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New York (pte024/21.02.2003/13:02) - By the end of 2002, over 580 million people around the world had access to the Internet, according to the latest Nielsen/NetRatings study http://www.nielsen-netratings.com.
The study was carried out during the fourth quarter of the last year in the following countries: Australia, Brazil, Germany, France, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
Not surprisingly, the results show that the use of the Internet further increased in 2002, climbing from 563 million users in 2001 to 580 million in 2002 (an increase of three per cent).
Germany is the clear leader in Europe with 41.8 million users.
The highest rate of expansion was found in Spain, where Internet use soared by 22 per cent in the last year alone. About 17 million people in Spain are currently online. Not only has personal access to the Internet increased, but Spanish web space has also seen a spurt of new activity. E-mail activity grew by six per cent and the consumption of audio-visual content over the Internet rose by five per cent. Spain is also the global leader in the use of instant messaging (49 per cent) and participation in chats (44 per cent).
Of the 580 million global Internet users, about 29 per cent are from the United States and 23 per cent European (135.3 million). The study counts 75.5 million users in Asia, with a global percentage of 13, although these data are based solely on the countries Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.
Brazil was the only source of information for Latin America, which Nielsen placed at two per cent of all world users with 14.3 million people online. According to the study, Brazil is poised for an Internet boom, as 18 per cent of all households with telephone access have signed up to have an Internet connection in installed in the next twelve months.
Nielsen estimates that approximately 186.8 million Internet users can be found in the countries not included in the study.
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