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The Internet market is the fastest growing market in the world.  Your business needs to be on the Web right now to tap this market or else your competitors will.  I can show you how to take full advantage of this exciting new medium now.

The Growing Internet Market

• Internet Usage Estimates
  
  According to Business Week (Apr 25 1997), Internet use has nearly doubled from a year ago. Computer Intelligence (June 20 1997) found the number of people accessing the Internet via ISPs has more than tripled since last year. Odyssey says that consumers expected to buy online will grow from 39% in 1997 to 55% in 2001.
  
  The following table summarizes a number of independent surveys that help give us a good idea of how big the Web is today.
  
  

  Source	Date	Definition	Users
  Neilsen	6-97	Internet users	50M
  Business Week	4-97	Worldwide Web users	40M
  FIND/SVP	5-97	Current U.S. users	31.3M
  Georgia Institute	6-97	Internet Users	30M
  Computer Intelligence	6-97	U.S. users using an ISP	17.6M
  Computer Intelligence	6-97	U.S. users using an Online Service	16.0M

   

• Internet Hosts
  
  Internet hosts reached 9.5 million, nearly double the January 1995 total of 4.9 million.
  
  

   

• Domains & Websites
  
  As of May 14 there were 325,444 domains registered with the interNIC.  Of these, 288,873 (89%) are .com domains.  In March alone, 42,101 domains were added.

  More importantly, 190,255 (58%) of these domains have Web sites associated with their names.  Business Week claims that "As of January 1, the Web included some 200,000 Web sites, or servers, that offered close to 20 million pages of information."  Recently, WebCrawler reported its search engine has contacted almost 150,000 different servers since April 1994.
  Some estimates from: Internet Domain Name Database
   

• But What Does All of This Really Mean?
  
  For business owners (large and small) this means that every month, tens of thousands of companies start advertising themselves on the Internet. For the ones that do, the Web is reaching far more customers than conventional advertising. And it is a fraction of the cost of a typical TV, radio, or newspaper ad.
   
  • Heavy-user U.S. Markets
    
    The most on-line traffic is generated by California (San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego), Austin TX, Virginia, Hartford/New Haven CT, Washington DC, Boston, New York, New Jersey, Seattle/Tacoma and Portland OR.
    Estimate by AOL
     
  • Market Forecast
    
    The global Internet market is expected to soar to $23 billion.
    
    

    Forecast by market segment	1995($M)	2000($M)
    Network Services (ISPs)	300	5,000
    Hardware (routers, modems, computer hardware)	500	2,500
    Software (server, applications)	300	4,000
    Services (electronic commerce, directory services, web tracking)	20	1,000
    Expertise (system integrators, business consultants)	50	700
    Content and activity (online entertainment, information, shopping)	500	10,000
    Total Market	1,170	23,200

    Estimates provided by: Hambrecht & Quist
    
    150 million homes and businesses will be connected to the Internet by the end of the decade, up from 30 million today.
    
    

    (Millions)	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
    Users of PCs	144	167	184	203	217	225
    E-Mail	35	60	80	130	180	200
    Net/Web	9	23	46	81	122	152
    Online/hybrid	8	13	18	23	27	30

    Some estimates by The Internet Society
     

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