The only people that will make serious money from the boom in e-commerce are the people with technical expertise. Afterall, these systems are extreamly difficult to set up.
Josh Harney, UK

While many of these stories should be taken with a pinch of salt, there are companies of all sizes around the world that are recognising the need to get online to develop profitable new businesses. But to make use of the full potential of the internet, we all have to move away from the idea of blind commercialisation and focus more on non-commercial areas, such as education, training, information dissemination, etc. The internet may be used as a get rich scheme but not certainly as a get rich quick scheme.
K Ravi, UK

I am an African currently in Australia and while I cannot speculate on the potential of dot coms as viable stocks I can certainly appreciate the convenience they bring to our daily lives. Our residence for example receives a weekly delivery of shopping from an online green grocer that includes the freshest fruit and vegetables at very competitive prices. But I cannot see how developing nations in particular African nations can effectively participate in these new economies created by the dot coms given the difficulties with existing or non existent infrastructure.
Wills Mkusa, Australia

Internet companies are being made to feel guilty of their successes and value. Why? After all, companies like digital pages corp are floating and buying traditional businesses like Dixons and using their financial clout to bring us better value products and services. The owners deserve the rewards for their foresight. It is not easy to get the funding for these projects and most are self-started.
Mike Silverstone, UK

Valuing dotcoms is a pointless exercise using traditional "industrial" valuation techniques. This is not because there are new financial rules, but because the market has agreed to jointly speculate on the Internet sector. Perhaps only one out of ten dotcoms will ever succeed. If you back the right one you would have effectively bought a bargain. Meanwhile, nine will fail miserably, taking millions with them when they crash. The Net sector is ten times overvalued, and this will only unravel in the medium term. In the short term valuations will continue to explode. Get on for a short ride, but don't linger beyond the middle of 2001.
Dimitri Lolas, Australia

Your comments during the programme

I recently tried to buy a cheap flight from WWW site. It took a long time to fill in all the forms and at the end of it, the 'server was down' and I had to try again. I tried several more times with no success. I then phoned a free number of another airline, spoke to someone who was very helpful and the booked my ticket. The whole experience was much more satisfying and completely successful.
Robert Juritz, London

There is no reason to believe that the advent of the internet has eliminated the inevitable ups and downs of capitalism. Furthermore, the so called information economy has not eliminated anybody's need for actual goods; it has merely facilitated the transfers of wealth which were already under way.
Alexander Nowik, San Francisco

There is a great deal of ignorance surrounding e-commerce. Dot-com companies exist everywhere and they exist nowhere and that is their strength. In the future we will steer away from physical products to software type products.
Nigel Thorley, UK

If information is power then the internet will give millions of people power they would otherwise not have had. In other words the internet is a revolution in democracy.
Barry Brennan, Brussels, Belgium

There is a lot of hype surrounding these new companies - I'm an internet user and I use it as a source of information but not so much as a place to buy. It will make business more efficient but there are a lot of companies coming up which have no real way of making any money.
Tridiv Borah, Germany

I have a small business on the net, Mallorca Golf Connection www.magoco.com. As the name suggests we are involved in booking tee times and any other requirements for people intending to come to Mallorca to play golf. This service did not exist before and could not exist without the net, as using letter phone or fax is either too slow or too expensive so we are a true product of the internet age. I see the growth of e-commerce and therefore of . com companies as an unstoppable wave and in almost all aspects a good thing.
John Little

E-commerce is very convenient but it also possesses some potential "crisis". Nowadays there are so many dot coms. Some of them just follow the situation and not just to develop themselves. And it is dangerous. If they don't develop their sale concept to attract the consumers, they will definitely be beaten in this competitive society. Only by innovation can they be successful. Our world is now stepping into a wired century. The Internet must be the tool we use in the new millennium. Whatever the future maybe, I always hold an active opinion about Internet and e-commerce or something related to it. Look around this wired world, I just want to say: let it be!
Wendy Hu, China

I am trying to build up a Carabean Online company and am finding it very difficult because we don't own telecoms companies so we have to go through countries like the US. Not many companies survive the hype and only big companies will be left standing at the end.
Mark Lee, Barbados

Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku answers your questions

Why was the Commonwealth so silent about the floods in Mozambique, we only heard of British and South African aid to the disaster?
Ann Andora Swame, India

