Unless e-tail Web sites can make money, and make it pretty fast, they'll be finished within a year or two. But it won't work for most content. Neither, I suspect, will subscriptions, as some of the floundering stock market sites are beginning to show. At the same time, to nurture their businesses 'Net companies have to control their costs. So we don't want to add unnecessary costs to weigh down these entrepreneurs.
Regulation adds costs, no doubt about that.
This little investigation has left me puzzled about the possible benefits to business of new government standards or laws. Doubleclick fell from shareholders' grace immediately after the FTC investigation. And almost as speedily, America Online seized the moment to trumpet the fact that it does not share information about its subscribers with others, even though it admittedly sells names and addresses to junk mailers. It matters not, because if selfish, this policy testifies to workable markets. As privacy concerns continue to garner media attention, good guys will gain a competitive edge over the bad ones.