The free flow of information may also help to strengthen Latin America's often fragile democracies. Martha Bejar, an executive vice-president for Latin America and the Caribbean at Nortel Networks Corp., predicts that the number of phone lines in the region will double, to 2 per 10 people, in five to seven years. Other economic and cultural factors should spur Internet usage. In Latin America, ''shopping in person is a less pleasurable experience than it is in the U.S., so many people would rather stay at home and shop,'' says Raul Rivera, vice-president in the Buenos Aires office of Boston Consulting Group. Not surprisingly, penetration of e-commerce is highest in Brazil, the country that is home to nearly half of Latin America's Net users.
Brazil also boasts the largest number of virtual retailers in the region.
For example, Pao de Acucar, one of the country's largest supermarkets, has been selling via the Internet since 1996. It now claims to have 50,000 cybercustomers. This will allow shoppers to buy anything from soap to oatmeal using a catalogue and a bar-code scanner the size of a TV remote control. One of the partners in Bergmann's venture, Easy Shop, is Unisys Corp., which is supplying some of the necessary technology. But Latin American e-commerce is still beset with a bevy of problems.