cable system’s
set-top boxes.
The legitimate question of whether or not the consumer will want
to view the Web in this fashion remains, but the Internet/TV technologies
and services mentioned here and others now in development will
continue to blur the lines between television and the Internet. The consumer
convergence market may not directly affect the IT marketer, but
next on the horizon for business is convergence in a different form.
Now every type of portable communications device, from laptop to
organizer to cell phone to pager, will move into the Internet realm as
wireless communications technology advances.
On the service side, major telecommunications and cable companies
have already entered the ISP market. The Internet access alternatives
available to businesses and consumers are proliferating, as are the
ways access can be provided. You can now obtain Internet access over
both telephone and cable connections. Someday it may be bundled with
your electric service. The end result will be the same: the commoditizing
of the Internet.
One of the biggest concerns has been the bandwidth associated with
delivering Internet service. As more people sign up for Internet access and