Fee-based content sites are expected to proliferate as secure payment mechanisms are implemented. To date, however, the model has met with only limited success, perhaps because consumers may be unwilling to pay for content delivered in this manner … Sponsored-content sites sell advertising space to reduce or eliminate the necessity of charging fees to visitors … In the third type of content model, merchants or advertisers pay a provider for information placement in an organized listing in a Searchable Database … Opportunities abound for content sites, as they closely parallel traditional media models … For some firms, e.g., Wired and Time/Warner, they offer a new channel for expansion … to reach an advertiser-coveted audience. In addition, such sites may provide meaningful exposure that would otherwise be lost in the unstructured clutter that currently typifies the Web. Additionally, content sites can demonstrate innovation, are efficient compared to their terrestrial counterparts, and are, in theory, easy to implement.
Predictor: Hoffman, Donna L.
Prediction, in context:In the December 1995 issue of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Special Issue on Electronic Commerce, Donna L. Hoffman, Thomas P. Novak, and Patrali Chatterjee propose a structural framework for examining the explosion in commercial activity on the Web. They are with Project 2000: Research Program on Marketing in Computer-Mediated Environments, Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. They write:ÒIn Fee-Based content sites, the provider supplies and/or pays for content which the consumer pays to access. Fee-based content sites are expected to proliferate as secure payment mechanisms are implemented. To date, however, the model has met with only limited success, perhaps because consumers may be unwilling to pay for content delivered in this manner … Sponsored-content sites sell advertising space to reduce or eliminate the necessity of charging fees to visitors … In the third type of content model, merchants or advertisers pay a provider for information placement in an organized listing in a Searchable Database … Opportunities abound for content sites, as they closely parallel traditional media models. At the present time, there is generally no (sponsored content) or at most a small (fee-based) charge to consumers to consume the content. For some firms, e.g., Wired and Time/Warner, they offer a new channel for expansion. Firms adopting this model have the opportunity to reach an advertiser-coveted audience. In addition, such sites may provide meaningful exposure that would otherwise be lost in the unstructured clutter that currently typifies the Web. Additionally, content sites can demonstrate innovation, are efficient compared to their terrestrial counterparts, and are, in theory, easy to implement. However, the challenges for content sites arise due to this perceived ease of implementation. The close parallels to traditional media represent significant execution hurdles for content sites. How best to measure and optimize consumer response to advertising in sponsored content sites is completely unknown.Ó
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Medical/Professional
Name of publication: Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Title, headline, chapter name: Commercial Scenarios for the Web: Opportunities and Challenges
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol1/issue3/hoffman.doc
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Guarino, Jennifer Anne