AMI Partners Releases New Japan Research Findings: Net Access Among Small Businesses to Grow 3X Faster than Hiring this Year.

Business Editors

NOTE TO MEDIA: Graphs and Charts are available in a Smart News

Release(TM) on Business Wire's Home Page at www.businesswire.com

and at www.newstream.com

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 5, 2001

Japan's Struggles Force many SBs to Seek Answers in Technology

Road To Recovery Will Prove Difficult In 2001 For Japan and Other

APAC Countries Where Overall GDP Growth Is Marginal

But a Tactical Optimism Evident in Overall Tech Spending Outlook

Japanese Small Businesses have faced difficult challenges during the past decade's recessionary environment. One tactical way forward, many have decided, lies in expanded Internet and networking technologies, according to the annual Asia Pacific Small Business Market Study released today by Access Markets International (AMI)-Partners, Inc.

Japan SBs have fallen behind their global counterparts over the past several years, for example, Internet penetration is a mere 41% among Japan SBs compared to the US (62%) and Germany (64%). Additionally, Web site penetration among SBs in Japan is 11%, much lower than in the US and Germany, where penetration rates have reached 22% and 25% of total SBs, respectively.

Total Internet spending in Japan by Small Businesses reached $5.3 Billion in 1999, just 9% of the country's nearly $60 Billion total IT spending (including telecom related expenditures--see Figure 1). But AMI's research shows that the recession is pressuring many firms to make investments in newer technologies that the normally cautious Japanese SB might not otherwise make. Findings show that SBs in Japan, rather than add new staff members, are instead expanding Internet access to their existing staffs--adding web-capable "seats" three times faster than new staff (see Figure 2).

"With a recession that has plagued Japan through the 1990's, Small Businesses have come to see an expanded Internet solution as a way to promote top line growth, while in countries such as Australia, a healthier economic environment and lower dependence on external markets allows for more traditional expansion," said Bill Staikos, Senior Consultant for AMI-Partners, an industry-leading authority on IT, Internet and communications services and products for the global SMB segment.

But a Tactical Optimism Evident in New Overall Tech Spending

Outlook

AMI's report indicates that Japan SBs, while still hunkered down, can see imminent growth, and are preparing with a tactical approach. One positive for Japan's SB Internet population is that vast numbers have some form of broadband connection, making the implementation for expanded, enterprise-type solutions such as the ASP model more viable in the near future. Additionally, commercial cellular phone use is spilling over into the business sector, evolving into one of the hottest cellular markets in the world.

Finally, planned use of e-Purchasing will be up considerably over the next 12 months, according to AMI (see Figure 3). Products and services that were not part of online purchasing last year were Accounting Services, Loans and Corporate Cash Management, Marketing/PR services and Computing products--all of which are showing very strong interest going forward.

AMI believes that Japan's growth will resume during its current forecast period, and that SBs will be able to capture this growth. Currently AMI sees IT spending, excluding telecom, growing at a 16% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in Japan through 2004.

"I think that Japan SBs are playing their cards very well right now. They understand the need for cautious investment, but they are also building a foundation within their businesses that will be able to capitalize on a revitalized economy," said Mr. Staikos.

About AMI-Partners' Global SMB Market Study

The Japan SB market size is estimated at 1.63 million. SBs include non-home based companies with fewer than 100 employees. The majority (over 67%) of SBs have fewer than 10 employees. For the study, AMI-Partners contacted more than 100,000 SMBs in six leading countries. Approximately, 3,500 participated in a comprehensive survey process based on a nationally representative sample in each country.

About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

(AMI-Partners)

AMI-Partners specializes in IT/Internet communications strategy, venture capital and actionable market intelligence, focused on global Small Medium Business (SMB) enterprises. AMI-Partner's mission is to empower the firm's clients for success with the highest quality data, business planning and "go to market" solutions. AMI-Partners was founded in 1996 under the name of Access Media International (USA), Inc. (AMI-USA) by Andy Bose, formerly a group vice president at IDC. Since that time, the firm has built a world-class management team spanning 10 to 25 years in IT, telecommunications, online communications, and multimedia. The team is comprised of individuals who have formerly built careers at leading companies such as Cablevision, Compaq, IBM, IDC, J.P.Morgan, McKinsey and other industry leading companies.

AMI-Partners has served more than 100 leading Internet, IT, telecom and services companies in the last four years in shaping their go-to-market SMB strategies. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet-adoption-based segmentation of the SMB Markets; for its annual retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys; and for its proprietary database of several thousand SMBs in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey based information with several thousand SMBs globally through the industry's most comprehensive SMB survey instrument and is considered to be the leading benchmark for tracking SMB trends.

For more information on AMI-Partners please visit www.ami-partners.com or call 212-944-5100.

Note: Graphs and charts are available at URL: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.030501/bb1