So, what’s the Web really worth? Leave it to McKinsey to do the math. According to a new report by the U.S. consulting firm, The Internet -- an $8 trillion global economy made up of some 200
million consumers -- has accounted for 21% of GDP growth in the world's largest economies over the last 5 years. “As an entity, it accounts for more GDP than the Spanish or Canadian economies,
and it's growing faster than Brazil,” The
Atlantic notes, citing McKinsey’s research. “As a sector, it is now larger than these countries' agriculture or energy industries.” Because “there is a lot of Internet to
measure,” McKinsey said it limited its report to the online economy in the G-8 countries plus five more, including Brazil, China, India, South Korea and Brazil. It defined Internet activities as
private consumption (electronic equipment, e-commerce, broadband subscriptions, mobile Internet, and hardware and software consumption); private investment (from the telecommunications industry and
the maintenance of extranet, intranet, and Web sites); public expenditure (spending and buying by government in software hardware and services); and trade (which accounts for exports of Internet
equipment plus business-to-business services with overseas companies).