E-commerce ecstacy

CEOs meet to formulate global Web policy

By RICHARD KATZ

A group of CEOs from leading companies, among them Time Warner chairman Gerald Levin and America Online's Steven Case, announced Thursday the formation of a committee designed to foster the development of electronic commerce around the world.

Among other things, the Global Business Dialogue on E-Commerce was created to fight government regulations that could potentially impede the young booming business of sales via the Internet.

"The object is to become the global voice of industry for the future development of e-commerce," said Bertelsmann president and CEO Thomas Middelhoff, another member of the steering committee.

Other CEOs on the committee include Gustavo Cisneros of the Cisneros Group, Lewis Platt of Hewlett Packard, Louis Gerstner of IBM, Bert Roberts of MCI Worldwide and James Barksdale of Netscape.

Global representation

The GBDe is made up of CEOs from three different parts of the world -- the Americas, Asia/Pacific and Europe/Africa -- each of which is given equal power within the committee.

The group has set a three-month goal of formulating policy initiatives on the issues of taxation, privacy and consumer data protection, Middelhoff said.

Major corporations are so interested in these issues because e-commerce has quickly emerged as one of the world's fastest-growing industries.

Online sales skyrocketing

Internet sales totaled $8 billion in 1998. By 2003, consumer sales on the Internet will grow to $108 billion, according to Kate Delhagen, an analyst with Forrester Research.

"The Internet is coming of age, and e-commerce is becoming part of everyday life, but it's still small enough where it can still be shaped," Case said.

One GBDe goal is to guard against local governments that pass laws restricting how companies can operate on the Web.

"A side benefit (of the GBDe) will be to put a global framework to local regulations," said Case.

Self-regulation the way

While Levin said that the committee does not as a policy oppose government regulation of the Internet and e-commerce, Bertelsmann's Middelhoff said, "The best way to resolve key issues and preserve future growth is self-regulation."

In a separate announcement, Time Warner said that it had appointed Michael Pepe as president, Time Warner E-Commerce.

Pepe was most recently president of Time Inc.'s Business Information Group. He will report to Don Logan, chairman and CEO of Time Inc.