Comments on: Italy’s undeveloped web market has a wealth of opportunities

By: Francesco Federico

Francesco Federico — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:06:49 +0000

I agree with you snapshot of Italy and I think Italy will soon or later catch up with the rest of Europe.

The question is: when Italy will, at last, catch up the internet maturity the rest of Europe is enjoying now, where will be the rest of Europe?

It’s a cats and dogs game, a market that’s always following others with delay, is not an interesting market.

By: daniel

daniel — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:59:52 +0000

yes, it is true that there is a tradition here of control from the top, and that affects the new media. The power of the new medium is so strong, that changes are inevitable. It will evolve differently here, it is underdeveloped, and the market is large enough that added value will see rewards.
It is that chilling effect on new business that gives the country great opportunity now.

By: aboca

aboca — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 07:25:47 +0000

I fully agree with Luca and I want to underline that in my opinion the first cause of this situation is the lack of entrepreneurial culture: in Italy it is very difficult to find funding even though you have got a big idea.

Startups are a small number compared to other countries and most of the time they are people’s second job and don’t last much for the lack of funding and the difficulties of spreading the word and finding a stable user base.

In our country, starting from the government, the focus is on the TV and the old media, not on the innovation and new technologies.

By: Luca F.

Luca F. — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:40:56 +0000

Paola, you are right, I could have been more precise…

still, I did not feel like mentioning eBay, they don’t belong to the same league…

ciao

Luca

By: David N. Welton

David N. Welton — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:32:46 +0000

Italy is full of smart, hard working, intelligent, creative people. It has been my privilege to meet and work with many of them over the years. The problem is that those people are not in control. Quite the contrary – Italy is still run by the same vested interests as always. One need only look at the recent Alitalia affair to understand that nothing has really changed:

http://padovachronicles.welton.it/articles/tag/alitalia

As long as garbage like that keeps floating to the top, one always has to wonder whether it’s a safe bet to try and enter a new market in Italy, or whether you’ll find, as the Italians say, “a big stick in your bicycle wheel”.

By: daniel

daniel — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 11:23:58 +0000

Hi Luca
I am in agreement….Italy is now taking hold of the web, and there are many opportunities. I opened my new media office in Torino and am working with a great group here to do that. Stealth right now.
Daniel McVicar at http://www.magmawave.com

By: Paola Bonomo

Paola Bonomo — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:46:52 +0000

Dear Luca,
I agree there are huge opportunities in the Italian market. However, I would take issue with your definition of IBS.it as “IBS is the top e-commerce site in Italy”. eBay.it (disclaimer: I work at eBay) is by far the top e-commerce site in Italy, with over 8m unique visitors per month. I would agree if you defined IBS as the top autoctonous, domestic, Italian-born e-commerce site in Italy. But let’s not paint the picture even worse than it actually is!