130 Million Online by End of 1999

More than 35 million people worldwide will become online users in 1999, bringing the total number of active Internet users in the world to 130.6 million, according to a report by eMarketer.

eMarketer’s eGlobal Report found that once 35.2 million new Internet users go online in 1999, the world’s Internet population will surpass the entire population of Japan. By 2003, eMarketer predicts the number of active Internet users in the world will reach 350 million by 2003, a 267 percent increase from the 95.4 million people who were actively using the Internet at the end of 1998.

Other findings in the eGlobal report include:

• North America lost majority share of the world’s Internet user population in the first quarter of 1999
• Worldwide e-commerce revenues will grow from $98.4 billion in 1999 to $1.2 trillion by 2003, with the US maintaining a majority share of e-commerce dollars
• Germany has the second-highest level of e-commerce revenues in the world, $1.5 billion in 1998 and $4.4 billion projected for 1999. The UK is third, with $1.49 billion in 1998 and $3.7 billion in 1999.
• The number of people online in South America will rise from 4.1 million in 1999 to 26.6 million in 2002, a 550 percent increase.
• More than 75 percent of the world’s Web sites are in English.

“The growth in new Internet users, particularly in regions like Europe and Asia, has been phenomenal,” said eMarketer’s Geoffrey Ramsey. “Yet the millions of active Internet users today represent only 2.2 percent of the world’s total population of 5.9 billion.”