>From Michael Tchong's excellent Ionocast (http://www.ionocast.com/)
email newsletter:
<EXCERPT>
BUSINESS USE
~~~~~~~~~~~~
If one item stood out in last week's Internet audience
measurement story, it was the under-representation of
business users. So how large is the Internet business
universe really? Based on an ICONOCAST analysis, there
are a minimum of 32 million business users worldwide,
who account for at least 46% of total traffic volume.
>> Business universe -- According to RelevantKnowledge,
34 percent of all Web users fit the definition of an
"active business user." Based on our current estimate
of 93.8 million Internet users worldwide, that would
amount to some 32 million business users. IDC put the
total number of business users in 1997 at 36 million.
>> Site universe -- Dun & Bradstreet reports that more
than 40 million companies are listed in its worldwide
database. When D&B matched its U.S business data list
against 1.3 million top-level Internet domains, it
found that half of the domains, or 665,000, were non-
businesses. Of the remainder, only half had active
business sites. Bottomline: Roughly 333,000 businesses
are on the Web, a miniscule fraction of the 40-million
business universe [please note that many businesses are
hosted on sites such as GTE's SuperPages].
>> Web usage -- A recent Thomas Register and Visa USA
online survey of 2,000 American and Canadian businesses
(out of a possible 155,000 Register-listed companies)
shows that 40% say they used the Web at least once in
the past month, primarily for quick research.
>> Fortune 500 sites -- Last October, IDC showed a chart
that estimated that 80% of all Fortune 500 companies
had Web sites in *1996*. [One can safely assume that
95% now do.]
>> Small/medium/large segmentation -- In 1997, IDC estimated
that small business users made up 17% of "total Net use,"
while businesses with more than 100 employees made up 28%
["total Net use" is a duplicated user figure, meaning
that the majority are also home users]. Worldwide, IDC
estimates that medium and large businesses will account
for 49 million users by 2000.
>> Small business -- According to Cyber Dialogue's U.S.
Small Business Internet Survey, which was based on
telephone interviews with 1,000 U.S. businesses with
less than 100 employees, 37% are online, equivalent to
2.6 million small businesses out of a 7 million universe.
Each online business averages 8.3 employees, suggesting
that 21.6 million small business employees use some
combination of e-mail, Web or commercial online services.
Worldwide, IDC estimates that this figure will grow to
33 million by 2000 [which is a very conservative 1997
estimate]. Like consumers, an equal number of small
business users, 53%, use the Internet on a daily basis.
>> Volumetrics -- Media Metrix reports that business users
devote 65% more time on the Web than home users. With
current home usage running about six hours per week,
according to NetRatings, the average time a business
user spends on the Internet is about 10 hours. Based
on this data, it's estimated that business usage
constitutes about 46% of Internet traffic volume.
PointCast's director of strategic marketing, Lisa Gerould,
notes that of Media Metrix' 1,500 business panelists, only
400 are not already part of the home sample. Adds Lisa:
"Having more than 20 million users represented by such a
small sample is a [major deficiency of Internet audience
measurement]." With business users accounting for nearly
half of Web traffic volume, we couldn't agree more.
</EXCERPT>
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