The number of people on the Internet surpassed one billion in December, according to comScore. Meanwhile, Internet World Stats counted nearly 1.5 billion Web surfers worldwide as of June 30, 2008 (chart below). Somewhere between 15 and 22 percent of the world’s population is on the Internet.
Comscore’s Top 15 countries, by Internet population, December, 2008;:
- China: 179.7 million
- United States: 163.3 million
- Japan: 60.0 million
- Germany: 37.0 million
- United Kingdom: 36.7 million
- France: 34.0 million
- India: 32.1 million
- Russia: 29.0 million
- Brazil: 27.7 million
- South Korea: 27.3 million
- Canada: 21.8 million
- Italy: 20.8 million
- Spain: 17.9 million
- Mexico: 12.5 million
- Netherlands: 11.8 million
Worldwide Internet Audience
- Asia Pacific: 416 million (41.3%)
- Europe: 283 million (28.0%)
- North America: 185 million (18.4%)
- Latin America: 75 million (7.4%)
- Middle East & Africa: 49 million (4.8%)
The Asia-Pacific region accounted for the highest share of global Internet users at 41 percent, followed by Europe (28 percent share), North America (18 percent share), Latin-America (7 percent share), and the Middle East & Africa (5 percent share).
“Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the Internet,” said Magid Abraham, President and Chief Executive Officer, comScore.
“The second billion will be online before we know it, and the third billion will arrive even faster than that, until we have a truly global network of interconnected people and ideas that transcend borders and cultural boundaries.”
Worldwide smartphone sales totaled 32.2 million units in the second quarter of 2008, a 15.7 per cent increase from the second quarter of 2007, according to market researcher Gartner. Smartphones are currently about 15 percent of the entire mobile phone market, but are predicted to grow to 40 to 50 percent within the next five years. Informa forecasts subscriptions to UMTS/HSPA will number nearly half a billion worldwide by the end of 2009, and will pass the one billion mark in 2012.
Market researcher Tomi Ahonen says there are 800 million cable/satellite TV subscriptions and 850 million cars in the world. There are 950 million personal computers, about 1.2 people billion use email, and 1.3 billion total internet users. There are about 1.2 billion fixed landline phones, all television sets on the planet number 1.4 billion, and there are about 1.5 billion unique credit card holders.
But mobile phone subscriptions reached 4 billion just after New Years, 2009.
