Statistics of Internet Users (2009)

Look at the graph of Internet Users In The World By Geographic Regions (2009) published by INTERNET WORLD STATS; it is astonishing how big the internet, specifically the World Wide Web, has grown since it was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in March of 1989.

Slicing and dicing into Singapore, here are the stats:

Population (2009 Est.): 4,657,542
Internet Users (Year 2000): 1,200,000
Internet Users (Year 2009): 3,370,000
Penetration (% Population): 72.4 %
User Growth (2000-2009): 180.8 %
Users (%) in Asia: 0.4 %

Look at the two figures in red. I don't know about you but my jaw dropped when I saw these figures! It is just amazing how the world has evolved within these 20 odd years or so, along with the dot com crisis and the numbers of successful IT companies that have emerged since (think Google, Amazon, eBay, PayPal, YouTube etc). Of course, many companies have come and go within this period as well.

Singapore internet users penetration is higher than Hong Kong (69.2%), China (28.7%) and surprise, surprise, Taiwan (65.9%)! We are only a few percentage points below Japan (75.5) and South Korea (77.3%). Historically, we are always slow on picking up new things but when we start, we start off with a boom! Our e-commerce industry is very much lacking below many countries but take my words for it, it is going to take off soon given all the promising signs that I am picking up.