| Chapter 1: | Introduction and Underlying Assumptions |
|
|
The same report shows that the growth rate of Internet connectivity is large for all income groups. Actually, the largest annual growth rate, of 25%, is encountered among the lowest income bracket (under $15,000 per year). At the end of 2002, there were an estimated 580 million people online worldwide, of which 168.6 million Americans (Nielsen NetRatings, 2003), and about a hundred million Web sites worldwide (Nielsen, 2000a). In 2004 the estimated number of people online worldwide was over 729 million, and the number of Americans online, over 204 million (Global Reach, 2004). Data from 2007 lists over a billion (1,319,872,109) people online worldwide, out of which 211 million live in the United States (Internet World Stats, 2008). These numbers show that Web sites have an enormous potential audience and that the Internet is a major communication medium used by a large number of people all around the world. The great reach of the World Wide Web is an important factor validating the relevance of studying Web sites.
We know that a large number of people have Internet access, but what do they do online? Data show that Americans use the WWW for a wide range of activities. According to the most recent U.S. Department of Commerce report (2004), the most popular use of the Internet is e-mail, followed closely by researching Web sites for product and service information. The next section reviews in more detail the kinds of activities and decisions in which the WWW plays an important role.
Online Activities
Searching for product and service information is an activity 76.5% of American Internet users over the age of 15 reported engaging in (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2004).