|
E-commerce to erupt
|
 |
June 19, 2000: 11:25 a.m. ET
European business to generate sales growth of 800%, Microsoft report says
|
LONDON (CNNfn) - European small and mid-sized businesses are expected to see sales from online commerce surge 800 percent to  3.2 billion ($3 billion) by 2003, as increasing numbers of firms turn to packaged software applications to take advantage of the Internet, according to report released Monday.
According to a study by Microsoft Corp. and research agency Datamonitor, businesses across the continent are quickly building a Web presence to generate online awareness of their goods and services. In Germany 600 more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) move to an online environment every day.
Still, of the 2 million SMEs online in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands, only 5,000 are equipped to handle online payments. Together they generated transactions worth 409m in 1999, the report said.
The report also found that the packaged software industry in 1999 contributed a total of 37.8 billion to gross domestic product and 13.2 billion in tax revenues to the six European economies in the survey.
The industry had a strong impact on employment. Last year it accounted for three quarters of a million jobs, either directly or indirectly, in the combined six countries, a figure that is expected to grow to over 1 million by 2003.
Specifically, the sector was directly responsible for the creation of 154,000 jobs, with 118,000 jobs on the supply side, such as in manufacturing and printing, indirectly attributable to the industry.
Wages paid to workers in the packaged software business in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK were between 73 percent and 87 percent above the average wage of in their respective markets.
The average wage of a packaged software worker was at 54,700, compared with the Western European average of 30,000. Wealth is highly concentrated around the more industrialized regions, such as Paris and the Ile de France, Amsterdam, southeast England, southern Sweden and northwest Italy, the report said. 
|
|
|
Microsoft
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
.
