The world was divided into material haves and have-nots before the advent of the Internet. The industrialized economy made sense of the division according to the wealth and the accessories one has. The last decade of the twentieth century ushered in the Internet revolution, which divided the world into digital haves and have-nots. The knowledge economy made sense of these terms as one realizes the key to prosperity is knowledge and information.

More than three-quarters of the world population don’t have access to Internet at the macro-level. Lack of infrastructure such as telephone and lines, computers, and service providers are some of the important bottlenecks in implementing Internet. Policy decisions such as tariff regulation also contribute to the digital divide. Besides, the demographic profiles such as high level of illiteracy and lack of awareness play a role in enabling the Internet to reach the common public.

Internet traffic measures usage. The usage depends upon the number of hours utilized, number of individuals and entities, and the type of applications. All these factors are, in turn, determined by the cost of bandwidth and the speed of the Internet. The types of applications include emails, web surfing, and online purchases. Emails and web surfing may not take much time at an individual level. Online purchases depend upon the type of purchases.

E-commerce has the potential to take the Internet economy and traffic on an increasing path. Most of the large corporations have an Internet presence in the form of websites, forums, and discussion boards. Nevertheless, e-commerce is still at a growing stage among the small and medium enterprises. The concerns of the online purchasers regarding the security features are being addressed, and this has enabled growth in online purchasing and has become a driver of Internet traffic.

The growing website traffic is another driver for Internet traffic. The whole industry must cater to the demands of online businesses to drive the website traffic. They include Internet marketers and search-engine consultants. There are a considerable number of strategies to increase the traffic to an individual website. Internet traffic growth depends upon market elasticity and technological factors.