Tom Courtney Growth Quotations

Worldwide Internet retail sales were almost $23 billion in 1999 and we expect that to double in 2000. Street estimates for worldwide sales in 2002 are approximately $105 billion, with $65 billion of that in the U.S. This implies an annual growth rate of 80 percent worldwide.

Over the past two months, we have lost some confidence in the company's ability to generate the growth necessary to meet our estimates.

Is it $15 billion because of the collapse of the business-to-consumer market or it is $15 billion because sales growth slowed down by 50 percent in the last two quarters? Probably, it's a little bit of both, but I think it's more of the latter.

At a point when many other e-commerce companies are struggling to reach breakeven, eBay has demonstrated that it has a materially different and better model, which is driving exceptional growth both in sales and earnings.

In the fourth quarter of calendar 1999, sales grew 170 percent year-over-year. In the second quarter they just reported, sales grew 84 percent. So, if you went back six months, Amazon's market capitalization when they generated that 170 percent growth was probably around $25 to $30 billion. Today it's $15 billion.