What direction is the Internet going to take

A question that all site administrators are, or should be asking themselves, when they are deciding what they should be doing to develop their site further is, what will internet users be wanting tomorrow? In order to answer this you need to know who is using the internet, how and why. Secondly you need to know where the use in increasing and where are the users increasing their usage of the internet.

Internet Usage by Population.

With World population of almost 6.7 billion there are just over 1.4 billion internet users or 21.1% of the population. There has been a worldwide increase in internet usage of 290% from 2000 to 2008.

With a population of just under 3.8 billion or 56% of World population Asia has just under 530 million internet users which is 14% of Asian population and 37.6% of worldwide usage. The increase in internet use in Asia from 2000-2008 has been 363.4%.

North America has a population of just over 337 million or 5.1% of World population. Internet usage in North America is 246.5 million or 73.1% or the North American population and 17.5% of world usage. North American usage has grown by 127% from 2000-2008.

Population in Oceania/Australia is 34 million or 0.5% of World population. With an internet usage of 19.4 million or 57% of the regions population and 1.4% of world usage Oceania/Australia has seen a usage growth of 290% from 2000-2008.

Europe, with a population of 800 million has 12% of the Worlds population. Europe has 382 million internet users which represents 47.7% of European population and 27.1% of world usage. Europe has seen a 263% increase in internet usage from 2000-2008.

With Middle Eastern population of 197 million people, representing 3% of the world population, there are 42 million internet users. This is 21.3 % of middle eastern population and 3% of world usage. The Middle East has seen a 1176.8% increase in internet usage from 2000-2008.

Africa has a population of 955 million which is 14.3% of World population. There are 51 million internet users in Africa making 5.3% of its population and 3.6% of world usage. African internet use has grown by 1030.2% from 2000-2008.

The Latin American/Caribbean region has a population of 576 million people which is 8.6 percent of World population. This region has 137.3 million internet users representing 23.8% of the regions population and 9.8% of world internet usage. The Latin American/Caribbean region has seen an increase in internet usage growth of 659.9% from 2000-2008.

From these figures we can see where internet use is likely to increase in the future and where there is limited room for further expansion.

Asia with just over half the worlds population has one of the lowest levels of penetration as a percentage of population. Regardless of this, it still has the second highest level of usage as a percentage of World use at 37.6% yet still has a population of over 3 billion yet to enter the internet usage market. With the burgeoning Asian economies and this huge potential market the Asian region stands to be a lucrative area for internet expansion. This could be illustrated with the recent release of the .asia domain extension.

The North American region by contrast has an internet usage of 73.1% of its population numbering less than 100 thousand people. There is very little room for expansion in this area with such a large percentage of the population there already using the internet.

Other areas with that already have a significant portion of the population already using the internet are Oceania/Australia and Europe with 57% and 47.7% respectively. Oceania/Australia has a very small population and little to offer in terms of an expanding internet market. Europe has over 400 thousand people who are not using the internet, this small when compared to Asia and even the African region.

The African region has just over 900 thousand people who are yet to begin internet usage. However further expansion of the internet usage in Africa may be restricted by the relatively poor population in this region along with significant political instability in the area and poor infrastructure.

The remaining regions of Latin America/Caribbean and the Middle East when combined have approximately 600 thousand people who have begun internet use. Although this is a significant market it will be limited by the size of the economies in these regions combined with significant political instability in parts of these regions.

So Asia sits to be quite a powerful area for internet expansion with its vast population and increasing economies providing both a significant market penetration opportunity and an increasing amount of consumers with the income and wish to enter the internet market. Europe also has quite a bit of room for expansion while North America is just about at saturation point and has very little room for further expansion of its internet market.