India, China propel Apac Internet growth

TOKYO, JAPAN: comScore Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, released findings on the Asia-Pacific market from its report "The State of the Global Internet with a Focus on Asia," which will be presented via free Webcast from Singapore and Japan in July.

During the past year, the Asia-Pacific Internet audience (at home and work locations among users age 15 and older) grew 14 percent to 319 million visitors in April 2008, outpacing the growth of all other worldwide regions.

The strongest growth occurred in India, which surged 27 percent to more than 28 million Internet users, followed by China, which grew 14 percent to more than 102 million visitors. Taiwan, Malaysia and New Zealand also achieved double-digit growth. Meanwhile, more developed Internet markets such as Japan (3 percent) and Singapore (4 percent) experienced modest gains.

The presentation will include key insights on recent trends in Asia and other international markets that are shaping the global landscape of the Internet. Among these are the following:

* Though each of the top 10 global properties is based in the United States, each one sources the majority of its audience from outside the US.

* Half of the top 20 properties in the Asia-Pacific region are locally-owned entities.

* Although Google Sites and Yahoo! Sites combined to capture the majority of search share in the Asia-Pacific region, five of the top 10 search properties are regional engines, including China's Baidu.com and Korea's NHN Corp. (Naver.com).

* Internet users in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia spend the most time online in the region, but still spend less time than the worldwide average.

* While Facebook.com is the leading social networking site worldwide, Friendster.com is the top social networking site in the Asia-Pacific region.