he next five years. In 1998, approximately $77 billion was spent through commercial trading over the Internet (France, 1999). Using the web sites www.forrester.com www.nielsenmedia.com www.zonaresearch.com and www.jup.com the following data has been composed: Of the 17 countries studied, 94 per cent of purchase volume will be focused in five countries: France, Germany, Japan, UK and USA The US represents 59 per cent of volume with Europe and Asia Pacific each representing nearly 20 per cent (Figure 1) Figure 1: E-commerce Use The services and manufacturing sectors will be the largest users of Internet technologies to carry out commercial transactions, followed by government/education, financial services, and retail trade While medium (50-249 employees) and very large (500+ employees) businesses have the highest volumes, small businesses (1-49 employees) will see the fastest 39 per cent of purchases will be from businesses providing maintenance, repair and operational services such as temporary and janitorial services, training classes and office supplies. Some 12 per cent will be travel related purchases, such as booking business flights and hotels History of E-commerce Electronic commerce was built on a foundation that was started more than 125 years ago with Western Union's money transfer as an example of telegraph technology. In the early 1900’s the advent of credit cards as a payment system revolutionized the process of automated commerce functions. In the mid 1980’s the introduction of the ATM card was the latest improvement to electronic commerce. The Internet was conceived in 1969 when the Department of Defense began funding the research of computer networking. The Internet, as a means for commerce, did not become reality until the 1990’s. Before this time, it was mainly a tool for the army, and a research device for some American universities. Its popularity grew when it proved to become a fast and efficie...
