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IWS
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Internet World Stats> Internet Coaching> Internet and the
Future
Internet World Usage Report by Languages - October
2004
by Enrique de
Argaez
As we have reported on Sept.
30, 2004 the number of recorded Internet users has reached
812,931,592 people in the world. More and more people from
all countries of the world and all walks of life are joing the
Knowledge Society and the Internet Revolution. However, the true
Internet Divide is the different languages that are spoken by
these 812 million navigators.
At Internet World Stats we have been investigating this
interesting point due to the implications the language barrier
presents to a really global Internet and the enormous importance
to the Internet Marketing campaigns. According to our market
research findings, the ten most numerous languages spoken by the
Internet Users are approximately the following:
1st place - English, with 287 million Internet users.
2nd place - Chinese, with 106 million Internet users.
3rd place - Japanese, with 67 million Internet users.
4th place - Spanish, with 56 million Internet users.
5th place - German, with 54 million Internet users.
6th place - French, with 36 million Internet users.
7th place - Korean, with 31 million Internet users.
8th place - Italian, with 29 million Internet users.
9th place - Portuguese, with 23 million Internet
users.
10th place - Dutch, with 14 million Internet users.
The balance corresponds to 109 million Internet users that speak
other languages and dialects for a gran total of 812 million
people. Additional information can be found at Top Ten Internet
Languages.
We would like to point out that many of the Internet users from
non-English speaking countries have the ability to read and
understand English. Therefore the English language may be
considered by far the main language of the Internet. About 80% of
all web pages are in English and for many multinational
corporations, English IS their official company language.
About the Author:
Enrique De Argaez (Ricky) is the webmaster of several
multilingual web sites and author of four newsletters. Since 2000
he has been collecting Internet Usage Statistics from over 233
countries and regions of the world, and publishing these
statistics for free use by the academia, the global business
community and the general public. For free information on
Internet World Usage, please visit his page:
http://www.InternetWorldStats.com/
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