Internet Now Home To One Billion Users
Unfortunately, this milestone occurred just a few months too late in order to be included in the 50 Most Significant Moments In Internet History, but you can rest assured that it'll be high on the list of the Top 100. According to digital research firm comScore, the total number of Internet users across the globe has just surpassed the one billion mark.
Not surprisingly, China is pegged as have the largest population of Internet surfers, with nearly 180 million people going online in December of 2008. Following closely behind was the United States with 163 million, and taking a distant third was Japan with 60 million. If you're curious about a breakdown by region, we're told that Asia-Pacific accounted for 41 percent of the billion users, followed by Europe with 28 percent, North America with 18 percent, Latin America with 7 percent and Middle East / Africa with 5 percent.
According to comScore chief executive Magid Abraham: "Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the Internet. The second billion will be online before we know it, and the third billion will arrive even faster than that." Potentially even more impressive about the findings were that these figures didn't include traffic from public workstations such as Internet cafes, nor did it count access from mobile phones or PDAs.
Is it finally safe to say those worries over Internet capacity limitations were overblown? All signs are pointing to "yes."
Not surprisingly, China is pegged as have the largest population of Internet surfers, with nearly 180 million people going online in December of 2008. Following closely behind was the United States with 163 million, and taking a distant third was Japan with 60 million. If you're curious about a breakdown by region, we're told that Asia-Pacific accounted for 41 percent of the billion users, followed by Europe with 28 percent, North America with 18 percent, Latin America with 7 percent and Middle East / Africa with 5 percent.
According to comScore chief executive Magid Abraham: "Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the Internet. The second billion will be online before we know it, and the third billion will arrive even faster than that." Potentially even more impressive about the findings were that these figures didn't include traffic from public workstations such as Internet cafes, nor did it count access from mobile phones or PDAs. Is it finally safe to say those worries over Internet capacity limitations were overblown? All signs are pointing to "yes."
