A bit over half of the country is online, but more than 75% of those users have broadband access. Competition to provide French consumers Internet access and Internet-based phone, TV and even wireless services is transforming the market. These wholesale shifts to new technologies in France make what is happening in the US look like baby steps.

The competition is the best in the country.

In assessing the growth of the Internet, and e-commerce in particular, many marketers, as well as many analysts, tend to overlook Germany, often merely lumping it together with the rest of the E-5 countries or Western Europe as a whole. That's a mistake. Germany is the third-largest economy in the world, right behind the US and Japan, and what happens there — and when and why it happens — is vitally important to the growth of the Internet's infrastructure and economy.

The Japanese economy is on the rebound, and e-commerce is set to benefit. In its deployment of both wired and wireless Internet platforms, and their integration, the county will be a model for the rest of the world to emulate.

In assessing the growth of the Internet, and e-commerce in particular, many marketers, as well as many analysts, tend to overlook Germany, often merely lumping it together with the rest of the E-5 countries or Western Europe as a whole. That's a mistake. Germany is the third-largest economy in the world, right behind the US and Japan, and what happens there — and when and why it happens — is vitally important to the growth of the Internet's infrastructure and economy.

Throughout the country there is growing competition from supermarkets and Internet retailers in terms of both price and range, so the merged company would have little ability to raise prices either on best-sellers or other titles.