SIXTY-SEVEN PERCENT OF EUROPEAN CONSUMERS WILL BE ONLINE IN 2006, FORRESTER
CALCULATES

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, 17 April 2002 . . . The penetration of regular
Internet use in Europe has grown to 39 percent, but with 50 percent of
these consumers aged 35 or less, the Internet is still a medium for
well-educated young people, according to a new Technographics® Report by
Forrester Research B.V. (Nasdaq: FORR). Even now, the Internet has not
reached the mainstream population, and technology pessimists remain slow to
adopt the Net -- mainly held back by high costs and lack of interest.

"Online access has taken a real leap forward in Europe in the past couple
of years," said Forrester Analyst Reineke Reitsma. "In 1999, only 19
percent of European consumers aged 16 or older regularly accessed the Net
via a PC. By 2001, this number had doubled to 39 percent or 116 million
consumers -- outperforming Forrester's earlier predictions. Southern
European markets -- France, Italy, and Spain -- continue to lag European
online adoption, with Net penetration rates at 30 percent. The Nordic
markets remain in the lead with access rates up at between 60 percent and
70 percent. However, most European surfers connect from Germany or the UK
-- the two largest online populations in Europe. Germany has the biggest
slice of the online pie, with more than 30 million online users, and the UK
follows with more than 20 million users."

Half of all Europeans have access to the Internet in some way and at some
location, but only three-quarters of these use the Internet on a regular
basis. Most regular online users connect from home -- only 13 percent of
online users have access from work alone. The location that users connect
from impacts their behavior -- for instance, work-only users go online for
5 hours per week, 1.7 hours less than home-only users.

"Driven by a need to communicate and falling hardware and connection
prices, the number of online users will grow from 39 percent to 67 percent
in the next five years -- resulting in more than 200 million regular online
users by the end of 2006," Reitsma added. "Germany will lead with 70
percent of its population, or 48.5 million of its citizens, as regular
Internet users in 2006. France and Italy show the biggest increase in new,
regular online consumers -- more than 30 million new users in the next five
years -- and will account together for more than 40 percent of all new
online consumers. Italy will see the most remarkable growth, reaching 68
percent penetration, or 33.1 million regular Internet users, by 2006. The
UK will come a close third, achieving 68 percent penetration or 32.8
million regular users. France will be marginally slower, with just 64
percent penetration, or 31.3 million users, in 2006. Online penetration in
Scandinavia will reach saturation at 70 percent from 2003 onwards. Austria
and Switzerland will continue to grow from 2004 onwards -- a result of
their high-income levels and high number of technology optimists. Their
total regular online penetration will reach 75 percent by 2006."

For the Report "Europe's Future Online Consumers," Forrester conducted a
panel survey of 29,354 Europeans aged 16 years or older. The panelists came
from 13 markets: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, the UK, Italy,
Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.