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- The head of the largest maker of computer
chips in the world has predicted that companies which fail to establish
a presence on the Internet will go out of business within five years.
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- "In five years, there won't be any
Internet companies because they will all be Internet companies," said
Andrew Grove, chairman of Intel. "Otherwise they will die."
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- Intel, which Mr Grove helped found in
1968, has seen its Internet business grow from nothing in 1997 to a projected
42% this year, he said.
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- Even scrapyards had gone online, buying
cars, stripping them of parts, cataloguing them, and then filing Internet
orders from all over the country, he said.
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- Going online extended the length of the
business day, he told the Los Angeles Times Investment Strategies Conference.
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- Customer care
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- Buyers and sellers did not even have
to talk to each other at the same time to conduct business online. Thanks
to e-mail and other devices, they could communicate regardless of time
or place.
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- But simply being online was not enough,
Mr Grove said, as he warned investors that many Internet companies that
were getting a lot of publicity would not be around in the long term.
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- Those that survive would be strong on
the traditional elements of business such as being customer orientated
he said.
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- 'Threshold of revolution'
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- His comments follow government warnings
to UK business that going online is vital to future success.
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- UK trade minister Barbara Roche said
last year: "We stand on the threshold of a revolution in the way we
do business. We cannot afford to underestimate the impact of electronic
commerce on the global marketplace.
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- "It is vital that all companies,
whatever their sector of business, whether large or small, understand how
electronic commerce can bring them competitive advantage."
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