Compare to this to the Web, from comScore:

comScore Networks, a leader in measuring the digital age, today announced that 747 million people, age 15+, used the Internet worldwide in January 2007, a 10-percent increase versus January 2006.  Among the top 15 countries (ranked by penetration), Internet audiences in India, the Russian Federation and China increased the most in 2006, growing 33, 21 and 20 percent, respectively.  China now represents the second-largest Internet population in the world, with 86.8 million users, after the U.S., which rose 2 percent year-over-year to 153.4 million users age 15 or older in January 2007.

“The importance of the worldwide Internet population continues to grow,” said Bob Ivins, managing director, comScore Europe.  “Internet users outside the U.S. now account for 80 percent of the world’s online population, with rapidly developing countries experiencing double-digit growth rates year-over-year.”

Mind you, the figures for radio are US-only.  What are the US’ Internet audience?

Well, if “Internet users outside the US account for 80% of the world’s online population,” then 20% x 747M = 149M.

The US is still tops but China is catching up, fast:

China’s population of Internet users, already the world’s second-largest after the United States, has risen by 30 percent over the past year to 132 million, a state news agency said Friday.

The figure was up from 123 million at the end of June, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing the government’s China Internet Network Information Center.

It said the number of Chinese customers with broadband access has grown to 52 million.

China is a juggernaut, and India is growing rapidly… we know that, and that’s why PriceWaterHouse Coopers was compelled to slap a Blodget-esque  $110B online ad market forecast for all of Asia.  I’ve sent in numerous emails and made calls to the team that publishes that report with no answer…

I’ve worked in radio for a couple of years: both as a producer, sales person and host.  As a media, radio is great, I love it, but the advantages it gives advertisers in terms of local reach are very easily overcome by its shortcomings in terms of lack of measurability and accountability.

To read our earlier post on the impact of an investment by Google in Clear Channel Communications, read this.

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