Canadians on the net
Guess what? Almost 1 billion people are now online. It’s estimated that it will go over a billion by the end of the year.
Perhaps not surprisingly, almost 1/4 of those are in North America. Of course wealth has something to do with it, but probably also cheap local calling, which was a huge stumbling block in other parts of the world for a long time.
But really now, what country is the most connected? I’ll tell you – Canada. With almost 80% of us online, we beat out the USA and Japan. And in our use of broadband we beat Japan and the USA (in that order) by 1.6 kilometers. And hey, it’s not surprising – Canada is also the home of the Blackberry (Waterloo, Ontario, to be exact). And one of the most successful internet companies was started in Montreal. If I’m not mistaken, Calgary is one of the most connected cities in the world (we have to have good technology here so that we can access our email on our way out to the mountains.) Wireless internet usage is expected to more than double over the next year.
Since we’re into stats, lets keep talking. Do you want to know what Canadians are doing online? I’ll tell you that too.
I like my job, and I don’t have broadband, so I’m bringing down the stats in those areas. Other than that, I fit the profile. Thanks for these stats go to the Ipsos-Reid folks and Internet World Stats. By the way – about 1/4 of Canadians are drinking a coffee beverage while using the internet.
28 November 2005 @ 2:33 pm
So are you drinking the coffee beverage because it’s cold up there? (Sorry about the stereotype).
28 November 2005 @ 2:39 pm
I suppose a “coffee beverage” would have to include all the cold beverages as well (like a cafe latte), so the temperature can’t explain it. Perhaps we feel we require more stimulants?
It was funny because when I was writing that post and I read that stat, I actually was drinking a coffee beverage – very rare for me!