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E-COMMERCE AS A PROPORTION OF 1998 AND PREDICTED 2002 GDP61998520024%3210UK US GermanyJapan FranceSource: International Data Corporation, OECD Figure 4.4TOTAL INTERNET COMMERCE BY COUNTRY SHARE OF EUROPE, YEAR END 1998Finland 2% Sweden 5% Norway 2%UK 25%Denmark 2%Netherlands 6%Ireland 1%Greece 1%Portugal 1%Spain 3%Italy 7%France 7%Austria 3%Switzerland 3%Belgium 2%Germany 30%Source: International Data Corporation Figure 4.5How does the UK performby company size?4.10 The DTI Spectrum benchmarking studyprovides a helpful insight into e-commerceactivity by company size. Figure 4.6 illustratesan extract from this study. UK performanceworsens sharply as company size is reduced.Large and medium-sized UK companies are,on average, performing well, but small andmicro firms are lagging behind. Chapter nineexplores the particular impact of relativelyhigh, peak time, UK network access chargeson such small companies. The relativeweakness in small companies is a particularthreat as some 70 – 80% of e-commercerevenues are expected to involve such smallor micro companies either in business tobusiness or business to consumer roles.E-commerce@its.best.uk21