A high rate of Internet penetration does not itself ensure the development of eCommerce. All companies dealing with this issue must commit themselves to understanding the principles underlying any possible commercial strategy on Internet. This study aims to show how an erroneous management of this issue on the part of the companies existing in Uruguay (the country with the major Internet penetration in Latin America) led to an undeveloped market for eCommerce. It seems that market researchers could help solve this particular situation. Qualitative research (including interviews with advertising companies, significant companies who have recently built their own website, website design companies, and suppliers of services connected with electronic media) is described.
The paper looks into the creation of Internet panels. It reviews why most Internet panels are not randomly recruited: the coverage problem, the difficulties of Internet random recruiting (no sampling frame, high nonresponse and high self-invitation), and the limited use of Internet random panels. It then describes the experience of creating an Internet panel in Mexico with a comparison of recruiting methods and analysis of the profile and attitudes of the resulting Internet population.
This paper presents the results of research carried out amongst the populations of Switzerland, Germany and Spain in order to determine their degree of awareness as well as opinions and attitudes regarding the internet. The purpose was to determine common tendencies and divergences between countries with high penetration, like Switzerland, those with medium penetration, like Germany and others with low penetration, like Spain. From the analysis it can be deduced there are no specific âLatinoâ cultural reasons for the low internet penetration in Spain and that differences in penetration and other issues in the countries investigated can be explained in socio-demographic terms and by the level of relative development.