Over the past 18 months or so, organizations have been setting up WWW
and Gopher servers to distribute product and company information.
Businesses clever enough to have pointers strategically located to and
from other points on the Internet have taken the first steps in doing
real business on the Internet, but that is just the beginning.
For businesses, the Internet represents the cheapest new business
opportunity in history because many of the high costs of doing business --
shipping, warehousing, duplication, and distribution -- are
handled at a fraction of the cost using servers and the network.
That said, businesses will not drop existing products and channels of distribution just to go online. It is very conceivable, however, that many businesses will use the Internet as an alternative form of distribution because of its large reach and relatively low cost. Many more small entrepreneurial businesses also will likely emerge if the Internet proves to be a viable business alternative.