Consumers are expected to spend $ 5 billion online annually by the turn of the century. “This is the golden goose of marketing. I tell consumers to tape their credit card to their monitor and go surfing.”
Predictor: Conklin, Michele
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 article in Denver’s major daily newspaper, the Rocky Mountain News, Michelle Conklin writes: ”There are more than 750,000 sites – most of them businesses – on the Internet today, up from just 93 five years ago. And consumers are expected to spend $ 5 billion online annually by the turn of the century. But like any new technology, the Internet has kinks. Online shoppers today can buy virtually anything through their computers. There are wine stores, music stores, even a store for European chateaux. And the offerings are growing by the minute – a recent survey estimated that a new company is joining the Internet every two minutes during business hours. ‘This is the golden goose of marketing,’ said Bill Eager, vice president of Denver-based Online System Services and author of six online books. ‘I tell consumers to tape their credit card to their monitor and go surfing.’ Businesses are flocking to the information superhighway to hawk their services and products for many reasons, mainly the growing popularity and low cost of the medium … Security if the biggest issue for consumers, who have heard horror stories about computer hackers using a few key strokes to steal credit card numbers. Recently a hacker was arrested and accused of pilfering 20,000 credit card numbers from an Internet service.”
Date of prediction: May 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: Shopping
Name of publication: Rocky Mountain News
Title, headline, chapter name: What’s In Store for Online Shopping
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=6c4a39b23a2bcd84b29088752aab5131&_docnum=3&wchp=dGLbVlb-lSlzV&_md5=a22bf7a2c3d6fa733b283d0ff9e9936c
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Cooley, Theresa M.