Web Users Pick Surfing Over Sex

The Internet economy of the G-20 nations will reach $4.2 trillion by 2016 almost 1.7 times last year’s estimated level, as more than two-thirds of Americans would forgo coffee and 21 percent give up sex for a year to stay online, Boston Consulting Group said.

U.S. consumers said they would need to receive about $2,500 to stay offline for that period, according to a BCG survey released today. Consumers in most countries would require three percent to six percent of their average annual income to follow suit, the study found. All said they valued search, e-mail, online banking and investing functions. BCG interviewed about 1,000 users in each country.

The study shows the importance of the Web to consumers and to businesses trying to reach them through sites, including social-networking company Facebook Inc. (FB) and online-search provider Google Inc. (GOOG) There’s an “explosion” of people buying online, said David Dean, a senior partner at the Boston-based management consulting firm.
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The Internet has become like electricity or water,” said Dominic Field, a partner at BCG in Los Angeles, who along with Dean was one of the authors of the study.

By 2016, the number of global Web users will reach 3 billion from an estimated 1.9 billion in 2010, BCG said. Across the G-20 nations, the Internet economy accounted for an estimated $2.5 trillion in 2011, BCG said.
Were it a country, the Internet economy would be in the top five, behind the U.S., China, Japan and India and ahead of Germany, the study found. In the U.S., the Web’s contribution to 2010 gross domestic product exceeded the federal government’s, according to BCG.