Why Europe Lags on the Web

A European computer expert explains how the World Wide Web is being used in Europe and why.

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Though the technology behind the World Wide Web was developed in Geneva, European companies have been slow to follow American businesses in putting up Web sites. They're moving to close the gap now. In fact, some are already cashing in. Lightning Instrumentation S.A., for example, a little Swiss network-equipment maker, saw its revenues rise 20% within nine months of opening its Web interactive show window (http://www.lightning.ch). But Lightning and companies like it are exceptions. That's because of the way most European businesses are going on-line. Small and medium-size businesses tend to avoid going it alone; they gather together in regional projects for economic promotion, mostly coached and cofinanced by state organizations. They share a server, which keeps costs down but also restricts them to a common strategy and a less flexible approach. Electronic Mall Bodensee (http://www.bodan.net), in the Lake of Constance region of southern Germany, which hosts several companies, is an example. Also, European businesses think of their Web projects as experimental interactive market studies; they really don't expect any direct commercial returns in the short term. "American companies are more willing to gamble on high-tech benefits," says Marc-AndrÉ Schenk, a scholar at the University of Lausanne. Many European home pages are just good re-packaging of catalogs (the Italian scooter-maker Piaggio, http://www .piaggio.com); or they're facts and figures (the high-tech electrical-engineering ABB group, http://www.abb.se); or they're annual reports (the French Chargeurs group, http://www.imaginet.fr /chargeurs). "The paradox is that they have all the costs of being on-line and none of the benefits," says Giovanni Taddei, technology-integration specialist. Many European companies put more effort into talking about their on-line presence than into improving it. They distribute printed press releases to announce they're on the Web, but they don't do active marketing, selling, or customer support on-line. While Americans try to anticipate (and push) new markets, European businesses wait for them . . . even though they're often aware of a market's potential. The on-line market won't really exist in Europe until 1998, when national monopolies on telecommunications will be removed. Once phone fees are reduced, more people will come on-line, creating the critical mass of potential customers European businesses have been waiting for.

-- Bruno Giussani