9. According to Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Sweden has overtaken US in terms of “e-readiness,” defined as “the extent to which a country’s business environment is ready for Internet-based commercial opportunities… Ranking is based on factors such as connectivity and technology infrastructure, business environment, consumer and business adoption, social and cultural infrastructure, and legal and policy environment and support services.” They attribute downturn in US economy for new dominance by Scandinavian countries in particular.

10. 580 million people worldwide now have Internet access, as opposed to 563 million in 3rd quarter of 2002. Leaders: The US posted largest increase in number of adults, but as a percentage of population, Spain saw a 22% increase. Germany, UK and Italy have largest at-home Internet populations in Europe. Sweden, Hong Kong and Netherlands and Australia have most mature Internet markets. (Nielsen NetRating, 2003)

11. According to CyberAtlasInternet, a sample of e-commerce sites recorded a 72.5% failure rate. The week before Mother’s Day (2003), TeaLeaf analysts uncovered Web application errors in 75% of gift, card, candy and flower sites they examined, with almost 65% attributed to user failure errors, which typically go undetected by site administrators.