Abstract
The author assumes that the time has arrived when conflicts, in economic terms, among the three principal participants in the online information area must be considered inevitable. At this point, the database producers, the vendors, and the end-users must attempt to identify a compromise solution under which all parties will be able to carry out effectively their respective functions, and in some measure to safeguard their positions. The present paper deals at some length with the historically conditioned perspectives and practical approaches of the three parties here involved. After a review of the background to the current situation, the author discusses first the pricing strategies of the producers, and the various factors which have contributed to determining these strategies. There follow then a consideration of the pricing and marketing approaches adopted by vendors, and an examination of the ‘buying strategies’ exercised by users. Users' perceptions are in part, one must recognize, influenced by the advanced technology (e.g. for telecommunication, data-capturing) now available. Cost-factors for the various components of online information provision, revenue-sources among these components, and a combination of the two aspects are presented in schematic form, in order to make clear how it is that a basis for conflict exists. Moreover, we may note that the demarcations between the traditional roles of the three parties are breaking down – a process which leads to economic uncertainty and an atmosphere of disharmony.