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Japanese Edition
Fujitsu Institute of Management, Tokyo
September 1998

French Edition
La chaîne de la connaissance
Stratégies d'entreprise pour l'Internet

Preface de Francis Lorentz

Editions Village Mondial, Paris, May 1998

Excerpt from:
The Knowledge Channel
Corporate Strategies for the Internet

Introduction, page 5

This text has been slightly edited for presentation on the web site.

Purpose of this report

Based on new technologies that have become vital new media for human communication, the electronic marketplace has developed from an interesting possibility into an important reality during the last decade. While telephone and cable television companies spent millions of dollars on the initial development phases of the as-yet unsuccessful interactive television systems, the internet emerged as a powerful social phenomenon.

Built upon a powerful and flexible technological foundation that utilizes the existing global telecommunications infrastructure and the rapidly spreading personal computer, the internet promises to become the basis of a significant global mass market. As yet, however, neither the full social character of the internet nor its ultimate commercial potential are clear, as mature business models have not emerged.

Nevertheless, the interaction between the internet's social and commercial aspects is one of its most compelling characteristics, for the internet has already shown that it can support new kinds of communities, virtual communities. This social phenomenon suggests the possibility of not only a new market, but a new kind of market.

How the internet will develop in the coming decades is an intriguing question, and with the exponential growth of internet use, millions of dollars of venture capital backing dozens of internet-related companies, and high IPO valuations, there is suddenly a lot at stake.

Excerpts from The Knowledge Channel

• The purpose of this report

• Implications for Corporate Strategy