CIAO DATE: 11/04

The Mexican Internet after the Boom: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

This paper will present an overview of the issues involved in the development of the Internet and e–commerce in Mexico. The first part of this paper discusses the current state of the Internet and e–commerce in Mexico. The second section is directed at the development of Internet business in Mexico and Latin America. The third and concluding section provides an overview of the various approaches towards Internet and e–commerce development currently being undertaken in the Mexican/Latin American context. Three questions are of particular interest here: the first is the question of barriers to Internet growth and e–commerce development. These mostly revolve around problems associated with economic underdevelopment that has produced a historically long-standing and well-entrenched telecommunications divide. Second is the question of Mexico’s national e–commerce development in the context of the borderless Internet. With adequate bandwidth and an increase in desirable products available by direct download, there is no reason why e-products and web sites aimed at one or more national markets cannot be located in another national economy far away. However, it is also true that for most services each country has its own idiosyncrasies, which can make certain types of cross–border marketing without localization difficult. Lastly is the question of Mexico’s Internet and e-commerce growth after the end of the technology boom of the 1990s. Mexico’s Internet economy was certainly affected, but it was not a disaster. Start-ups failed, sites that survived had to retrench, and domain registration cooled, but business–to–business e–commerce has continued to grow, ISP development has continued—including deployment of cable modem, DSL, and wireless service—and more users continue to connect to the Internet.

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