But the real story came in the second quarter, when revenues increased an amazing 84.6 percent over the second quarter of last year. Layer Three employment in the first quarter grew just 5.5 percent when compared with the first quarter of last year. Second quarter employment growth was just 3.2 percent in comparison with the same quarter of 1999. These low growth rates reflect the nature of the Internet Intermediary layer, where infrastructure investments and automated processes can be most leveraged to produce revenue. For example, airlines can process ticket sales online and grow their revenue from the Internet without adding additional employees.
Customers can compare ticket prices and book online without the use of a travel agent.
This layer is efficient by nature, because in many cases it removes the employee from the transaction between the company and the customer. At the same time, several large companies achieved respectable double-digit growth over this period. The companies that are included in Layer Four are only those companies that are conducting web-based commerce transactions. The companies that we have included in Layer Four cross a wide variety of vertical industries. It is important to note that Layer Four can include Business to Business e-commerce as well as Business to Consumer online sales.