An article in the Guardian yesterday revealed that the internet is now worth £100bn to the UK economy. This represents more than 7% of national income and, if it was an industry in its own right, would be more than twice as large as the hotel and restaurant market and nearly as big as the financial sector.

The report was carried out by Boston Consulting Group on behalf of Google and found that much of this growth is down to the boom in ecommerce, with the UK having the biggest ecommerce market in the world when measured by the amount spent per capita.

This buoyancy has also fuelled the online advertising market in the UK, which contributed £3.5bn to the total (the largest online advertising market outside the US).

Broadband woes

Of course, whether the projected 10% growth per year in the internet industry continues is going to depend heavily on whether the UK government continues to push for increased broadband roll-out to all parts of the UK.

So far the signs have been mixed, with many suggesting that the UK is in danger of falling behind in the race to equip UK homes and businesses with faster internet connectivity.

photo credit: machernucha