Internet and E-Commerce Experienced Massive Growth

More than 80 million dot-coms and 200 million Web sites have been registered since 1985, according to a report from Speedmatters' partner the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

The report coincides with the 25th anniversary of the first dot-com registration, symbolics.com, on March 18, 1985 and the FCC's release of the National Broadband Plan.

The ITIF's report described the massive expansion of dot-coms even after the collapse of the dot-com bubble in 2000:

• Of the roughly 250 million registered websites, nearly 80 million are dot-coms. The number of domain names grows by an average of 680,000 per month.
• Dot-coms account for almost $400 million in economic benefits to businesses and consumers (and that figure will likely double in the next 10 years).
• Only 25 percent of the world's 6.7 billion currently participate in the online economy. This is changing, though - 73 million in China became Internet users in 2007 alone.

The ITIF also urges adoption of policies that will help encourage open development for future Internet technologies:

• Removal of regulatory and legal barriers to the emergence of new e-business models;
• Creation of incentives for companies to invest in Internet-enabled business practices;
• Advancing digital literacy.

Many of the ITIF's reforms are found in the National Broadband Plan. The Plan hopes to encourage federal funding for digital literacy training and universal high-speed Internet expansion, especially in low-income communities.

New ITIF Report Looks at Internet's Evolution (BroadbandBreakfast)

National Broadband Plan (FCC)