World Internet growth continues unabated

The United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has released its annual report which “... identifies key information and communication technology (ICT) developments and tracks the cost and affordability.”

Packed with useful data and charts, Measuring the Information Society Report 2014 reflects the so-far unending spread of digital communications. And the rate of growth remains boggling.

According to ITU Director Brahima Sanou’s foreword, “by the 
end 2014, almost 3 billion people will be using the Internet, up from 2.7 billion at end
 2013.” In other words, in 2014, some 300 million people – or the equivalent of the population of the United States – jumped on the Internet bandwagon. Nearly half the people in the world will soon be online.

Much of this growth has come in the form of smartphones and tablet. As Sanou says, “While the global mobile-cellular market is approaching saturation levels, mobile-broadband  uptake continues to grow at double-digit rates in all regions, and mobile broadband remains the strongest growing market segment.”

Chapter One makes it clear that people are hungry for the newer forms of content. “The data also show,” says the report, “a continuous increase in Internet usage, with growth in the number of Internet users in all countries and increasing availability of online content, much of which is user-created through social media applications and platforms (e.g. Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp).”

But, as usual, there is a downside to the overall growth, and that is the persistence of a digital divide. As the report says:

“In particular, there is a significant and persistent urban-rural digital divide, whereby urban citizens enjoy ubiquitous mobile network coverage, affordable high-speed Internet services and the higher levels of skills required to make effective use of online content and services, while the opposite is often the case in rural and remote areas of many developing countries.”

Read the full report here.

Measuring the Information Society Report 2014 (International Telecommunication Union, 2014)