"It took the:

Telephone 38 years to reach 50 million users;

Television 13 years to reach 50 million users;

Internet 4 years to reach 50 million users."

This expression has been very popular on the Web. It doesn't really matter whether the figure "50 million" is exact or not, the most important thing here is the fact that Internet undoubtedly registered one of the quickest growths of any technology. One of the consequences of such a fast growth is that firms selling goods and services need to address a completely new field of business, and they need to do it fast.

2007 On-line Holiday Sales Go Above $29 Billion

On December 10, 2007 on-line shopping arena registered what was dubbed "Heaviest Online Spending Day of the Season", accounting $881 million. The period between December 10 and 16 was called Heaviest Week of the Season because the on-line sales totaled $4.7 Billion.

ComScore, Inc., the leading company is estimating the digital world, on January 7, 2008, presented its final update of last year's holiday season e-commerce spending, which started on November 1 and ended on December 31. Throughout the season on-line sales accounted $29.2 billion. This figure is 19% above the one registered the same period last year.

ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni stated: "Ultimately, the softness in the growth of online retail sales during the first ten days of November proved difficult to overcome and prevented the season’s growth rate from reaching our forecast of 20 percent. However, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas -- another measure of the strength of the holiday season -- experienced a healthier 21-percent growth rate."

Top 10 Most Profitable Days of the 2007 Holiday Season for On-line Business

"Green Monday" (Monday, December 10) was dubbed Heaviest Online Spending Day of the Season, followed by Tuesday, December 11, with $819 million and then Thursday, December 6 with $803 million. "Cyber Monday," November 26, was the first biggest spike in on-line spending throughout the season. It ranked 9th most profitable day, accounting $733 million.

Categories that showed a fast growth in on-line retail are: video games, consoles and accessories. If compared to the results of the previous 2006 season these figures show an increase of 129 percent. The most popular consoles proved to be Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation. The game that people were more willing to buy was Halo 3. The second most popular category included furniture, appliances and equipment. These registered a growth of 67 percent versus 2006. Event tickets increased in sales up to 24 percent and consumer electronics showed a growth of up to 23 percent.

Those categories that declined in sales included jewelry and watches. This is due to the continuously increasing costs for precious metals, including gold and platinum.

Fastest Growing Retail E-Commerce Categories by Dollar Sales for 2007 Holiday Season

Non-Travel (Retail) Spending

Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases

Nov. 1- Dec. 31, 2007 vs. 2006

Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations

Source: comScore, Inc.

The week that ended December 16 was the heaviest spending week of the season, registering $4.7 billion in online sales, surpassing the week that ended December 9, which accounted $4.6 billion. The strongest rate of growth was registered during the week that ended November 18 - the figures show an increase by 26 percent.