Net is for business and not fast cash - forum

The Internet as a tool to build real companies rather than make quick riches

The Internet as a tool to build real companies rather than make quick riches. This was the message at this year's World Economic Forum and is in stark contrast to the Web exuberance of a year ago.

Some of the world's most prominent business leaders who have gathered at the ski resort in the Swiss alps admitted that they had been guilty of greed that had brought huge wealth to some but large losses to many others.

Mr Hasso Plattner, co-chief executive of Germany's SAP, the world's largest enterprise software maker, said: "We've seen too much greed, including from ourselves. People thought that a 30 per cent profit on investments was easy and 100 per cent was possible."

His company jumped on the Internet bandwagon two years ago and lost $250 million - "not through the stock market, but our own money. Money we invested after taxes," Mr Plattner said.

READ MORE

Like many others SAP ventured into business-to-consumer Web companies which never turned into a profit.

"The business model was taken from Utopia," Mr Plattner said.

The sobering picture he painted is a far cry from the upbeat mood that dictated the millennium's first meeting of the forum 12 months ago.

Then the Internet bubble was just two months away from bursting and investors readily valued a single user of a free Internet Service Provider at 10,000 euros ($9,285) or more.