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Emerging Markets Driving Internet Sales Growth
SAN FRANCISCO -- Internet merchant payments reached $3.8 billion in the first quarter, up nearly 50% from a year ago, according to a report from Wells Fargo & Co. The rapid growth of the company's Internet payments business is due to the growing need for online payments among U.S businesses selling abroad, as well as from growth in the education, government and insurance markets. International merchant payments alone reached nearly one billion in sales in 2003."We saw 100% growth in online merchant payments from 2002 to 2003, and we expect this tremendous growth trend to continue as a number of emerging markets, such as education, government and insurance, increasingly recognize the benefits of offering customers online payment options," said Debra Rossi, executive vice president of Business Internet Services at Wells Fargo.Some of the trends in emerging markets include:In education, Visa saw 84.47% growth from 2002 to 2003 in electronic commerce transactions, from $1.5 billion to $2.8 billion.In government, Visa saw 101.51% growth from 2002 to 2003 in electronic commerce transactions, from $1 billion to $2.04 billion.In insurance, Visa saw 84.92% growth from 2002 to 2003 in electronic commerce transactions, from $705 million to $1.3 billion.Wells Fargo reached its record year in internet payments volume in 2003, processing nearly $12 billion in internet merchant payments. Today, Wells Fargo processes payments for more than 61,000 online merchants. Wells Fargo is a payment processor for PayPal, an eBay company, and also enables its multi-currency processing capability.Visit Wells Fargo & Co.: www.wellsfargo.com"