INTRODUCTION
During the past few years, the United States economy has performed beyond most expectations. A shrinking budget deficit, low interest rates, a stable macroeconomic environment, expanding international trade with fewer barriers, and effective private sector management are all credited with playing a role in this healthy economic performance.
Many observers believe advances in information technology (IT), driven by the growth of the Internet,*1 have also contributed to creating this healthier-than-expected economy.
In recent testimony to Congress, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan noted, “...our nation has been experiencing a higher growth rate of productivity—output per hour—worked in recent years. The dramatic improvements in computing power and communication and information technology appear to have been a major force behind this beneficial trend.”
Some have even suggested that these advances will create a “long boom”2 which will take the economy to new heights over the next quarter century.
Other economists remain skeptical about the contribution of the IT industry to overall productivity. As yet, there is limited direct evidence in government data that investments in IT have substantially raised productivity in many non-IT industries.
While the full economic impact of information technology cannot yet be precisely evaluated, its impact is significant. IT industries have been growing at more than double the rate of the overall economy— a trend that is likely to continue. Investments in IT now represent over 45 percent of all business equipment investment. Declining prices for IT products have lowered overall inflation.
This report also begins a discussion about the potential impact on the economy of the Internet and electronic commerce.
Recent rapid growth of the Internet is in part attributable to its strength as a medium of communication, education and entertainment, and, more recently, as a tool for electronic commerce.
Businesses in virtually every sector of the economy are beginning to use the Internet to cut the cost of purchasing, manage supplier relationships, streamline logistics and inventory, plan production, and reach new and existing customers more effectively.
Cost savings, increased consumer choice and improved consumer convenience are driving growth in the sale of physical goods and in the digital delivery of goods and services via the Internet.
Because the Internet is new and its uses are developing very rapidly, reliable economy-wide statistics are hard to find. Further research is needed. This report therefore uses industry and company examples to illustrate the rapid pace at which Internet commerce is being deployed and the benefits being realized. Examples showing the growth of the Internet and electronic commerce this past year are numerous:
• Fewer than 40 million people around the world were connected to the Internet during 1996. By the end of 1997, more than 100 million people were using the Internet.4
• As of December 1996, about 627,000 Internet domain names had been registered. By the end of 1997, the number of domain names more than doubled to reach 1.5 million.5
• Traffic on the Internet has been doubling every 100 days.6
• Cisco Systems closed 1996 having booked just over $100 million in sales on the Internet. By the end of 1997, its Internet sales were running at a $3.2 billion annual rate.
• In 1996, Amazon.com, the first Internet bookstore, recorded sales of less than $16 million. In 1997, it sold $148 million worth of books to Internet customers. One of the nation’s largest book retailers, Barnes and Noble, launched its own online bookstore in 1997 to compete with Amazon for this rapidly growing online market.
• In January 1997, Dell Computers was selling less than $1 million of computers per day on the Internet. The company reported reaching daily sales of $6 million several times during the December 1997 holiday period.
• Auto-by-Tel, a Web-based automotive marketplace, processed a total of 345,000 purchase requests for autos through its Web site in 1996, for $1.8 billion in auto sales. As of the end of November 1997, the Web site was generating $500 million a month in auto sales ($6 billion annualized) and processed over 100,000 purchase requests each month.
If the trends suggested by this preliminary analysis continue, IT and electronic commerce can be expected to drive economic growth for many years to come. To realize this potential, however, the private sector and governments must work together to create a predictable, market-driven legal framework to facilitate electronic commerce; to create non-bureaucratic means that ensure that the Internet is a safe environment; and to create human resource policies that endow students and workers with the skills necessary for jobs in the new digital economy.