• by Masha Geller , July 31, 2001

eMarketer released their latest eGlobal Report today, and based on data collected from more than 100 research organizations, worldwide Internet usage continues to grow.

Online spending, however, has been adversely affected by today's uncertain economic climate. Especially Europe, which just six months ago was the Internet forerunner, is now strongly feeling the effects of a slowed worldwide economy.

The eGlobal Report cites a number of indicators - from the US Census Department B2C revenue figures to the value of items sold on eBay - illustrating an overall slowdown in the growth of online shopping.

"The B2C slowdown is particularly troubling for European retailers and mobile operators banking on m-commerce applications to boost sales," notes senior analyst Nevin Cohen.

"In reality, WAP technology remains impractical and consumers have been cool to the concept of mobile surfing, except for messaging and email. The future growth of e-commerce," continues Cohen, "will be driven by the B2B segment, which will account for 87% of all e-commerce and amount to $2.8 trillion by 2004."

The report does show that that despite the slowing economy, the global appeal of the Internet continues to draw more people online, with the number of active users worldwide increasing 28% annually since 2000 -- reaching 640 million in year 2004.

The US leads with more than 100 million adult Internet users, but Northern Europe continues to be more thoroughly networked, with 65% of the population in countries such as Sweden online.