The Western European countries, led by Germany and the UK, have some of the largest Internet user populations in the world. As you can see in Appendix C, in 2004, the combined Internet populations of Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain totaled 131.5 million, compared to 170.1 million in the US. By 2008 the gap will narrow considerably to 174.6 million versus 188.5 million, as Internet users grow at a 7.3% annual rate in Europe as opposed to a 2.6% rate in the US. The fastest growing online countries in Europe are Italy and Spain.
To conclude, as the Internet, and in turn e-commerce develops, and continues to evolve and grow, it is vital that any organization, in any particular industry, must base it's strategic planning around such a rapidly growing medium. The growth of the Internet is an environmental influence that must be embraced and understood to successfully plan for future business development and marketing implementations. E-commerce has a huge local, national and international impact on organizations. With the global nature of technology, organizations are now able to access millions of people using the interactive abilities of e-commerce. With the technology available today, it is much easier and less costly to move into the national or global marketplace because of the accessibility and speed of information. Information technology has become more and more popular in Europe. After technology improvements, the security of networks has been better and the future looks bright.
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