[9758] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Sizing the Internet market
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Clay Shirky)
Wed Jan 19 18:37:06 1994
From: Clay Shirky <clays@panix.com>
To: jlw@cs.columbia.edu (James Waldrop)
Date: Wed, 19 Jan 1994 18:35:50 -0500 (EST)
Cc: gleick@pipeline.com, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <199401192053.PAA11997@shekel.cs.columbia.edu> from "James Waldrop" at Jan 19, 94 03:53:52 pm
> Hmm, just to throw a little kindling on this fire, I would venture
> to say that price is more important than interface. Why? Because
> a place like Netcom, with a low fix-priced scheme, seems to be much
> more popular than the easier to use but more expensive Pipeline.
> I want to make it clear that I'm only operating on hearsay, as I'm
> not associated with Pipeline in the slightest, but I know that the
> general impression among those who follow the NY Internet scene is
> that Pipeline has been starting off slowly, mainly because of the
> price.
New York is something of an oddity in that we have seven .com providers
with 212/718 dial-ups, and we would have had eight except tht netcom's
difficulties in dealing with NYTel have led them to postpone their entry
into the market. I suspect the GUI vs. low prices debate will really play
itself out when AOL goes on the net and goes head to head with newcom and
delphi.
--
Clay Shirky
