What were the first questions people had back in 1994 about using the web as a marketing medium?
Jim Sterne: The first question was, “Can you make money on the Internet?” And the answer was, “Sure, just like you can make money on the telephone. It’s a communication medium.” People didn’t quite get that. The next question was, “Who is the audience?” Well, primarily it was highly educated, male early adopters. If you were selling car insurance in the mid-’90s, the Internet was a tough place to be. My job was to convince people that online commerce would really happen. I said, “In two years or five years, everyone is going to be online. So get in there. Make your mistakes now, before everybody is looking.” It took awhile for people to think seriously about marketing at all. I remember going to an early Internet World conference and thinking, “Wow, everything here is about technology. How about marketing? How come I’m the only one wearing a necktie? Why is nobody asking about how to get people to come to your site or how to handle customer service online?” I became kind of a poster bo
