Net Worth: Shaping Markets When Customers Make the Rules

by John Hagel III, Marc Singer

Net Worth explains how businesses can benefit by forming new partnerships with customers in matters of information capture and privacy. Consumers are losing patience with companies that use personal data about buying habits, income levels, and credit card usage for corporate gain. What consumers need is a new kind of business--an information intermediary or infomediary--to protect customers' privacy while maximizing their information assets. Companies playing the infomediary role will become agents of customer information, marketing such data to businesses on consumers' behalf and protecting consumer privacy. John Hagel, co-author of the bestselling Net Gain , teams with Marc Singer to lay out the underlying economic and competitive dynamics that will foster the emerging business of the infomediary. Net Worth identifies the convergence of commerce, technology, and consumer frustration as the incubator for the infomediary business, as consumers seek to release their personal information only when they can receive value in exchange for their data.

Genres: Business

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Hayashi Sakawa]

Someone might this this book as one of the "bubble-era" text books, but actually it has much insightful ideas and suggestions that's still valuable on today's Web 2.0 scene.

[Daniel]

Net Worth's theme is that the intermediary has the ability to bring true value to consumers as the bridge between those that want and those that have (hence bridging customers and sellers). Although dated to some degree today, this was a decent enough read to keep on my active and recommended shelf.

[Lori Grant]

An optional-read book on managing technology for managers, executives, and entrepreneurs.

[George Jankovic]

Sequel to the better Net Gain. Not as good, but still an interesting read (or rather was back in the late 1990s).