Worldwide Internet Usage Increases
ComScore Networks has announced that 747 million people, age 15+, used the internet worldwide in January 2007, a 10% increase versus January 2006.
China now represents the second-largest internet population in the world, says comScore, with 86.8 million users, after the US, which rose 2% year-over-year to 153.4 million users age 15 or older in January 2007.
Bob Ivins, managing director for comScore Europe, said: “The importance of the worldwide internet population continues to grow.
“Internet users outside the US now account for 80% of the world’s online population, with rapidly developing countries experiencing double-digit growth rates year-over-year.”
ComScore also analysed the top 10 countries ranked by average hours online per visitor for January 2007. Canada led the list, with the average user spending 39.6 hours (and 41.3 hours per month among broadband users) online during the month.
Rounding out the top 5 were Israel, South Korea, the U.S. and the UK – all countries with high broadband penetration. In fact, in each of the top 10 countries, the time spent online by users with a broadband connection was substantially greater than the time spent by users with a narrowband connection.
Ivins added: “We have all believed that ‘always-on’ broadband connections stimulate usage – this study empirically confirms that conclusion.”
| Top 15 Countries by Internet Penetration, Unique Visitors Age 15+*, January 2007 v January 2006, Total Worldwide – All Locations, Source: comScore World Metrix | |||
| Jan-06 (000) | Jan-07 (000) | Percentage Change | |
| Worldwide | 676,878 | 746,934 | 10% |
| United States | 150,897 | 153,447 | 2% |
| China | 72,408 | 86,757 | 20% |
| Japan | 51,450 | 53,670 | 4% |
| Germany | 31,209 | 32,192 | 3% |
| United Kingdom | 29,773 | 30,072 | 1% |
| South Korea | 24,297 | 26,350 | 8% |
| France | 23,712 | 24,560 | 4% |
| India | 15,867 | 21,107 | 33% |
| Canada | 18,332 | 20,392 | 11% |
| Italy | 15,987 | 18,106 | 13% |
| Brazil | 12,845 | 14,964 | 16% |
| Spain | 12,206 | 12,710 | 4% |
| Russian Federation | 10,471 | 12,707 | 21% |
| Netherlands | 10,772 | 11,077 | 3% |
| Mexico | 8,624 | 10,149 | 18% |
| * Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. | |||
| Top 10 Countries by Average Monthly Hours Online per Unique Visitor, Broadband v Narrowband, Among Visitors Age 15+*, January 2007, Total Worldwide-All Locations, Source: comScore World Metrix | ||||
| Average Monthly Hours Online | ||||
| Unique Visitors Rank | Among All Users | Among Broadband Users | Among Narrowband Users | |
| Canada | 9 | 39.6 | 41.3 | 14.2 |
| Israel | 28 | 37.4 | 38.8 | 10.9 |
| South Korea | 6 | 34 | 36.1 | N/A** |
| United States | 1 | 31.6 | 37.2 | 13.5 |
| United Kingdom | 5 | 31.2 | 35.6 | 7.5 |
| Chile | 20 | 30.9 | 38.6 | 12.6 |
| Brazil | 11 | 30.2 | 38.5 | 17 |
| Finland | 30 | 28.7 | 34.2 | N/A** |
| Spain | 12 | 27.9 | 33.4 | 9.1 |
| Sweden | 21 | 27.5 | 31.4 | 9.7 |
| * Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. | ||||
| ** Level of narrowband penetration extremely low, therefore an accurate reportable estimate is not available. | ||||
A recent report from the Office Of National Statistics said that eight out of ten internet connections are now via broadband (see UK Broadband Connections Increase).
Meanwhile, ABI Research forecast that broadband will reach almost half a billion subscribers by 2011 (see Global Broadband Subscribers To Increase).