2012: A quarter of the planet will be

According to Jupiter Research, a quarter of the world's population will be connected to the Internet within the next four years.

Specifically, the total number of Internet users on the planet will reach 1.8 billion in 2012, accounting for more than 25% of the global population.

The fastest growth rates will be concentrated in regions such as China, Russia, India and Brazil and are somewhat slower in the US, Western Europe and Northeast Asia.

"From 2007 to 2012, the number of internet users will increase by more than 44%. This is a record increase in history," said Jupiter Research.

Although emerging economies such as China and India have lower rates of Internet penetration than developed countries, Jupiter Research believes that "there is no difference" in habits, application skills and Net surfing level between areas.

(Photo: AFP)

"It is easy to understand that the operations and online activities of Chinese users are just as difficult, the level of technological expertise is as much as the users in the US," explained Vikram Sehgal.

It is no surprise that Jupiter rated Asia as a particularly important market by two factors: a growing population and a growing technology market.

Asian star

"Asia will not only be the world's fastest-growing continent, but also a huge market for businesses to explore and seek opportunities to do business," Sehgal added.

Currently, according to the Chinese press, the country of the Great Wall has surpassed the United States to become the nation with the largest population of Internet users on the planet.

Specifically, the number of online users in China has exceeded 220 million, while the US still "stalled" with 216 million Internet users.

Taking advantage of proficiency and abundant human resources here, combining cheap labor costs will help Western IT businesses save a lot of costs.

But more importantly, they will be able to produce many highly indigenous products, suitable for the needs of Asian users.

The rapidly growing Internet population is also a good sign for companies like Google and Yahoo . whose revenue relies heavily on online advertising.

According to the latest survey by iSuppli, Google, Baidu.com and Yahoo are currently the three most popular and popular search engines in Asia today.