The Internet Economy 25 Years After .Com
The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation
Robert D. Atkinson, Stephen J. Ezell, Scott M. Andes, Daniel D. Castro, and Richard Bennett
March 2010

In this paper, ITIF scholars describe the evolution of the Internet economy over the last 25 years. They note that the majority of Internet users today most likely would identify the Internet with Web 2.0 sites like Twitter or Facebook, while in reality the Internet economy has traveled a long and winding road, leading from a desolate landscape to 80 million .com domains and 1.7 billion users.

The authors analyze the past and current economic trends and data on the Internet, and explain why, if the trends continue, e-commerce will be a $3.8 trillion business by 2020.

To explain the Internet economy and where it is headed, the authors divide the paper into seven subjects:

1. The history of the .com era;
2. The dot-com bubble and rebound;
3. Understanding the Internet economy;
4. Understanding dot-com business models;
5. Economic benefits of the Internet economy;
6. Societal benefits of that economy;
7. And future trends.

The authors conclude that “nations must continue to remain vigilant to ensure the trust and security of the Internet; to support both the deployment of broadband technologies that bring high-speed Internet access into homes and businesses and the proliferation of personal or mobile computing devices through which to access the Internet; to ensure that companies have incentives to invest in Internet-enabled business practices; and to ensure that their citizenry becomes digitally literate so they can enjoy the benefits made possible by the Internet economy.”

The full article is here.