Introduction

After implementing a comprehensive economic liberalization program in the 1990s, Mexico has become one of the most open economies to foreign trade and investment, and has positioned itself among the ten largest economies in the world. The resulting substantial integration into the global economy has created both the conditions and the pressures for the business community in Mexico to adopt the Internet to improve coordination, expand markets, and cut costs to face a highly competitive environment in both national and international markets. Mexico has long been a major production platform for subsidiaries of numerous multinational corporations (MNCs), many of which operate as maquiladoras, a situation reinforced as it has become increasingly engaged in international trade. Those MNC subsidiaries, along with a small but growing echelon of internationally oriented domestic companies, account for a large share of the country's total exports, and are the most dynamic and technologically advanced business establishments in the Mexican economy. Accordingly, they have led in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for commercial purposes.

Major improvements in the country's telecommunications infrastructure since the mid-1990s have facilitated and spurred the use of both personal computers and the Internet. Economic liberalization, along with aggressive promotion campaigns by trade and industry associations, have further paved the way for the adoption of e-commerce by large and small, domestic and foreign enterprises. This has occurred particularly in finance, distribution, and manufacturing, and largely in the country's main industrial hubs (Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City).