E-Commerce Gaining Interest in Latin America.

Nearly 85 percent of companies in Latin America are using or are willing to evaluate e-commerce within the next two years, according to a study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Despite the interest in e-commerce, actual implementation rates remain low, with only 11 percent of companies currently making use of e-commerce. The most active industry segment in Latin America is the finance industry, and e-commerce activity is higher among Mexican and Brazilian companies than other nations in the region. According to the study, even the companies considering themselves to be e-commerce enabled have little transactional capability. Most do not have full e-commerce functionality and some are simply Web pages promoting their products. In addition, some companies seemed to equate the larger market of e-business (i.e., customer or supplier interaction conducted electronically) with the more functional specific e-commerce (order placement made electronically) market. The e-commerce software market in Latin America is also limited, IDC found, forcing most companies with existing or upcoming deployments to build their own solutions in house or use third-party vendors (such as systems integrators). Nonetheless, the region has caught the attention of the predominantly US-based e-commerce software vendor community. Recent alliances and product offerings from ISPs, portals, and systems integrators are providing Latin American-based companies looking to take advantage of e-commerce more choices. Microsoft continues to dominate the mindshare market among companies in Latin America, receiving the largest single vendor mentions for e-commerce solutions. IDC also found that e-commerce deployments are continuing in the region despite alleged Y2K anxiety. IDC_s research was based on interviews with nearly 500 companies in Latin America during June and July 1999.