iBrujula.com

Martes, 12 junio 2001

CHINESE IS MEANT TO BE THE NEXT LINGUA FRANCA IN THE INTERNET
Although English is currently the most common language in the Internet, some other major languages are growing quickly in terms of browsers. Nowadays there are around 216 million of users whose primary language is English and 238 million who have other as their main language when being online. However, according to some estimates, by 2003 there will be 560 million users whose primary language will not be English. China is the most promising country, since 160 million individuals are expected to be online by 2003. Latin America is other of the hottest areas in the world, as 77 million people are expected to be using the Internet by 2005. Yet, an important fact to take into account is that the Web is not so World Wide as it is thought, since its users tend to focus their attention on their own language sites with local information.

THE SECOND-LARGEST U.S. INTERNET ACCESS PROVIDER WILL COME UP BY THE END OF 2001
On June 7, two of the largest Internet access providers, Netzero Inc. and Juno Online Services, announced their merger. The merger will result in the second-largest Internet access provider, only behind AOL. The new company, whose name will be United Online, will have more than 7 million subscribers. NetZero Chairman and CEO Mark Goldston will become United's chairman, president and CEO, and NetZero CFO Charles Hilliard will be its CFO. Through the $70.7 million agreement, NetZero shareholders will receive 0.2 shares of United Online for each NetZero share, and Juno shareholders will receive 0.357 shares of the new company. This deal means that NetZero will own about 61.5 percent of the new company. Other terms of the agreement are that free service will be offered under the NetZero name, while the rest will belong to Juno.

HALF THE TIME BROWSING IS SPEND ON ONLY FOUR COMPANIES
Four big companies have half the time users spend on the Internet, according to Jupiter Media Metrix. AOL Time Warner, Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and Napster control 50.4 percent of user minutes in the U.S. Moreover, 14 companies shared 60 percent of user time in March 2001. Among these are Juno, eBay, Walt Disney, Terra Lycos or CNET Networks.

These figures are the result of a trend that has been gaining importance in this industry. In 1999, there were 110 companies that controlled 60 percent of the time and only 40 firms in 2000. On the other hand, 11 sites concentrated 50 percent of user minutes in March 1999.

COMPETITION ON HIGH-SPEED INTERNET SERVICE IS GETTING MORE FIERCE
Cable companies and D.S.L. Internet access providers have started a battle to gain the high-speed internet market. The first step has been taken by cable television giants, which have refused to sell advertising time to phone companies to promote the Digital Subscriber Line service.

Examples of this war are wide-spread throughout the U.S. According to The New York Times, Time Warner Cable refused D.S.L. advertisements from the telephone company, Verizon Communications, in New York City.

This war is not over yet, but cable modems have won the first round. At the end of March 2001, about 4.7 million homes used cable modems, compared to 2.2 million households with D.S.L. lines.

However, some complaints about these dirty tricks arise since media usually operate under government-granted franchises, that is to say, these cable companies are given preferential treatment by policy makers. Therefore, they will have to explain such an anti-competitive behavior that the Government is somehow promoting.