# [TECH] Internet & World Wide Web

**The Internet** is the global packet-switched network; the **World Wide Web** is the hypertext application layer that made it universally accessible. Together they have transformed commerce, communication, media, science, and politics.

## Overview

ARPANET (1969) demonstrated packet switching. TCP/IP (Cerf & Kahn, 1974) defined the internet's protocol. Tim Berners-Lee invented the WWW at CERN (1989–1991), providing hyperlinked documents accessible via browsers. Mosaic (1993) and Netscape (1994) brought graphic browsing to consumers. Google (1998), Amazon (1994), and Facebook (2004) emerged from the platform. Mobile internet (3G+, 2001–) put the web in every pocket. By 2023, the internet has 5.4 billion users.

## Key Actors

- **Companies**: ARPA/DARPA (funding), Cisco (routers, 1984), Google (1998), Amazon (1994), Meta (2004), Cloudflare (2009)
- **Inventors**: Vint Cerf (1943–) & Bob Kahn (1938–) — TCP/IP; Tim Berners-Lee (1955–) — WWW

## Key Patents

Deliberately patent-free: Berners-Lee did not patent the WWW; CERN made it royalty-free. Internet protocols (TCP/IP) are open standards.

## Economic Value

Internet contributes approximately **\$USD 11.5 trillion/year** to global GDP (McKinsey 2023), representing ~15% of global economic activity. E-commerce alone: \$USD 6T/year (eMarketer 2023).

## Notes

McKinsey Global Institute *Internet Matters* updated 2023 estimate. E-commerce: eMarketer *Global Ecommerce Forecast* 2023.

## What This Enables

- **[TECH] Cloud Computing & Big Data** — Cloud computing is physically hosted on internet-connected data centres; fast, ubiquitous internet made cloud economically viable.
- **[TECH] AI & Large Language Models** — The internet provided the training data corpus (web crawls, books, code) and deployment infrastructure for LLMs.

# Parents

* [TECH] Optical Fiber Communications
* [TECH] Satellite Communications
* [TECH] Personal Computer
* [TECH] Optical Fiber Communications
* [TECH] Mobile Phones & Smartphones