Most of Australia's shrewdest business analysts understand this. Local would-be Web entrepreneurs will profit from understanding it too. Marc Johnson, head of Internet commerce research for US Internet consultancy Jupiter Media Metrix, has spotted several key differences between the US and Australian site-building environments. They seem at first to leave Australia at an overall disadvantage to the US - but the news may not be as bad as it looks.
Australian technologists love to cite our enthusiasm for technological devices, and they're right.
We love gizmos. But when they get online, Australians spend more time on US sites than on Australian sites. There's no Australian online bookseller of note, for instance, because most Australian online bookbuyers end up at Amazon. Whether they're on US or Australian sites, Australians use the Web far less than their US counterparts. Australians won't so willingly buy things over the Internet.