Internet Growth

is changing the world

Internet and Technology

(continued)

More than 74% of North Americans now use the Internet.  The growth over the last eight years has been accelerating dramatically and stands at over 132 times its use in 2000.

It is no longer just casual use like emailing jokes to friends, but is now the major source of news and communication in the business world encompassing video and audio.  People 40 and under garner the majority of their news from the Internet using all manner of means like the Blackberry and the I-Phone.

We now pay our bills on the Net.  We pay our taxes and it's MUCH easier.  Paying taxes is now the use of a downloaded program.  You don't need to go shop for it in a store and cart it home in a box.  If you go to a tax consultant, they use the same program that you can download.  You are buying their reading ability and not their technology.

Do you need a paper statement from your brokerage firm? No, you just connect up with their web site and your tax program downloads the information.  It works with world banks too.  Do you need to print your tax forms?  No!  Back them up by emailing them to yourself on Gmail and save it there as a PDF.

If you examine the above statistics one thing is clear.  Growth is MUCH higher in third world areas.  Here's why:

1.  The technology is getting very cheap and investors in the far east and Africa are not going to use old technology.  They are not going to buy printing presses and trucks to distribute information. It's a waste of time and money.  They won't hire telegraphers either.

2.  They can install new networks and don't need to use old technology like we have as a legacy.  Phone lines?  Forget them too. They are too expensive.  That is, they are bypassing  building upon old and antiquated means that hang on in developed countries because lots of money has been invested in them.  Look at the Chicago Tribune's 13 Billion Dollar loss as an example of this.  Is any newspaper expanding their printed image?

3.  Emerging countries can't afford printing and distribution the old way, so they  will not use it in the future.  The old is gone and they will build upon the new.

(next column)

12/04/2009 11:12 AM

Today it is really silly to receive tons of material by post such as bills.  What is really frustrating is to receive a notification of a bill payment that was done electronically in the mail.  It's much better to receive it via email notification.

You not only save the cost of all the printing and stamps, but if you pay attention to such things, you can pay on the day due and not when your cheque is deposited, thereby saving money.

You can quickly and easily move funds around on the Net too.  This has become very common. 

You can shop for plane tickets and order books from Amazon.  Yes, they print them!  But guess what?  They are moving more and more to just in time printing of books. 

Coming soon will be the flexible display computer that will allow you to fold it up and take it to the beach to read your summer mystery novel.

Currently with 1.5 billion active Internet users, it's a good bet that most advertising will move to where the money is and that's on the NET.  Instead of murky images on newsprint, you can shop in depth using the Net.  Many young people do the majority of their discretionary shopping on the NET now.  This is not lost on companies with budgets.  Like Willie Sutton said when asked why he robbed banks, he said:  "That's where the money is!"

Television, radio and the Internet are merging.  You can download a movie and display it on your large screen TV and save it on a memory stick, if you want for re-play in the future.

The music  industry is Internet based now.  New music stores that sell CDs are going, going gone.