The Internet revolution is far from over, despite the bursting of the hi-tech bubble which saw waves of companies collapse, Microsoft boss Mr Bill Gates said today.
And he forecast that the next three or four years will see significant progress in harnessing the Internet for commercial purposes.
"Things are a lot more sober... the visionaries who said these things would happen immediately. those were overblown," he told an audience of Austrian business leaders.
But he said: "Anybody who says because it didn't happen overnight that it won't be happening is going to miss a big transition."
"Getting businesses to be able to do really complex transactions over the Internet, that's going to take the next three or four years," he said, adding: "The Internet is a revolution for every kind of business."
He gave the example of banking start-ups who predicted that the future of all banking would be online. "It's clear that the portion of the market that that pure approach addresses will be rather limited," he said.
But he added: "Competition between traditional banks will continue to include how well they put their information on the Internet."
In other comments he forecast that the US dominance of software development will reduce over the next 10 years.
"All the great software successes of the next decade will not be located in the United States as they have over the last decade," he said, citing access over the Internet as fueling development worldwide.
"The software industry will be a fast-growing industry... Every country will want to participate."
AFP