Western European Ecommerce Worth €309bn, Says EITO Report

Currently business to business (B2B) spend accounts for the majority of western European ecommerce revenues, at 87% (â‚Ź270 billion); business to consumer (B2C) picks up the remaining 13%.

EITO forecasts that this ratio will remain the same through to 2006, when the total ecommerce market will be worth â‚Ź2,224 billion.

Information, communications and technology The EITO annual report covers the worldwide information, communications and technology (ICT) industry and shows that revenues rose by just 1.2% to â‚Ź2,153 billion in 2002. This is the lowest growth rate since 1994, according to the figures.

EITO says that the years 2001 and 2002 will not be missed by many, being characterised as a ‘painful convergence of many negative events’. Despite this, the last two years have been the conclusion of an ‘extraordinary’ ICT business cycle started in the 1990s. The group says that this cycle has been based on ‘revolutions’ in technology, regulations and usage.

New communications technologies, notably broadband systems, are driving toward ‘ubiquitous computing’, with a mass use of applications and internet services now reaching consumers and businesses.

In 2003, global ICT market growth is forecast to rise to 4.5% and then to 5.7% in 2004, by which time it will be worth â‚Ź2,378 billion, as shown.

Western Europe The western European ICT market was essentially flat year on year in 2002, with a growth of just 0.2% to â‚Ź592 billion. This year is expected to show growth of 2.5%, rising to 4.1% in 2004, according to the report.

For a summary of the EITO’s 2001 report click Ecommerce, Technology, IT And Internet Forecasts From EITO.