International study concerning the worldwide Internet, e-commerce and ICT markets/leadership of North America in terms of ICT revenues/key position of Europe and Germany in Internet and e-commerce

The research project,,Monitoring Information Economics" is carried out on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology by the Information and Documentation Division of NFO Infratest (Munich) in cooperation with the Institute for Information Economics (Hattingen): The fourth Factual Report is an international benchmark study, which describes the past, present and future position of the new economy in Germany, Europe and the USA with key indicators until 2003.26 percent of the data include predictions partly until 2010;41 percent of the data are additionally presented as time series (e.g. 1999-2005), thus showing trends and developments; the most important quantitative data are visualised in 436 charts. In addition, the annually updated Trend Report complements this analysis by polling German experts obtaining a detailed and comprehensive picture of opinions and moods in the new economy and detecting new developments there. The combination of these reports gives not only an overview of current and future developments but also indicates severe deficiencies and precise call for action. This article summarizes the major findings.