Hierarchy of Needs 2.0

Bruno Giussani pulls some data points from a recent Morgan Stanley report:

• "North America accounted for 66% of all Internet users in 1995, for only 23% in 2005.
• South Korea is the most broadband-friendly country in the world: 70%+ penetration.
• At the end of September 2004 there were 193 million broadband subscribers globally (63 mm in Asia, 47 mm in North America).
• Annual ringtones sales (May 2005): 3 billion USD. Cumulative iTunes sales (Sept 2005): 559+ million USD.
• Annual engineering graduates 2004: USA: 76'000; India: 184'000; China: 352'000; Rest of the world: 1'007'000.
• In 2004, cell phone users sent 1.1 trillion SMS messages, generating 50 billion USD in revenues for the operators.

The analysts write: "We believe the first ten years (1995-2005) of commercial Internet were a warm-up act to what is about to happen". And they wonder whether in this context we shouldn't think of revising the "hierarchy of needs" suggested in 1943 by Abraham Maslow. Here is how they imagine a revised version:"