Survey in several countries show that SMEs have been slower to adopt e-commerce than their large counterparts, but the rate of Internet usage in SMEs is growing quite rapidly. For example a study (Jones and Boxall, 2000) published by British Chambers of Commerce reported that in 1997 only 33 per cent of European SMEs used e-mail, but by 1999 this had grown to 85 per cent. Many SMEs have made innovative uses of Internet technologies to invent new business models or to enhance existing practice: