429 million users on the web... who does
not believe the
Internet has a future?

What sections of the Internet population should be
targeted between
now and 2005?

The Nielsen/Netratings company just calculated the size of the Internet population in 27 countries to come to the figure of 429 million people with an Internet access.

There is no doubt that these figures are the result of extrapolations that might lend themselves to debate as there is no way of measuring the Internet population that proves 100 percent reliable. Indeed, the proportion of users who access the Internet from work often happens to be missing from the panels.

And yet, according to Nielsen/Netratings, this figure of 429 million people with Internet access would include both the users who access the Internet from home AND from work.

Nevertheless, though there might be some inaccuracy, the fact that the Internet population worldwide is getting close to half a billion people should give food for thought to investors who might have seen their enthusiasm somehow dampened by the Internet crash.

Indeed, if some start-ups are presently dying for want of serious business-models... or sufficient capital, the number of Internet users never stops increasing and ignoring a population that nearly amounts to half a billion people (and what's more, with the highest income) would signal an economic shyness that would pay too much attention to the Stock Exchange rate.

Here are the figures recorded by Nielsen/Netratings and that concern a population of users aged 16 and over.

Source: Nielsen/NetRatings

This is the subject of a study conducted by the IDC company. Even though the study admitted that the size of the Internet population as well as its prospective growth represented a great opportunity for e-tailers, it still advises these same e-tailers to somehow refine their commercial dialogue according to the different age brackets.

The study conducted by IDC, which mainly took into account the American Internet population, considers that most of the new online users between today and 2005 will fall in the 35 to 54 age bracket and will account for as much as 28 percent of all first -time users.

IDC insists on the fact that this age range also corresponds to the time in life when users spend most money, as this proves to be their peak earning years.

If we add new online users to the old ones, the 35 to 54 age bracket should account for as much as 76 percent of the whole American Internet population in 2005.

As far as younger users who fall into the 12 to 17 age bracket, they also happen to represent a special target group for e-tailers. Indeed, these young people might well keep on buying goods from you throughout their lives, once you've managed to customize them…

But let's not get carried away here…as 81 percent of these teenage users were already online in 2000, which means that if you haven't yet managed to convince them, it is already a bit late to try and make up for lost time on the years to come.

As for the 18 to 34 age bracket, 67 percent were already online in 2000, which means that this group, just as the last one, should mature much more slowly in the coming years than the 34-to-54 age range.

What about older generations?

According to IDC, online users aged 55 and over are expected to double by 2005 and should then account for as much as 26 percent of all new online users.

This is the reason why IDC has confidence in the economic opportunities held by online development and the company expects the American online population to double between now and 2005, which would represent 85 million new online users.

From then on, things should become much more serious as the" stabilization" of these users will require much more effort than today and it will often prove too late for the …followers.

Source : IDC