Web economy to double by 2016

According to the Boston Consulting Group report, mobile web access is the primary reason for the significant growth.

The study assumes that half the world’s current population, or 3 billion people, will be online by 2016. Four out of five of those are likely to be going online via smart mobile phones.

The UK already has one of the largest online economies in the world; the web currently accounts for approximately 8 per cent of GDP. In a report commissioned by Google in 2010, Boston found that for every £1 spent online to import goods, £2.80 is exported, helping to make the UK the world's leading nation for e-commerce, according to the report The Connected Kingdom: how the internet is transforming the UK.

This compares to the economy offline which exports 90p for every £1 imported.

In 2010, the internet economy accounted for just over 4 per cent of the G20 economies, but Boston’s researchers suggested that by 2016 it will be much more thoroughly integrated into the wider economic picture. They claimed that each household currently researches around £2,000 worth of purchases online before buying.