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| IT: "Italiani zero in informatica" | |
| In the report of the Forum for information technology 1998, an in-depth analysis on
the weaknesses and strengths of the multimedia society, it is demonstrated that Italians
are not skilled in telematics applications. In fact, notwithstanding the rapid and high growth rate of new Internet subscribers (about 1000 per day), this does not means that in Italy there is an advanced technological community. In Italy, the so-called "poor technology", consisting of fax, mobile phone and cash machine, is widely common but, there are very few services online, professional jobs networking, online connections between public authorities and citizens, etc. According to the above mentioned report, Italians love traditional automation, but are not confident with immaterial things. In a nutshell, Italians are not favourable to moving from a world in which people exchange things into a world in which people exchange information. Source: Sole 24 Ore February, 20th 1998 |
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| DK: Berlingske and Schibsted in Internet co-operation | |
| The Berlingske House, publisher of two of the major Danish newspapers, has bought 34%
of the company Scandinavia Online. Scandinavia Online is controlled by the Norwegian
company Schibsted ASA. This means that Berlingske Online is expected to become one of the
leading actors on the Danish Internet scene. Scandinavia Online with Berlingske Online
expect to launch several Internet services within the next 12 months: travel, games, a
Business Network, classified, news and sports services. Berlingske Tidende, 14 April 1998 |
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| FR: Electronic business on the Internet in France | |
| The study case «The electronic business on Internet in France» directed by Stratégie
Internet on 60 of the most active market sites in France, reveals that the electronic
business market for the general public represented in 1997 about 40 millions of francs and
doubled every six month and ended up to an amount of 160 million francs in 1998. The analysis makes clear, however, that there are only a hundred sites which make it possible to order online the products on offer. They present catalogues of very variable contents : from 5 products to 60 000 references and, on the other hand, the payment mode mostly used is the simple encoding by «SSL». The sites receive an average of 900 visitors a day and register about 200 orders a month. Their monthly average turn-over is 100 000 FF. Stratégie Internet, March 1998 |
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| FR: France is catching up as concerns the digital products | |
| Digital products ensure, from now on, the development of the general public. In the
lead: telephony and micro-computing products in which France has to catch up. This is the
result of an inquiry made in 1997 by GFK on the markets of general public electronics. The most important growth has been achieved by specialised distributors of telecommunications with +55%, this is to say much more than sales points specialised in micro-computing (+28%). The telephone lagged behind until 1996 but is catching up nowadays. GFK forecasts that it will reach the European average level end of 1998. These results intersect those obtained by other inquiries which indicate that the GSM has achieved 52% new subscribers in 1997 against 40% in 1996. Today the number of GSM subscribers in the world reaches 100 to 120 Million (depending on the origin of the information). |
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| France: The rate of the French connected to Internet has doubled | |
| Following the multimedia barometer of «Publimétrie/Ceritex» the rate of the French
connected to Internet has doubled in one year. By February 1998 4% of them have declared
having used the Internet at home, against 2% in March 1997 and 1% in September 1996. In terms of the rate of homes equipped with micro-computers, the proportion changed from 21% in 1995 to 27% in the beginning of 1998. The purchase criteria recorded a change which is a signal for a more important familiarisation with the multimedia : the technology (55%) comes amply before the price (18%) or the notoriety of the trademark (5%). A contradiction appears, however, in the answers because one out of ten equipped French does not know whether he has a PC or a Mac and 30% of them ignore the power of the processor. |
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| France: April 1998 | |
| In April 1998 more than 697 000 individual accounts for access to the Internet
(payable and free) have been connected according to the members of the AFA. Since January 1998 150 000 accounts have thus joined the 540 000 which already have one and which represent a total of 950 000 physical persons who are connected (following the studies carried out on this subject). After a progress estimated at 35% in five months - from September 1997 to January 1998, the development rhythm of access to the Internet in France has grown to 29% during these last three months. However, the beginning of the year normally is a period of lower activity in the multimedia sector. At the same time, monthly traffic has grown from 40 000 hours up to 5 200 000 hours, which represents a progress of 30%. These very positive results forebode very well the development of the Internet for the next school year as well as for Christmas, both of which being occasions for families to equip their homes with multimedia material whose prices are becoming increasingly attractive. |
Additional Information, Comments, Remarks welcome to: info@meso.odl.org
last updated: 07/08/98
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