Brace Yourself For Explosive Net Growth

As much as it has grown in the past two decades, the Internet is set to become an even more disruptive economic force in the next five years as more developing countries begin to expand their access, according to a new study from the Boston Consulting Group.

According to the BCG, which surveyed approximately 1,000 consumers in each of the world’s 20 largest countries, roughly half of the world’s population (3 billion people) will use the Internet, and the so-called “Internet economy” in those G-20 countries will be $4.2 trillion by 2016 -- up from about $2.3 trillion in 2010. “The speed and scale of change that the Internet is responsible for driving in all sorts of businesses is really remarkable,” David Dean, senior partner at BCG and coauthor of the report, tells Marketing Daily. “It’s very fair to say that the change that will happen in the next three to five years is far, far larger than any other change that has happened in the past 10 to 20 years.”