My friend Shivan pointed out this fact today via Search Engine Land:
The Chinese Internet has surpassed the US in terms of overall users. According to BDA China (reported in USAToday) there are more than 220 million Chinese Internet users (17 percent of the population) compared with 216 in the US (71 percent). This is simply a function of the huge scale of the Chinese market, with much more growth to come.
The article goes on to state that Google eclipsed the 50% mark on achieving 51% of revenue from outside the United States. This number will most likely not go down for some years to come.
Looking at the amount of users soon to be online in China it brings into question the way in which the Internet as we know it today will look in 5 years.
Consumption habits will certainly continue to evolve, but beyond that there may be language and usability changes that we are not anticipating right now.
April 21, 2008
Globalization, Technology