Half of UK will be online within three years

Optimedia estimates that by the end of 2003, 27m people in the UK will be web users, about 47% of the population. Online ad spend was approximately 40m last year and this is expected to increase to 120m this year and expand to 630m by 2003.

E-commerce was estimated at 1bn in 1999 and will rise to 7.2bn by 2003. Although e-commerce expectations are high, several factors have led to consumers experiencing disappointing results, including stocking and delivery not being able to keep up with online ordering and payment.

Results from Sky Digital's interactive television platform Open claimed that within two months of launching its home shopping services transactions reached over 1m a week.

Digital TV penetration saw its penetration into UK homes rise to 2,770,000 by the end of 1999 to access over 11% of the country; predictions from Optimedia expect this figure to rise to 54% by 2005.