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INTERNET GROWTH STATISTICS
Today's road to
e-Commerce and Global Trade
Internet Technology Reports
And the
"Global Village" became a Reality Internet has made real what in the 1970's that
visionary of the communications Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) called the "Global Village".
The Internet is defined as the worldwide interconnection of
individual networks operated by government, industry, academia,
and private parties. Originally the Internet served to
interconnect laboratories engaged in government research, and
since 1994 it has been expanded to serve millions of users and a
multitude of purposes in all parts of the world.
In a matter of very few years, the Internet consolidated itself
as a very powerful platform that has changed forever the way we do
business, and the way we communicate. The Internet, as no other
communication medium, has given an International or, if you
prefer, a "Globalized" dimension to the world. Internet has
become the Universal source of information for millions of
people, at home, at school, and at work.
Internet is changing all the time. Two things, in our opinion,
have marked it's evolution recently: the social web and mobile
technology. These two innovations have changed the way people use
the Internet. In the social web people have found a new way to
communicate. Since its creation in year 2004, Facebook has grown into a worldwide network of
over 2,803 million active users. Mobile technology, on the other
hand, has made possible a much greater reach of the Internet,
increasing the number of Internet users everywhere.
The Internet continues to be the most democratic of all the mass
media. With a very low investment, anyone can have a web page in
Internet. This way, almost any business can reach a very large
market, directly, fast and economically, no matter the size or
location of the business. With a very low investment, almost
anybody that can read and write can have access and a presence in
the World Wide Web. Blogging has consolidated the social media
and the people everywhere are expressing and publishing their
ideas and opinions like never before.
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“When I took
office, only high energy physicists
had ever heard of what is called the World Wide
Web... Now even my cat has it's own page.”
- Bill
Clinton
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History and
Growth of the Internet from 1945 to 1995
Before getting into the numbers, let's take a look at the
fascinating history of the Internet, from 1945 to 1995, by
courtesy of the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C).
History and Growth of the Internet from 1995 till
Today
Today the Internet continues to grow day by day making
McLuhan's Global Village a reality. The following table
shows the incredibly fast evolution of the Internet from
1995 till the present time:
DATE
|
NUMBER OF USERS
|
% WORLD
POPULATION
|
INFORMATION
SOURCE
|
|
|
|
|
December, 1995
|
16 millions
|
0.4 %
|
IDC
|
December,
1996
|
36 millions
|
0.9 %
|
IDC
|
December,
1997
|
70 millions
|
1.7 %
|
IDC
|
December,
1998
|
147 millions
|
3.6 %
|
C.I. Almanac
|
December,
1999
|
248 millions
|
4.1 %
|
Nua
Ltd.
|
March,
2000
|
304 millions
|
5.0 %
|
Nua
Ltd.
|
July,
2000
|
359 millions
|
5.9 %
|
Nua
Ltd.
|
December,
2000
|
361 millions
|
5.8 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
March,
2001
|
458 millions
|
7.6 %
|
Nua
Ltd.
|
June,
2001
|
479 millions
|
7.9 %
|
Nua
Ltd.
|
August,
2001
|
513 millions
|
8.6 %
|
Nua
Ltd.
|
April,
2002
|
558 millions
|
8.6 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
July,
2002
|
569 millions
|
9.1 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
September,
2002
|
587 millions
|
9.4 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
March,
2003
|
608 millions
|
9.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
September,
2003
|
677 millions
|
10.6 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
October,
2003
|
682 millions
|
10.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
December,
2003
|
719 millions
|
11.1 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
February,
2004
|
745 millions
|
11.5 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
May,
2004
|
757 millions
|
11.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
October,
2004
|
812 millions
|
12.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
December,
2004
|
817 millions
|
12.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
March,
2005
|
888 millions
|
13.9 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
June,
2005
|
938 millions
|
14.6 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
September,
2005
|
957 millions
|
14.9 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
November,
2005
|
972 millions
|
15.2 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
December,
2005
|
1,018 millions
|
15.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
March,
2006
|
1,023 millions
|
15.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
June,
2006
|
1,043 millions
|
16.0 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Sept,
2006
|
1,086 millions
|
16.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Dec,
2006
|
1,093 millions
|
16.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Mar,
2007
|
1,129 millions
|
17.2 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
June,
2007
|
1,173 millions
|
17.8 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Sept,
2007
|
1,245 millions
|
18.9 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Dec,
2007
|
1,319 millions
|
20.0 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Mar,
2008
|
1,407 millions
|
21.1 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
June,
2008
|
1,463 millions
|
21.9 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Sept,
2008
|
1,504 millions
|
22.5 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Dec,
2008
|
1,574 millions
|
23.5 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Mar,
2009
|
1,596 millions
|
23.8 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
June,
2009
|
1,669 millions
|
24.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Sept,
2009
|
1,734 millions
|
25.6 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Dec,
2009
|
1,802 millions
|
26.6 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
June,
2010
|
1,966 millions
|
28.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Sept,
2010
|
1,971 millions
|
28.8 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Mar,
2011
|
2,095 millions
|
30.2 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Jun,
2011
|
2,110 millions
|
30.4 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Sept,
2011
|
2,180 millions
|
31.5 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Dec,
2011
|
2,267 millions
|
32.7 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Mar,
2012
|
2,336 millions
|
33.3 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
June,
2012
|
2,405 millions
|
34.3 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Sept,
2012
|
2,439 millions
|
34.8 %
|
Internet World
Stats
|
Dec,
2012
|
2,497 millions
|
35.7 %
|
I.T.U.
