| “ | In 1995, in The Road Ahead, I used the term friction-free capitalism to describe how the Internet was helping to create Adam Smith's ideal marketplace, in which buyers and sellers can easily find one another without taking much time or spending much money. Finding the other interested party is the first problem in most markets. The second is understanding the nature and quality of the goods and services being offered. The Internet make it easy for a buyer to get background information about a product-how it's rated by consumer organizations or other independent reviews-and to compare prices easily. Buyers can also tell sellers more about their requirements, and sellers will be able to target their wares to the people most interested and to cross-sell related products. | ” |
| — Bill Gates (1955) Business @ the Speed of Thought , 1999 |
