The last years of twentieth century saw the Internet being used by more and more companies as a business tool. In 1997 e-commerce was very limited earning a revenue of less than $25 billion. However, since then, there has been a steady growth worldwide. This trend looks set to continue into the next century with revenue from e-commerce rising to reach almost $200 billion by 2003.

Like e-commerce, e-business has shown steady growth with revenue tripling in the period 1997 to 2000, rising from about $50 billion to $150 billion. However, during there is predicted to be a far more dramatic increase in e-business revenue over the next three years. It is thought that by 2003 revenue from e-business will have reached over $800 billion worldwide.