Asia = 36.9% of world Internet users

The World Internet Usage Statistics website provides several layers of fascinating dipping. It signaled an update to me today and, sitting in an airport lounge in Munich provides the rare leisure for poking around.

Things that caught my eye include:

• There are now 1.24 billion Internet users around the world;
• Over 459 million of them - 36.9% - are in Asia. That's way ahead of Europe which is number 2 with 337 million and N. America with 234 million. No wonder the boys and girls and getting excited about buying a piece of Alibaba.
• Penetration levels in Asia are still very low as the following chart shows.

Click through the Asia data and this will catch you eye: Asia may already be 36.9% of world Internet users but it is also 56.5% of the world's population. There's plenty of upside here. Hong Kong tops the tables with 68% penetration while East Timor is worse even than Burma at 0.1%. North Korea scores zero.