ADVANCE/Online sales forecast to reach $24.1 Billion in 1999, according to SIMBA report.

Wilton, CT--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 1995--Spurred by personal computer growth and the Internet's impact, online sales are expected to reach $24.1 billion in 1999, a 75% increase over 1994, according to SIMBA Information's latest report, Online Services: 1995 Review, Trends & Forecast.

SIMBA projects that by 1999 there will be over 26 million online subscribers. "All of the rules have changed," says SIMBA's editorial director Lorraine Sileo. "The Internet, especially the World Wide Web, has jolted the industry and opened up doors to many different possibilities of information, entertainment and communications technologies."

Worldwide online services grew to $13.8 billion in 1994, a 16.4% change from 1993. The annual growth rate for the online industry for the 1995-1999 period is estimated at 11.9%, according to the report. "The Web will be a marketer's first choice for promoting products and services," says Karen Burka, managing editor of Online Services. "As long as the Web offers the potential for a larger audience and lower start-up costs, advertisers are going to flock to the Web, rather than consumer online services."

Much of the focus in the online industry has been on end user/consumer services, which accounted for only 5.2% of online industry sales in 1994, but will grow to 13% by 1999. That segment in 1994 surpassed the business/professional services segment by a wide margin, 40.7% to 15.3%.

The Online Services series, published annually since 1990, evaluates the online services market by content providers and access providers, and examines the trend in companies operating as vendors of their own content via the Internet.

For information, or to order copies of the report, contact Tom Schmalzl at 203-834-0033, ext. 178. Other reports published by SIMBA include Economics of Online Publishing, On the Internet: User Demographics & Trends, Economics of Multimedia Title Publishing and Interactive Television Profiles & Analysis.

SIMBA also publishes Electronic Information Report, Multimedia Business Report, Electronic Marketplace Report, Interactive Television Report, Electronic Education Report, Media & the Law, News Inc., and other newsletters on the business of computer publishing and advertising, yellow pages and directory publishing, telecommunications and book publishing.

SIMBA, the leading provider of news, analysis and market research reports about the media and information industry, is an affiliate of Cowles Business Media in Stamford, CT.

CONTACT: Christa Roche

public relations director

203-834-0033, 161

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