|
Dec,
2013
|
2,802 millions
|
39.0 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
June,
2014
|
3,035 millions
|
42.3 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Dec,
2014
|
3,079 millions
|
42.4 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
June,
2015
|
3,270 millions
|
45.0 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Dec,
2015
|
3,366 millions
|
46.4 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Jun.
2016
|
3,631 millions
|
49.5 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Dec.
2016
|
3,696 millions
|
49.5 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
June,
2017
|
3,885 millions
|
51.7 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Dec
2017
|
4,156 millions
|
54.4 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Jun
2018
|
4,208 millions
|
55.1 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Dec
2018
|
4,313 millions
|
55.6 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Mar
2019
|
4,383 millions
|
56.8 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Jun,
2019
|
4,536 millions
|
58.8 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Jun,
2020
|
4,833 millions
|
62.0 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Dec,
2020
|
5,053 millions
|
64.2 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Mar,
2021
|
5,168 millions
|
65.6 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Dec,
2021
|
5,252 millions
|
66.2 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Mar,
2022
|
5,382 millions
|
67.8 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
July,
2022
|
5,473 millions
|
69.0 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Dec,
2022
|
5,544 millions
|
69.0 %
|
Internet World Stats
|
Statistics of the
Internet
The Internet has made distances shorter and the world
smaller.
However, the great divider that stands in the way of a truly
global
society is fact that there are many different different
languages
spoken in our planet Earth. The following table shows the ten
most numerous languages spoken by the Internet
users.
To see old (Historic) Internet World Usage Statistics
click
here.
For detailed information on the Internet from
Wikipedia.org click
here.
For more on the Internet's history and its relationship with the
information
revolution read NetValley's
informative nine part
report.
For current up to date Internet User Statistics click
here. Click
here for information on the 1995 to 2005 domain count growth. For 1993-1996 domain count data see
Internet Growth
Summary.
History of the Internet
The fastest and easiest way to learn what the internet is and how it works,
all about the creation of the Internet, its development, and evolution,
is to see the many videos available at You Tube on the subject:
Internet Growth
Summary
You can also read a
Brief History of the Internet
, at the Internet Hall of Fame, a website sponsored by
the
Internet Society, which features an excellent resume
about the story behind the wide world web.
Recommended reading.
Here you will find the
Internet History
in a few links
Learn about Leonard Kleinrock who in 1962 invented
the packet-switching technology that made it all
possible.
You can see a timetable
highlighting some of the Internet
key events and technologies that helped shape the Internet
as we know it today at the Hobbes Internet
Timeline.
The Internet Virtual Library
also features a very complete
page with links about the Internet
History.
The Living Internet is a free web site, including more than
700 pages about the Internet’s history, design, advanced
use,
key features, security issues, help resources, and references
to additional information about the Internet.
The Internet Archive is another interesting website. They are
building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural
artifacts
in digital form, like a paper library. Free access is provided
to
researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.
The Internet Archive is huge and growing every day. They have
received help from Sun Microsystems for storing the database,
in what could be called, literally Internet in a Box
. See this
three minute video where Brewster Kahle talks about how the
Wayback Machine is preserving the History of Web Pages.
The first commercial book about
the Internet was published
in 1992. It was written by Ed Krol and it's attractive title was
The Whole Internet User's Guide and
Catalog.
The Internet today is based on huge Data
Centers that can rightly
be called the brains of the Internet. A modern Data Center is
an industrial style facility that uses as much electricity as a small
town, and houses many thousands of interconnected computers.
The above link shows a video of one of Googles data centers.
World Wide Web
Consortium The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
develops interoperable
technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to
lead
the Web to its full potential. W3C is a forum for information,
commerce,
communication, and collective understanding. On the W3C page,
you'll
find news, links to W3C technologies, help and ways to get
involved.
Public participation is welcome at the W3C
Internet
Technology Reports
A Complete Web ICT
Reference Library These reports condense the major
technologies of the World Wide Web.
Take a look at the executive summaries for the full content
details.
Internet
Independence
Declaration of the Independence of
Cyberspace
Birth of an Internet Independence
Movement
Law and the Internet (Book
Presentation)
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