You'd think they would spend more time with their blonde girl friends!
US Share Of World's Net Users Drops - Survey
NEW YORK, NEW YORK, U.S.A., 2001 MAY 15 (NB) -- By Martin Stone, Newsbytes.
Even though the US lists more Web users than any other country, its share of global use is shrinking as the Internet
enters its "post-revolutionary" phase, a study has found.
While Americans have traditionally dominated the Web, the US share of users fell from 40 percent to 36 percent
over the last year, according to "The Face of the Web," an annual survey by research firm Ipsos-Reid.
The report stated that a leveling-off trend is appearing in the US growth rate, while other industrialized countries
show solid year-over-year gains in Web usage.
Overall Western Europe and the remainder of the English-speaking world - represented by Australia, Canada,
urban South Africa and the United Kingdom - now form a bloc challenging America's share of current Web users.
Sweden, followed by Canada, have surpassed the US with the world's highest proportion of Internet users, the
study concluded.
Awareness of the Internet is almost universal in North America, Australia, Europe and Japan, the researchers said.
But from one-quarter to one-third of persons in urban areas of China, India, Russia and the rest of the developing
world have yet to even hear of the Internet.
While the potential for new markets remains enormous, hyper growth will be a thing of the past, the report said.
"The Internet is now in its post-revolutionary phase," Gus Schattenberg, one of the report's authors, said in a news
release. "While the Web still affords a window on the larger world, users are increasingly able to find what they
need in their own language on local sites."
The authors estimated that the global Web user population grew by about 13 percent year-over year, pegging the
current population at about 350 million adults.
More women (44 percent compared to 41 percent in 1999) and people age 54 and older (13 percent over 11
percent) are going online, the study found. Western Europeans made up 18 percent of surveyed Internet users and
represent 22 percent of the overall online population, the study showed.
Sweden scored a 65 percent usage rate, Canada a 60 percent rate, and the US a 59 percent usage rate, based on
total population, the authors said.
The survey found that South Korea's 45 percent usage rate, and Singapore, with 46 percent, have moved ahead of
and now rival, major European markets. Germany scored 37 percent, Belgium 36 percent, and the UK 35 percent.
In the wireless connection category, Japan is distancing itself from the rest of the online world, the study said. By
comparison, wireless Internet use among North Americans and Europeans remains low.
The desktop PC is utilized by 90 percent of users, with only 7 percent primarily using a laptop and only 1 percent
claiming primary use of a wireless device, the study found.
The report said that even though the e-commerce sector has suffered many casualties, online shopping has made
significant gains in the US and other major developed markets. Nearly two-thirds of American Internet users buy
online, and 40 percent e-shop in other major markets.
E-mail remains the top interactive online activity, the study said. Ninety percent of all users have sent e-mail and
almost all plan to continue doing so.
Ipsos-Reid said the survey involved more than 28,000 interviews with online users in 30 countries, and general
consumers in 35 countries.
[This message has been edited by Ripsnort (edited 05-15-2001).]
