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COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM March 1998/Vol. 41, No. 3 35 access to geographically diverse communities and customer groups. Instantaneous exchange of up-todate information about products, services, and market transactions is facilitated, as well as efficient collection of information about customer communities’ specific needs, interests, and demographics. This augurs well for individual customization in a global mass marketing setting, an advantage other channels cannot easily replicate. With the rapid increase in the number of online users, there are two distinct types of marketers that are moving rapidly to capitalize on this growth. The first type is companies, both established and start-ups, that are setting up their Web presence in order to leverage their new channels to gain competitive advantage in marketing products and services. The second type is companies that generate, collect, process, and …