7–8 CLIL |  Business studies and economics B1

GLOBAL INTERNET COMPANIES AND THEIR WORLD RANKINGS

1 Work in pairs and discuss the questions.
1 Look at the infographic. Have you heard of Google (2)
any of these websites? What do you think
eBay (4)
they do or what products do you think
they sell? Facebook (6)
2 Have you ever visited any of these websites?
Yahoo (13)
2 Read the text. Why do you think
Twitter (18)
consumers are attracted to these
shopping websites? TripAdvisor (20)
*based on money made and market share (2016)

COPLEY PARK SCHOOL BUSINESS STUDIES PROJECT

GLOBAL ONLINE SHOPPING WEBSITES
PROJECT 1: ASOS.com
ASOS is a London-based online fashion retailer that is the 19th largest internet
company in the world. It was co-founded by Nick Robertson in 2000. It sells over
850 brands of clothes and accessories, and targets the young adult consumer. ASOS
allows you to browse the clothes on the internet from your home without needing
to go to a department store.
The company started out as  ‘As seen on screen’, providing customers with
fashionable items similar to those that were worn by celebrities on TV. Over the last
15 years it’s grown into a global e-commerce site with separate websites for the UK,
the USA, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Russia and China. It now employs
7,500 people worldwide, attracts around 89.8 million visitors a month and has a
market capital of $4.8 billion. In the UK, ASOS has more than 60% of the market
share: more than half of British customers use the website when shopping around
for fashion items on the internet. ASOS’ success hasn’t shown signs of decreasing yet.
by Jenny Nick Robertson

PROJECT 2: Amazon.com
Amazon was created by Jeff Bezos in 1994 in the USA and has become the world’s
largest internet shopping company. It started as an online bookshop, expanded to
sell CDs and DVDs, and today sells everything from electronic goods to jewellery.
Amazon is the number-one global online retailer for people who prefer shopping
from home.
One reason for Amazon’s extraordinary success is its wide range of products.
Customers can find almost anything and you can also receive free postage with the
Amazon Prime loyalty scheme. This is a big incentive for consumers. As well as its
American website, Amazon also has retail sites for 14 other countries and employs
154,100 people worldwide.
188 million customers visit Amazon websites each month and the company is
worth $175.22 billion. Currently, Amazon holds its biggest share of the global
market in Germany (72%), India (71%) and the USA (69%). These figures show that
Amazon either dominates online shopping in these countries or there isn’t much
competition. Amazon creator, Jeff Bezos, has always said that what’s good for the
customer is good for the business, and because the company continually meets
consumer demands it keeps doing better and better.
by Marcus Jeff Bezos

Optimise B1 Optimise B1 Teacher’s Resource Centre © Springer Nature Limited 2019.

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 7–8 CLIL |  Business studies and economics B1

3 Read the text again. Then match the words PROJECT

in the box with the definitions (1–7).
6 Work in groups. Choose one of these apps
accessories | e-commerce | electronic goods or websites or a popular website in your
loyalty scheme | market capital country.
market share | online retailer
Expedia | Huffington Post | Instagram
1 items like jewellery, hats, scarves and belts Pinterest | Skype | Tumblr

2 a shop that sells on the internet  7 Find out the following information about
3 the value of a company  the app or website you chose:
4 items like tablets, smartphones and satnavs
 • who created it

5 buying and selling products on the internet • what it offers

 • which countries/languages it is available in
6 the percentage of total sales a company has • how many visitors it receives per month
 • what the market capital and the market
7 a plan that gives customers benefits such as share of the company is
price reductions 

4 Write some information from the text
about these countries.
1 India  
2 Germany  VOCABULARY FOCUS
3 Russia  
4 the UK   browse [v]:  to look for information on the internet
5 Work in pairs and discuss the questions.
1 Does your family prefer shopping online or
visiting real shops? What kinds of things do you
buy on the internet?
2 Why do you think more and more people are
shopping online nowadays?
3 Are the online retailers in the text available in
your country? If not, are there websites offering
the same kind of services?
DID YOU KNOW?
❍ Amazon is the most popular e-commerce website
in the world. These are some of the other most
popular sites:
– Facebook is the largest social media network.
– Google is the most popular search engine that is
used globally.
– YouTube is the world’s most popular site for
video sharing.
– Blogspot is number one in the world for
blogging.
– Wikipedia is the most popular online
encyclopaedia.
❍ In 1991, the world’s very first website was created
by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide
Web. It was a website for a scientific research centre
called CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear
Research) in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was
working at the time.
8 Prepare a presentation of your website
for the class.
attract [v]:  to produce or cause an interest
in something
co-found [v]:  to start a company, organisation, etc.
with someone else
competition [n]:  the activities of companies trying
to be more successful than others
consumer [n]:  someone who buys and uses products
and services
demand [n]:  how much a person wants a product
or service
dominate [v]:  to control something or someone by
having more power or influence
expand [v]:  to increase in size and business
extraordinary [adj]:  very unusual and surprising
incentive [n]:  something that makes you want to do
something more because of some benefits
item [n]:  an individual thing or one of several things
range [n]:  a group of products of the same general
type that a shop sells
ranking [n]:  shows how good someone or something
is compared to others
retailer [n]:  a person or company that sells goods to
the consumer
target [v]:  to try to persuade or influence a
particular group of people
value [n]:  the amount that something is worth
worth [adj]:  how much something is in terms
of money

Optimise B1 Optimise B1 Teacher’s Resource Centre © Springer Nature Limited 2019.

This sheet may be photocopied and used within the class.
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