[attrition] One Billion Internet Users

[security curmudgeon]

[1,000,000,000 on the net, and seemingly 999,999,000 are complete morons
  that are better off playing in traffic.]

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/internet_growth.html

"Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, December 19, 2005:

One Billion Internet Users

  The Internet is growing at an annualized rate of 18% and now has one 
billion users. A second billion users will follow in the next ten years, 
bringing a dramatic change in worldwide usability needs.

  Some time in 2005, we quietly passed a dramatic milestone in Internet 
history: the one-billionth user went online. Because we have no central 
register of Internet users, we don't know who that user was, or when he or 
she first logged on. Statistically, we're likely talking about a 
24-year-old woman in Shanghai.

According to Morgan Stanley estimates, 36% of Internet users are now in 
Asia and 24% are in Europe. Only 23% of users are in North America, where 
it all started in 1969 when two computers -- one in Los Angeles, the other 
in Palo Alto -- were networked together.

It took 36 years for the Internet to get its first billion users. The 
second billion will probably be added by 2015; most of these new users 
will be in Asia. The third billion will be harder, and might not be 
reached until 2040.

In 2002, NUA estimated that we had 605 million Internet users. Since then, 
Internet use has grown by 18% per year -- certainly not as fast as the 
1990s, but still respectable.

Overall, the Internet's growth has been truly remarkable. Ten years ago, 
the 'net was mostly used by geeks; now it's the default way to do business 
in many countries. In our U.S. and European B2B studies, many business 
professionals said they visit a company's website as the first step in 
researching potential vendors."