During June and July of that year the number fell to less than 7 million viewers. On the Web, a constant flow of new surfers has arrived since its earliest years. That growth masked any seasonal downturns that might have occurred. This is where we are headed. But there's no doubt that the decline of the Internet Economy has changed surfing patterns.
Digital businesses have to constantly remind customers that they exist.
When they ease off the message, patronage slows down. Moreover, according to The Standard' s Flop Tracker, more than 160 Net businesses have shut down since January 2000, three-fourths of them in the last six months. Although it's difficult to quantify the effect these closures have on traffic, a dot-com's death displaces the surfers that used the site or service. What's hard to measure is whether those surfers are now going to other sites - or spending less time on the Web. As the Net matures, consumers won't decrease core activities like sending e-mail.