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futures

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futures - 19November: 56 million adults, or 27% of the US population age 16 and older are online as of thethird quarter of 1997, according to a survey of the United States population's useof the Internet and online services by IntelliQuest Information Group. The latest wave of Intelliquest's Worldwide Internet/Online Tracking Service identified 4.9 million new users of the Internet and online services within the past three months. IntelliQuest's study also found an additional 16 million adults intend to begin accessing the Internet or online services within the next year. If these people follow through with their intentions, the number of wired US residents could approach 72 million within a year. This would amount to a doubling of the online population from when IntelliQuest began studying the medium in the second quarter of 1996. According to Intelliquest, among the more remarkable results of the latest wave is how the medium is increasingly becoming a mainstream factor in users' lives. For example, over 23 million people (42% of the online population) reported accessing the Internet or online services from multiple locations in the third quarter -- more than double the number found doing so fifteen months earlier. Also, the average amount of time a user spent online has grown from an average of 6.9 hours per week online in Q2 1996 to a current mean level of 9.8 hours per week. In addition, commerce was estimated to have grown rapidly from a base of 2.6 million online purchasers in Q2 1996 to 8.7 million people in Q3 1997, with their projected spending $7 billion online annually.