Marketers who perceive the Net merely as the "World White Web" are missing the point. And potential profits. The so-called digital divide-the gap between technology haves and have-nots-remains a fact, with those on the "have" side disproporrionatcly white.    Last year, Caucasians accounted tir roughly 76 percent of the Net population, while representing 71 percent of the total U'.S. population, according to New York's eMarketer. Blacks and L..atinos accounted for 12 percent and 10 percent. respectively, of the U.S. population the same year, but represented just 9 percent and 8 percent of the Net's users.    But research also shows these numbers are rapidly changing, and that those minorities already on the Web constitute a large and lucrative customer base. eMarketer estimates that some $5.7 billion in online shopping revenue could come from black, Latino, and Asian American con-sumers, when last year's numbers are finally tallied. That should amount to 14 percent of the total spent last year. By 2004, eMarkerer projects that figure will reach $24.5 billion, an increase of 330 percent. Forresrer Research, meanwhile, found that African American households spent an average of $225 online for the last three months of 1999, while Latino households spent $254-the same as white house-holds. And Asian Americans out-spent all other groups, with an average of $331 in ecommerce purchases during the same three months. What's more, Jupiter Research estimates that by 2005 Internet penetration among African American and Latino households in the United Stares will start to approximate that of white households, and Asian Americans will continue to surpass all groups, with a projected 84 percent Internet penetration. "The Internet audience is no longer as homogenous as we've seen in the last few years," says Claudine Thompson, a senior analyst with eMarketer. "Soon it's going to be a mirror image of the US. population at large. Marketing executives should be focusing on statistics such as these-and not the divide, says Omar Wasow, executive director of New York-based BlackPlaner.com, a year-old community site for African Americans that averages 300 million pageviews per month. "We should be thinking more in ternis of digital dividend than digital divide," Wasow says. "The digital divide has distracted people from the hungry market already on the Internet. The digital dividend is the realization that the Net represents new opportunities for businesses and people of color." Full spectrum Col. Rodney Davis, director of marketing and public affairs for Army ROTC, is one marketer already focused on those dividends. "We want to reach the entire ethnic spec-trum," he says. "The Web is a cost.-effective way to target all groups." Davis says he has committed 6 percent of the Army ROTC's marketing budget to online initiatives during the current school year, with roughly 50 percent of that ear-marked for appealing to minorities. In mid-September, the first of these campaigns began appearing on ethnic-oriented sites such as Community Connect's AsianAvenuecom, a site for Asian Americans; StarMedia Network, which focuses on Latinos inside and outside the United States; and iMinoriries, a job site for people of color. Links on the ROTC's revamped homepage and banner ads at these sires take visitors to minisites specially targeted to the relevant minority population. For instance, Davis explains, the Larino site is in Spanish, since Spanish is the more common language among potential young recruits and their parents. "We want to stay ahead of the curve," says Davis, who plans to increase online spending this year. "Clearly, if you're marketing in this day and rime, you've got to use the Web, particularly when you consider the demographic trends online. Another initiative targeting minorities is an online partnership between African American portal BET.com and Fannie Mae, the natiods largest source of finds to lenders for residenrial mortgages. BET.com, the online subsidiary of BET Holdings, backed by $35 million from Microsoft and USA Networks, joined with Fannie Mae last year. (BET Holdings is being acquired by media conglomerate Viacom.) The partnership is Fannie Mae's first major online marketing effort targeting minorities, even though Fannie Mae is very active in the online mortgage market. During the past rhree decades, the govern-ment-chartered institution has provided nearly $2.8 trillion in mortgage financing for more than 34 million fahiilies. The multiyear partnership includes a newly created HomeCenter minisite on BET.com that's intended to simplify the home mortgage process. In mid-September, a radio campaign launched to promote the HomeCenter in the 15 largest African American markets. Thus far, the HomeCenter has generared "a very attractive level of traffic," according to Scott Mills, BET.com's COO. The HomeCenter offers practical tips, such as explaining the implications of different interest rates and suggestions on how to evaluate, manage, and protect one's credit history. The information is geared to address concerns specific to African Americans. For example, consumer testing has found that as a group African Americans tend not to initiate the mortgage application process for fear of being rejected. "It's really important with communities of color to invite them to have a voice. By Fahiym Ratcliffe    To combat that fear, the site offers an appli-cation process that allows users to anony-mously input a financial profile-income, expenses, type of home desired-and then tells users the likelihood of approval.    "I'm watching this deal with great excitement, says Lary Tuckett, director of ethnic marketing at Luminant Worldwide, an Internet consulting firm with a client roster that includes IBM, MasterCard, and United Airlines. "It hits on all the points I think make for effectively using the Web to reach minority groups.    In particular, Tuckett likes that the marketing effort is designed to build minority communities, not just advertise to them. "You can't just fly through a community and throw supplies out the window and then expect to build loyal customers," he says. "Minority groups typically ignored by online advertisers could perceive marketing cam-paigns as insensitive or patronizing. We call it e-drive-by marketing." Have a conversation While minority-oriented affinity sites such as BET.com offer one viable way to reach these population segments, multicultural marketing can be part of more mainstream strategies as well. That's because, at least for the moment, minority Internet users tend to be a well-heeled and well-educated group.    "At this particular time, the reality is that a large percentage of minority users are middle-to upper-class individuals," says eMarketer's Thompson. "Therefore the tastes and what they're looking for on the Internet larel similar to the tastes and patterns that reflect the general population."    Thompson says advertisers creating campaigns for mainstream vendors should modify their content to include minorities. "It needs to be reflective of the multicultural tapestry, so as not to alienate minorities," she says. How? Thompson notes that it can be as simple as featuring photos of nonwhite people in advertising, or offering an ad in another language, such as Spanish.    Marketers already acquainted with the concerns of minorities insist that communication will be key to acquiring more diverse users and customers. "A lot of marketers online are good at monologues but not dialogues," says BlackPlanet's Wasow. "It's really important, particularly with communities of color where people have felt marginalized from mainstream messages, to invite them to have a voice."    One way to accomplish this, Wasow says, would be to sponsor areas at a site where people can offer feedback via surveys or chat groups. 'For me the model is like amateur night at the Apollo [Theater in New Yorkl. It's showtime at the Internet. You really want the audience to participate-to cheer the good stuff boo the bad," he says. "If marketers can get good at having a conversation then they'll be in much better shape."