In the decades since the World Wide Web debuted in 1991, internet usage has grown dramatically, transforming global communication and commerce. In 2005, only 16 percent of the world’s population, about one billion people, used the internet. By 2023, internet users had expanded to 67 percent of the global population. As McKinsey Quarterly marks its 60th birthday, it explores this and 24 other technology breakthroughs that have transformed business, from the foundation of modern computing in the 1960s to commercial space exploration just a few years ago.
Image description:
An area graph shows the share of the world’s population that uses the internet, from 2005 to 2023, as a percentage of total population. In 2005 this figure was ~16%, or ~1 billion people. By 2023, that share was 67%, or ~5.4 billion people.
Source: “Number of internet users worldwide from 2005 to 2023 (in millions),” Statista, Nov 27, 2023; World Bank Group.
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To explore the interactive, see “Sixty years of innovation: Key moments in business technology,” October 2024.