Webster says that online financial services work because the technology allows simpler, cheaper transactions for business and customer. It works so well for both parties. A big issue is hte control that it gives the customer - they're sitting on a telephone directing a broker, they are controlling it themselves. So it's an expensive business to keep a presence out there all the time. There is no one site that will search and compare insurance policies.
Customers have to go to each insurer's site, do their research and then move on to the next site.
These techniques will become standard in the next two or three years, says Marzbani. Many people who want advertising in this space aren't sophisticated enough to understand that you may have to change your ad every day, every hour or pull down the add after two hours if it doesn't work. Many of the publishers have become the price takers rather than the price setters. They're accepting these offers half of their inventory is not being sold. Mr Marzbani said Telstra's 60 per cent ownership of the Hong Kong Telecom mobile phone business gave it a platform for launching into China and positioned it for new technology throughout Asia.