Net gets larger
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11 May 2006
Internet research firm, comScore have come up with figures for global online size and behaviour based on activity from the firm’s online behavioural research panel which has active representation from countries that comprise 99% of the global Internet population
Asian countries, including China, Japan, India and Korea, now dominate the net with their citizens making up nearly 25 per cent of the total worldwide online population, 168 million users. By contrast, the traditional big player, the USA, now trails some 11 per cent behind the Asian countries on 152 million users.
"Today, the online audience in the U.S. represents less than a quarter of Internet users across the globe, versus ten years ago when it accounted for two-thirds of the global audience," said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix. "This is a sea change of enormous proportion, and comScore is pleased to be able to provide measurement to aid the world's largest marketers in understanding how the world uses the Internet."
comScore also released the top 15 countries ranked by average hours spent online per visitor for March 2006, as a measure of engagement.
Surprisingly, perhaps, Israel led the list, with the average user spending 57.5 hours online during the month - twice as much time compared to the average person in the U.S, which did not even rank in the top 15 countries. The top five mouse potato nations were Finland, South Korea, the Netherlands and Taiwan - all countries with high broadband penetration.
But what does all this mean for small to microsized businesses in the Highlands and Islands?
Hopefully, these figures will assist with the planning of forays into foreign markets, and perhaps indicate where to concentrate future efforts. Overall, it also signals that foreign language versions of our sites may become a more pressing need sooner rather than later.
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