- guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 21 September 1999 17.14 BST
• QXL. Founded by Financial Times columnist journalist Tim Jackson, QXL is Europe's leading online auction site. The company offers two online sales formats. QXL Direct auctions branded goods and services on its own account, while QXL Exchange allows private sellers to sell their own goods. One of Europe's top e-commerce businesses, QXL is about to go public next month.
• Freeserve. The London stock exchange's first £1 billion internet company, Freeserve reinvented the internet access market when it was launched by electrical goods retailer Dixons 12 months ago. It was the first service provider to drop monthly subscription charges but has since had to face the added challenge of copycats such as BT Click, VirginNet, LineOne and TescoNet. In a new venture, Boots has teamed up with Hollinger Telegraph New Media to launch Handbag.com next month, a shopping service aimed at women shoppers.
Dixons' biggest threat comes from America Online, the world's biggest service provider, which launched a rival free service provider in the UK called Netscape Online. But Dixons with its 1.3 million customers registered still leads the pack
• Lastminute.com, which offers cheap deals for anything from airline tickets or hotel reservations at short notice, was described by the Wall Street Journal as one of the hottest sites in Britain.
Set up 17 months ago, lastminute.com is planning a flotation in the first half of next year. Although figures of a £400 million float now seem fanciful with the recent slippage in internet shares, 26-year-old Martha Lane, an Oxford graduate, is still set to become one of Britain's youngest multimillionaires.
• Boo.com has spent £76 million, a record for a European web start-up and claims to be the largest online clothes shop. Backed by the Benetton family and Bernard Arnault, chairman of LCMH, it has ambitions on becoming the fashion version of Amazon.com, the pioneering online bookseller.
