Hey, it’s Australia Day, so I thought I’d check out how us Aussies are going in the Internet usage stakes.

Problem is, it’s hard to get a straight answer.

• CIA World Fact Book = 11,240,000 (in 2007). The CIA knows everything right? Well maybe not everything…but they do know some stuff. Strange thing is that using NationMaster to track our yearly growth according to the CIA we find that the number dropped by 4 Million users from the 2006 high of 15,300,000. Very odd.
• Internet World Stats citing International Telecommunications Union = 15,300,000 (Dec 07)
• Internet World Stats citing Nelson = 16,355,427 (Jun 08)
• Digital Futures Report = 15,111,000 (in 2007). The Digital Futures Report based on a survey of 1000 households in 2007 found that 73% of respondents used the Internet. The UN lists Australia’s population in 2007 as 20.7M putting the number of users at just over 15M
• ComScore = <11.812,000. A recent comScore press release says Australia is outside the top 15 countries for Internet users, globally. That means we have less than 11,812,000. Sounds kinda low. I realise that they’ve excluded public access (like libraries) and mobile devices but I doubt that 1/3 - 1/2 of users have libraries or their phones as their only internet access point. Got to think that comScore have it wrong.

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So what’s the outcome?

I’d say that we’re probably around 16 Million Internet users. That’s a good number for our population but comically small compared to the potential that exists outside of Australia in countries like China and the US, each with approximately 250-odd Million users each.

That having been said, with such excellent internet access in Australia, the world is literally your oyster. So on this Australia Day, why not have a think about how you’re going to leverage that access to promote Australian startups (whether yours or someone else’s) both here and overseas.

Happy Australia Day everyone!