UK internet economy: Your views

A study commissioned by Google has found that the internet is worth £100bn a year to the UK economy or 7.2% of the UK's gross domestic product (GDP), a study has concluded.

This would make the sector larger than the construction, transport and utilities industries. The report, external also says small businesses that actively use the internet report sales growth more than four times greater than that of less active companies.

BBC News website readers have been sharing their own experiences of the net economy:

UK net economy 'worth billions'

I started selling online in 1998 because a friend was singing praises about selling online. By 2005 it was clear that online was the future and I reluctantly closed the bricks and mortar store.

Online selling is far more challenging and, to be honest less fun than having a shop. When I still had he shop I had the knowledge, but the internet has made everyone an expert and anyone can go online and look for an item. That has hit family businesses hard.

But on the upside it opens the door to a huge market I did not have before - it used to be hard to find people with an interest in records in South Wales. Now I have clients in places like Australia and Canada. Also, many things I would have counted as worthless in the 'shop days' are prized collectables in some far flung corner of the globe.

I think he UK has a huge advantage in the business of e-commerce because of our language.

We sell nutritional supplements online. Our e-commerce business has shown 35% increases in each of the last two years, particularly to European retail customers.

The internet has allowed small companies like ours to do business abroad with retail customers, which is something that wasn't possible before - we were only able to sell wholesale to other countries. The barriers have come down.

We in the UK are very competitive in particular sectors, partly because of he prices. But the increase in VAT next year will make us less competitive in Europe.

Bearing in mind the growth of e-commerce business to Europe, one wonders what effect this will have on the ever-growing trade to Europe and therefore tax receipts.

My small company consists of three full-time employees apart from the directors and part-timers, and we recently hired another full-time employee.

If you multiply that by the number of online companies, you can see the number of jobs that his industry creates. So, while I agree with the current government plans, I do wonder if they have taken this into account.

We run our small three-person company entirely on the internet. It removes a need for an office, premises, and we need hardly any staff to manage the process of allowing customers to browse and exchange goods. This makes us more competitive with very small overheads. Whilst this is amazing for us, consider the implications for employment across the country - not everybody is invited to the internet revolution. Tim Putnam, Reading

The internet is simply an alternative retail outlet in this context so how it in itself can be deemed to be contributing to the economy is misleading in my view. It means there is greater choice for consumers in comparison to local offerings. Hazel Smythe, Milton Keynes

As a freelance IT consultant, I use the net extensively for finding work, learning how to solve problems, education, and for personal communication. When I started freelancing 20 years ago computers helped me by printing letters that were then posted. I t is hard to imagine that period now. And is the government going to invest heavily so everywhere can have good broadband? GW, Bollington, Cheshire

What a non-story. A PR survey to give coverage to Google. The UK e-commerce figure is already widely available, but it's mostly retailing. There is no such thing as an 'internet economy' - it's just a channel. It's like measuring the 'cash till' economy - the cash till doesn't make money, the retailer does. Joe, Twickenham, London

We have been retired since 2002. All our banking and investment management/buying/selling is done on the internet. Most of our daily expenditure - food and such like - is still by physical shopping. Most of the rest - clothing, insurance, utilities, major purchases such as white goods and books - are via the internet. I think we will always physically shop for food and daily needs as otherwise we would never go out! Richard Smith, Dartmoor, Devon

I just hope David Cameron reads this and gets the government to help promote the internet industry. The UK is a physically small country with a reasonably high population and a (just) capable infrastructure - all of which help a digital economy immensely. Small companies can produce small volumes of specialised products and sell them world-wide for very little cost. We're good at this, let's not screw it up too. "A web fan", Wellingborough, Northamptonshire