In brief: European ecommerce set to thrive

BT is predicting a boom in European ecommerce, estimating that eight million companies will be selling their products online by 2003.

According to research commissioned by the UK telco, 40 per cent of all European shopping and business transactions will be conducted on the Internet within the next five years.

However, the report claims US consumers are still ahead of their European counterparts when it comes to buying on the Net. It says a quarter of all American homes carry out ecommerce transactions, a figure that is only 7 per cent in Germany and 6 per cent in the UK.