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In 2003 there were two countries worldwide with over seven million internet hosts (the US and Japan.)  Now there are ten. But they are twelve if we consider as “nations” the Spanish-speaking community and the Chinese ethnic environment.

In the Chinese area a single country, Taiwan, exceeded the million hostcount in 2001, two million in 2002 and four million in 2006.
In the Spanish-speaking community Spain had over a million hosts in 2001, Mexico in 2002, Argentina in 2004.
But the two “culture areas” are much wider – and also in the internet they largely exceed the size of individual countries.
In Latin America Brazil had a million hosts in 2001, two million in 2002, three in 2003, five in 2005 and seven in 2006. The Portuguese language area, including Brazil and Portugal, now has nine million internet hosts.

The Spanish-speaking area includes 500 million people (nine tenths of which are in the American continent.)  They don’t speak “identical” languages but they understand each other and share culture and knowledge. This is, after English, the second largest language community in the “western” world.

The Chinese community is much larger, with over 1,300 million people separated by national borders (and also by considerable ethnic differences) but sharing a common culture (not the same spoken language, as there are sixteen different Chinese languages – but they all share the same “ideographic” alphabet.)

The general picture can be summarized in this chart – twelve “nations” with over six million internet hosts in 2006. For a more detailed analysis of 57 countries worldwide see the report on international data.)

	Number of hosts December 2006	Per 1000 inhab.
United States	230,000,000	777.9
Japan	30,800,000	241.4
Spanish language	18,800,000	45.6
Germany	13,100,000	158.7
United Kingdom	13,000,000	216.5
Italy	12,000,000	204.2
France	10,300,000	169.8
Netherlands	9,000,000	558.1
Portuguese language	9,000,000	45.9
Australia	8,600,000	422.7
Canada	8,500,000	263.4
Chinese culture	8,200,000	5.9

World average density is 33.3
 
In this analysis figures
are decreased for Italy
and increased for the UK and Canada
(see international data.)

With increasingy fast growth the Spanish-speaking community is now ahead of all countries except the United States and Japan, while at this point in time the Chinese area doesn’t appear to be as comparatively strong as it was three years ago. But both still have large potential for further development.

This graph shows the situation of the seven largest language areas (exluding the English-speaking countries and Japan.)

Internet hosts
Numbers in thousands

The yellow sections are estimates of language extensions.
In the case of France, the French-speaking areas in Canada, Belgium and Switzerland.
For Germany, Austria and German Switzerland.
For the Netherlands, the Flemish in Belgium.
For Brazil, Portugal – i.e. the extension of the Portuguese language area.
Only a small part of Switzerland is added in the case of Italy.
(Some “small” countries for each of the languages are not included
because adding them wouldn’t change the graph.)

Of course the dominant language is English, with a total hostcount of approximately 300 million (two thirds of the total) if we consider only countries where English is the “official” language – if we included all environments where English is understood it would be close to 90 percent. However other languages have a relevant, and growing, presence online.

The size of the Spanish-speaking area includes an approximate estimate of the “hispanic” communities in the United States.

If we consider the use of French and German in some high-hostcount countries those two language areas have a strong presence in the internet – but they are not growing as fast as the Spanish community.

Another fast-growing area is the Portuguese language – mostly because of increasing internet activity in Brazil, but there is also fast development in Portugal.

It is to be considered that most people with high education in Portugal and Brazil understand Spanish. If we combined the two language areas the total would be twentyseven million internet hosts.

The Chinese area has obvious potential for further growth. If the severe restrictions of internet use in mainland China could be overcome, the Chinese community would probably replace Japan as the second largest worldwide after the United States.

But (even when including a “sudden” increase in mainlad China) development in the Chinese area in recent years is slower than in the Spanish and Portuguese environments, as we see in this graph.

Internet hosts – 1999-2006
Numbers in millions

The grey trend is an index
based on percentages of worldwide growth.

Of course trends need to be understood over longer periods than one or two years. But the Chinese area is obviously far below its potential – and it appeared to have slower growth in 2005 than in earlier trends.

Inside each of the two “large culture areas” there are considerable differences, as we see in the following analyses.

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The Spanish language area

Spanish is the most widely spoken language
in the American continent.
Some areas in this map
in the South of the United States
are a “symbolic” representation
of the Spanish-speaking communities
that, of course, are extended
also to other parts of the country.

Obvioulsy the pale blue parts of this picture
show the Portuguese-speaking area.

In recent years there has been fast growth of the internet in Spanish-speaking areas and especially in some Latin American countries. The situation is summarized in this chart, from two points of view: Latin America (including Brazil) and Spanish language (including Spain.)

There are 21 countries in those areas with over a thousand internet hosts.

