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To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (589)	8/21/2001 2:56:50 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 615

'Security' is a barrier of entry. Last weekend I met a friend of mine finance executive of Opel (GM Europe) and he was telling of one experience of GM with the Internet: Last year GM Brazil financed 40.000 cars via their web site in Brazil alone, I mean. (Total market is about 1 million cars year) GM shares is perhaps 200.000. The big guys are Fiat and VW. The GM bosses said: do that every where in the world. People at GM noticed that and also the bonuses the Brazil guys were getting. Lets see if it can be done here. They discovered they already had this in place but had fianced three cars, here, five cars there (perhaps some Brazilians moved to the places :-) I explained to him my idea of why Brazilians go for Internet 'com gusto'. But now I discovered another reason why people do not go fiance their cars over the Internet in developed countries: Everyone is talking about 'security'. Now you have all those guys from GM having to to their bosses and tell them why Sweden, Finland, the US and Canada has that huge Internet penetration ( and clamoring for broadband) and not many people are using that thing to help companies making money. Then eveyone is shocked with the tech downturn, elmat is not shocked. GM also picked Brazil because it is home to the Gravatai plant, among the most efficient factories in the world. GM and 16 suppliers build cars there using 50 percent and 60 percent fewer workers than in a traditional, U.S. assembly plant, which have unions that typically forbid direct participation from suppliers on the factory floor. (as you can see old rules block new type of commerce enabled by technology. New forms of commerce needs to change the whole supply chain. It is not about building a web site. No wonder DOT.COMS died.) news.cnet.com GM may have also picked Brazil because its dealers have more flexible rules governing direct sales. In the United States, most regions have strict franchise laws that ban automobile manufacturers from selling directly to the consumer via Web sites. (as always governments screwing up and blocking. DOT.COMS didn't have a fighting chance) Mike Morrissey, spokesman for the National Automobile Dealer Association, said it is unlikely that GM will unveil a direct-sales model in the United States anytime soon. The automaker is discussing alternatives to the conventional showroom sale with its dealers, but franchise laws will forbid GM from bypassing dealers entirely or simply using them as delivery grounds for vehicles purchased directly from GM online. (this in the country that people say it is the most free for commerce and most depend on technology, and that started this Internet thing)

To: ms.smartest.person who wrote (589)	8/21/2001 2:58:31 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 615

We need one place where we can explode this 50-megaton atomic device without harming people at home. With A and H bombs it was done in the Bikini atoll. Then if the design worked it could be used. Brazil is the Bikini atoll of the Internet. Get that thing to a place people mistrust governments and big corporations. Give them a possibility to throw some stones against those guys they don't like. (never mind that GM is a big corporation). The important thing is the result. It was tested and the design worked. emarketer.com I wrote a letter to Ericsson president telling him that 3G is about what I call "computerless" access. I told him forget about getting a device that Finnish people or Swedish will use to go form one airport to the other on his way to a conference to show his power point slides. Just get this in the hands of the poor guys over there and you make a lot of money. Or does anyone thing that Nestle makes money selling milk products for US and European babies? My wife want to get to Brazil and offer Internet access to the poorest people. I said: "They don't have money!". She said: "But the poorer the people, the more honest they are there. They always pay their bills." I think she has a point.