Table 1 summarises a number of industry initiatives in which European companies are involved. The interest for electronic commerce roadshows and other awareness actions from the side of business and sector organisations is increasingly steadily. Industrial experimental projects are being launched everywhere. On the other hand it is questionable whether action is radical and fast enough. Probably we will have to wait long for a world-wide legislative framework.
Success stories are well-known from the online book world and from the travel world.
Their future role might be comparable to that of the telecom operators today. They built up the knowledge about large scale national and international electronic trading and will be able to provide valuable additional services on the basis of the enormous amount of transaction information in their systems. Customers will accept the standards of these providers because of the positive network externalities, and will thereby enable these providers to grow even more. Currently it is only lack of IT professionals that slows down this trend. The question is if European providers will still play a role in such future infrastructures for electronic commerce.