Posição dos Países por Número de Hosts
(fonte: Network Wizards Julho/98)

Hosts nas Américas
(fonte: Network Wizards Julho/98)

25. 739.702

1.027.571

163.890

83.949

57.532

22.889

16.345

11.864

6.825

4.917

3.763

2.844

1.227

1.046

855

Hosts na América do Sul
(fonte: Network Wizards Julho/98)

Statistics on Internet users and host numbers cannot be asserted precisely. According to the Internet Steering Committee, on December 31^st 1997 there were over 131.000 hosts connected to the Internet in Brazil. Comparing to January 1996, as shown in the table below, a high increase can be noticed on the number of Brazilian hosts.

From January to November 1996, the growth on the number of hosts was of 405% (from 17.429 to 70.664). Ten months later, it had an increase of 62% (from 70.664 to 118.949 hosts). During 1997, the growth of the number of hosts .br reached 75%, while .com.br was even higher: 95%.

Users

As a result of the government initiatives and the growing interest and investment of the private sector, the number of Brazilian users on the Internet today has shown a constant increase. The initial Government goal of one million users was achieved in June 1997:

As noticed in the table above, in December 1997, Brazil had 1.310.000 Internet users, a number almost ten times higher than in January 1996, when the total number of users was 170.429. Today, the Brazilian Internet is the 18^th largest network in the world and the 3^rd largest network in the Americas (the first and second largest ones are USA and Canada respectively).

Domains

Since the beginning of the commercial Internet in Brazil (July 1995), the number of domain names in the country has shown a substantial growth. From January 1996 to November 1996 there was an increase of 1.000% and the growth-rate between November 1996 and September 1997 reached 231%.

Top Level Domains

In 1996, the private sector’s presence on the network vastly increased. This could be noticed from the 92,70% growth-rate of the top-level domain .com.br, for commercial organizations. In 1997, the growth-rate of the same domain continued to increase reaching 93,47%. The .org.br domain, for non-governmental and non-commercial organizations, has also shown a higher growth-rate in 1997 (from 2,78% in 96 to 3,64% in 97).

Other categories of organizations connected to the Internet, however, did not maintain the same trend as (.org.br) and (.com.br) in 1997. The growth-rates of educational (.edu.br), governmental (.gov.br) and military (.mil.br) organizations, as well as telecommunication companies (.net.br), decreased subtly during that year. Nevertheless, the growth stability of such organizations was expected due to their high growth-rates in prior years.

Infrastructure

The Internet infrastructure has also been greatly improved. Besides the RNP (National Research Network, first national Internet backbone operating since 1991), 7 other backbones were established in Brazil:

1. Banco Rural
2. Global-One
3. IBM
4. Unisys
5. SBT on-line
6. Universo On-line
7. Embratel

Business and the Internet

Many Brazilian companies have already consolidated its services through the Internet. According to Modulo, the use of the Internet by companies is rapidly growing (from 29% in 1996 to 63% in 1997) 1. This can be observed in the following areas:

1) Finance - At least 10 Brazilian banks offer their services via the Internet. According to Febraban (the Brazilian Bank Union), in the end of 1997, there were approximately three million customers using home and office banking systems 2 , which corresponds to 19% of the clients (according to a survey made by Modulo). In the end of 1996, one million bank clients used these services, while in the end of 1995, the number of clients was only 580.000. It is estimated that by the end of 1999, 5 to 30% of all bank transactions will be made via Internet and home banking.

The Brazilian Stock Market is also on the Web. In November 1997, Bovespa, the largest Stock Exchange in the country, registered 90.000 visits and 500.000 hits.

2) Media - Almost all Brazilian newspapers (approximately 80), magazines and radio stations (approximately 70) offer online services. A growing number of Brazilian bookstores are also doing online business. BookNet 3 , for example, sells 12 to 15 thousand books a month via Internet.

3) Business - In 1996, several retail stores and supermarkets started operating online. The Internet is considered an attractive medium for business and advertising. Pão de Açúcar, one of the largest Brazilian supermarket networks, started selling via Internet in December 1997, and today, it has 70 thousand registered customers. According to their recent data, 12% of the total sales come from the Internet 4 .

4) Entertainment – This area has a strong presence on the Internet with sites on a great variety of subjects such as games, humor, plays, literature, travel and cinema.

5) Technology - The Internet remains the strongest force of growth in the technology industry with record levels of venture money flooding into young companies. According to Grottera Direct (a publicity agency), investments in online publicity in Brazil may reach US$ 200 million in the year 2000, or 1,8% of the world revenue on online advertising.

