Who's afraid of the big bad dotcom?

New wave of e-firms won't rattle old economy after all

Dotcoms don't pose the threat to traditional businesses as was once feared, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Instead, traditional businesses which embrace the Net and e-commerce are seen as the next major movers and shakers in the business world. This reverses previous scaremongering which warned that traditional businesses would be flushed away by the new wave of dotcoms. Now, it seems, dotcoms have become dotcommodes. Companies such as Amazon.com were cited as examples of a new breed of business that could steal significant market share overnight. Forty-three per cent of the companies surveyed said that traditional competitors with e-business capabilities posed the greatest threat to their business. Thirteen per cent said dotcoms presented the greatest threat. "Although dotcoms receive much of the Internet-related hype, the world's leading companies clearly believe the real competitive threat comes from their traditional competitors, especially those that are embracing e-business," said Noel Taylor of PricewaterhouseCoopers. ®