Over 1 Billion Users Online!

The total global internet audience (age 15 and older from home and work computers) has surpassed 1 billion visitors in December 2008, comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, reported on Friday.

Based on data from the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for the highest share of global internet users at 41%, followed by Europe (28% share), North America (18% share), Latin-America (7% share), and the Middle East & Africa (5% share).

“Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the internet,” said Magid Abraham, President and Chief Executive Officer, comScore, Inc.

“It is a monument to the increasingly unified global community in which we live and reminds us that the world truly is becoming more flat.

Google Sites ranked as top internet property

“The second billion will be online before we know it, and the third billion will arrive even faster than that, until we have a truly global network of interconnected people and ideas that transcend borders and cultural boundaries.”

China represented the largest online audience in the world in December 2008 with 180 million internet users, representing nearly 18% of the total worldwide internet audience, followed by the US (16.2% share), Japan (6.0% share), Germany (3.7% share) and the U.K. (3.6% share).

The most popular property in the world in December was Google Sites, with 777.9 million visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites (647.9 million visitors), Yahoo! Sites (562.6 million visitors).

Facebook.com, which has grown a dramatic 127% in the past year to 222 million visitors, now ranks as the top social networking site worldwide and the seventh most popular property in the world.