The world now has 3 Billion users on the internet.

It was said that by the end of 2014, internet users would increase drastically and we would have more than 3 billion users, most users of the the internet would be coming from  developing world – with mobile-broadband penetration approaching 32 per cent.
      “Very newly released ICT [information and communications technology]  confirm once again that information and communication technologies continue to be the key drivers of the information society,” said Hamadoun I. Toure, ITU Secretary-General.
                                                                                                                                                           “Behind these numbers and statistics are real human stories. The stories of people whose lives have improved thanks to ICTs,” said Mr Sanou, adding “our mission is to bring ICTs into the hands of ordinary people, wherever they live. By measuring the information society, we can track progress, or identify gaps, towards achieving socio-economic development for all.”

Among those large amount of users all over the world, over three quarters are from developed countries while two-thirds come from the developing world. Moreover, people from developing countries make up for more than 90 per cent of those who are not yet using the Internet.

internet has also been growing In Africa, about one-fifth of the population will have access to the Internet; while in the Americas, nearly two-thirds of the population will be online by the end of the year. Further, Europe has the highest Internet penetration rate of 75 per cent, while the Asia-Pacific region has the largest population of Internet users.

Turning to mobile-broadband penetration, the number of its subscriptions will achieve 2.3 billion globally. 55 per cent of them are expected to be in the developing world. As shown in the ITU statistics, mobile-broadband remains the fastest growing market segment, with continuous double-digit growth rates in 2014. In addition, Africa takes the lead in its growth, from 2 percent in 2010 to almost 20 percent in 2014. Compared to the spike of mobile-broadband, fixed-broadband, however, reflects slowing growth in the developing world. The ITU report expects its penetration to reach 10 per cent by end 2014. Similar to Internet subscriptions, Asia-Pacific region also dominates the most users in fixed-broadband, while Africa has the least, with lower than 0.5 per cent of its population.

Regarding mobile-cellular, a significant step towards which subscriptions is that the number will reach 7 billion by end of 2014, with developing countries home to over 75 per cent among the users. This increase indicates the growing markets in the developing world.

Even as the worldwide growth trend of these ICTs continues, fixed-telephone penetration, however, lags behind. According to ITU, fixed-telephone users have been declining for the last five years. In addition, there will be about 100 million fewer subscriptions than in 2009.

ITU statistics are widely recognized as the world’s most reliable and impartial global data on the state of the global ICT industry. They are used extensively by leading intergovernmental agencies, financial institutions and private sector analysts worldwide.