“The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.” — BILL GATES

The needs and demands of internet connectivity have grown rapidly from time to time. In the course of the world population day, let’s talk about digital population around the world referring to statistical data released by Team HootSuite and Wearesocial.

Over half of the world’s population is now online. There are now 4.1 billion internet users, which is 52% of the world’s population. Here are the essential headlines for digital in 2018:

The number of internet users in 2018 is 4.021 billion, up 7 percent year-on-year

  • The number of social media users in 2018 is 3.196 billion, up 13 percent year-on-year
  • The number of mobile phone users in 2018 is 5.135 billion, up 4 percent year-on-year

And these are the the key insights from this year’s reports detailed analysis:

A Billion Years

It’s not just the number of people using the internet that has increased this year; the amount of time that people spend on the internet has also gone up over the past 12 months. The average internet user now spends around 6 hours each day using internet-powered devices and services — that’s roughly one-third of their waking lives.

Distributing The Future

From last year’s analysis report, internet access isn’t evenly distributed around the world, and now in 2018 Internet penetration rates may still be low across much of Central Africa and Southern Asia, but these regions are also seeing the fastest growth in internet adoption.

These changes will have a profound influence on the future of the internet.

Connections To Go

More than two-thirds of the world’s population now has a mobile, with most people now using a smartphone. The number of unique mobile users around the world is up by more than 4 percent year-on-year, although penetration rates remain below 50 percent across much of Central Africa.

Eleven New Users A Second

Almost 1 million people started using social media for the first time every day over the past year — that’s equivalent to more than 11 new users every second.

The Philippines Keeps Its Crown

For the third year in a row, Filipinos spend the greatest amount of time on social media, with the average user in the country spending almost 4 hours on social every day.

The Brazilians are catching up though, and the Indonesians and the Thais have overtaken the Argentinians to take the third and fourth spots in this year’s rankings.

Facebook Still Dominates

It’s been another good year for Mark Zuckerberg and team, with all of Facebook Inc.’s platforms posting impressive growth during 2017. Facebook’s core platform still dominates the global social landscape, with total users up 15 percent year-on-year to reach almost 2.17 billion at the start of 2018.

Mobile Connection Speeds Increase

Mobile data connections are getting faster all over the world, with GSMA Intelligencereporting that more than 60 percent of mobile connections can now be classified as ‘broadband’.

E-commerce Spend Jumps

The latest data from Statista’s Digital Market Outlook shows that the total value of the e-commerce market for consumer goods grew by 16 percent over the past year. Total annual spend in 2017 reached almost US$1.5 trillion, with fashion products representing the largest single category.

There was a time when people felt the internet was another world, but now people realize it’s a tool that we use in this world.

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Reference

Digital in 2018: World's internet users pass the 4 billion mark - We Are Social
The new 2018 Global Digital suite of reports from We Are Social and reveals that there are now more than 4 billion…wearesocial.com