Internet Facts: Internet Statistics

If you have reached this page, I need not say that you already know what the Internet is and how it is used. But there are millions of us who use the Internet and are so very unaware of the amazing Internet facts and Internet statistics that lie hidden behind this awesome medium. So brace yourselves, rest back on that easy chair, sip a drink, and enjoy reading these mind-blowing Internet facts and statistics, that would amaze you. And even before you go through these facts, it would be good to have a look at some information on when was the Internet invented and of course who invented the Internet.

Dotcom (.com) Facts

• The dotcom is over 25 years old, and was actually a short form for commerce as it was initially set up for the use of e-commerce websites.
• There are around 12 million e-commerce and online business websites, 4.5 million entertainment sites, 3.1 million finance-related sites, and around 2 million sports sites.
• The first dotcom company was Symbolics.
• Initially, .cor was decided, but later .com was finalized to be used.
• As we speak, there are about 300 million websites, out of which 100 million are .com.
• All through the 1980s, just around 100 dotcoms were registered, while in the 90s, around 20 million came into existence. In the last 10 years, nearly 60 million dotcoms have been registered.
• http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch.com is the longest website name online.
• The world's most expensive dotcom is insure.com which was sold for $16 million.
• 53 billion requests for websites including dotcoms are logged everyday.
• The most popular word used in domain names is 'home' (1.3 million & counting).
• The dotcom domain is now a stage for a $400 billion annual economic activity.
• There are nearly 4 million domain names that are registered each month.

Internet Statistics by Country/Continent

Continent	Usage
Asia	38%
Europe	29%
North America	21%
South America	8%
Africa	3%
Australia	1%

Country	Population	Total Users	Penetration	% of World Users
China	1.34 bn	360 mn	30%	21%
United States	307 mn	228 mn	75%	13%
Japan	127 mn	96 mn	76%	5.5%
India	1.15 bn	81 mn	7%	4.7%
Brazil	199 mn	67 mn	34%	3.9%
Germany	82 mn	54 mn	66%	3.1%
United Kingdom	61 mn	47 mn	77%	2.7%
Russia	140 mn	45 mn	32%	2.6%
France	62 mn	43 mn	69%	2.5%
South Korea	48 mn	37 mn	77%	2.2%

Internet Statistics: United States

In the United States, 228 million out of the 307 million population use the Internet. That means that 3 out of every 4 people use this medium, and are connected. The United States accounts for around 13% of the world's Internet usage, and as we all know, is the place where the Internet actually started.

Internet Facts for Kids

• 4 out of every 6 kid's parents have little or no idea what their kid surfs on the Internet.
• Kids who use the net do so for an average for an hour everyday.
• 87% of kids aged 12 to 17 use the Internet in the United States.
• 40% teenagers receive a request online for personal information.
• Over 15% children in the United States are confronted by a stranger online, for some reason or the other.

Internet safety tips for kids is something that all parents must be aware of, so that their kids are safe from the various dangers lurking on the net.

Interesting Internet Facts

• The Internet is more than 40 years old.
• In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee coined the phrase 'World Wide Web' (www).
• Mosaic, the first web browser arrived in 1993.
• Around 15 countries still do not have Internet access at all.
• Less than 20% of the world's population surf the Internet.
• 70% of Internet users are men while 30% are women.
• Roughly, there are around 15 billion devices connected to the Internet.
• Every 10 seconds there is a cyber crime committed somewhere in the world.
• The late 80s experienced the first Internet worms that crippled thousands of computers.
• The first advertising banner on the Internet was put up in 1994.
• The first speech recognition software called 'Hearsay' was developed in 1971 in India.
• Current microprocessors contain about 10 million transistors.
• Around 1,700,000 terabytes of information is created and stored every year.
• The first hard disk drive could hold just 5MB worth of data.

Fun Internet Facts

• Xu Jinglei, a Chinese actress has the most popular blog in the world.
• 80% of the pictures on the Internet are of naked women.
• The QWERTY keyboard layout is around 130 years old.
• The first mouse was made of wood.
• It took www 4 years to reach an audience of 50 million, the same milestone was achieved by TV and radio in 13 and 38 years respectively.
• Your cell phone that you make use of to connect to the Internet now, is a million times cheaper, a hundred times smaller, and a thousand times more powerful than a computer 40 years back (read: Internet Turns 40).
• An Internet user blinks less than 10 times a minute, 20 being the average for a normal person.

And here is something that we all should take note of. It is believed that nearly 2% of the worldwide Internet users are depressed and suffer from the Signs of Internet Addiction Disorder. Now it has still not been established whether they are addicted to the Internet because they are depressed, or it is the other way round. Proper research on Internet addiction still has a long way to go before we get more conclusive evidence and counter measures that help.

The Internet facts and Internet statistics are mind-boggling and never-ending. One could go on and on for days writing about them, but I have tried to list the most important and fun ones. We have a comments column here, so do feel free to add your comments about any noteworthy fact that I may have overlooked mentioning here.