The number of internet users has nearly doubled since the day I graduated high school, with no sign of slowing down. This means that I am in the first 4% of users, by their statistics, having gotten my first email address at age six.

| The first billion was reached in 2005. The second billion in 2010. The third billion in 2014.

The really fascinating thing, to me, is that if we assume this increase is linear, we are looking at roughly 220,000 new users per year, over a moving average of a decade. However, if you look at where we are in terms of a bell curve (assuming, quite dangerously, 100% adoption) we have yet to hit the top of it (~68%) meaning that we are at an increasing rate of growth of internet users, but there will be a decline in that growth rate, perhaps around 2020-2021. This could cause profound economic effects, seeing as many internet businesses are being invested in based on far-off future profits.