Others just bluff.
Yet, everyone seems to agree that there are, at least, 100
million active participants in North America (the Nielsen and
Commerce-Net reports).
The future is, inevitably, even more vague than the present.
Authoritative consultancy firms predict 66 million active
users in 10 years time. IBM envisages 700 million users. MCI
is more modest with 300 million. At the end of 1999 there were
130 million registered (though not necessarily active) users.
The Internet - an Elitist and Chauvinistic Medium
The average user of the Internet is young (30), with an
academic background and high income. The percentage of the
educated and the well-to-do among the users of the Web is
three times as high as their proportion in the population.
This is fast changing only because their children are joining
them (6 million already had access to the Internet at the end
of 1996 - and were joined by another 24 million by the end of
the decade). This may change only due to presidential
initiatives to bridge the "digital divide" (from Al Gore's in
the USA to Mahatir Mohammed's in Malaysia), corporate largesse
and institutional involvement (e.
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