Brussels, 19/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - A survey published by eTForecasts, an American research company into the Internet market, predicts that the number of users of the Internet will treble in the world by 2005, going from 400 million in 2000 to 1.175 billion. In western Europe, users currently number 95 million, and this should go to 148 million in 2002 and 246 million in 2005.
The European market for wireless internet, which is currently viewed with disappointment, will see the most spectacular development: the potential number of users could attain 168 million in 2005, as against 7 million recorded in 2000. They wold represent 68% of users, against the current 7.5%. the company attributes the current failure of the wireless internet to "inflated expectations". The author of the report, Egil Juliussen, states with a certain amount of optimism that "the wireless internet will take off rapidly one always-on service and useful content for small displays of wireless devices are available (…) The rapid take-off will be due to millions of 'dormant' or web-enables cell phones, incapable of serfing the net have been replaced."
The study states that the largest growth in the number of users will mainly be in Asia, Latin America and certain European countries. The United States alone has 135 million users, or a third of the world total.