An American Internet?: August 04, 1997 issue of New Thinking

August 04, 1997 New Thinking:
An American Internet?

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August 04, 1997

An American Internet?

By Gerry McGovern

When I was in France a couple of years ago it struck me how most of the people I met who were involved in Internet developments there were American. I was informed that the most popular website for Paris at that point was located in Chicago and was run by someone from Chicago.

Yes, France is an exception. It embraced Minitel, a precursor of the Internet, and this very act of progressiveness has meant that it has lagged behind in Internet acceptance. However, Europe in general seems to be about 2/3 years behind America when it comes to accepting things Internet.

When I was in Germany years ago I remember standing waiting for a train and hearing a group of American soldiers chatting. One of them said that he couldn’t wait to get back to “the world,” meaning America, of course.

America has a very high opinion of itself and rightly so. It is a hugely creative, vibrant society. I am not one of the European snobs who thinks that America has nothing but a shallow culture. I have a great love of American music, cinema and literature.

However, my measured reaction to those American soldiers was to think of them as a bunch arrogant dimwit gobshites. Yes, America has a lot to offer but it is not remotely near being the world. No matter how big its army or business forces are, it is no more than a player in vibrant mix of cultures, histories and nations.

A question I ask myself is: How will the Internet affect cultures and nations as we know them? From an Irish perspective, I see the Internet as allowing the opportunity to create a foundation for a re-united and re-connected global Irish culture of some 70 million, which is presently spread throughout every corner of the world.

However, if the Internet has the capacity to re-unite, then surely it also has the capacity to dissolve or diffuse existing cultures. If cultures don’t actively participate in expressing and representing themselves in the Internet environment, then somebody else (American enterprise) will likely represent them. But surely nobody does the French better than the French, nobody does the Germans better than the Germans, nobody does Ireland better than the Irish?

An interesting report by The Hambrecht & Quist Research Group entitled ‘Americans Abroad: Seizing the Internet Opportunity Overseas’ states that, “Because Internet adoption has -- as a whole -- been slower worldwide than in the United States, a number of emerging foreign markets represent unique opportunities for American Internet companies to be first to market, a key competitive advantage.”

As reported by GINA (31 July, 1997), “research by Fittkau & Maass reveals Yahoo! Germany to be the most widely used navigational tool in Germany, well ahead of its nearest competitor. In France, market research firm Sofres records Yahoo! France as the most widely used World Wide Web site in France, well ahead of all French and international services.”

I mentioned the idea of selling sand to the Arabs and ice to the Eskimos in my last piece. Well, it’s never been easier on the Internet. Wake up, Europe! Wake up, the world! Don’t let America own more and more of the online world. Because that’s not good. For anyone. America included.

Gerry McGovern

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“Because Internet adoption has -- as a whole -- been slower worldwide than in the United States, a number of emerging foreign markets represent unique opportunities for American Internet companies to be first to market, a key competitive advantage.”