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The Most Mind Blowing Internet Statistic

By Tac Anderson ⋅ December 30, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment
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If you are reading this post there’s a really good chance your life, like mine, revolves around the Internet. The Internet it the most amazing technological development to happen in my lifetime and arguably, ever.

As 2010 rolls to an end I’ve had pause to stop and think about the last 20 years of my adult life. 1990 was the year I graduated high school and it was also the year the World Wide Web was first launched on the Internet (although technically it wasn’t publicly available until August of 1991).

Think about everything the Internet allows us to do. I mean really stop and think about it for a minute. Think back over the time period of 1990 to 2005, the first 15 years of the World Wide Web. The Web has changed the way that we do almost everything. It has radically altered business and human communication and collaboration.

And I’m just talking about the Internet before “social media.” Now think about the last 5 years. Maybe it’s just me and my generational and occupational perspective but the last 5 years seems to be dramatical more impactful than the 15 years before it. Can you imagine what the next 10 years will bring? Or even the next 5 years?

Last year I made 5 predictions for the next 5 years as well as my top 10 2010 predictions. You can read my self grading results here. As I stated in that last post I plan to follow the same format again and while I don’t have my predictions ready for public consumption I couldn’t help but to share this one (for me) mind blowing statistic that will have a huge impact on my 5 year predictions. So consider this a sneak peak.

Less than 30% of the Worlds population is online.

Rounding up generously, only a little under 2 Billion of the World’s almost 7 Billion people access the Internet. That’s about 28%.

What happens when most of the World is online? What happens when we hit 80% penetration like we have in the US? This will be a big factor in my 5 year predictions but let me just say that, no matter what I or anyone else predicts about what the the World will be like after the majority of the World is online, we will all be unimaginatively wrong. Even with the benefit of the learning from the last 15 years, there is no way to predict how the coming tidal wave of Internet literacy will change the World.

Hang on. This is going to be a wild ride.

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About Tac

Social media anthropologist. Communications strategist. Business model junkie. Chief blogger here at New Comm Biz.

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  • http://twitter.com/briancrouch Brian Crouch

    I wonder about how even that percentage breaks down in terms of home access vs. limited access. We can be sure that in many parts of the world, internet usage is not provided via broadband, not accessible 24/7. The local internet cafe, the shared school computer… The degree to which even that 2 billion is directly engaged online relevant to the overall picture.

    The companies that are increasing bandwidth for developing nations, the computer-makers that are providing ever cheaper tools for access (netbooks & smartphones especially) are providing quantum leaps past many of the “evolutionary steps” of technological change within nations. The generation gap has already provided social upheaval in some countries, of course…

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com tacanderson

    There are a lot of ways to look at this that would be fascinating like how many in developing countries have limited Internet access over mobile vs PC/Web based access.

    I know that even in the US where we have 80% Internet access, the broadband access is far lower, like 50% or something and I don’t know if that’s home access or just any kind of access.

    So yes, I agree while 30% have access it could potentially be much less than half of that has reliable, high speed access.

  • http://worldmedia-info.com/?p=90893 The Most Mind Blowing Internet Statistic | New Comm Biz | World Media Information

    [...] Read the rest here: The Most Mind Blowing Internet Statistic | New Comm Biz [...]

  • http://topsy.com/www.newcommbiz.com/the-most-mind-blowing-internet-statistic/?utm_source=pingback&utm_campaign=L2 Tweets that mention The Most Mind Blowing Internet Statistic (new post) — Topsy.com

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tac Anderson, Frank Prendergast and others. Frank Prendergast said: Via @tacanderson Less than 30% of the Worlds population is online. http://bit.ly/fskrJH [...]

  • Jen

    I really love that you used that picture.

  • http://www.brickmarketingsocial.com Nick Stamoulis

    It really is mind blowing when you lay it all out like that, the changes that have taken place in that span of time. This reminds me of back to the future II, it took place in the year 2015 and there were flying cars and I remember as a young boy being completely mind blow by the idea. Back then the idea of the internet was a mind blowing thing, it still is for some people, the older immigrant generations, can’t wrap their heads around it still. I for one am excited at what the future of the internet could possibly be.

  • http://www.newcommbiz.com/top-5-predictions-for-the-next-5-years-2011-edition/ Top 5 Predictions For The Next 5 Years [2011 Edition] | New Comm Biz

    [...] I was surprised by how far a long my 5 year predictions had already come so this year I’m going to try and look even further down the road but still keep it in the space of 5 years. I’ve also given you a sneak peak at some of the thinking behind these predictions in my two previous posts, 2011 Is Not About Social Media. Prepare For The Next Wave Of Disruption and The Most Mind Blowing Internet Statistic. [...]

  • http://blog.russellherder.com/2011/01/offline-advertising-still-matters-a-lot/ Offline Advertising Still Matters, A Lot « The Relevance Compass

    [...] into our marketing plan. But as Tac Anderson reminds us in an article for New Comm Biz, The Most Mind Blowing Internet Statistic, less than 30 percent of the world’s population is online, and 20 percent of the United States’ [...]

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