The Internet gets a heavy tail

(Click to enlarge)

The above plot shows the growth of the Internet in the World, again from UN data. There are 3 histograms (2004, 2001, 1998) of the number of countries (Y axis) vs. the size of the Internet population in the countries (X axis). I have left out the countries with less than 1m users because they are the vast majority in the data - partly due to low Internet adoption in backward areas and partly due to small populations.

The key points seen immediately

1. The number of Internet users is (surprise surprise) growing rapidly over the years.
2. USA leads every other country, but since the total US population is only about 300m (see my previous post), US Internet users' growth is saturating.
3. On the other hand, China is growing very quickly. I suppose by 2008 (present) the number of users there must have got close to the US number (if not ahead).

But lets look at a more holistic trend here. This is the "long fat tail" that shows up in the 2004 data - the bars concentrated on the left hand side have started spreading out to the right in the 2004 histogram. This means that the Internet is increasingly becoming multinational with a significant representation of people from many countries, bringing up these questions

1. Where is the Internet content suitable for people from different cultures and not just western cultures?
2. Are we doing enough to localize Internet applications for these large multicultural groups joining the Internet?

Finally, for those interested, here is a table showing the number of Internet users, as reported by the most recent data from UN Statistics (2004). I have ranked the countries based on the number of Internet users in the rightmost columns of the table. Again, if you look at the top 10 countries in this table, only 2 have a high number of English native speakers. In addition, 5 out of the top 10 countries are not "Northern hemisphere western countries".

Please use this data only after citing the UN source.

Country	#Internet users	Rank (2004)
United States	185000000	1
China	94000000	2
Japan	64160000	3
United Kingdom	37600000	4
Germany	35200000	5
India	35000000	6
Korea, Republic of	31580000	7
Italy	28870000	8
France	25000000	9
Brazil	22000000	10
Canada	20000000	11
Russian Federation	16000000	12
Indonesia	14508000	13
Spain	14332800	14
Mexico	14036500	15
Australia	13000000	16
Turkey	10220000	17
Netherlands	10000000	18
Malaysia	9879000	19
Poland	9000000	20
Thailand	6972000	21
Sweden	6800000	22
Argentina	6153600	23
Viet Nam	5870000	24
Iran (Islamic Republic of)	5500000	25
Czech Republic	5100000	26
Romania	4500000	27
Philippines	4400000	28
Chile	4300000	29
Belgium	4200000	30
Colombia	4050240	31
Austria	3900000	32
Egypt	3900000	33
Ukraine	3750000	34
South Africa	3566000	35
Morocco	3500000	36
Switzerland	3500000	37
China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region	3479700	38
Finland	3286000	39
Peru	3220000	40
Israel	3200000	41
Portugal	2951000	42
Denmark	2725000	43
Hungary	2700000	44
Belarus	2461090	45
Singapore	2421780	46
Venezuela	2312680	47
Slovakia	2276060	48
New Zealand	2110000	49
Pakistan	2000000	50
Greece	1955000	51
Norway	1792000	52
Nigeria	1769660	53
Saudi Arabia	1586000	54
Serbia and Montenegro	1517020	55
Kenya	1500000	56
United Arab Emirates	1384840	57
Croatia	1303000	58
Bulgaria	1234000	59
Ireland	1198000	60
Sudan	1140000	61
Jamaica	1067000	62
Costa Rica	1000000	63
Lithuania	968000	64
Slovenia	950000	65
Uzbekistan	880000	66
Puerto Rico	862000	67
Tunisia	835000	68
Zimbabwe	820000	69
Latvia	810000	70
Dominican Republic	800000	71
Syrian Arab Republic	800000	72
Guatemala	756000	73
Uruguay	680000	74
Estonia	670000	75
Ecuador	624579	76
Jordan	600000	77
Kuwait	600000	78
Lebanon	600000	79
El Salvador	587475	80
Algeria	500000	81
Haiti	500000	82
Senegal	482000	83
Azerbaijan	408000	84
Republic of Moldova	406000	85
Kazakhstan	400000	86
Ghana	368000	87
Bolivia	350000	88
United Republic of Tanzania	333000	89
Malta	301000	90
Bangladesh	300000	91
Panama	300000	92
Cyprus	298000	93
Sri Lanka	280000	94
Luxembourg	270810	95
Kyrgyzstan	263000	96
Oman	245000	97
Cote d'Ivoire	240000	98
Zambia	231000	99
Iceland	225610	100
Bosnia and Herzegovina	225000	101
Honduras	222273	102
Togo	221000	103
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	205000	104
Mongolia	200000	105
Reunion	200000	106
Uganda	200000	107
Mauritius	180000	108
Yemen	180000	109
Georgia	175600	110
Angola	172000	111
Papua New Guinea	170000	112
Cameroon	167000	113
Qatar	165000	114
Occupied Palestinian Territory	160000	115
Trinidad and Tobago	160000	116
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia	159000	117
Bahrain	152721	118
Armenia	150000	119
Barbados	150000	120
China, Macao Special Administrative Region	150000	121
Cuba	150000	122
Paraguay	150000	123
Guyana	145000	124
Mozambique	138000	125
Nicaragua	125000	126
Nepal	120000	127
Ethiopia	113000	128
Martinique	107000	129
Benin	100000	130
Bahamas	93000	131
Madagascar	90000	132
Guadeloupe	79000	133
Guam	79000	134
Namibia	75000	135
New Caledonia	70000	136
Myanmar	63688	137
Fiji	61000	138
Botswana	60000	139
Brunei Darussalam	56000	140
Saint Lucia	55000	141
Burkina Faso	53200	142
Democratic Republic of the Congo	50000	143
Eritrea	50000	144
Mali	50000	145
Gambia	49000	146
Malawi	46140	147
Guinea	46000	148
French Polynesia	45000	149
Lesotho	43000	150
Cambodia	41000	151
Gabon	40000	152
Bermuda	39000	153
French Guiana	38000	154
Greenland	38000	155
Rwanda	38000	156
Congo	36000	157
Iraq	36000	158
Swaziland	36000	159
Turkmenistan	36000	160
Belize	35000	161
Chad	35000	162
Faeroe Islands	32000	163
Suriname	30000	164
United States Virgin Islands	30000	165
Guinea-Bissau	26000	166
Burundi	25000	167
Cape Verde	25000	168
Aruba	24000	169
Niger	24000	170
Liechtenstein	22000	171
Lao People's Democratic Republic	20900	172
Dominica	20500	173
Antigua and Barbuda	20000	174
Bhutan	20000	175
Sao Tome and Principe	20000	176
Seychelles	20000	177
Grenada	19000	178
Maldives	19000	179
San Marino	15000	180
Somalia	15000	181
Mauritania	14000	182
Micronesia, Federated States of	12000	183
Andorra	11000	184
Saint Kitts and Nevis	10000	185
Sierra Leone	10000	186
Central African Republic	9000	187
Djibouti	9000	188
Comoros	8000	189
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	8000	190
Vanuatu	7500	191
Gibraltar	6295	192
Samoa	6000	193
Equatorial Guinea	5000	194
Tajikistan	5000	195
Palau	4000	196
Solomon Islands	3000	197
Tonga	3000	198
Tuvalu	3000	199
Kiribati	2000	200
Marshall Islands	2000	201
Netherlands Antilles	2000	202
Cayman Islands	1300	203
Liberia	1000	204
Nauru	300	205
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of	0	206