That number is expected to increase to 35 million by the year 2000, estimates Jupiter Communications, a research firm in New York.
Jupiter Communications, a technology consulting group, projects that by 2002 the average American household will have 2.7 online devices.
That compared with 18 million for America Online, according to Jupiter Communications, a research firm.
But to Jupiter Communications, the release seemed a deliberate provocation.
The industry average is 4.3 percent, according to Jupiter Communications, which estimates that the percentage will rise to 11.1 percent in three years.
That business is expected to exceed $280 million this year, according to Jupiter Communications, a new-media research company.
She had been corporate sales director at Jupiter Communications, New York.
Jupiter Communications, the Internet research firm, predicts that children ages 5 to 18 will spend $1.3 billion on line by 2002.
That represents about one third of what Jupiter Communications estimates is a $500 million market this year.
But Jupiter Communications estimates that the on-line grocery market will grow from $350 million in 1999, to $3.5 billion in 2002.