Despite dot-com shakeout, European Internet commerce growing steadily.

According to IDC, 117 million Europeans around 30% of the entire population, were using the Intemet at the end of 2000. This figure is set to increase to 233 million by the end of 2004, representing almost 60% of the entire population. Despite the much publicized dot-com shakeout and economic slowdown, Internet commerce continues to grow and is expected to surpass $1 trillion by 2004.

The dot-com shakeout has done nothing for the reputation of the Interact and ebusiness as a whole; however, it has allowed both consumers and companies to develop more realistic expectations of what can be accomplished using the Internet, Virtues such as profitability and efficiency are finally becoming widespread in the virtual world and the collapse of certain dot-coms may actually help ebusinesses achieve more sustainable development in the future.

According to IDC, the business-to-consumer (B2C) sector saw promising growth last year, with European consumers spending $12.2 billion online, which is double that of the year before. However, these growth rates are unlikely to be carried over to the near future, although the business-to-business (B2B) sector will drive ecommerce as a whole, despite the apparent economic slowdown. New business models, such as emarketplaces and eprocurement, are helping to make B2B ecommerce increasingly relevant to decision-makers who previously found it hard to relate to a direct sales model. 'Intemet Usage and Commerce in Western Europe ', 2000- 2004 sizes and forecasts the Internet commerce market and includes the number of Internet users, Intemet buyers, and Web-access devices. Data and forecasts are segmented .by country and by access location (home, work, and school/public access). In addition, Internet commerce data and forecasts are segmented by B2C and both B2B process and end use.

www.idc.com