Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
Consumers already recognize the need to protect their privacy when using the Internet to communicate, browse for information, and purchase goods and services. With Net Worth, authors Hagel and Singer build an intriguing scenario in which customers take control of their personal data and refuse to surrender it without some compensation. As customers search for the best deal and the safest place for their information assets, an opportunity emerges for firms to leverage new, web-based strategies and act as infomediaries—brokers or intermediaries who help customers maximize the value of their data. Net Worth constructs a new business model around the infomediary, and reveals the coming battle among infomediaries for customers' trust and private information. The authors examine the opportunities the infomediary will present for businesses and consumers alike, as customer-centric brands rise up as the primary source of new value creation, forcing companies to reassess the nature of their core businesses and their long-held beliefs about brands and marketing. "Anybody running a traditional business who feels threatened by the onset of electronic commerce should feel more threatened after reading John Hagel III's new book. Unless they feel inspired to make its message work for themselves."—Wall Street Journal "Looking at the future of e-commerce, Hagel and Singer... add a provocative twist to the conventional view that those companies with the best information about their customers will be the most successful.... Well-written and full of scenarios of how these infomediaries will develop, this book will interest marketers who are eager to explore the electronic frontiers of the economy."—Publishers Weekly "To get a handle on the next potential revolution—starring an empowered consumer and diminished brand importance—executives at companies big and small will be speed-reading this one."—Business 2.0 "A practical, insightful manual that shows how to implement the visionary ideas of Net Gain. This is the kind of book you want to keep out of your competitors' hands."—Esther Dyson, Chairman, EDventure Holdings, and author of Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital AgeSynopsis
In Net Worth: Shaping Markets when Customers Make the Rules, the authors expand on the visionary ideas expressed in the bestselling Net Gain. The scenario: Customers in the not-so-distant future will take back control of their personal data and search for the best deal and safest place for their information assets to reside. Enter the "infomediary," a new type of information broker, which will help customers maximize the value of this data.
Publishers Weekly
Looking at the future of e-commerce, Hagel (coauthor of Net Gain) and Singer, both principals in the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, add a provocative twist to the conventional view that those companies with the best information about their customers will be the most successful. They examine not only how companies can acquire information about consumers but also, crucially, how consumers can control dissemination of their personal information and even charge companies for their use of it. To the ever-expanding e-commerce lexicon they add a new term: "infomediaries." These third parties will serve both consumers and marketers: consumers will use infomediaries to help them find products at the best price, avoid unwanted product pitches and protect their privacy; in turn, via the use of sophisticated filters, infomediaries will be able to provide targeted consumer profiles to companies. The companies will then be able to anticipate consumers' needs and offer them appropriate products. While some companies, such as Intuit or AOL, currently perform some of these functions, the authors predict that the infomediaries are likely to be new companies formed by partnerships between existing firms--most likely between companies with large consumer databases and newer, more Internet-savvy entrepreneurial ventures. Well-written and full of scenarios of how these infomediaries will develop, this book will interest marketers and those consumers who are eager to explore the electronic frontiers of the economy. 50,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo. (Mar.)
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Looking at the future of e-commerce, Hagel (coauthor of Net Gain) and Singer, both principals in the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, add a provocative twist to the conventional view that those companies with the best information about their customers will be the most successful. They examine not only how companies can acquire information about consumers but also, crucially, how consumers can control dissemination of their personal information and even charge companies for their use of it. To the ever-expanding e-commerce lexicon they add a new term: "infomediaries." These third parties will serve both consumers and marketers: consumers will use infomediaries to help them find products at the best price, avoid unwanted product pitches and protect their privacy; in turn, via the use of sophisticated filters, infomediaries will be able to provide targeted consumer profiles to companies. The companies will then be able to anticipate consumers' needs and offer them appropriate products. While some companies, such as Intuit or AOL, currently perform some of these functions, the authors predict that the infomediaries are likely to be new companies formed by partnerships between existing firms--most likely between companies with large consumer databases and newer, more Internet-savvy entrepreneurial ventures. Well-written and full of scenarios of how these infomediaries will develop, this book will interest marketers and those consumers who are eager to explore the electronic frontiers of the economy. 50,000 first printing; $150,000 ad/promo. (Mar.)Library Journal -
Following up on his Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities (LJ 3/15/97), Hagel and new coauthor Singer suggest a mechanism for preventing the "privacy backlash" to electronic commerce building among consumers. "Infomediaries," a new business venture category, will protect individual consumers, keeping them anonymous by integrating their confidential information into "classes." These infomediaries will facilitate transactions for customers, for a commission. Travel agents, private bankers, personal shoppers, and other services already perform part of the function the authors envision. Because of the large capital investment required to start such a venture and the need to reach a critical mass of clients quickly, infomediaries will probably come from combinations of existing companies, Hagel and Singer suggest. AOL, Yahoo, Motley Fool, Mediconsult, Amazon.com, Microsoft, and L.L. Bean, with their existing customer relationships and profiles, are proposed as logical choices. An interesting concept, but the authors' faith that infomediaries will work together to set standards and that consumers will trust them borders on naivete.From The Critics
Whether you're a portal with millions of surfers, a digital merchant with thousands of customers or an entrepreneur looking to launch the Webs next success, everyone is trying to monetize read: profit from an online audience. In Net Worth, John Hagel and Marc Singer present their step-bystep path to big money. In a nutshell, you need to become an infomediary.Forget disintermediation and one-to-one marketing, these information intermediaries will get between buyers and sellers and act as trusted agents that selectively exchange data between the two sectors. In this world, consumers will somehow trust their personal characteristics and purchasing habits to the infomediary to simultaneously protect their privacy and save time and money on shopping. Businesses will give up direct contact with these customers so they can instead buy prequalified leads and gain more data about customers from the infomediary. Net Worth estimates that an infomediary that recruits 1 million members by the end of its second year could realize revenues approaching $100 million.
But whether customers and businesses will buy into this utopian vision of a world free from spam, telemarketer calls during dinner and haggle-free auto buying remains a long shot.