A bit over half of the country is online, but more than 75% of those users have broadband access. Competition to provide French consumers Internet access and Internet-based phone, TV and even wireless services is transforming the market. These wholesale shifts to new technologies in France make what is happening in the US look like baby steps. |
In assessing the growth of the Internet, and e-commerce in particular, many marketers, as well as many analysts, tend to overlook Germany, often merely lumping it together with the rest of the E-5 countries or Western Europe as a whole. That's a mistake. Germany is the third-largest economy in the world, right behind the US and Japan, and what happens there — and when and why it happens — is vitally important to the growth of the Internet's infrastructure and economy. |
The Japanese economy is on the rebound, and e-commerce is set to benefit. In its deployment of both wired and wireless Internet platforms, and their integration, the county will be a model for the rest of the world to emulate. |