Here’s how oDesk calculated $27.6 billion in additional work if the entire world had access to the internet.

This analysis by Odesk assumes an annual online work industry growth rate of 31% and an annual connected population growth rate of 11%.

Courtesy oDesk

Notes:

• Staffing Industry Analysts placed the market size at $1 billion in 2012 and projects $5 billion by 2018.
• This reflects an annual industry growth rate of 31% which was determined by reaching $5 billion in 2018.
• Each year’s connected population assumes consistent growth. To reach full access within 10 years this worked out to 11% per year.
• In order to quantify, oDesk randomly chose a 10-year timeframe.