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net access.3 By 2005 that number had increased to 67 percent.4 About
70-75 percent of the population has an e-mail address.5 Until recent
years, Internet accessfrom home was through a relatively slow dial-up
modem, making it time-consuming and difficult to do anything com-

plex online, such as shop. Now the penetration of broadband Internet
access at home in the U.S. is up to 55.5 percent, and many more
consumers, 80 percent, have access to high speed Internet connections at

work. The pace of broadband growth in 2004 was an incredible 36 per
cent. While this torrid pace of growth is almost certain to diminish, it is
nevertheless clear that consumers are enthusiastically adopting this new
technology.

Maintaining and increasing the consumer benefits from use of the
Internet is an important policy goal. There are not many threats to
consumers' ability to capture the gains from Internet utilization. The

Internet is creating huge value for consumer in the USA and around the
world. While there are some costs to using the Internet, primarily spam
and the threat of fraud or identity theft, in the main the Interner appears

to be a new tool which consumers can use to great economic benefit.
While the Internet has the potentional benefit to everyone, some
consumers gain disproportionately. Consumers who face time pressure

during a normal working day, consumers who are in the minority in
terms of ethnicity, tastes, or hobbies, and consumers with high search
cost for any reason will particulary benefit from use of the Internet.
Overall, the technological innovation of the Internet and the associated

business model innovation are delivering substantial benefits to
consumers.

ASSIGNMENTS
1. What is the general idea of this text?
2. Do you use Internet as a consumer?
3. Have you ever made purchases via Internet?

4. Can you name benefits for sellers from the use of the Internet?
5. Have you ever faced with a fraud in the Internet?
6. What are your personal benefits of using Internet?

7. Name cons of the using Internet as a consumer.
8. Do Internet shops replace real shops? Explain.
9. Describe the chart showing enterprises selling online.