The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore ("IDA") has released a survey showing that only 5% of local companies conducted business online in 1998. However, analysts have reason to think that the figure has since increased as the survey was conducted during an economic slowdown that affected most of Asia, including Singapore. In the face the downturn, many companies may have been reluctant to invest limited funds in going online.
In contrast, another survey by IDA’s predecessor, National Computer Board ("NCB") in 1999 reported that 9% of 1,000 companies surveyed were already using the Internet for business-to-business e-commerce. Further, 28% of the 1,000 companies indicated that they intended to go online by the end of 1999. It must however be noted that this survey was mainly restricted to companies in the manufacturing and service industries, and excluded business-to-consumer e-commerce.
From the above, it can be logically deduced that the actual number of companies presently engaged in e-commerce could be higher than 9%.
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