Internet growth

Look at the explosion of the Number of Hosts, Networks and Domains in recent years.

The growth rate is staggering, and is expected to double over the next 5 years.

Currently (1999)

• 60 million people use the Internet.
• 17.6 Million people browse the Web
• It is estimated to grow to 25 Million in the next 3 years.
• There are more than 7 million home pages on the World Wide Web.
• The Wall Street Journal predicts that there will be over 1 Billion home pages by the year 2000.
• 75% of the Web users are between the ages of 16 and 44.
• 55% of the Web surfers have an income over $55,000 a year.
• 54% of Web users have a college degree, 26% have graduate degrees.
• 7 out of 10 business users surf the Web for product information and evaluation.
• Web surfing by business prospects is projected to double over the next 18 months.
• Major manufacturers have released products to browse the Internet from your television set!
• The Internet will truly be a media available in every home and office.

Internet Growth

   Date       Hosts            
   -----    ---------            
    1969 	          4            
   04/71  	        23         
   06/74  	        62           
   03/77  	       111           
   08/81  	       213            
   05/82   	      235            
   08/83   	      562            
   10/84   	    1,024            
   10/85  	     1,961            
   02/86  	     2,308            
   11/86  	     5,089            
   12/87  	    28,174            
   07/88  	    33,000           
   10/88 	     56,000            
   01/89  	    80,000           
                            


   Date       Hosts     Networks   Domains 
   -----    ---------   --------  --------- 
   07/89      130,000        650      3,900
   10/89      159,000        837
   10/90      313,000      2,063      9,300
   01/91      376,000      2,338
   07/91      535,000      3,086     16,000
   10/91      617,000      3,556     18,000
   01/92      727,000      4,526
   04/92      890,000      5,291     20,000
   07/92      992,000      6,569     16,300
   10/92    1,136,000      7,505     18,100
   01/93    1,313,000      8,258     21,000
   04/93    1,486,000      9,722     22,000
   07/93    1,776,000     13,767     26,000
   10/93    2,056,000     16,533     28,000
   01/94    2,217,000     20,539     30,000
   07/94    3,212,000     25,210     46,000
   10/94    3,864,000     37,022     56,000
   01/95    4,852,000     39,410     71,000
   07/95    6,642,000     61,538    120,000
   01/96    9,472,000     93,671    240,000
   07/96   12,881,000    134,365    488,000
   01/97   16,146,000               828,000
   07/97   19,540,000             1,301,000

SInce 1993 the WWW has been the major factor in the growth of the Internet

WWW Growth

   Date     Sites     |   Date     Sites     |   Date     Sites     
   -----  ----------  +   -----  ----------  +   -----  ----------  
   06/93         130  |   08/96     342,081  |   04/97   1,002,612
   12/93         623  |   09/96     397,281  |   05/97   1,044,163
   06/94       2,738  |   10/96     462,047  |   06/97   1,117,255
   12/94      10,022  |   11/96     525,906  |   07/97   1,203,096
   06/95      23,500  |   12/96     603,367  |   08/97   1,269,800  
   01/96     100,000  |   01/97     646,162  |  
   06/96     252,000  |   02/97     739,688  | 
   07/96     299,403  |   03/97     883,149  |

Newsgroups continue to expand:

USENET Growth

   Date  Sites  ~MB  ~Posts  Groups  |  Date   Sites   ~MB   ~Posts  Groups
   ----  -----  ---  ------  ------  +  ----  -------  ---   ------  ------
   1979      3            2       3  |  1987    5,200    2      957     259
   1980     15           10          |  1988    7,800    4     1933     381
   1981    150  0.05     20          |  1990   33,000   10    4,500   1,300
   1982    400           35          |  1991   40,000   25   10,000   1,851
   1983    600          120          |  1992   63,000   42   17,556   4,302
   1984    900          225          |  1993  110,000   70   32,325   8,279
   1985  1,300  1.0     375          |  1994  180,000  157   72,755  10,696
   1986  2,200  2.0     946     241  |  1995  330,000  586  131,614

      ~ approximate: MB - megabytes per day, Posts - articles per day