The American University of Cairo's research paper on the development of e-commerce: the emerging virtual context within Egypt explores future trends in the sector.

The information and communication technology evolution is aggressively affecting the business world in the twenty- first century. The magnitude of change in business development from a global perspective, unconstrained by time or distance barriers, has reached both developed and developing nations.

E-commerce currently represents 2 per cent of the global business transactions but promises to dominate the business environment during the course of the twenty-first century. The successful presence of e-commerce through the Internet has helped create low cost and high efficiency for product and service sales through a more dynamic and interactive venue of opportunities where the world becomes the marketplace.