The Commonwealth wasn't silent, as soon as the tragedy occurred I made a public statement and appealed to all commonwealth governments to come and help and a good deal of them have been responding - including Australia, Malawi and a number of commonwealth countries so they have been responding.
Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku

As a Nigerian, which was your worst moment, during your stewardship, as the Secretary-General. Is it true that , if Nigeria was expelled, you would have had to relinquish the post, since only members of the Commonwealth can be Secretary-General?
Dr. S.S.O Akpata, New York, USA

The greatest achievement of the Commonwealth in the 10 year period in which I was Secretary-General was the transformation of the commonwealth into a community of democracies. The Commonwealth used ot have countries within its fold that were in no sense democractic but now all commonwealth are plural democracies and it has become well established that any country that departs from that is automatically suspended as with the recent case of Pakistan. My lowest point was when my own country Nigeria violated the basic principal of the commonwealth and had to be suspended from membership.
Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku

Having gathered all this experience, do you have any ambition to get involved in Nigerian politics?
Christopher Olayha, Belgium

I plan to go home at the end of my term of office and I do not plan to enter Nigerian politics but I do intend to make my experience available to whoever wins the vote of the people of Nigeria.
Commonwealth Secretary-General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku

Your comments before we went ON AIR

If I stood out on the street selling �5 notes for �50 each I doubt anyone would buy any from me. I suspect the police would take an interest. So why do apparently rational people appear happy with a price tag of �800,000,000 for a company that doesn't even make any money at all? It all smacks of the assorted market bubbles that burst, eg Wall Street 1929. It can't possibly last
John, UK

E-business is not all a bubble but some of the market valuations are questionable . Internet revenue models have yet to be clearly defined and little information has been filtering out to the general public. Sooner or later there is bound to be consolidation in this market place. Only those e-businesses successful enough to lure and keep people glued to their sites will survive. I know from experience that few companies have an e-business infrastructure in place to retain customers.
Naveed Ahmed, UK

Yes, "information" products are being revolutionised by the dot coms - in other words, anything that can be digitised (news, music and video, great literature, good advice, market data) - but at the end of the day most products are objects which still need to be manufactured and delivered. Seems to me the next wave of winners will be the people who can work out new ways to deliver things speedily and efficiently across the globe.
Angus Macdonald, France

E-Commerce is the way of the future. The sudden interest in it, like any other brand new venture, has brought along its own set of problems (e.g. of security, confidentiality, etc.) which will be resolved over time. Companies that sprang up out of nowhere would undergo the good old 'survival of the fittest' and the hype of today will turn into a drab routine of tomorrow. Just like the telephone we use today to do business, the Internet is the next logical step up in efficiency.
Dr Riz Rahim, USA

I would like to put the record straight to those people who think that they can not trust the internet for shopping. Believe it or not shopping on the internet is actually safer than shopping at the supermarket. Discarded till receipts provide theives with all the information they need to order goods over the phone or on the internet. Whereas the details you use to shop on-line are kept extremely safe and confidential. The internet, although not without security concerns, is not as dangerous as you have been made to think. In statistical terms you may be suprised to know that it is easier for theives to get you card details outside of the internet than in it.
Matthew Gaffney, UK

The dot come bubble will not burst completely. However, there will be a limit to shopping sites online that can be profitable. The companies that can create new industries will never have their bubble burst, but most of the companies which are just online stores will find that they created an oversaturated marketplace.
Sam , USA

The Internet industry won't replace the traditional because we still can't trust the web.
Leonardo Abrantes, Brazil

What will happen to Shopping Malls in the future - close down or become smaller because we are all shopping through the 'net?' And will folk spend weekends clogging up dot.com as being the alternative to shopping? I look forward to seeing shorter queues at Supermarket tills or alternatively to enjoying cheaper home delivery through dot.com!
Bridget Walton, South Africa

I don't believe the 'dot com bubble' can't burst, simply because it isn't a bubble. When traditional industry has seen vast rises in stock price it has always been due to artificial economic factors, not increases in revenue or size of a particular company.
The dot com sector is different, because it growing extremely fast in real, measurable terms. There is a vast amount of money to be made in this sector, because there is also a vast amount of money to be saved. Although e-commerce has been incredibly financially successful in its own right, it has brought tremendous benefits to traditional businesses, by reducing their purchasing and administration costs by billions. This is not an artificial situation.
Phil Saum, UK

