E-commerce is still at an early stage in China, so the growth potential is really huge.

In some of the big cities, the penetration rate is maybe around 50 percent, but I think the growth is now coming from smaller cities or even the small towns.

Everyone's trying to tap into the high-growth Internet space in China. Right now only about 8 percent of the population is using the Internet. But it's growing very fast.

With the growth of the Internet and the use of e-commerce, you're going to get more and more of these situations.

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.

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.