By: Tim Haas
Owner/Web Developer
Haas Consulting
Web Development Services

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Welcome to our new and current subscribers! This newsletter is published monthly by Haas Consulting. It is here to be a source of information for anyone who would like to learn about webpages and how they relate to a business or other organization. Please feel free to email us with topics you would like to learn more about. You may view past issues at www.thaas.info/articles.php. Enjoy!

Internet Reaches One Billion Users - What Does This Mean For Your Website?

2006 is now on our doorstep; 2005 leaves with a huge achievement under it's belt . . . at least as far as the internet goes; One Billion Users! According to former Sun Microsystems engineer Dr. Jacob Nielsen, "If you count to one billion at one number per second, it would take you over 31 years to finish. It has taken the Internet 36 years to count that high." Don't expect to wait that long to reach two billion, experts predict we will achieve that goal within the next decade. One billion is a number that is virtually inconceivable to most, what is important about this news is the demographics associated with it and how they might effect your business.

Nielson breaks down the demographics as follows: 23% of the internet's users are currently form North America; 24% are from Europe; 36% are from Asia; with the rest from other areas of the world. He also predicts that by 2015 North America will account for only 15% of internet users. This doesn't mean that fewer North Americans will be using the internet, it means that the greatest area of growth for the internet will be outside of North  America.

Selling to the early users of the internet was fairly easy. Moving into the future; increased numbers in international markets as well as increased expectations of the veteran internet users will place higher demands upon your website.

Take for example the senior citizen crowd. Typically they have more buying power, the trick is that they are less computer literate. One statistic points out that the typical online shopper takes 3 years to become comfortable with shopping online. This demonstrates that website's must become more user friendly and offer high levels of security. This statistic is bound to change as the youth of the world grow older and retire, remember the senior citizens of today didn't grow up with computers.

Now let's consider the international market. There are some very specific needs that will need to be met on top of security and user friendliness. Remember we are the minority in the world as far as standards for measurement. For you to successfully tap into the international marketplace your website needs to offer weights and measures using the metric system. Shopping carts need to handle monetary conversions, and your content will need to be sensitive to cultural diversity.

Marketing with the internet becomes more difficult as the number of users increase. Our websites must become easier to use and adapt well to other cultures. We will need to develop more in depth understandings of who we are marketing to and devise ways to target these consumers. The days of throwing a net out into the water and raking in what-ever is there are coming to an end. In order to remain competitive in the future e-commerce sites need to focus on their target audiences.