The internet will undoubtedly change our lives in many ways that we cannot begin to imagine. However, at the end of the day, so long as we live in a fundamentally capitalist based society dot coms will eventually have to obey the basic rules of economics.
The plain fact is that very few of them will make the sorts of profits that their share prices imply. It is understandable for the man or woman in the street with little understanding of economics to be sold over easily, but it is sad to see the 'City' repeat history yet again and fail to rationally examine the facts and true potential, and so allow yet another bubble to grow with its inevitable conclusion.
Steven Landers, England

I am completely at a loss as to how a .com company like, for example, Lastminute.com can achieve a pre-launch valuation of some �800 million when a) it's not expected to make a profit until 2002 and b) only TURNED OVER �409,000 in its last financial year.
How is this company going to pay dividends to its shareholders? If their principal revenue will come from advertising, how will they compete with the countless thousands of other similar companies all vying for slice of the same pie, many offering a damn sight more than eleventh hour flights, gifts and theatre tickets.
Raymond Saint-Ville, UK

I go to the shops to find the product I want - then buy it on the internet much cheaper. Rip-off merchants beware!
Robin Clark, UK

Dotcom businesses are the way forward. Not because they ought to be but simply because of the sheer momentum of innovation and the desire for more and more convenience.
We must, however, be SO careful. Internet security is becoming one of the most lucrative aspects of e-commerce because for every security measure installed, there are 3 counter-measures that will let the more unscrupulous avoid detection. This kind of crime could theoretically cost billions in fraud, lost business and downright piracy. We must all change to embrace the freedom of choice and infinite convenience that this medium offers but we must not run before we can walk.
Ray Saint, UK

The internet is the world's first interactive media and because this is a first its value is difficult to determine.
Matthew Coles, Australia

I think .com industry is the future of our economy and that of any other nation. At the moment we are seeing the birth, but from here on it's only going to get bigger. In the future we won't even think about .com industry it will seamlessly flow through our lives. It is not just "hype and no substance" it is the way things will go. More are more trade will be done on the Internet. Virgin is already launching a �160 million project for it's e-business. Companies who don't get involved WILL fall behind.
Nigel Thorley, England

Mark these words - we have just scratched the surface of dot.com's. there are still so many possibilities out there and are happening. The World will never be the same again.
Anil, Hong Kong

We can't even begin to comprehend the change that is going to occur with the internet. We are only at the horse and stagecoach phase, on our way to Concorde and travelling to the moon. Yes, many dot.com businesses are extremely overvalued in this gold rush, and yes, the bubble will burst one day but this is to be expected as there are only so many good names available. I think these are very exciting times at the moment, however I think there is a darker side to all of this. I can see a scenario within a few years where massive unemployment occurs because we will not need distributors, resellers, middle men, or any data entry clerks or any kind.
Joseph Hart, Australia

When 80% of the world population don't even have access to a basic telephone line, how can we talk about an internet revolution? The medium has already been turned into a rush for the gold-pot.
Moris Ciprut, UK

We can draw a parallel between the internet and the human brain. We are going to be neurons in the internet nervous system. How the internet mind will evolve is anybody's guess. Hopefully, we can support a healthy mind (internet) in a healthy body (earth).
Mathew Veedon, India

The main opposition to the valuation assumptions of the internet is coming from the Old School. Who can blame them, in the new economy, bricks and mortar assets become unnecessary overheads. Of course, not all .Coms will succeed, but if you have ever tried building a traditional business you will find success rates comparable. The internet is here to stay, and will soon take over your TV, Mobile Phone and Computer. The market will increase to non-computer literate users. Please stop worrying about .Coms and start worrying about the large dinosaurs of the old economy. I'm quite enjoying watching them fall!!
Phil Cooper, UK

dot.coms - definitely overrated! When you sit back and think about the possibility that Yahoo might buy Disney, or troubled online auctioneers eBay might buy Sothebys, it can be quite a shock. These companies are extremely young, fragile pioneers in a new business arena, and an arena that has risks. For instance, the AOL - Time Warner merger had an unexpected side effect - the instant slowdown of AOL's stock value. Why? Because as soon as the dot.coms buy into real-world valued companies, they instantly become tied to a real-world value. Essentially, by trying to be real players in the business world, many may end up killing themselves off.
David W, UK

It's like television, which you have control over. People are hungry for fast food; they want to 'swallow' breaking news, colourful headlines, pictures. They need to fill their emptiness. The internet will become, yet, another tool for business to capitalise, for people to temporarily ease the pain of existence.
Marek Wiszniewski, Poland