The total Internet audience surpassed 1 billion visitors worldwide for the first time in December, according to new marketing research data.
ComScore Inc. measured this online milestone by tracking home and business traffic, excluding public computers at Internet cafes and users accessing the Internet through mobile telephones or other handheld devices.
It found that 41% of Internet users, 15 or older, live in the Asia-Pacific region. The U.S. with 163.3 million (16.2%) unique Internet users ranked second behind China, which had 179.7 million (17.8%) unique users.
The next largest Internet audiences were measured in Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom; followed by France, India, Russia, Brazil, South Korea, Canada, Italy, Spain, Mexico and the Netherlands.
“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,” said in a statement Magid Abraham, president and CEO of comScore.
· Europe with 282.6 million unique users accounted for 28% of the total Internet audience.
· North America with 185.1 million users accounted for 18.4% of the total Internet audience.
· Latin America had 74.9 million Internet users, or 7.4% of the total.
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Africa and the Middle East had 48.7 million Internet users, or 4.8% of the total.
Google Web sites attracted 777.9 million visitors representing 77% of the total worldwide Internet audience. Facebook.com was the most popular social networking Web site and the 7th most popular Web site in the world.
