Good Thing There's More Than One Of Them!

It's getting mighty crowded on the Internet. Which one of the Internets, I'm not sure, but according to research firm comScore Networks, there was a 10 percent increase of users worldwide in January 2007 from the same month a year ago. comScore estimates that 747 million people aged 15 and up were online in the first month of this year. While the United States remains the No. 1 country in total Internet users (153.4 million in January, up only 2% from a year before), "Internet users outside the U.S. now account for 80 percent of the world's online population, with rapidly developing countries experiencing double-digit growth rates year-over-year," said Bob Ivins, comScore Europe managing director in a statement. The No. 2 Internet user is China, with 86.8 million people 15 and older logging on in January. Rounding out the top 15 were:

Japan
Germany
United Kingdom
South Korea
France
India
Canada
Italy
Brazil
Spain
Russian Federation
Netherlands
Mexico

The study also found, not surprisingly, that Internet users in countries with higher broadband penetration spend more time online. More data from the study can be found here.