Internet Ends 2009 with 1,802 Million

The numbers prove what we said one year ago. The economic crisis had no effect on Internet growth. On the contrary, we see growth in all parts of the world during year 2009.
               The following table resumes the estimated population for each geographic region, the number of Internet users, and the penetration rate (this term means the percentage of the population that uses the Internet) in each region.

Internet World Statistics Report Internet Users by World Regions - December 31, 2009
Region	Population	Internet Users	P. R.	% Users
Asia	3,808,070,503	764,435,900	20.1 %	42.4 %
Europe	803,850,858	425,773,571	53.0 %	23.6 %
North America	340,831,831	259,561,000	76.2 %	14.4 %
Latam / Caribbean	586,662,468	186,922,050	31.9 %	10.4 %
Africa	991,002,342	86,217,900	8.7 %	4.8 %
Middle East	202,687,005	58,309,546	28.8 %	3.2 %
Oceania, Australia	34,700,201	21,110,490	60.8 %	1.2 %
Total World	6,767,805,208	1,802,330,108	26.6 %	100.0 %
Source: Internet World Stats, estimates for December 31, 2009. Notes: a) Population data comes from the US Census Bureau; b) Internet estimates come from ITU, Nielsen Online, GfK, official telecommunications regulating agencies and other trustworthy sources; c) Mexico is included in Central America and Turkey is included in Europe, according to the United Nations grouping; d) P.R. means the Penetration Rate, in percentage. Copyright Š 2010, Miniwatts Marketing Group.

           This represents a26.6% penetration rate. Updating for all the IWS website is underway, it will be ready in the coming days. Newsletter subscribers will receive a note when each geographic area is updated and completed..

   From this table, the year 2009 end swith 1,802,330,108 Internetusers. 

New International Domain Names

          From now on, the IDN (Internationalized Domain Names) will have a new place in the Internet. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the organization that is in charge of all Internet domains, has approved the first four country-code domain names written in non-Latin script.

This new approach will allow Internet users in Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to use their own languages in the web. Other countries will follow in the future. Countries that await approval for IDN are China, Jordan, Sri Lanka and Thailand.