72% of German Businesses Have Web Sites (Maybe)

About 50 percent of small businesses in the U.S. now have "Web sites" — or pages, microsites, listings, pages or even e-mail addresses that they might call Web sites when asked in phone surveys. The number of real Web sites is probably much smaller.

In Germany, the number is apparently much higher — 72 percent — according to a report commissioned by Germany's Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (which I read about via Joachim Bartels' report for EPS). The report also notes that 58 percent of Germans are now online and that there are 10.7 million broadband connections.

Granted, Germany is home to SAP, Silicon Bavaria, etc., and it is an advanced tech center. But I still have a dated stereotype of the country as having many regions that have major infotech gaps (i.e., most of the "ost"). Here is an open question: Do 72 percent of businesses really have Web sites? Or are most of these just landing pages or other lesser media that T-Online and other companies have set up in hopes of upselling them later?