Nielsen//Netratings: 459 Million People Have Internet Access Worldwide.

Nielsen//NetRatings released its Second Quarter 2001 Global Internet Trends report on Internet access and penetration, estimating that a total of 459 million people now have home-based Internet access around the world.

The Q2 results show an increase over Q1 of 30 million people worldwide with home-based Internet access.

The report measures the Internet populations in 30 countries in North America, Europe/the Middle East/Africa, Asia/Pacific and Latin America. With the addition of Argentina, India, South Africa and Israel this quarter, Nielsen//NetRatings now measures 93% of the estimated global home-based Internet access.

In Q2, the US and Canada accounted for 40% of the world’s Internet population, down slightly from 41% in Q1. Europe/the Middle East/Africa remained static with 27% of the world’s Internet population, followed by Asia/Pacific with 22%, up from 20% in Q1, and followed by Latin America, also static at 4%.

The Q2 Global Internet Trends report also found substantial opportunities in the global PC consumer market.

“In terms of penetration levels, about 65% of households with telephones in South Korea, Sweden and Australia have PCs at home,” said Richard Goosey, chief of measurement science and analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings. “It is interesting that a number of well developed European markets are way behind these levels: Germany with 48%, UK with 46%, Italy with 41% and France with 34%. Because of their relatively large population bases and their high disposable incomes these markets present a great opportunity for PC manufacturers in the consumer market. Through increased marketing efforts they should be able to lift the penetration rates of these countries up to at least 50%, generating about 18 million sales.”

Goosey also noted that a number of other European and Asia/Pacific markets present similarly strong growth opportunities while the developing markets of Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, with their low percentage of households with home PCs, have a long way to go to catch up (see Table 1). “Global PC manufacturers face considerable challenges relating to product differentiation through marketing, distribution channels and the equity of their brands in each market,” he said. “But at the other end of that challenge is the opportunity to increase sales by millions of units at a time when the US PC market is leveling off.”

More than one PC in the Home

Goosey noted that Australia, Taiwan, Denmark, UK and Netherlands lead the way with over one in four households who own one PC also owning a second PC.

Goosey also noted that the data shows an opportunity for PC manufacturers to market to consumers who would be open to acquiring a second home PC. “For those consumers who already have a PC at home it may not be all the difficult to persuade them to buy a replacement so that they can upgrade, or to get a second PC for children or other family members.

“It is interesting that while South Korea has one of the world’s highest penetrations of home PCs, only 11% of those households have a second PC. If consumer demand could reach the levels being attained in the lead multiple home PC markets then it would represent an additional opportunity for two million PC sales just in the home market in South Korea. Many of the northern European countries and Israel also represent great opportunities for the sale of second PCs to consumers.”

Out of Home Access on the Rise

The addition of Israel, South Africa, India and Argentina to the Q2 Global Internet Trends report also marked a departure from previous reports by finding that the most common point of Internet access in those countries is a location other than home.

“Nielsen//NetRatings has published five Global Internet Trends reports since early 2000,” Goosey said. “Home has always been by far the most common location for Internet access and use. However, in Q2 we see for the first time markets with majority numbers of surfers who have access and who use the Internet from locations other than home, such as work, school, Internet cafi, mobile telephone or other access point. This again points to a wide-open global market for manufacturers of home PCs.”

Goosey noted that out-of-home access is a particularly important location for Internet use among adults in Latin America. Nearly nine million people – or 51% of the Internet population in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina – use the Internet away from home. In contrast, the proportion of adults who use the Internet from a location other than their home PC in Europe/Middle East/Africa is 33% and in Asia/Pacific is 23%.

“Internet use is clearly an activity engaged in outside the home in Argentina and Mexico, as surfers in both those countries are actually more likely to have access and to use the Internet from a location other than home or work,” Goosey said. “Interestingly, in Argentina, a work PC is the least likely location for Internet use, with only 7% of the Internet population reporting use from their office PC. In India the situation is similar, as more people use the Internet outside of either work or home, even though more people have access from home than from work or other locations.”

Both home and work are important sources of Internet access in Europe/Middle East/Africa, with the proportion of people who have used the Internet at home remaining stable since Q1 and the proportion of people using the Internet at work rising modestly at around 2%. The two countries new to the measurement of this region, Israel and South Africa, are on nearly opposite ends of the spectrum. In South Africa, work access rates equal those of home access, while in Israel, home access rates are more than double those of access rates from work and other locations.

For more information at http://www.nielsen-netratings.com.