Global Internet Audience More Than 1 Billion
by Christina Lee on January 23rd, 2009
Over 1 billion people from around the world now use the Internet, according to a study released today by comScore.
The study comes after the online research firm found that more than 824 million people used the Internet in March 2008.
The United States only ranked second to China in representing the largest Internet audience of the world. With more than 163 million people online, the United States represents 17.8 percent of the total global Internet audience, after making up for 21 percent in March.
The number of Internet users in the Asia Pacific region continues to grow rapidly, as it still represents 41 percent of the global Internet audience.
“The second billion will be online before we know it, and the third billion will arrive even faster than that,” said Magid Abraham, comScore president and CEO, in a statement.
While reaching 77 percent of Internet users, Google remains the top-ranking Internet property – though now with 222 million users, the popularity of Facebook.com has grown by 127 percent. As the eighth most popular online property, Amazon.com has also become the highest-ranking online retailer, according to the study.