14 DAY TRIAL // ComScore Inc., a digital survey and report firm, announced on Friday that the global number of Internet users broke the one-billion mark, with approximately a sixth of the world population logging in to the World Wide Web over the course of last year. The largest number of users was recorded in China, where approximately 180 million people connected online, followed by the United States and Japan. Estimates say that the second billion will come sooner than anyone expects.
Researchers at comScore say that the surge in the number of Internet users could be likened to the demographic boom recorded in human history, with the first billion-inhabitant mark reached in the mid 1800s, while the second was achieved only 100 years later. Between 1950 and 2000, in fifty years' time, the global population grew from 2.5 billion to 6 billion inhabitants, meaning that it more than doubled in a very short time span.
The same evolution is expected to be recorded at Internet level as well. Previous studies have shown that the World Wide Web will double in size each 5.62 years, so naturally the second billion users could be registered within a decade. In addition, comScore says that the number of actual Web surfers could be much higher than they estimated, on account of the fact that their analysis recorded only those logging in from home or offices, and not from PDAs, mobile phones or Internet Cafes.
"Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the Internet. It is a monument to the increasingly unified global community in which we live and reminds us that the world truly is becoming more flat. The second billion will be online before we know it, and the third billion will arrive even faster than that," says Magid Abraham, the chief executive of comScore.
China contributed to the global surge with 180 million users, the largest Internet population in the world, followed by the US with 163 million, and Japan with 160 million. Of the European countries, Germany and the UK lead the way, with nearly 37 million users each, followed by France, with 34 million Internet users. In terms of website popularity, Google was king, averaging 777.9 million unique visitors in December alone, followed by Microsoft sites, totaling 647.9 million, and Yahoo!, with some 562.6 million visitors.