Europe Net Users Now Outnumber US/Canada

palefish writes "From this article in the Media Guardian: According to Irish-based industry monitor Nua.com, Europe has almost 186 million users, while Canada and the US register 182 million. The difference may not seem substantial, but Europe is still a growing market. I've always thought of Europe as lagging somewhat behind the States in the internet uptake stakes (probably because some of our telecoms companies are yet to understand the internet). So, I don't know about you lot, but this statistic came as a bit of a surprise to me."

I love this phrase...

[billbaggins]

AOL - the world's largest internet provider - has been assaulting the bastion of European access but has yet to find a dominant foothold in any single country.

I can just see it... AOLTW's execs in a room with a big map of the world, pushing little plastic computer figurines around, planning their landing at Normandy, carpet-bombing Germany with those *(#$( CDs, sending commando troops east of the late Iron Curtain to aid the AOL insurgency...

...from the corner, a small voice pipes up... "Maybe it's the name. Maybe if it were something other than AMERICA online..." But the General gruffly puts the speaker down. "No. Europeans have absolutely NO PROBLEM with the idea of American hegemony. NONE. Shut up and get me more coffee."

not understanding the internet?

[balloonhead]

I don't understand the poster's point about European ISP not understanding the internet. We have BT, and they freakin' invented hyperlinks.

All your internet are belong to us now

All Hail the /. Weenies

[Quirk]

Ah! A summer away from /. and I return to find the same stagnant backwater mentality. In a world desperately in need of a sense of community and, all the more so, in talking of a technology carrying with it the hope of *communication* the /. talk is of _them_ against _us_. O me, O my it's back to my cabin in the woods I go.

In other news...

[MattC413]

Local American retailers have published a new study, saying that the reason that the economy isn't doing as well as it should be is because there are more people OUTSIDE this country than inside.

A spokesman for the industry has been quoted as saying that it is time for Americans to do their duty, and have lots and lots of sex, especially with an overlooked segment of the sexual economy - geeks.

A spokesman for Slashdot, when presented with this news, was heard to exclaim "Whoa.. sweet!"

Re:ummm...a little fishy

[Ford Fulkerson]

That logic only holds if more = better

Well, I'm sure I've heard somewhere that size matters. Can't remember where at the moment, try Google.

Re:More 'Net users in Europe than North America

[Anonymous Coward]

You're absolutely right. Here on the old continent we're still connecting to the internet with 2400 baud modems, which we rotate amongst amongst each other so everyone can have go at the internet once a week.
And ofcourse we do wireless by having pigeons transporting our email. We call it SMTP (Send Mail Through Pigeon). No problems with warspamming either, just the occassional packet ending up on some gypsy's bbq.

Re:More 'Net users in Europe than North America

[supergiovane]

No spam? Ever seen 'the birds' of Alfred Hitchcock? Didn't you see the subtle parody of the catastrophic effects of European SMPT DoS? I don't know where are you from, but here in Italy pigeons are not wireless networking. As a matter of fact, we bound'em tight to a rope, so we can quickly retrieve them. It's called DSL (Double Speed Lace).

Great

[E-Rock-23]

Yet another thing for Europe to brag about. Could it be due to the fact that the Telecomm's here in the states are lagging behind in getting areas wired? As a country that's essentially the bastard child of European countries, you'ld think that this new finding would make us kick ourselves into high gear. We surpassed their centuries of being a dominant force in under 250 years. Now they're coming back in like 10 years. That's just wrong. Everyone knows we're the better nation...

So, does this mean that the French are online more, and are finally learning that women with hairy pits are just nasty? One can only pray that they discover the razor blade. Otherwise, France's nude beaches are just display showcases for nasty broads who look like they have Don King in a headlock...

Re:Big Deal

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sick and tired of being grouped in with our loudmouthed, self-righteous, polluting, over-bearing, gun-toting neighbours

Me too, and I'm a US citizen.