Web sites of the Fortune 500 companies: Facing customers through home pages

The growing popularity of the information superhighway has opened up exciting opportunities for companies looking to, not only maintain their current customer base, but also to reach new customers. One of the most popular methods to enter into cybermarketing has been to establish a home page or Web site on the Internet. Almost two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies currently maintain home pages on the Web. An analysis of the content of corporate home pages provides useful insights. Over four-fifths of the companies display products and services (93.2%) and company overview (86.1%) information. Roughly three-fourths of the companies present interactive feedback (79.3%) and what's new (71.1%). Less than one-third (26.2%) of Fortune 500 companies provide for online business. An analysis of the data also provides valuable insight into the future trends of home page usage by large business organizations. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.