According to a new report by analysts Jupiter Media Metrix, the internet marketplace will continue to develop in the long-term, even though current market conditions will temporarily hinder the more immediate possibilities for growth.

The report said that the main factors helping the continued growth of the internet include consumer demand for internet services, more fulfilling on-line users' experiences, growth in consumers' average on-line tenure and business cost savings.

Jupiter expects that the overall impact of current market constraints, including reduced financial market liquidity, weakened consumer confidence and reduced capital and marketing expenditures that affected on-line advertising revenue, business-to-business (B2B) trade and B2B infrastructure spending, will be relatively modest.

Jupiter analysts now forecast that on-line retail commerce will total $104 billion in 2005 — down 12% from the figure projected last year — largely due to the on-line grocery meltdown in the US. Furthermore, on-line-managed business travel is another sector that has been hit by the slowdown in corporate spending, and Jupiter has consequently lowered its 2005 revenue target to $25 billion from the $33 billion originally forecast last year.

PC manufacturer Gateway has announced plans to shut down its operations in the UK and Ireland, which may result in over 1,000 redundancies from its factories and retail stores. This move comes as a part of a general restructuring review of the company’s international strategy following a net loss in its second quarter earnings results. Gateway is the world’s second largest direct seller of PCs, after Dell.

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