E-commerce Grass Getting Greener
D. Geller - November 9, 1999

Event Summary

A study from the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce at the University of Texas at Austin shows significant growth in all layers of the Internet. The study looked at the Internet economy at the Infrastructure, Application, Intermediary and Commerce layers. Comparing the first quarters of 1998 and 1999, it found an overall growth rate of 68 percent, from $64 billion in Q1 1998 to $108 billion in Q1 1999. The Infrastructure layer, consisting of ISPs and telecomm providers, showed the smallest growth, 'only' 50 percent. The applications infrastructure level, covering development tools and databases, grew at 61 percent. The Intermediary layer, which contains internet pure-play companies like portals, content providers, and advertising networks, grew at 52 percent. The most significant growth, of 127 percent, was in the Commerce layer, where first quarter revenues grew from $16 billion in 1998 to $37.5 billion in 1999...