• by Masha Geller , June 11, 2001

Nielsen//NetRatings today released its First Quarter 2001 Global Internet Trends report on Internet access and penetration, finding that 429 million people have Internet access around the world.

Not surprisingly, the Q1 results show that the US and Canada still account for the largest proportion of the world's Internet access, with 41% of the global audience located in those countries. Europe, the Middle East and Africa has the second highest proportion of access, with 27% of the world's Internet population, followed by Asia Pacific with 20%, and trailed by Latin America with 4%.

Don't expect this American domination to last long, though. According to Richard Goosey, chief of measurement science and analytics at ACNielsen eRatings.com, "compared to a year ago, significantly more households in Europe and Asia Pacific now have a PC in the home and a greater proportion of homes are making use of that PC to connect to the Internet. Over the next twelve months, another 9% of European households and 12% of Asia Pacific households plan on acquiring Internet access."

Goosey also noted that Germany and the UK continue to dominate Europe in terms of web access, with Germany, the UK, Italy and France together accounting for two-thirds of the European households with home PC Internet access. In the first quarter of 2001, Germany recorded the greatest increase in terms of households with home Internet access. The three European countries - Germany, the UK and Italy - with the highest number of people with home web access together account for half the total European online population.

In Asia Pacific, South Korea dominates in terms of the number of households with home Internet access, alone accounting for 45% of the number of households with home-PC access in that region. Together, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia account for 86% of the total number of people with home PC Internet access in that region.

Just something to consider if you're thinking global.

*************************************** Sponsored by MPlanner Having problems with your media planning? Don't worry. MPlanner, the first free media planning and flowcharting system using the power of the Internet to plan, optimize and schedule any medium - both online and offline - is here to assist you. You can access your media planning files from virtually anywhere in the world and share your flexible, graphically dynamic media flowcharts via the web. In addition, you can now select media from our newly added exclusive directory. To use this free tool, go to www.mplanner.com *************************************************************