Internet Users Top 1 Billion Mark

The internet surpassed the 1 Billion user mark for the month of December 2008, according to the most recent figures. “A key driver to that growth has been its ability to break down cultural barriers and cross over country borders,” said Jamie Gavin, senior marketing and communications analyst at U.K.-based comScore. With the proliferation of internet enabled cellphones the number is expected to continue to raise.

Geographically the numbers are up everywhere, "The Asia-Pacific region accounted for the highest share of global Internet users at 41 per cent, followed by Europe at 28 per cent and North America at 18 per cent.", according to the Globe and Mail.

Study Shows Mobile Internet Use Going Up, Fast

Neilsen Online has some, not so surprising, news regarding Mobile internet use in Britain. According to their number, 7.3m people accessed the internet via their mobile phones, in the second and third quarters of 2008. This represents a 25% increase over last year and compares to just a 3% increase in PC-based access.

"The fact that weather, sports, news and e-mail sites make up the majority of leading mobile sites shows that mobile internet is mainly about functionality and need at the moment as opposed to the more entertainment and e-commerce-focused makeup of the leading PC-based sites," says Kent Ferguson, a senior analyst with Nielsen Online.

Some interesting demographics:

25% of mobile internet users are aged 15-24 while the same group make up only 16% of PC based internet users;

23% of the PC based internet users are aged 55 or over while the same group make up only 12% of the mobile internet base.

BBC story here.

China Now The Biggest Web Market... According to Chinese Research Firm

A Chinese research firm puts China's Internet user base at 210 million at the end of 2007, and anticipates that at it's rate of growth the Chinese web market will surpass the 216 million US web population this year. “Based on these sources and the assumption that these markets have continued to grow in 2008 to date at the same rates that they grew in 2007, we can conclude that China has by now comfortably surpassed the United States as the world's largest Internet population,” analyst Bin Liu said in a statement. Globe and Mail story here.