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LATAN INTERNET GROWTH PREDICTED TO RISE 175 PERCENT IN 1999

WASHINGTON -- Latin America will experience a 175 percent growth rate
in spending related to Internet commerce in 1999, although that figure
could have been higher had the region been experiencing healthier
economic conditions, says a Massachusetts research firm.

The firm, International Data Corporation (IDC), says Internet-related
spending reached nearly $167 million in 1998, an increase of 361
percent over 1997 levels. IDC said that throughout 1998, regional web
commerce was increasing at a "rapid pace as new consumer Web users
were busy dabbling in the increasingly popular trend of Web purchasing
and corporations were beginning to roll out their business-to-business
commerce solutions." The firm said, however, that "economic
difficulties being experienced by the major market -- Brazil -- are
expected to dampen this robust growth."

These findings were made in an IDC report called "1999 Latin America
Internet and E-Commerce Strategies." The report offered an intensive
study of six major Internet markets in Latin America -- Argentina,
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela.

The report also said that Latin America leads the world in the
addition of new Internet users, with 4.8 million in 1998, and an
estimated 19.1 million users by 2003. Latin America's electronic
commerce spending in 2003 was predicted to reach $8,000 million.

IDC said that the "perceived commonalities shared by the region's
countries -- culture, values, history, economics, language -- are
numerous enough to believe not only in the strong potential for Web
commerce, but also in the possibility that Web commerce may [create] a
truly unified, albeit virtual, regional market."

The program manager for IDC's Latin America's Internet Research unit,
Annika Alford, was quoted by the firm as saying that "as the conduit
to Web commerce, the Latin American extension of the information
superhighway is more riddled with silver-lined potholes than it is
paved with gold. The potential is real, but many obstacles need to be
overcome before it becomes a reality."

IDC said obstacles affecting the region's ability to foster Internet
commerce include "weak credit card processing infrastructures, the
high cost of basic Internet access to the end user, existing tariff
barriers, and the high cost of logistics (i.e., shipping)."

More information about the report can be obtained on IDC's home page
at www.idc.com/Data/LatinAmerica/Content.