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France also has strong showing, with 21 percent growth, and ranks third after Germany and the UK in total Internet population, with 31.4 million visitors in June and a 61 percent penetration rate of the total population. The Netherlands, which has the highest penetration rate at 82 percent, actually showed a one percent decline to 11.2 million Internet visitors. I guess there is a limit to growth, even on the Internet.
Internet adoption was highest in the Netherlands, where 82 percent of the country's total population age 15 and older went online in June. Adoption rates were also high in the Nordic countries, with Denmark (77 percent), Sweden (76 percent), Norway (76 percent) and Finland (69 percent) rounding out the top five.
U.K. Internet users spent the greatest amount of time online, averaging 28.5 hours per user per month, while German Internet users recorded the most page views, averaging 2,906 pages per visitor. Although Russia had the fastest-growing audience in Europe, it ranked near the bottom in terms of penetration and page views.
European Internet Usage Overview Ranked by Penetration of Total Country Population Age 15+* Total Unique Visitors (000)** Age 15+ Home & Work locations June 2008 vs. June 2007 Source: comScore World Metrix |
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Country |
Penetration of Total Country population, Age 15+ Online (%)*** |
Average Hours per Visitor |
Average Pages per Visitor |
Europe |
39% |
23.3 |
2,665 |
Netherlands |
82% |
23.4 |
2,884 |
Denmark |
77% |
16.8 |
2,406 |
Sweden |
76% |
21.7 |
2,901 |
Norway |
76% |
19.9 |
2,480 |
Finland |
69% |
20.0 |
2,644 |
Switzerland |
66% |
19.0 |
2,176 |
United Kingdom |
65% |
28.5 |
2,836 |
France |
61% |
23.3 |
2,544 |
Belgium |
60% |
19.9 |
2,343 |
Austria |
58% |
16.0 |
2,078 |
Ireland |
49% |
14.6 |
1,536 |
Germany |
49% |
23.2 |
2,906 |
Spain |
47% |
25.1 |
2,218 |
Portugal |
41% |
19.8 |
2,393 |
Italy |
39% |
18.8 |
1,971 |
Russian Federation |
14% |
16.0 |
2,091 |
*Rankings based on the 16 individually reportable European countries in comScore World Metrix. European Internet audience figures are comprehensive and include visitation from countries that are not individually reportable.
**Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
***Geographic population breakdowns supplied by U.S. Census Bureau, 2007.
For Web companies looking to expand abroad, Russia needs to be at the top of their list of markets to enter. Russia has the fastest growing Internet population in Europe, followed by France and Spain. In a comparison of 16 European Internet populations by country, comScore reports that Russia's Internet audience for the month of June grew 27 percent year over year, compared to 21 percent growth in France and 15 percent growth in Spain.
If you look at the total size of the Internet populations in each country, however, Russia ranks fifth with 17.5 million monthly Internet visitors. But by Internet penetration, Russia ranks last, with only 14 percent of the total population online. So there is still lots of room for growth there.
According to Comscore: "The total number of European Internet users grew 8 percent during the past year to 241.8 million visitors in June 2008. Russia ranked as the fastest-growing Internet audience in Europe, up 27 percent to 17.5 million visitors, followed by France (up 21 percent to 31.5 million visitors), Spain (up 15 percent to 16.2 million visitors), and Ireland (up 15 percent to 1.6 million visitors).
Russia has Europe’s fastest-growing population of internet users – The number of users in the country grew 23 percent, from nearly 12 million last September to more than 14.5 million this past September, according to Comscore. More stats on the Russian internet ad business here. Russia has been seeing rapid economic growth largely through developing and selling its generous oil and natural gas resources to other countries. The average Russian is seeing some of this money in their pockets, which no doubt ends up in more people demanding internet access.
Growth of European internet Audiences Ranked by Year on Year Growth Rate* Total Unique Visitors (000)** Age 15+ Home & Work locations June 2008 vs. June 2007 Source: comScore World Metrix |
|||
Country |
Jun-2007 |
Jun-2008 |
% Change |
Europe |
223,922 |
241,847 |
8% |
Russian Federation |
13,791 |
17,490 |
27% |
France |
26,106 |
31,463 |
21% |
Spain |
14,074 |
16,245 |
15% |
Ireland |
1,400 |
1,606 |
15% |
Switzerland |
3,743 |
4,183 |
12% |
Denmark |
3,109 |
3,437 |
11% |
United Kingdom |
31,669 |
34,860 |
10% |
Belgium |
4,807 |
5,237 |
9% |
Italy |
17,905 |
19,455 |
9% |
Sweden |
5,351 |
5,766 |
8% |
Austria |
3,767 |
4,056 |
8% |
Norway |
2,654 |
2,835 |
7% |
Germany |
32,857 |
34,986 |
6% |
Finland |
2,848 |
3,015 |
6% |
Netherlands |
11,287 |
11,227 |
-1% |
Portugal |
N/A |
3,618 |
N/A |
*Rankings based on the 16 individually reportable European countries in comScore World Metrix. European Internet audience figures are comprehensive and include visitation from countries that are not individually reportable.
**Excludes traffic from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
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