• by October 31, 2000

Today, roughly 127 million U.S. adults use the Internet, up from 108 million in 1998. Eighty-six million U.S. adults shop on the Internet, and 58 million users bought something online within the past three months. It is also estimated that this year's online holiday revenues will reach $19.5 billion worldwide, an 85% increase over last year.

The typical Internet user might not be as young or as male as we've been led to believe, according to a report released yesterday by the Gartner Group. Researchers found that the average web user is 41 years old, earns about $65,000 a year, and is married with 2.81 children. And that goes equally for both men and women. Additionally, Gartner found that Internet users are more likely to live in coastal areas, such as the Pacific and New England regions.

Not that any of those stats should matter much when it comes to who's most likely to buy something online, Gartner says. Although income and children drive household PC ownership, these factors do not necessarily make for active Internet shoppers.

More importantly, Gartner found that when it comes to making online purchases, a user's experience matters more than age. Researchers found that 70% of all Web users started using the Internet in 1998 or earlier and those users with more than three years' web experience are twice as likely to have purchased online than Internet users with a year's worth of experience.

Also, heavy online shoppers are more likely to pay bills online, bid at auction sites or transfer banking account funds online.

According to Gartner, this is good news for e-commerce because web user experience will only increase over time.