Anyone who follows the sharemarket cannot fail to be amazed at what is happening to company valuations, depending on whether they are perceived to have an internet strategy or not. And even companies which are not internet-based, such as media companies, can also get a huge lift, because they are perceived as being sources of "internet content". And it seems that every time a big conventional company such as a major retailer, bank, developer or whatever announces a big profit lift, their share prices tend to go down rather than up. While if an internet company announces a loss (as they generally do) their prices tend to rise.

Frankly, I am as baffled by the whole process as anyone else. It seems crazy to me that a company such as Ecorp, which is really not much more than a ticketing agency and a discount broker and has yet to make any money, has a bigger market capitalisation than say, the giant construction firm Leighton Holdings. Or that Sausage Software should be more highly valued than Caltex which has real refineries, service stations and so on.

It seems as though large companies which actually make goods or provide services are no longer valued as they should be. Not that this is confined to Australia; it is a world-wide trend at the moment.

The pundits put it down to the fact that the internet is seen to be the way of the future and that those internet companies which are making the running now and building a large customer base, are the ones that will be positioned to make big profits in the future. This may well be so but many of those internet type companies which are losing money in really large amounts right now probably won’t exist in a few years time.

In fact it appears that the only internet companies which are presently making any money are those that provide pornography or financial services; interesting juxtaposition, that.

And while people can now buy all sorts of goods via the internet it does seem as though it will be a while before a major portion of retail sales becomes net-based. There are problems with deliveries and people still do like to inspect goods before they buy, in most cases.

So where will the boom in internet business come from? It beats me. If I had any really worthwhile ideas on the subject I’d be out there hustling along with all the others. For example, SILICON CHIP could make all its editorial content available on the net as well as all sorts of related electronics information but it would seem unlikely that enough people would be prepared to pay for the services we could provide. It would certainly cost a heap of money to set up.

Ask yourself the question: would I be prepared to pay something like $50 to $100 a year for wide-ranging access to SILICON CHIP material? If enough of you answered yes (and are prepared to tell us that) we might have a good chance of doing it. If not, then as far as we at SILICON CHIP and a great many other companies are concerned, the internet will remain a tantalising vortex, sucking in huge numbers of people and vast quantities of money.

That is not to say that the internet itself is useless. We use it all the time and our activities on the internet will naturally continue to grow. And email is quickly replacing conventional mail and fax as the standard means of communication to SILICON CHIP. Just look at all the letters in "Ask Silicon Chip" which come in via email now.

For the moment though, the internet remains enigmatic. For those companies and organisations who figure it out, the rewards will be large.