评论
打印
I want to talk a little bit about as the local market, as a China market, what are the keys to grow this market going forward. The first thing that we look at, I try to understand, is how many personal computers will be sold that can allow people to get on the Internet. And in China that number is growing at a very, very rapid rate. I understand that by 1998 over 5 million PCs will be sold in China and all of them can get on the Internet. The using that I think is key to growing a business which we have seen in every market that we have been in is being able to provide cheap, affordable access to the Internet for consumers. And not only the services should be cheap and affordable but also they need to be reliable and fast. And to do that a lot of times these access businesses need to be somehow driven by profitability, and somehow being able to be a real business demo online. And I think China as a whole is going through that investment stage where a lot of money needs to be invested in building all the infrastructure and attracting subscribers to get on the Internet. The third thing we see as a key to growth in any market is the ability to have software tools that help you put information on the Web, design information on the Web and change information on the Web. And those software tools are what people (that) have built in the United States that drove very, very rapid growth. In the United States for content and commerce, and I hope in China as well there will be significant efforts to build out a set of tools, a set of software, a set of technology, that help you build content commerce applications for the Web. The fourth thing that is very important for a viable Web medium model is the creative community, so people who can help you design Web sites and can help you design concepts and help you understand how to use these Web sites, to help your marketing, to help your users, to (help you) give you better experience. And these people are very much needed in order to develop compiling, competitive quality, content experience. And lastly which is probably the most important thing is that businesses, governments, education, people in the community, people in the society, have to feel like the Web is a key part of how to grow as a country, as an economy, and to be competitive. I will give you an example in the United States. The government in the early 1990s decided that they need an interactive infrastructure to grow the economy in the country, and they had invested in all kinds of different things and, you know, vice president Al Gore calls it a National Information Infrastructure - NII. And the Internet in many ways ame that National Information Infrastructure for the United States. And I believe not only the government had intense interest in building out Internet as a way as communications, that education sector, the colleges, the public schools, the most importantly the business community. It is very hard to find a company now in the United States that doesn't have a wide presence or even doing some business on the Web. And without businesses endorsing, the Web as a way of doing businesses is tough to have a viable industry.
I think when I end the talking about the future a little bit. One of the key challenges as we see is being able to continue to monitor how the telecommunications industry is being opened up and deregulated for competition. Still in many parts of the world outside United States, the cost for telephone lines and for telephone access to the Internet is still very, very expensive. And most of it is still based on usage. So if you use so many hours you have to pay for so much. And in the US the move has been made to a flat pricing where the pricing is based on unlimited usage. We think that in order for the Web to develop more mature and faster, the telecommunication companies around the world need to have more competition and have lower rates in order to make it affordable and also make it accessible for users. The Web is still a very much (a) young medium, it has only been around for a couple of years. There are a lot of issues with security, and reliability, and being able to protect sensitive data, being able to provide a safe environment. It is very, very important. The top two issues right now in America for Web usage is how to protect children, how to make it a safe place for people to use the Web, and also how to protect the privacy of users. And those two things, I think, are very large problems that are being addressed. And I think in anywhere that the Web goes, anywhere that the Web industry wants to go, we need to help address the security issues, and help address the content issues, and make it a safer and safer place. One of the things that I think is very interesting in the future is that the way you can access the Internet is going to be very different from different places, and what I call multiple ways of accessing the Internet. Today primarily the access to the Internet is done through telephone lines, released lines. But I think in the future there are tremendous technologies that can enable people to access the Internet through wireless ways, through satellites, through cable, and of course, through different pass phones on telephone lines. And to me to build have, the Internet access in its many different ways as possible as very, very important ause sooner rather than later, people are going to feel like the Internet is not some special places they have to go to. It is going to be something you use almost as frequently and without thinking as the telephone. And people don't think about going to the telephone like they think about going to the Internet today. Eventually the Internet has to ome more ubiquitous and to do that it needs to be a better way, a better access method, for. Another big issue for the future is the bandwidth issue. And too often I hear people complaining that it is too slow on the Internet. It takes too long to download anything. And yes, those are major issues. And I know there are huge initiatives around the world that will increase bandwidth, that will allow people to design things that you can interact very fast. And I hope that the bandwidth keeps getting better, ause the more bandwidth there is , the more ways in which people can develop the tools.
Lastly I want to talk about the migration of primarily information medium into a kind of commerce medium, a community medium. You know a lot of people think about the Internet in the future. And one of the things I think needs to happen is, maybe it is not only a computer-oriented tool, maybe it is not too far of the future, that you can access the Internet on your TV, on your watch, maybe on your microwave oven. Somewhere and everywhere you can somehow get into the Internet. And in that point it really isn't about what content you have on the Internet. It is really about how you can communicate with other people effectively and how can you do business effectively. And in order for the Internet survive around the world and in China, it needs to be not only a content medium, but also needs to be a business medium. People need to build to have value that are improved, their lives made better ause of the Internet.
相关演讲专题:
