In recent weeks, the article "The Internet is a flop!" from Dagens Næringsliv in 1996 has been spreading like wildfire on the internet. Here is the story behind it.
On August 20, 1996, the much-discussed post was printed in Dagens Næringsliv. Contrary to what many believe, it was not a journalist at the newspaper who made the bold prediction. It was instead a reader's contribution on the debate pages of the newspaper.
The author of "The Internet is a flop!" was Leif Osvold. He has for years been an engaged newspaper reader and written countless contributions in newspapers' debate columns with opinions on many topics.
In the famous chronicle, Osvold goes hard against the predictions that the internet would ever dominate daily life. Instead, he presents his own theory: "The Internet is a flop; that is, a 'fad' that will die out in a couple of years," he wrote in the chronicle.
He justified the internet's death with three reasons. But what may have resonated with some readers at the time makes most people smile today: (...) "none of the actors on the net will make money by positioning themselves there with their offerings," "private use of the net will be marginal," "and the amount of information on the net will become so enormous that it will create frustratingly large search problems, and thus user dropout."
Osvold didn't stop there; the topic was also addressed in a new letter to the editor two years later.
In 1998, he claimed that the prediction was now proving to be correct.
"It is quite natural that the use of the internet has now stagnated and is beginning to decline. I have predicted this for a long time, as the only person in Norway, and been laughed at. The initial curiosity has now settled, and people have become tired of searching more or less aimlessly on the net," Osvold wrote then.
Dagens Næringsliv's archives show that the post was quickly followed up by other letters to the editor that refuted that internet usage was stagnating.
And the engaged debater continued the following year. In 1999, he was published with several more gloomy predictions about the internet.
"The predictions that the net will become as commonly used as other media have lost their credibility," Osvold wrote and added that the internet will never become a "people's medium."
Osvold tells dn.no that he has heard about the email that is spreading like wildfire on the internet these days and that he feels singled out. He only wants to give one comment to dn.no: - My only comment is that I was thoroughly wrong back then, says Osvold to dn.no.
The original article was published in Dagens Næringsliv October 25th, 2005.
Source image: osvold_tilbakeblikk.jpg
The Norwegian text has been automatically translated to English.
Please send an email if you notice any factual errors compared to the Norwegian version.