50% of the World Will Be Using the Internet Within Five Years

Independent market researchers eMarketer predict that half the world will be using the internet by 2018. The number of worldwide internet users is set to reach 3 billion in 2015, which is 42% of the globe’s current population, 7.1 billion people.

“Inexpensive mobile phones and mobile broadband connections are driving internet access and usage in countries where fixed internet has been out of reach for consumers, whether that’s due to lack of infrastructure or affordability,” says Monica Peart, eMarketer’s Senior Forecasting Analyst. “While highly developed nations are nearly saturated in terms of internet users, there’s significant room for growth in emerging markets,” she continued, adding “for example, India and Indonesia will each see double-digit growth in each year between now and 2018.”

Although rolling out internet access to the entire Earth is an economically improbable task, undertakings such as Project Loon – Google’s attempt at establishing a skyborne WiFi network using a series of balloons – aim to bring internet access to more remote areas.

Source: Trusted Reviews