• silicon.com
• Technology
• Networks

By Felicity Ussher, 9 July 1998 17:11

NEWS The number of active Internet users is far lower than people think, according to a survey released yesterday by eMarketer. eMarketer, which analyses the methodology used by leading research groups, stated in its 1998 eOverview Report that in June 1998 there were just 37 million active Web users in the US, and 14 million in Western Europe. Market research firms such as Intertrek and Intelliquest had put US figures between 50 and 70 million. IDC previously estimated there were 16.6 million European users in 1997.
eMarketer master statistician, Geoffrey Ramsey, said: "We talked to these people and found that they were including the dabblers and the drop-outs. Our definition of an active Web user means someone who is using the Web regularly." The eMarketer report states that the true number of Internet users worldwide stood at 60 million in June 1998. It projects a figure of 76 million by the end of the year, and 129 million by 2000. "And we are sure there will be more non-US users than US users by this point," added Ramsey.