Do not hurry to type this address. It does not exist yet and there is little hope for someone, in some corner of Romanian Net industry, to come up with a business plan that might justify the name of such an industry. At least for the time being.
There are many reasons, yet the most important one is not poverty, but the fact that people older than 35 deem the Internet as an American whim, for which we will find more time one day, when we have achieved our really important goals. On the other hand, Romanian managers, politicians, journalists and even presidents are at least 35 year old.
All these responsible people will point their fingers to the poverty of Romanian people, who have never heard of the net and who will soon forget about steak as well.
All these citizens will argue that the Net does not generate any money, on the contrary, it only swallows significant sums. That dot.coms are facing troubles anywhere in the world and that, after all, Romanians only need the Internet to have fun, without buying, without being willing to pay for its content and without wanting to read ads.
We could say the same thing about television. A business that started from 2 hours of programme in 1989.
Around 1840, the children of Romanian aristocrats, who had recently come back from Paris, disturbed established manners with their "German" clothes and their trilled accent. Some of them started writing, others made revolutions.
After 40 years, their trousers became uniforms and the connection with French culture - the only salvation from Oriental influences. Today, Romanians who have to light the stove to be able to hold the mouse and Americans who access the Net by using a wired laptop have only one thing in common: they see the same screen when they type the same name.
In the 50s, when drive-in cinemas were the biggest multimedia business in America, nobody would have imagined that a small noisy flickering screen could liquidate this thriving business.
Nowadays, in the same country, there are several associations that make huge efforts to save several remaining dozens of drive-ins. Ironically, some of the money aimed at this conservation work is provided by the television industry.
Returning to our current e-problems, we should notice that the Internet promises more ways of making money than we are using at present. Our excuse is, again, poverty. The e-business model currently in operation is in fact charging users for a de luxe product.
This model is triggered by a chronic lack of computers, expensive cars, to which applies the same 19% VAT as for Cartier watches.
Thus, both Internet service providers (ISP, site-developers) and Romtelecom have to stick to a base of users posting slow increase, which has to be exploited by using available means.
Up to this year, the only available means were very expensive. We could count around ten sites in which the key-formula was "anti-Romtelecom." All these sites accused the company of charging the same price for bytes and gossip, which is obviously unpardonable. Defrost signs, among which the recent decision to halve the price of dial-up connections during daytime might announce an already delayed spring.
Just like in the case of television, the sums provided by Internet can come only from those domains where the big money is made, namely from the real world of advertising and business.
However, any advertiser asks how many people will see his product. In order to avoid a mere shrug, we will have to identify a solution adapted to our reality: cheap and good. A simple solution that could be available in shops that sell washing machines.
Older people might remember the loudspeakers that were placed in institutions, on streets and in houses in the fifties. Now, we would need a variant with a screen.
An American empire
85 % of Internet pages are based in the United States
76 million Americans use the web constantly
1,746 emails received last year by the average user
2.1 billion - the total number of available web pages
650,000 jobs were created last year in the Net industry
2.5 million people are working for the Internet in the United States - more than in the domain of insurance, communications and public utilities altogether
23.5 months - this is the time spent on the Net by average surfers during their lifetime.
Source: Yahoo Internet Life
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