Business opportunities predicted for the Internet

JAKARTA (JP): The Internet has the potential to be a medium for business promotion but it still needs to develop further to become as effective as the print and electronic media, an analyst said.

Christianto Wibisono, director of the Indonesian Business Data Center, said here over the weekend that the use of the Internet as a medium for advertising and conducting business deals is still at an embryonic stage, even in such developed countries as the United States.

However, he is optimistic that the Internet will be as effective as print and electronic media for business promotions in the future.

Christianto said that to make the Internet effective for promotions, it needs to become more easily operable and more secure for business deals.

"It still needs some technological improvements to make operations easier, such as the replacement of the numerous keys with only one remote control," he told a one-day seminar on "Business Opportunities on the Internet", organized by PT UniNET Media Sakti, an Internet service firm, and the Indonesia Managers Club.

There are about 50 million Internet users worldwide, including 15,000 in Indonesia, according to a report at the seminar.

Another speaker, Darwin Silalahi, managing director of PT UniNet, said that thus far the Internet service is largely beneficial to export-oriented companies because most users in Indonesia do not use it for professional purposes.

Silalahi said big corporations in Jakarta are growing more interested in the Interest, citing that his firm attracts up to 50 new subscribers a month. (jsk)