2.4 billion net users worldwide: report.
By Dileep Thekkethil
China, the United States and India, the three most populous countries in the world that together account for more than 41 percent of the global population, had nearly 40 percent of the world’s internet users in 2012, according a new report.
China, the world’s second largest economy, had by far the largest pool of internet users, 564 million, reveals the report “Internet Trends,” authored by Mary Meeker and Liang Wu of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California, found. It was released at the 11th edition of the Wall Street Journal’s “D: All Things Digital” conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, on May 29.
In comparison, the United States had 244 million net users and India had 137 million users last year, the report found. In all, there were 2.4 billion internet users worldwide, meaning roughly two thirds of the world population did not access internet last year.
The United States led in internet penetration among the three countries, with 78 percent of its population having access to the web. In China, 42 percent of the population used the internet last year, whereas in India the net penetration was a meager 11 percent.
However, the Indian internet market grew by 26 percent last year, the highest growth rate among the three. The growth rate in China was 10 percent and the United States only 3 percent.
From 2008 to 2012, China added 264 million internet users, while India added 88 million during the same period.
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