MUMBAI: With the rampant rise of social media, the global internet users have increased by eight per cent to 2.3 billion from 2011, according to a Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB) report.

China leads the way with 513 million web users, followed by the US with 245 million users. Emerging markets like Philippines, India and Indonesia have also witnessed a significant growth over the last year, but global Internet penetration currently stands at 32 per cent, which indicates that the web has many more years of growth ahead of it.

Usage of Wireless broadband has increased significantly in India, where growth in subscribers was 841 per cent year over year, though that equates to a four per cent penetration rate.

The report also showed that the rapidly growing mobile market remains in its infancy with a total of 1.1 billion mobile 3G subscribers worldwide, representing 37 per cent growth year over year, while the global penetration of the handset market was low, reaching 18 per cent at the end of 2011.

Mobile products now account for 10 per cent of all Internet traffic, a growth of nine per cent from December 2009, with Apple products coming out on top and continuing to dominate the market. However, the adoption of the Android platform was significant with global cumulative unit sales selling four times faster than that of iPhone. This has led to a rapid growth in mobile monetization with the app market increasing to 79 per cent and mobile advertising revenue to 29 per cent. Tablets and eReaders witnessed an increase in uptake with 29 per cent of US citizens now owning one of the devices as opposed to just two per cent three years ago.

While mobile clicks are increasing traffic through Facebook and Google, the reduction in CPC (Cost Per Click) is constraining revenue growth. Despite this, mobile revenue growth is stronger than it ever was at early desktop monetization era, due to its increasingly rapid user growth.