The internet is a relatively new phenomenon. But the following fascinating facts, provided by Inc.com, demonstrate that the internet has gained rapid and ubiquitous traction.
For example, while it took 75 years until telephones were used by 50 million users, Pokemon Go was adopted by 50 million users in only 19 days!
From the First Website to Today
The first internet website was set up just 28 years ago, and now there are 47 billion web sites.
Already, 47% of the global population is online — meaning there are 3.58 billion internet users.
Television remains popular, with 1.59 billion households worldwide having a TV set. But that has been surpassed already by the more than 2 billion people who gain access to the internet while using a handheld device.
There will be 269 billion emails sent and received in 2017. Unfortunately, a whopping 86% of these emails will be spam — unsolicited commercial emails.
Since the advent of the camera 174 years ago through 2016, 3.5 trillion photos were taken. But with the growing dominance of camera-ready smartphones, 1.2 trillion photos will be taken in just 2017.
There are more than one billion users of YouTube, reeling in one-third of everyone on the internet. And viewers consume 6 billion hours of video monthly — apparently, the equivalent of 68,000 years of watching the top 10 music videos in 2015. (Who figured that out?!)
While YouTube accounts for 18% of online bandwidth, Netflix doubles that, accounting for 36% of bandwidth during peak hours. All streaming consumes 70% of internet bandwidth.
Facebook, the largest nation in the world by population headcount, has 1.86 billion users and growing. An astronomical 80% of internet users are on Facebook, with Instagram coming in second, with 32% of internet users.
In 2016, 90 billion apps were downloaded on iOS and Android mobile devices. And Google and Facebook apps comprise 90% of mobile apps used daily.
So, is the internet here to stay? Yes — onward and upward!
Eric Sinrod (@EricSinrod on Twitter) is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris LLP, where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology and intellectual property disputes. You can read his professional biography here. To receive a weekly email link to Mr. Sinrod’s columns, please email him at ejsinrod@duanemorris.com with Subscribe in the Subject line. This column is prepared and published for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s law firm or its individual partners.