Sales at top web firms grow 8-fold in decade: Report

Sales for the world's Internet industry have grown eight times in the past 10 years due to the expansion of electronic commerce and web search and portal services, a report showed today.

According to the report by the Samsung Economic Research Institute, sales of the top 500 listed Internet companies totaled USD 170.6 billion in 2010, compared with USD 21.3 billion in 2000.

During the same period, sales in the IT industry rose 2.4-fold and the energy industry grew 4.2-fold, the report showed. The report also said the total capitalisation of the companies reached USD 588.8 billion, up from USD 108.4 a decade ago. Their total operating profit was USD 28.5 billion last year, turning from a loss of USD 11.4 billion in 2000.

Only three firms -- Amazon.com Inc., eBay Inc. and Yahoo Inc. -- were among the 10 biggest companies by sales both in 2000 and 2010, according to the report. Over the decade, Asian Internet companies grew faster than US firms, as five new businesses including China's search engine Baidu Inc., Japan's Yahoo Japan Corp and South Korea's leading portal operator NHN Corp have joined the ranks of the world's top 10 Internet service providers.