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Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 01:30:41 +0200
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Vladimir Bossicard wrote:
> How does the use of the internet differ in Switzerland and in the US? Do you
> have some study?
No, I don't - I speak out of experience, I have a software company in Switzerland
and here in the USA. I think, the historic reason for the different use of the
Internet in the States and Switzerland are the distances. While in Switzerland
nobody really need cars to get from one point to another, the people here are used
to long (really long) distances. Telecommunication was something which was more
important here in the States than it was in Switzerland (or of course - you are
right - other countries). People got used to the Internet far earlier than Swiss
people. I used to work for a sofware company in Irvine/CA in the 98ties, which
programmed Internet applications. B2B and B2E applications were already common.
> The main problem of Europe is the broadband. In the US, more than 20% of the
> users are connected via cable or dsl (heard that on CNet radio a couple of days
> ago). That is not the case in Europe and in Switzerland. But as almost all
> Swiss houses have cable tv things can change quickly.
This is one thing. The other thing is that cable modems are already available in
Switzerland for about 3 or 4 years. The problem is not the broadband, the problem
is also the people who did not want to change from the 56k modem to a better
Internet connection. XDSL is now on its way, as well as other alternative Internet
connection. It still will take a long time.
On the other hand, Switzerland (and maybe a lot of other European countries) has a
sophisticated wireless system, which is not - or only weak - existing here in the
States. I think, the main push will be in this direction.
> An advantage of Switzerland (in comparaison with the US) is that the banking
> system really works fine. People are used to pay their bills with the internet
> and people trust the system.
This is true - but also explainable. While in the States it is possible to move
around without registering with the state, people in Switzerland are registered and
are always possible to track. This makes paying with invoices possible, which is
impossible here in the States.
The banking system was able to expand and improve while in the states the banks had
to find a system, which will be reliable - people are paying by check. I recently
opened a bank account with a well-known international bank, here in the states and
was shocked by their technology and bad security.
Switzerland has probably the more sophisticated and high-end quality companies, but
less dreams and risks...
> I really don't see the difference between using registerthebride.com and
> calling Globus to reserve a gift from a wedding registry -> chances are good
> that such a system can be successfully introduced in CH.
I don't believe in it, but that's my personal opinion.
> the problem with pure Internet companies, is that they focuse on a certain
> business. If you take weddings, you will do business between may and september
> but you have to survive the whole year. That's what happened to eToy: 4 weeks
> of rush (before XMas) but they had to pay for that infrastructure all year
> long.
This is one problem, yes. The other problem is, that most of the pure Internet
sites need a link to the 'real world' which in most cases means transport of the
goods. This is a bottleneck and a problem which has not yet been able to be solved.
If you take for example 'LeShop' in Switzerland - their problem was not the time of
the year, in which they made profit, but the too expensive transport.
> I don't think it's only a Swiss problem. I don't think that the US is the
> promised land for pure Internet companies either (remember the bubble?).
You are right - it is not only a Swiss problem. But while the US is ready to take
risks, Switzerland is not.
Nicole
-- -------------------------------------------------------- Nicole Hillbrecht headwire 25006 crystal circle lake forest ca 92630, usa ++1 949 595 4365 http://www.headwire.com headwire - connect your brain we make the future come true -------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================= To unsubscribe from the startup mailing list send the message body of "unsubscribe startup" to majordomo_at_swiss-list.com or visit http://www.swiss-list.com/mailings/Received on Fri Jul 20 2001 - 00:05:49 PDT
