local U.K. and German book markets. These initiatives
will continue to require aggressive investment and entail
significant execution challenges."

# Expansion

People began buying books across borders. What we take for
granted now - buy a book in Europe from the U.S. website
Amazon.com, or buy a book in the U.S. from the German website
Amazon.de - was making big waves at the time. The local online
bookstores called it "unfair competition".

There were also issues about custom taxes. A first outline
agreement was reached between the U.S. and the European Union
in December 1997. This agreement was followed by an
international convention. The internet was decided a free trade
area, i.e. without any custom taxes for software, films and
digital books bought online. Material goods (books, CDs, DVDs)
and services were subject to existing regulations, with
collection of VAT (value added tax) for example, but with no
additional custom taxes.

On the footsteps of the Internet Bookstore, based in United
Kingdom and the largest online bookstore in Europe, Amazon.com
launched is Associates Program. As stated in a press release
dated June 8, 1998: "The Amazon.com Associates Program allows
website owners to easily participate in hassle-free electronic
commerce by recommending books on their site and referring
visitors to Amazon.com. In return, participants earn referral
fees of up to 15 percent of the sales they generate. Amazon.com
handles the secure online ordering, customer service, and
shipping and sends weekly email sales reports. Enrollment in
the program is free, and participants can be up and running the
same day. Associates range from large and small businesses to
nonprofits, authors, publishers, personal home pages, and more.
The popularity of the program is reflected in the range of
additions to the Associates Community in the past few months:
Adobe, InfoBeat, Kemper Funds, PR Newswire, Travelocity,
Virtual Vineyards, and Xoom." There were 60,000 "associates" in
June 1998.

Barnes & Noble, a leading U.S. bookseller, entered the world of
e-commerce in 1997.

Barnes & Noble had 481 stores nationwide in 1997, in 48 states
out of 50, as well as 520 bookstores (B. Dalton stores) in
shopping malls, and a catalog of 175,000 titles from 20,000
publishers. Barnes & Noble also published books under its own
imprint for exclusive sale through its retail stores - and its
nationwide mail-order catalogs.

Barnes & Noble fi