6.0       E-Commerce Summary

Despite the world-wide slowdown in e-commerce development, Norway’s e-commerce initiatives appear to be surviving.  In October, 2001 Accenture reported that 80% of Norwegian e-companies have adapted and are still in business. Some examples include; IKEA (home funishings), Platekompaniet (music), ICA (supermarket), Intersport (sporting goods), Yahoo of Norway,  and Fast Search (search engines). These successes can be attributed to Norwegian market characteristics where consumers have an unusually high aptitude for IT knowledge and a hearty appetite for consumer electronics.

 

6.1       E-Commerce Factoids

 

Norwegian B2C E-Commerce Characteristics:

·        49.05%¹ of all Norwegians own a PC (ranks 3^rd among United Nation members)

·        10.09%¹ of all Norwegians host a webpage (ranked 4^th)

·        54.4%¹ of all Norwegians are online (tied for 5^th)

·        72.91%¹ of all Norwegians have land based telephones (3rd)

·        70.26%¹ of all Norwegians have cell phones (ranked 4^th)

·        57.9%¹ of all Norwegians have televisions (8^th)

·        24%² of all Norwegians search for product information online

·        14%² of all Norwegians searching for product information online actually purchase the product

 

 

Norwegian B2B E-Commerce Characteristics:

·        82%³ of all Norwegian business (over ten employees) utilize the internet

·        17.2%³ of all Norwegian business (over ten employees) receive orders via the internet

·        29.5%³ of all Norwegian businesses (over ten employees) place orders via the internet

 

 

6.2       M-Commerce

Norway’s remarkably high teledensity and purchasing power parity make it a good candidate for businesses to pioneer in M-commerce. In fact, Telenor, Norway’s largest telecommunications company developed the Wireless Application Protocol (also known as WAP). The WAP protocol has gone on to become the universal standard protocol for interfacing with mobile phones.  Although this protocol is widely support by almost all major mobile hardware manufactures around the world, there has been slow adoption among businesses to apply the WAP protocol to online offerings. As a result, Norwegian businesses have stepped up to the plate and are designing products and services to support the WAP protocol to spur business development.  Some initiatives include:

·        Vending machine purchases via cell phones

·        Movie ticket purchases via cell phones

 

 

6.3       E-Commerce Regulatory Environment (Note: as of July 2002)

Norway is a member of the European Economic Area Agreement (EEAA) and has not fully implemented the body’s E-Commerce specifications. It should be noted that other countries (even EU members) have not all been successful at this directive. Norway has enacted a national E-Commerce Act which supports much of EEAA, however full compliance maybe difficult. The following issues still remain:

• The Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Cultural Affairs have yet to agree on internet service provider liability regarding website content.
• Cross-border e-commerce conflict resolution between parties has yet to be decided. EEAA supports the country of origin principle as the legal domain for conflict resolution.  For example, customer in Norway purchases a good from a UK e-retailer. A dispute over the transaction occurs. Country of origin principle would require the Norwegian customer to pursue action in UK legal system.
• Norwegian E-Commerce laws do provide some fundamental protection in contracts (like terms, conditions, and marketing information), however there are differences to that of the EEAA’s requirements.

 

Note: This E-Commerce regulatory section should only be seen as editorial comment. Please see the EEAA and Norway’s Ministry of Justice for additional information.

 

6.4       Footnotes

^{1 – Statistics taken from the United Nations’ DPEPA. See references for additional information.}

^{2 – Purchasing statistics taken from Internet.com. See references for additional information.}

^{3 – Statistics supplied by OECD. See References for additional information.}