Approximately 98 million American adults had access to the Internet by late 1999, according to the same report, up 54 percent from the previous reporting period. Media Mark also reported that 50.8 percent of these users are men, 49.2 percent women.
Reports vary, however.
The Nielsen Corporation, known best for its TV-ratings reports, calculated that in November of 1999 the universe of U.S. Web surfers over the age of two reached 118 million, with 74 million active during that month. These users spent 11.1 million hours on line. Nielsen also reported that U.S. Web users logged six sessions per week, visited six unique sites, spent just over 2 hours and 46 minutes online per week, and viewed a page for an average of 56 seconds. Home offices will grow from 37 million to 50 million by then, and the most frequent use for all those millions of PCs is, as you no doubt have already guessed, the Internet. America Online now has over 22.2 million users and that s only one access provider, although it is the largest single source used for connecting people to the Internet.