HONG KONG — South Koreans are the world's most avid Internet surfers, followed by people in Hong Kong and the United States, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

A monthly study released this week by the measurement service showed that surfers in South Korea spent an average of 19 hours and 20 minutes online in July, topping the list in Internet usage.

Ranked second was Hong Kong, where people spent on average 12 hours and 12 minutes each browsing the Net during the same period. In the United States, the average in July was 10 hours and 19 minutes.

The survey keeps track of Internet usage in 28 countries, seven of them in the Asian Pacific. They include Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore.

The data showed that the most popular activity on the Internet was the use of search engines and portals followed by accessing sites relating to the Internet, technology or telecommunications, Nielsen told Reuters.

In Korea, entertainment sites ranked third and in Hong Kong websites on software were the third most popular.

The study also found South Korea surfers had an average of 26 sessions on the Internet in July, topping the list again.

This was closely followed by the United States at 20 sessions a month and Hong Kong and Canada at 19 sessions a month.

Overall, the study found the global Internet population to have increased slightly by three percent to 426 million individuals in July compared with the previous month.

View Comments

In a statement, Nielsen/NetRatings said the Internet was leap-frogging the adoption of fixed-line telephones in developing nations.

"The telephone took upwards of 35 years to penetrate a quarter of the U.S. population, while the Internet only took seven years," said the managing director of ACNielsen.eRatings North Asia, Hugh Bloch.

"In some of the developing markets, the telephone is still at surprisingly low levels of penetration, but yet the Internet is fast gaining in terms of access," he said.

It cited India as an example where only seven percent of households have fixed-line telephones, but 10 percent of households are expected to gain Internet access at home over the next year.

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.