A new Q4 Global Digital Statshot report has shed light on users around the world who are using the internet currently. For one, the number of people online now nxumber nearly 4.2 billion, which is around 55% of the population.
During the last quarter, 1.5% of the population came online, amounting to 68 million people. For the entire calendar year, the number of new audiences stands at 284 million.
For social media, the number of people using various networks grew by 10% over the last year, to reach 3.4 billion. The number of new users amounts to an impressive 320 million.
In terms of mobile phone penetration, 5.118 billion people now own a device of their own, representing 67% of all people. Around 60% of these people also own a smartphone. Every day, the number of people owning a mobile phone roughly grew by 100,000.
3.179 billion people access social media on smartphones, too. Users also spent much more on apps, $20 billion, over the past three months alone, amounting to $150,000 per minute.
Over half the traffic now comes from mobile phones, around 51.6%. Those from desktop and laptop users is around 44.1%.
The average internet speeds worldwide remained 47.83 MBPS for downlink, as well as 22.99 MBPS for uplink.
Overall, the goal of bringing the ‘Next Billion’ users to the web is going highly successfully, with the majority of the new users coming from developing markets of Africa and South Asia. Things might soon start to get tougher, though, once you start to reach the bottom end of the bucket.