comScore has released several key findings from its Digital World: State of the Internet report, which highlights the changing dynamics of worldwide Internet usage.
Key findings include (taken from comScore’s summary):
· The U.S. now accounts for 21 percent of Internet users worldwide. While growth in the number of Internet users in the U.S. has slowed, several Asian and Eastern European countries continue to add new users at a rapid rate.
· Google is the dominant search brand in most countries, including most of Europe and Latin America, with a few significant exceptions — countries where Chinese, Korean, and Russian languages dominate.
· Chinese language search engine Baidu currently ranks #3 in worldwide search market share, behind Google and Yahoo!
· The number of worldwide visitors to social networking sites has grown 34 percent in the past year to 530 million, representing approximately 2 out of every 3 Internet users. MySpace and Facebook are in a tight battle for the global leadership position, each attracting more than 100 million visitors per month.
· Online video has become the dominant online entertainment format, led by the global popularity of YouTube with more than 250 million visitors in January.
· The Internet has become an important source of news for most Web users. The top 10 global news brands show great diversity between country of origin, including the U.S., U.K., China and South Korea.
