n his keynote speech at CeBIT, IBM Chairman Lou Gerstner (above) talked about the blinding growth of Internet use in the "networked economy" -- 60 million folks using the Net now, maybe as many as 500 million in that global village within a few years. "What will all those connected people do?" Gerstner asked. "What will they want to do?"
Until recently, the answer was simple: communicate. Around the world, people last year sent five times as many email messages (2.7 trillion) as pieces of paper mail. But as its contents deepen, the Internet is becoming truly interactive, the first source to look for, and choose, almost any kind of information. Lou Gerstner thinks all those connected people will soon want to shop online, too.
Work, shop and buy. In Europe, sales on the Internet, $1 billion last year, are expected to reach $30 billion in just three years. IBM predicts that within two years, Internet commerce will reach $200 billion as companies begin doing more of their business-to-business transactions over the Net.
So how much commerce is being conducted right here, among more than 600,000 keyboard jockies at CeBIT? Estimates have ranged in the billions, but Jorg Schomburg, chairman of CeBIT for the past 20 years, dismisses all such speculation: "Nobody knows this! Companies that are doing extremely well here keep it a big secret from everyone else, and if a company tells you how well it is doing, it is exaggerating! Two billion, four billion, nobody knows, but nearly everyone here is here for doing business."
-- Janice Castro
n his keynote speech at CeBIT,