The new face of China
The global internet audience surged past the one-billion mark in December 2008, fueled by users in China — the largest online population in the world — and the Asia Pacific region, accounting for over two-fifths of total visitors, according to World Metrix data released by comScore.
Global internet users (defined as those age 15+ who access the internet from home and/or work) in the Asia-Pacific region accounted for the highest share of internet users at 41%, followed by Europe (28% share), North America (18% share), Latin-America (7% share), and the Middle East & Africa (5% share), reports MarketingCharts.
Chinese Internet Audience Outranks US
China represented the largest online audience in the world in December 2008 with 180 million internet users, representing nearly 18% of the total worldwide internet audience, followed by the US (16.2% share), Japan (6.0% share), Germany (3.7 percent share) and the UK (3.6 percent share).
The top 15 countries:
Google Sites Ranks as Top Internet Property Worldwide
The most popular property in the world in December was Google Sites, with 777.9 million visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites (647.9 million visitors), and Yahoo Sites (562.6 million visitors).The top 15 properties:
Facebook.com, which grew an impressive 127% in the past year to 222 million visitors, ranks as the top social networking site worldwide and the seventh most popular property in the world, comScore reported.
"Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the Internet," said Magid Abraham, president and CEO of comScore. "It is a monument to the increasingly unified global community in which we live and reminds us that the world truly is becoming more flat.
"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."
