Who is turning the Web into wealth?; IT finance
With 33.4m users, the Internet is big business and getting bigger.
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Your support makes all the difference.Durlacher Multimedia, a consultancy associated with City stockbroker Durlacher, has produced an "investment perspective" on the Internet. This is what is says:
n There are 33.4m Internet users, and subscriptions grow by more than 100 per cent a year.
n The UK market will grow from pounds 35m last year to more than pounds 900m by the turn of the century. Current growth is more than 200 per cent a year.
n The World Wide Web doubles in size every three months. There are about 100,000 sites, 75 per cent of which are based in North America.
n The UK generates about 10 per cent of Internet turnover. This will fall to 5-6 per cent by 2000.
n By 2002, more than 200m people will be connected to at least some parts of the Internet.
n The first wave of profitable Internet-related businesses will be in access service provision, software applications provision, consultancy and related hardware provision.
n Fewer than 300,000 UK PC owners subscribe to online companies or Internet service provider.
n There will be increased financial investment in service providers competing for a market of up to five million subscribers in the next seven years.
n The largest service providers will survive because of their economies of scale. Smaller companies will either be taken over, or will move into value-added services such as advertising, electronic publishing, etc.
n Business-to-business content is growing rapidly. Everything from large computers to magazine subscriptions are being bought and sold on the Net.
n Retail sales via the Internet are still very low, but will increase exponentially with the arrival of commonly accepted security standards by the end of this year.
n Alliances are already being formed to produce a torrent of highly branded, well-structured Internet "programming".
n Telecom companies are starting to take the Internet seriously, because of the pressure it is putting on bandwidth, and because cheap "Internet telephone" will threaten their business.
n Cable companies may become big beneficiaries of the Internet, as they have the bandwidth to deliver information at speed.
n Peripheral industries such as cybercafes and Web design and production are likely to exceed pounds 65m in UK sales this year.
'The Internet in 1996 - An Investment Perspective' costs pounds 3.50. Durlacher Multimedia 0171 628 4306. e-mail: durlacher@mail.bogo.co.uk.
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