Prognosen zum E-Commerce - Ungewissheiten über das zukünftige Potenzial des elektronischen Handels
AbstractE-Commerce - an application of the internet - has expanded exponentially over the past five years and is widely expected to continue to develop rapidly. The potential of electronic commerce has caught the imaginations of politicians and business people. Yet, it is difficult to measure the current (and future) magnitude of e-commerce. Even more challenging is trying to assess the value of transactions within the latter, since defining what constitutes electronic commerce has proven to be somewhat intricate. A number of consulting groups, however, has published estimates of e-commerce transactions. These projections will be discussed in this paper. Furthermore, the paper shows that the future potential of e-commerce is uncertain, and points out that political authorities have to take this into account when considering prospective regulations for this industry.