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Sleeping Giant Market

Demographics of Internet Users

Internet use is growing rapidly around the world, particularly in the Asia/Pacific region. The growth in the Asia/Pacific region is especially important for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) since most Asian languages use scripts that utilize non-ASCII characters.

• By 2005, 78% of the online population will reside outside the U.S.¹
• Asia/Pacific is a sleeping giant; when the Internet takes off in the more populous countries, the region's Internet numbers will explode.¹
• English will no longer be the predominant Internet language by 2003.² 

Market Indicators

Current research indicates that while the majority of the Internet's content is in English, English is not the preferred language for the majority of Internet users. This finding points to a strong market demand for IDNs.

• English is not the preferred language for the majority of Internet users
• 68% of the Web content is in English³

¹IDC's Internet Commerce Market Model, version 7.1, April 2001

²Computer Industry Almanac, Feb 2001

³VilaWeb.com 2000, Quoted by eMarketer "US Hispanic Internet Users: Thinking in Spanish and Surfing in English", Feb 26, 2001