6) Intranets - The development of Intranets has also become a solid and rapid growing business in Brazil. According to another Modulo survey, an average of 3% of the researched companies had Intranets in 1996. This percentage jumped to 50% in the end of 1997 5 .

Internet related Jobs

According to Abranet (Brazilian Association of Internet Service, Information and Access Providers), it is estimated that each access provider generates an average of 25 jobs in Brazil which represents 20 thousand new jobs in the past 2 years. In the United States, this number is around 100 thousand. Highly specialized professionals in areas such as web designing, maintenance, Intranets, computer systems, technology, media and advertising are being required.

Domín.

31/01/97

28/02/97

31/03/97

30/04/97

31/05/97

30/06/97

31/07/97

31/08/97

30/09/97

31/10/97

30/11/97

31/12/97

Dez

9.829

10.365

11.574

12.668

13.641

14.769

17.159

19.615

22.595

24.153

26.578

34.342

29,21%

278

284

295

303

307

319

325

338

353

368

384

498

29,69%

70

71

81

87

93

98

125

142

162

168

181

244

34,81%

148

158

169

173

179

182

189

194

205

214

220

286

30,00%

7

7

7

8

8

8

9

9

9

9

9

12

33,33%

15

15

15

16

16

16

17

18

18

19

19

23

21,05%

333

362

412

461

499

557

672

740

841

928

992

1.336

34,68%

10.680

11.262

12.553

13.716

14.743

15.949

18.496

21.056

24.183

25.859

28.383

36.741

29,45%

Domínios

Jan

Fev

Mar

Abr

Mai

Jun

Jul

Ago

Set

Out

Nov

Dez

757

1.042

1.429

1.996

2.864

3.972

5.686

6.979

7.793

8.882

10.520

157

167

180

191

197

204

211

222

231

247

269

3

12

12

15

17

23

27

30

42

71

75

83

90

102

109

114

121

131

132

140

151

2

2

2

3

3

3

3

4

4

5

8

6

6

6

7

7

7

9

10

10

11

14

41

52

57

65

89

120

151

193

235

273

315

1.041

1.364

1.776

2.379

3.286

4.443

6.208

7.569

8.447

9.610

11.348

Hosts

31/01

28/02

31/03

30/04

31/05

30/06

31/07

31/08

30/09

31/10

30/11

31/12

Dez

35.125

35.201

40.522

42.422

47.439

48.863

52.863

54.447

54.447

54.447

59.659

65.423

9,66%

33.029

35.008

37.191

38.890

40.402

50.047

50.047

51.502

51.502

51.502

51.502

51.502

0,00%

145

147

175

214

229

248

297

304

391

444

466

469

0,64%

7.428

7.853

8.134

8.618

9.054

9.316

9.957

10.195

10.195

10.722

11.065

11.133

0,61%

153

153

153

153

163

164

164

165

168

172

172

174

1,16%

493

493

513

527

547

555

575

602

602

602

602

602

0,00%

969

1.044

1.094

1.181

1.332

1.431

1.555

1.634

1.634

1.634

1.634

1.698

3,92%

77.342

79.899

87.782

92.005

99.166

110.624

115.458

118.849

118.939

119.523

125.100

131.001

4,72%

Domínio

Hosts

Hosts

Jan

Fev

Mar

Abr

Mai

Jun

Jul

Ago

Set

Out

Nov

Dez

2.582

7.019

8.079

10.731

13.794

16.619

20.390

22.848

24.716

27.871

31.180

33.452

12.549

16.017

16.903

18.501

19.279

24.058

24.719

25.901

26.391

29.769

31.714

32.541

1

4

13

15

16

13

13

21

56

67

89

130

1.392

1.821

2.454

2.966

2.981

4.020

4.475

4.877

5.317

5.897

6.272

6.787

91

92

90

88

87

87

118

133

133

144

145

147

230

437

419

427

430

434

439

453

456

473

485

491

584

570

515

479

532

453

592

676

641

726

789

910

17.429

25.960

28.473

33.207

37.119

45.684

50.746

54.909

57.710

64.947

70.664

74.458

Serv. WWW

30/06/97

31/07/97

31/08/97

30/09/97

31/10/97

30/11/97

31/12/97

Em Dezembro

12.452

15.174

16.066

18.426

20.066

22.715

29.490

29,83%

2.184

2.184

2.184

2.184

2.184

2.184

2.350

7,60%

93

104

125

139

145

162

225

38,89%

290

347

375

377

454

501

667

33,13%

7

9

11

15

17

17

17

0,00%

31

33

33

33

35

35

39

11,43%

491

607

696

766

852

940

1.163

23,72%

15.548

18.458

19.490

21.940

23.753

26.554

33.951

27,86%