“Tomorrow already, today will be yesterday” – there is hardly anything else coming so close to this fact than the internet. Whereas two years ago in Germany, the percentage of people being connected to the internet was around 9 per cent, this figure went up to 16 per cent in the last quarter of 1999 and achieved more than 20 per cent, i.e. 13.4 million online users by the end of March 2000. And, relying on market researchers, the peak is still far away. It is supposed that in Germany another 10 million people will use the internet by the end of the year. Thus, probably the number of people with particular homepages will continue to rise very quickly. Meanwhile, this fact has also got about in the tyre business, which can be underlined by the variety of companies who presented their websites on the REIFEN 2000 in Essen. Would it now be possible – after books, software and music – to download tyres, too? Of course, tyre dealers still have an advantage: there must always be someone for mounting the tyres. For certain reasons tyre dealers do not really want to get to like being in this position, as they often feel to be “degraded to service operators”. In this case, however, they should realize the opportunities of the internet for being able to “distinguish themselves as service operators”, although there is hardly anyone today, who can foresee the development of the tyre dealers’ business over the next five or ten years. Find out more in the November issue of NEUE REIFENZEITUNG.