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For more eCommerce info, visit the HomeATM Blog at www.PINdebit.blogspot.com

25% of the World's Population Use the Internet Regularly

To expand on my post a couple weeks back entitled: "HomeATM Has Powerful Potential, I bring you this article from VUNet.com on Global Internet use. But before I do, I thought it important to point out the distinction between Web PC users and "web enabled" users.

There's two sets of numbers out there. These numbers include "web enabled" users and provide some insight as to not only the size of our potential market, but why HomeATM provides "Secure PIN Transactions From ANY Web Device." Make no mistake...HomeATM's potential market is not limited to PC users.

In order to provide an example of why that's an important distinction, here's a quote taken from a recent NY Times Article entitled: "Inside Nairobi, the next Palo Alto?" (the link to the entire article can be found at www.PINdebit.blogspot.com)

"Nairobi is home to a digital brew that invites optimism about its chances for creating unusual innovations. The city has relatively few wired phone lines or networked personal computers, so mobile phones are the essential digital tool. Four times as many people have them as have bank accounts. Text messages are far more popular than e-mail. Safaricom, the dominant mobile provider, offers a service called M-pesa that lets customers send money with text messages. Nokia sells brand-new phones here for as little as $33. - NY Times"

Here's the article from Vunent.com: A full "quarter of the global population" will regularly use the internet during 2008, according to IDC's Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast. The figure of 1.4 billion people is set to jump to 1.9 billion over the next four years, bringing internet access to roughly 30 per cent of the world's population.

"The internet will have added its second billion users over a span of about eight years, a testament to its universal appeal and its availability," said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC.

"These trends will accelerate as the number of mobile users continues to soar and the internet becomes truly ubiquitous." Net-enabled mobile devices will help drive the global online trend, surpassing the desktop PC as the primary means of accessing the internet by 2012, according to the report.

China, which last year overtook the US in terms of overall internet users, will see its online population increase from 275 million today to 375 million in 2012.

Revenue-generating opportunities will be driven by consumer and business-to-business purchases, and one billion global online shoppers will account for $1.2tr worth of business-to-consumer transactions by 2012.

However, it is in the business-to-business arena that IDC forecasts the most spectacular growth rates, generating estimated worldwide revenues of $12.4tr over the next four years.

Here are the May comScore numbers for total Internet audience

Worldwide - 853mm (up 10% from 772mm last year)
North America - 185mm (up 4% from 178mm last year)
Europe - 240mm (up 8% from 223mm last year)
Asia - 323mm (up 14% from 283mm last year)
Latin America - 63mm (up 19% from 53mm last year)
Middle East/Africa - 43mm (up 23% from 35mm last year)

As is typically the case, the smallest markets are growing the fastest. But a couple other things stand out to me. North America only added 7mm this year from last. Asia added 40mm Internet users in the past year. Europe added 17mm. Latin America added 10mm. Africa and the Middle East added even more Internet users than North America.

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