The Global Growth in Internet Usage
The Global Growth in Internet Usage
The origins of the Internet can be traced back to the 1960s, and specifically to military associated research being carried out in the USA. Despite possessing the basic applications and capabilities that make the Internet possible for almost two decades previously, the network did not reach a mainstream audience until the 1990s. It was a British Scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, in 1991, and by 1996 the concept of the Internet had become part of the collective psyche.
Over the course of the 1990s the Internet is believed to have grown by 100% YOY. It is thought that this explosive growth is largely down to the absence of a central administration governing the usage of the World Wide Web. The ensuing decade saw continued growth in general usage across the globe, as well as a growth across the board in the percentage of a population with Internet access.
Take Africa for example: with an estimated population of 991 million, the 4.5 million who are "online" represent a small proportion of the continent. Ten years later however, and that figure has risen dramatically to 86 million. That is a growth of approximately 1,800%. This is the highest growth percentage experienced in the past ten years, followed closely by the Middle East where Internet usage has grown by 1,675% over the course of the decade.
The region with the highest level of Internet usage is Asia, with a staggering 765 million users. The extremely high population of the continent must also be taken into account here; Asia represents more than half of the entire population of the world, with over 3.8 billion people. In terms of the percentage of the population using the Internet, Asia displays the second lowest figure, with only 20% of the population online. Despite this, the continent represents approximately 42% of users worldwide. During the early days of the Internet, there grew a divide between developing and developed countries, in which the level of accessibility of the World Wide Web was considerable. This state of affairs could not be further from the reality of today.
The rise in Internet usage has obviously been highly beneficial for online business and online advertising, with the latter prospering to the extent that it has surpassed television advertising in terms of expenditure. This is now a thriving industry, and is in fact one of the few sectors able to report a rise in revenue during the recession. As a result, subsidiary industries are flourishing due to the rise and rise of online advertising. SEO, or search engine optimization, is one of those sectors which are enjoying continued success. With the aim of improving the quality and volume of traffic to websites, as well as enhancing the content of websites, SEO companies are contributing to the overall success of the World Wide Web.
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