	No. of hosts December 2006	Per 1000 inhabit.
Brazil	7,422,440	40.3
Mexico	6,697,570	65.0
Argentina	1,838,050	47.6
Colombia	721,114	15.7
Chile	621,565	38.2
Peru	269,981	9.9
Uruguay	182,403	56.0
Venezuela	122,404	4.6
Dominican Rep.	98,180	10.9
Guatemala	49,062	4.0
Ecuador	27,923	2.1
Nicaragua	24,690	4.5
Bolivia	20,085	2.3
Paraguay	13,178	2.4
Costa Rica	12,751	3.0
El Salvador	12,429	1.1
Panama	9,626	3.1
Honduras	4,485	0.6
Cuba	2,658	0.2
Latin America	18,150,000	34.6
Spain **	6,800,000	154.7
Andorra	14,994	195.0
Spanish language *	18,000,000	45.6

* Hostcount figures for Spain appear understated at this time
and therefore the number is arbitrarily, but not unreasonably, increased.
* The total for Spanish language includes an approximate estimate
of “hispanic” communities in the United States.

As in all parts of the world, there are large differences, as is visible in this chart (nine countries with over 90,000 internet hosts, that have 98.8 percent of the total in Latin America.)

9 countries in Latin America

82 percent of the total is in three countries: Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.

If we look at the same situation for the Spanish-speaking area, the picture is different (of course Spain replaces Brazil.)

9 Spanish-speaking countries

The size of the gray “slice”, in addition to other Latin American countries,
includes an approximate estimate of Spanish-speaking areas, especially in the US

Let’s see now, as we do in the other data analyses, density in relation to population. The graph includes (in addition to Spain) seventeen countries with over 10,000 internet hosts, that have 99.9 percent of the total in Latin America .

Internet hosts per 1000 inhabitants
in 17 Latin American countries
(and Spain)

Density in Spain, here reduced for graph readability, is twice as large as in Mexico.

In 2006, for the first time, Mexico has overtaken Uruguay and Argentina – and, for the first time, density in Latin America is higher than the world average. But the above-average countries in this area are still the same five, including Brazil and Chile.

This is the density picture in Latin America seen as a map.

Now let’s look at the situation (for the same seventeen countries) in relation to income. Here again, Spain is added for the sake of comparison in the Spanish-speaking environment.

Internet hosts in relation to income (GDP)
in 17 Latin American countries
(and Spain)

The picture continues to evolve. Four Latin American countries, when internet activity is measured in relation to income, are ahead of Spain – and also of other European countries, as shown in the international data analysis.

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The Chinese culture area

There can be no clear definition of the Chinese “territory” because there are Chinese communities in many parts of the world (including the United States and Europe.)  But obviously the “large numbers” are in China – and, especially in relation to the internet, in Taiwan, Hong Kong and parts of South-East Asia.

It’s too soon to tell if a large and sudden “leap” in China, in the second half of 2006, is leading to a new trend. But hostcount in relation to population and income remains very low (see Asia.)

In the People’s Republic of China, in addition to technical and economic problems, there are severe restrictions in the use of the internet. The situation is radically different in Taiwan and in Hong Kong (that, though it is now part of China, still has a separate presence in the internet) as well as in Singapore and in other parts of South-East Asia.

The picture can be summarized in this short table.

	No. of hosts December 2006	Per 1000 inhab.
China	1,933,919	1.5
Hong Kong	801,298	116
Taiwan	4.418,705	194
South-east Asia *	810.000	85
Total **	8,200,000	5.9

* An estimate based on the Chinese population in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.
** The total is “rounded up” to include other Chinese communities worldwide.

Let’s look at this picture as a “pie” chart.

Chinese cultural area

The size of the gray area is not a number calculation
but an approximate indication of the fact
that there are “other” Chinese communities

There still is a dominant position of Taiwan, that with twenty million inhabitants has twice the internet hosts of mainland China. For the first time in the history of the internet, Hong Kong doesn’t have a larger hoscount than the rest of China, but the fact remains that, with seven million inhabitants, is has 40 percent the hosts that are found in the mainland (1,250 million people.)  There is relatively strong internet activity also in the Chinese communities in South-East Asia (for instance the hostcount in Singapore, with under four million inhabitants, is nearly half in the number in China.)

In spite of some changes, such as the recent growth in China, the whole area isn’t developing as fast as in previous years. Of course it will take more time to understand the meaning of these trends. It is likely that the Chinese culture area will continue to grow, but any forecasting would be unreasonable.

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For a perception of where these activities are placed geographically, this little map might help. It includes the central and southern part of the continent, from the Middle East to East Asia.

Internet hosts per 1000 inhabitants

Only a few countries have high density and they are isolated spots on the map. There would be a few tiny (though relevant) “dots” if we could identify specific urban areas in some low-density countries. But the general picture confirms that only a small part of Asia is strongly active in the internet.

A more detailed analysis of this situation
is in a report about the internet in Asia

Other data analyses

       
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