文档介绍：The Development of merce
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merce ing of age, says Paul Markillie, but not in the way predicted in the bubble years
When the technology bubble burst in 2000, the crazy valuations for panies vanished with it, and many businesses folded. The survivors plugged on as best they could, encouraged by the growing number of users. Now valuations are rising again and some of the s are making real profits, but the business world has e much more cautious about the ’s potential. The funny thing is that the wild predictions made at the height of the boom—namely, that vast chunks of the world economy would move into cyberspace—are, in one way or another, coming true.
The raw numbers tell only part of the story. According to America’s Department merce, online retail sales in the world’s biggest market last year rose by 26%, to $55 billion. That sounds a lot of money, but it amounts to only % of total retail sales. The vast majority of people still buy most things in the good old “bricks-and-mortar” world.
But merce department’s figures deal with only part of the retail industry. For instance, they exclude online travel services, one of the most essful and fastest-growing sectors of merce. InterActiveCorp (IAC), the owner of and , alone sold $10 billion-worth of travel last year—and it has plenty petition, not least from airlines, hotels and car-panies, all of which increasingly sell