Internet and e-commerce industry in Ecuador

Ecuador is a democratic republic in South America, bordered on Colombia to the north, on Peru to the east and south, and on the Pacific Ocean to the west. Ecuador is one of the only two countries in South America (the other one is Chile) that do not have a border with Brazil. The country also includes the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Ecuador’s greatest national export is represented by crude oil. Fluctuations in world market prices can have a substantial domestic impact. Industry is largely oriented on servicing the domestic market, with some exports to the Andean Common market. Thus, we are talking today about the other strand of country’s economy that is also important in the modern progressive word: broadband and e-commerce infrastructure.

Internet market in Ecuador is currently in the process of a rash development; however, the country’s broadband market level is still lower than in majority of the counties. Thus, amid the countries of Latin America Ecuador occupies the 7th position with 1.1% of the market share, while Brazil gets 50%, Argentina has 16% and Colombia 13.7, taking first, second and third places respectively, thus Ecuador's broadband indicators lag considerably behind those Latin American countries.

Concerning Internet penetration in Ecuador, the growth for the period of 2000-2008 is considerably high, almost 880%. But, actually, penetration level crept higher from 1.5%, 180.000 users, to 8%, or 1,109,967 users, in the beginning of 2008 and jumped to 12.3% level by the end of 2008, with 1,759,500 people connected to the web (according to internetworldstat.com data). So, Internet market growth in the country is obvious.

Currently, 70 ISPs exist in Ecuador. The largest of them is Suratel, providing with cable modem Internet as part of the TVCable Group. The other major country’s ISPs are Andinatel, cellular-phone company Allegro PCS offering wireless service, Megadatos, PuntoNet and Telconet, providing with Internet through one of the fastest Backbones of the world.

http://ecommerce-journal.com/articles/17127_internet_and_e_commerce_industry_in_ecuador