It is estimated that there will be 1.6 million by 2002. ActivMedia, Inc. 12. The Internet has fundamentally changed the economics of information. Traditionally, information has been governed by a trade-off between richness and reach . Reach is a measure of connectivity - the size of the audience.
Rich communication takes place, for instance, when a company representative visits a customer.
At the meeting, a lot of information specific to the customer is shared interactively - but relatively expensively, with a small audience. At the other extreme, newspaper and TV ads can reach millions relatively inexpensively, but with more limited messages. Traditionally, the economics of information have been governed by a trade-off between richness and reach . The Internet lets organizations eat their cake and have it too. Marginal interaction costs are minimal once the basic infrastructure is in place.