Now internet stocks, they were going through the roof earlier this year until they ran into their recent difficulties. So the question is: has the bubble finally burst? So Katie, first of all, what drove these prices up so high in the first place?

Well, all the hype about theinternet would have attracted some investors (inspectors )looking for a quick profit, but I think the real driving force has been (is being) the fact that demand has far exceeded a limited supply. There were only a handful of internet share offers last year so opportunities to jump onto the internet bandwagon have been limited.

And all this is despite the fact they(that) are far from what you’d call a safe investment?

Absolutely yes.

But what about good old profits? Do they match the performance of the share prices?

Well, this is what( they * works )so fascinating, take Amzon.com, for example, the internet bookseller, they have a market value of $18 billion, turnover in excess ＄1 billion, and yet they haven’t even reached the break-even point. Apart (A power )from a couple of companies such as Yahoo！ and American Online, most of them are a long long way away from making any kind of profit whatsoever, never mind the huge profits everyone’s hoping for.

So why on earth is everyone so keen to invest in them?

Well, they are very trendy, and of course, there is always the brand factor, which is another reason. Companies like Yahoo! and American Online now enjoy incredibly high brand awareness, but the real attraction is the tremendous potential for future revenue, particularly from advertising. Yahoo! already has 144 million page hits (pay *) a day and nearly 2000 advertisers. And with internet usage (user) expected to double within 5 years, advertising spending is bound to increase.

But then how do analysts value these companies?

Well, it’s not easy, they have few assets(essay)in the traditional sense and they all show (there are also) phenomenal growth in terms of turnover, so analysts are having to rely on alternative yardsticks (the artistic) to compare them.

Such as…?

Such as things like audience reach, Lycos, another search engine like Yahoo!, saw its shares (it )jump by more than a third recently when figures came out saying it reached 45% of all whole internet users.

So, let’s turn to the recent collapse in these shares prices. Has the bubble finally burst?

Well, we were due a (work *)sell-off, so it’s not surprising that shareholders took advantage of the recent sharp rises. But I think what’s really depressed prices is the flood of internet companies that have floated recently and saturated the market with their shares. It seems that supply and demand (amount) are now leveling out. In fact, several companies have even seen their shares slide(slight) below the offer price. Yes, enthusiasm does seem to be cooling.

Well, it seems to me that anyone investing in internet shares is in for a bit of a rollercoaster ride (influencing the *). So just why is the market so volatile?

Well, it’s a very young market, don’t forget. And many companies have been listed for only a couple of months. Also, a lot of people who invest in these stocks actually use the Internet to trade on-line. Without the brokers’ commission, they can afford to buy in and out of(and now to) stocks several times a day. This makes the market very sensitive to any breaking news (youth). And I think it’s this responsiveness which makes it so volatile.

So, Katie, the big question, what’s market going to do next?

Well, Richard, that’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Some of the prices being paid do reflect the value of these companies so I can’t really (wait to) see prices falling much more. Although confidence will return, enthusiasm is cooling so don’t expect to see prices soaring in the near future.

So how do you see the future for (of) companies in this sector?

Well, I think the sector is going to see lots of consolidation activity as the bigger players look to buy talent and market share. Lycos, for example, has just acquired HotBot, one of its rivals. We’ll also see one or two large established non-Internet companies looking to enter the market. The giant Germany publisher Bertelsmann, for example, has just entered into a joint-venture with US bookseller　Bames and Nobel(of novel) to challenge Amazon’s dominance on the Net. And if the internet continueｓ to grow like it is, then a few of these companies are bound to see substantial returnｓ on their investments.

New words

hype

n天花乱坠的广告宣传

bandwagon

n.

乐队花车, 流行

jump on the bandwagon

赶时髦，一窝蜂作风

yardstick

n.

码尺

标准；准绳

We need a yardstick for health.

我们需要一个有关健康的标准。

Do you judge other children by the same yardstick as your own?

你用同样的标准衡量你的孩子和其他孩子吗？

sell-off

n.

证券的跌价