Internet Records 900% Growth Over a Decade

The last 17 years have been very eventful for the Internet economy, growing nearly 900 per cent from 400 million in 2000 to 3.5 billion users as at today. As such, the Internet has had an unprecedented impact on the economy and societies around the globe.
 
The Internet Society, which gave this statistics, noted that the Internet is no longer just the home of email, static webpages and discussion boards; today’s Internet is so much more. It now a dynamic space for collaboration, commerce and expression.
 
According to it, video currently accounts for more than two-thirds of all Internet traffic in the world, and people accessing the Internet via a mobile device now outnumber those connecting from a computer. The Internet has changed political systems, revolutionised business, and reshaped communities worldwide.

In spite of all this dynamism, certain properties of the Internet persist. These properties, which are called invariants, have been the foundation for the Internet since its earliest days. At the same time, it is because of these invariants that the Internet has become such a dynamic resource. These technical properties are at the heart of the Internet’s success — they provide users with the ability to fully benefit from the Internet.

In Africa, urban areas generally have higher penetration rates than rural areas do. As of 2017, 388 million of the continent’s 1.25 billion people are online, with 160 million holding Facebook accounts. Out of the 388 million users, Nigeria accounted for 91.5 million with Kenya following with 44 million people on the Internet. The African region is still adjudged as continent with the slowest growth.