One person out of every eight on Earth is now connected to the internet, and this phenomenal growth has occurred in less than 10 years. By 2010, this internet usage growth could narrow to one in five people.
This is according to the latest statistics released this week by ResearchWorldwide.com. It says internet usage growth has been catapulted from 16-million in 1995 to more than 830-million this year.
A total of 130-million new internet users logged on for the first time during 2004, a growth rate of 19% over the previous year.
According to Internet World Stats, these 830-million internet users come from 237 countries. However, the top 20 countries comprise 84% of these users, or about 700-million people.
The top 11 internet-using countries — the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Korea, Italy, Canada, Australia, Taiwan, The Netherlands and Sweden — have already reached an average 62% internet-usage penetration of their entire populations. Together they make up 57%, or 475-million, of the world’s internet users.
“Assuming these top 11 countries maintain an annual average growth rate of 5%, or 24-million a year, then by 2010 an additional 120-million new internet users from these 11 countries would increase their average internet penetration usage to 72,5%,” ResearchWorldwide.com explains.
Four other countries currently have an internet penetration averaging 33% of their populations. France, Spain, Malaysia and Poland jointly have 55-million internet users. Assuming a further 55-million new users log on over the next five years — averaging 11-million new users a year — it would take their average penetration to slightly more than 60% of their populations in 2010.
The real growth potential rests with five countries: China, India, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia. These five countries together comprise 45% of the world’s population, but have only 5% internet-usage penetration.
Currently, these five countries have 142-million internet users. Assuming these countries add 35-million new users a year — an average increase of 25% a year — an additional 175-million new users would increase these five countries’ internet-usage penetration from 5% in 2004 to only 10% in 2010. The growth potential, post-2010, will come primarily from these five countries.
There are 217 other countries with 130-million internet users. Assuming their internet usage numbers increase by 15% on average annually, this would add a further 100-million new users by 2010.
In South Africa, Online Publishers’ Association (OPA) figures reveal that 3,5-million people used the internet in August — with the total readership of the industry set to increase further because new members such as SABCnews.com, Creamer Media and JHBlive.com were yet to be counted on the OPA’s new tracking system.
In summary, the largest growth over the period 2005 to 2010 will come from China, India, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia — an additional 175-million internet users.
The top 11 countries could add a further 120-million users by 2010. The other 217 countries, excluding the top 20, could add an additional 100-million new users by then.
“France, Spain, Malaysia and Poland would add a further 55-million new internet users within five years. In total, this will add 450-million new internet users over the five-year period 2005 to 2010, bringing total internet users to nearly 1 300-million, or one in every five inhabitants worldwide by 2010,” says ResearchWorldwide.com.
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