THE INTERNET

Poland has about 8 million internet users, about 1 million private users and companies with fixed Internet connections. There are about 100,000 Internet domains with the '.pl' ending and about 500 companies offering access to the Internet. There are more than 600 Internet stores and several banks and brokerage houses offering services online and several dozen portals, vortals and several dozen Internet platforms on the B2B model.

What kinds of Poles use the world-wide web? TNS OBOP research shows that the Internet-user profile is closely correlated with education and age. The new medium is mostly used by younger people and those able to benefit from it most.

In turn, access to the Internet, as the research shows, is related to size of town in which the respondent lives. The basic form of connecting to the Internet, that is via a modem, is not always possible in some smaller places, where there is still a lack of telecommunications infrastructure. We draw your attention to the previously-mentioned government plan to equip all Polish schools with computers and modern access to the Internet.

As in other parts of the world, Polish Internet users most often visit portals, and familiarity with the brands on offer is important. TNS OBOP findings from September and October 2002 suggest that the three most mentioned Internet servers are Onet, Wirtualna Polska and Interia Polish Internet-users appear to behave in a similar manner to their counterparts throughout the world. The use of the Internet as a platform serving business needs in Poland is also similar to other countries.

Increasingly popular are B2B platforms. In the view of analysts from Deutsche Bank, this market in Poland is the best developed of all. Polish initiatives in the B2B sector are focused at present on narrowly specialised areas: the metal and steel industries, agro-food and pharmaceuticals.

The first big initiative was the creation by Impexmetal and Prokom of the specialist Internet platform for metal trading, Ce-market.com. Another significant enterprise on the domestic B2B market was the setting up by Optimus, BRE Bank, the Warsaw Stock Exchange and U.S. IT company Commerce One of a multi-branch transaction and order platform Xtrade.pl. A rival project is the mult-branch platform called Marketplanet, whose main shareholder is Telekomunikacja Polska, and partners are companies SAP and Commerce One.

Companies from the pharmaceuticals branch have also been very active on the B2B market. Clinika.pl, created by Computerland and Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna, and Pfm.pl, whose main shareholder is Prosper, the pharmaceuticals distributor, belong to the biggest exchanges in this area.

One of the last sectors moving into B2B was the Polskirynekenergii.pl. platform for the power sector. The service was set up by the Energy Market Agency (ARE) and Poznaƒ-based company Alma Internet, a supplier of IT solutions to companies. The platform facilitates access to statistical information and news from the energy sector.

In some sectors for individual clients on-line services have become increasingly widespread in Poland. Thanks to the first Polish Internet bank, www.mbank.com.pl, more and more Poles - at present mainly young, well-educated and those from larger towns - choose not to stand in line at banks when all their banking needs can be met over the net. In Poland at present three such banks made not of bricks and mortar are active: mBank, Inteligo and Volkswagen Bank Direct.

There are other examples of the presence of the Internet in the everyday life of many Poles. Every year for many years now after New Year many towns in Poland organise campaigns, under the auspices of popular Polish personality Jerzy Owsiak, to collect money for medical equipment for hospitals. The campaigns are very active thanks to the charismatic organiser and are shown on television, but could not do without a www dimension, where all day the fund-raising goes on and is also closely followed by all other media in Poland.