The Web: Statistics and Trends to Keep in Mind

How Many Hosts?

Network Wizards, a company that counts the number of hosts and domains on the internet, found that as of July 1996:

There were 12.8 million hosts. This figure is up from 6.6 million hosts in mid 1995 and approximately 1,500,000 in January of 1993.

Internet World says, “A host is defined as a domain name that has an IP address record associated with it - for example, mail.bigcorp.com - and could be any computer connected to the Net by any means. Network Wizards defines a host as not just one machine hooked up to the net, as one physical machine can now have several “virtual” hosts on it, supporting multiple domain names and IP addresses.

The number of domains - example: bigcorp.com, state.edu- is 488,000. That figure is quadrupled from the 120,000 in mid 1995 and has skyrocketted from approximately 25,000 in Jan ‘93.

Internet World says, “The Network Wizards survey provides a good estimate of the minimum size of the Net. Because there is no way the study can tell whether there are hosts or domains it has missed, it cannot be taken as an absolute measurement.”

Number of Users On The Internet

The number of people estimated as using the Internet varies from survey to survey. Each study, however, should be regarded as parameter of current as well as potential users.

Morgan Stanley says there are 9 million U.S. users

Intelliquest found the Internet has 35 million U.S. users

A Vanderbilt University study based on data from the Nielsen Media Research Company (the same folks that survey television ratings) says there are 16.4 million U.S. users compared to 11.5 million last year.

Wirthlin Worldwide conducted telephone survey of more than 1,000 subjects and found the “U.S. Audience for the Internet was about 42 million adults (18+ in age). That figure is up from 25 million a year ago.

Wirthlin Worldwide’s current survey found 27 million people are considered consistent Internet users.

The estimate of users by International Data Corp. found there are 23.5 million users worldwide.

Matrix Information and Directory Services puts worldwide usage at 26.4 million people.

Who Uses It?

The Georgia Institute of Technology’s Graphic, Visualization and Usability Center (GVU) has conducted surveys every six months to obtain more detailed domgraphic profile of Internet users- included age, income sex occpation and more. GVU’s Conclusions:

The United States represents 73.4% of all users (down from 80.6% last year), Europe represents 10.8% (up from 9.8%) Canada and Mexico make up 8.4% (up from 5.8%)

The average age of Internet users Worldwide stands at 33 years, a slight rise since Oct. 95

Women’s share of usage has risen to 31.5%, a 2.2% increase.

The average age of European users is 28.8 years vs. 33.9 years in the U.S.

Female users worldwide average 31.9 years.

Male users worldwide average 33.4 years.

12.9% of women users in U.S. are between 16 and 20 years old. This is likely due to the strong presence of women college students in the survey

10.1 percent of U.S. men users are between 16 and 20 years old.

Income: As of April 1996 the median income of an Internet user was $59,000/year. That is down from $63,000 in 1995’s fourth survey and $69,000 a year ago. The income figures dropped most likely due to an increase in the number students online.

Occupation: More non-computer-science people are coming online.

30% hold educational occupations, up from 23.% a year ago.

Of all users, 27.8% hold computer-related jobs, down from 31.4% a year ago.

18.9% of all users have professional jobs, management occupations comprise 10.7%.

Women: 35% of female users are involved with educational occupations while 19.8% of women users have professional jobs; 18.2% hold computer-related positions.

Males: Among male users 32.2% computer-related jobs, 26.8% hold educational positions.

Wirthlin Worldwide Survey found that 38% of US adults have a computer of some sort in their home and 24 percent of adults have a modem

The survey found the “U.S. Internet audience to be well-educated, well-healed, and younger than the national average.”

“92% of Internet users are registered to vote, 60% participated in the most recent elections in their respective countries.”

Broswer Usage

Netscape Navigator, 74.6%, Microsoft Internet Explorer, 15.6%, Other, 9.8%

Business/Advertising

Advertising: Alex Brown Research and the McCann-Erickson advertising agency found ad revenues on the net in 1996 to be between $150 & $200 million (U.S. domestic total advertising expenditures $166 billion.)

The same group forecasts that within four years, Web advertising will reach $2 billion

Forrester Research estimates 1996 online ad spending will be only $74 million. The Company also says by 2000, ad spending will be $2.6 billion

Simba Information Inc. says web ad revenues in 1996 total $110 million and will reach $1.86 billion by 2000.

Jupiter Commications’ 1996 web advertising estimate is $312 million and should reach $5 billion by 2000

Shopping

“Are people using the Interent in place of their local malls? About 10% of Internet users are, if we accept a count of 25 million total users”

Computer Intelligence Infocorp says 2.7 million people used the internet for shopping or to obtain commercial services such as banking or travel information.

Nielsen Media Research says 2.5 million have purchased products and services via the net.

Music is the most successful commodity among web site commerce with 10,000 (general music interest) sites having shown up.

Among the 350 music distribution sites, the top five are selling more than 25,000 CD’s per day.

Sales: Figures vary by research firmand are not considered an end-all

ActivMedia predicts sales generated on the Interent will grow from $436 million this year to $46 billion in 1998 “as a result of the Web extending the reach of small and medium sized marketers.

Forrester Research says 1996 revenues will reach $518 million but will grow to only $6.6 billion by 2000.

Hambrecht & Quist says that in 1995 revenues generated by web sites totalled $50 million and revenues would hit $10 billion by 2001.

Other sales observations:

Killen & Associates predicts there will be $9 billion in electronic cash transactions on the Net by 2000 growing to $30 billion by 2005.

ActivMedia reported that “only 2% of all web marketers accounted for more than half of all Web sales dollars.”

“The firm, in its report “Strategies, Benchmarks and Best Practices for Manufacturers in Web Commerce” also projects a significant increase in the sale of industral equipment and parts over the Web, as more purchasing departments gain Internet access, training, infrastructure, and experience.”

We hope presenting this survey is of great use to you. If you have any questions about the Internet or creating a Web site please feel free to contact us. You can call PTI the old-fashioned way at (732) 295-6605 or click here to reach the Contact PTI portion of our web site. We would be happy to answer any query and we look forward to speaking with you.

If you’d like to read more in our informative Internet FAQ’s & Figures section, clicking here to discover Questions About The Web, Web Site Construction and What You’ll Gain by Using the Services of PTI. The section lays out answers to questions we’re often asked about the Internet. It will also give you some important information on why PTI is an outstanding value when it comes to World Wide Web Services. You can also inspect the section entitled A Few Terms to Familiarize Yourself With if your still getting used to the web, or if you’d like to just brush up on Internet Terminology.