Net Worth - by John Hagel & Marc Singer (Hardcover)

About the Book

Consumers already recognize the need to protect their privacy when using the Internet. This visionary book constructs a new business model around the infomediary--brokers or intermediaries that help customers maximize the value of their personal data--and reveals the coming battle among infomediaries for customers' trust and private information.

Book Synopsis

Net Worth explains how businesses can benefit by forming new partnerships with customers in matters of information capture and privacy. Consumers are losing patience with companies that use personal data about buying habits, income levels, and credit card usage for corporate gain. What consumers need is a new kind of business--an information intermediary or infomediary--to protect customers' privacy while maximizing their information assets. Companies playing the infomediary role will become agents of customer information, marketing such data to businesses on consumers' behalf and protecting consumer privacy. John Hagel, co-author of the bestselling Net Gain, teams with Marc Singer to lay out the underlying economic and competitive dynamics that will foster the emerging business of the infomediary. Net Worth identifies the convergence of commerce, technology, and consumer frustration as the incubator for the infomediary business, as consumers seek to release their personal information only when they can receive value in exchange for their data.

About the Author

John Hagel III is a principal in McKinsey & Company, Inc.'s Silicon Valley office and a leader of the firm's Interactive Multimedia Practice. He is the coauthor of the bestselling book Net Gain: Expanding Markets through Virtual Communities.