Kinda interesting: Report counts 147 million global Net users
February 12, 1999
Web posted at: 9:51 a.m. EST (1451 GMT)
by Cheri Paquet
SAN FRANCISCO (IDG) -- The
number of people who accessed the
Internet at least once a week from
their businesses and homes grew to
147 million worldwide in 1998, up
from 61 million in 1996, according to a recent report by Computer Industry
Almanac.
The expanding number is projected to rise to approximately 320 million by
2000 and 720 million by 2005, Computer Industry Almanac said in a
statement.
The tremendous growth in Internet use over the last couple of years was
surprising, said Emil Juliussen, primary author of the report. "The one
[finding] that sticks out the most is that Scandinavian countries had the
highest number of Internet users on a per capita basis than did any other
country – even than the U.S."
That's partly because Scandinavian countries use the Internet for conducting
a lot of their import and export business, which accounts for a large portion
of the gross national product in those countries, Juliussen said. "The Internet
contributes to their effectiveness."
The United States' lead in Internet access
accounted for almost 52 percent of Internet
users worldwide in 1998, totaling 76.5
million users, according to findings of the
report, titled "The Internet User Forecast
1990-2005." The U.S. will grow to over
207 million Internet users in 2005, or 29
percent of Internet users worldwide, the
report predicted.
The projected drop in the U.S.' percentage
of total Internet users is a fairly standard
progression as the U.S. market becomes
saturated, said Juliussen.
The top five countries with the highest
Internet usage are: the U.S.; Japan with
9.75 million users; the U.K. with 8.10
million users; Germany with 7.14 million
users; and Canada with 6.49 million users.
The number of European Internet users
totaled 36.02 million, or almost 25 percent
of worldwide users last year, according to
the Computer Industry Almanac.
Other top countries in Internet usage for 1998 included: Australia with 4.36
million users; France with 2.79 million users; Sweden with 2.58 million users;
Italy with 2.14 million users; Spain with 1.98 million users; The Netherlands
with 1.96 million users; Taiwan with 1.65 million users; China with 1.58
million users; Finland with 1.57 million users; and Norway with 1.34 million
users. |
