Wireless banking, the rise of application service providers and a
new dotcom crash were some of Gartner Group's predictions at its
annual symposium in Cannes this week. Nick Huber reports
The dotcom market is heading for a second crash as companies in
the much-vaunted business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces struggle
with a limited take-up.
That was the stark warning from Gartner Group this week. The
company also urged European governments to overhaul both their
e-business strategy and their regulatory frameworks to boost growth
in the new economy.
Despite the hype and a flurry of investment in B2B services,
according to the Gartner, the actual value of transactions,
particularly within e-marketplaces, is still very low.
It predicted the B2B market crash could be less than one year
away.
As recently as this spring only an estimated 25% of all European
e-marketplaces were actually conducting transactions and only half
will be doing business online by the end of the year, Gartner
claimed.
The company also predicted that a growing number of companies
will start to double their e-commerce investment over the coming
year as the complexities of e-business investment sink in.
According to Alexander Drobik, vice-president of business
management at Gartner, "The crash will be more subtle than the B2C
crash.
"There is still a lot of investment and people setting up
business plans. But venture capitalists are getting more ruthless,"
he said.
Gartner also called on European governments to step up
e-business investment and focus their efforts more clearly.
Flexible competition laws and employment schemes to combat the
e-business skills shortage were among areas for government action
highlighted by Gartner.