Measuring the impact of the Internet and the value that it’s brought to society as a whole, is not an easy task. What strikes you first when you look at the statistics is that the distribution of the Internet is still extremely unequal — there are over four billion people the world with no access to it. Mainly because they have either a very limited or often no regular supply of electricity. Where access is greater, in developed countries, some say its impact on the economy is still fairly modest — representing around five per cent of GDP in the US and eight per cent in the UK. That is not insignificant, but its small compared to what IT and business analysts originally forecast. They're rather prone to talking its effects up - as they are with any new technology - and they predict that the Internet will drive the economy of the future, creating completely new industries and new jobs. Such estimates are probably wildly exaggerated particularly with regard to jobs. Because what we see with the Internet is that it doesn't so much create new things as make existing things more efficient. And quite often efficiencies equal job losses, not job creation. It's widely accepted that a high sales per employee ratio is a good indicator of business success and you only have to look at the figures for companies like Google and Amazon to see that they've managed to create huge revenues with relatively small workforces.