Price Waterhouse Predicts Explosive E-Commerce Growth

Price Waterhouse released its annual Technology Forecast this week predicting a massive increase in business conducted via the Internet.

The consulting firm’s leading technology industry experts said explosive growth in electronic commerce over the next three years will have a significant impact on large and small businesses, workers, and consumers.

“While Web sites dedicated to consumer sales gain most of the publicity, the
real growth is occurring in business-to-business electronic commerce,”
explained Terry Retter, Director of Strategic Technology. “Between 1996 and
1997, business-to-business trade doubled every six months and this is
accelerating to double every 3-4 months in 1998. By 2002, the value of
goods and services traded via the Internet will increase to $434 billion.”

Retter said the world-wide growth in e-commerce is being fueled by a
combination of increased Internet access, user confidence, better payment
systems, and rapidly improving Internet/Web security.

The value of consumer purchases via the Internet is expected to increase
nearly 1,800 percent between 1997 and 2002, from $5 billion to $94 billion.

The 750-page study also presents a comprehensive overview of the global
information technology industry, including current and emerging trends, and
forecasts technology developments over the next three years.

The report will be available on demand on the Price Waterhouse Web site beginning March 30th.