The new economy has created a booming market for software – one that some experts predict will reach $100 billion a year in just a few years. New dot-com companies are created everyday, betting their entire business on the Internet. Other examples of the new growth wave are emerging companies such as Incubators and Application Service Providers coming into the market to help small to mid-sized companies leverage the Internet without having to incur a massive investment. This is a unique opportunity for Informix, as those newcomers have no existing relationships with other software vendors.

The Internet has changed the world. And the Internet is changing itself everyday. Getting up and running with a Web site is not enough anymore. More than ever, technology and performance matter. Over the past year, fundamental market trends have been defining the Internet software market far beyond the look and feel of Web sites:

	Explosion of content and growing complexity of Web sites has driven the demand for database-driven solutions instead of traditional flat files.
	New applications, such as e-CRM, supply chain management, front-office automation, and on-line procurement, have increased the demand for highly reliable, highly scalable data management systems.
	Information and communication on the Internet has changed the nature of data exchanged to visual and intuitive format; this is the convergence of the Internet with the media and entertainment market.