ITU: Global Internet users will amount to 2.7 billion mobile devices equivalent to population

The mobile market is expected to grow dramatically this year, with the global mobile networking device reaching 6.8 billion units, almost equal to the total population on Earth, the ITU's latest annual report said today. Overall, the global number of Internet users using fixed-line or mobile internet access has reached 2.7 billion. Some netizens have more than one cell phone, and the total mobile penetration rate is about 96.2 users per household/family, the ITU said. In other words, mobile operators are now approaching the targets that fixed-line telephony services have never had. Although organizations like the ITU and Governments have invested heavily in promoting fixed-line access, many private companies are also aggressively increasing telephone density in developing countries, but users of fixed-line telephone services are still shrinking, and the current penetration rate for fixed-line telephones is about 16.5 users per hundred households. Companies such as Facebook and Google are expanding their businesses around the world, especially on mobile platforms, and some data from the ITU prove they are doing the right thing. Although the ITU does not say how many users use smartphones to access the Internet, it points to a gradual increase in broadband penetration, with some 41.3 users using some form of Internet service per hundred households. But from the data provided by the ITU, it seems that most users are mobile users. The ITU points out that there are about 9.8 fixed-line broadband subscribers per hundred households, compared with about 29.5 mobile broadband subscribers. In other words, if you're offering your service to the newest Internet users, you'd better promote it on a mobile platform. The data also illustrate the source of growth for netizens. The ITU says the proportion of households with Internet access in developing countries has risen from 12% in 2008 to 28% in 2013, while the mixed annual growth rate has reached an alarming 18%. The ITU also noted that for the third consecutive year South Korea was rated as the most technologically developed country in the world. The ITU's selection focused on 11 indicators, including the country's mobile and broadband penetration rates, and the use of services on those networks. 5 Nordic countries, such as Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Norway, ranked 8th in the 5 positions after South Korea, with the UK ranking in the top 3, and the U.S. ranking by 1 and falling to 17th place. American consumers are at the forefront of the world in using new technology services, and the rankings are more important because the selection is also related to a number of different factors, including how the country's people surf the internet and so on. About 30% of adults in the United States still do not have broadband Internet access in their homes, according to new statistics published by the Pew Research Group. In the ITU list of the world's most technologically advanced countries, the last countries in the rankings have not changed much. Niger is still in the bottom position. There is still a huge digital divide between developed and poor countries, with the richest still doing the best in technology and the poorest countries doing the worst. But not all categories of technical products are so, the ITU refers, nearly 80% of the world's households already have televisions, compared with 41% of households with computers, and only 37% per cent of households with internet access. In its latest report released today, the ITU proposes new indicators, one of which is to count the number of indigenous people around the globe, the so-called "digital natives" who are aged 15 to 24 years old and have 5 years and more experience of surfing the Internet. For an organization such as the ITU, it is both interesting and strange to study such an indicator, because it is a conservative and commercially-minded organization from a marketing standpoint. On the other hand, watching such a data increase yearly should reflect a larger overall growth. More importantly, it would be very meaningful if the gap between the digital natives of emerging and developed markets could shrink over time. The ITU says the number of people in the developed world is now about 7 billion, with about 363 million digital natives, accounting for 5.2% of the population and 30% of the younger population. Now, the contrast between developed and emerging markets is still very clear. There are about 145 million young people in the developed world, 86.3% of whom are digital natives; instead, there are about 503 million young people in emerging markets, but less than half of the digital natives. This means that in developing markets, the average user is younger. For more information on mobile interconnection, please visit Enfodesk www.enfodesk.com or call Customer service 4006-515-715.