Their research shows that people in the US (and a few other markets) are spending the same (or less) time online, while people in markets such as Italy, Japan, France and Australia continue to increase their time spent online, as shown below:

Nielsen tries to sugarcoat their findings by saying that the "US is primed for the next ‘big thing’ to spike Internet usage." Perhaps.

But I believe the next big thing has less to do with the US than markets outside the US. Web globalization is still under the radar of most media and even many large corporations, but I'm seeing more research reports point to opportunities abroad and am talking to more Web globalization managers who tell me that they can't add languages fast enough. Web globalization is indeed a revolution, although because it is a multilingual revolution, it is easy to miss.

Finally, I have to take issue with one item on the Nielsen press release. It refers to global markets as "low hanging fruit." Nothing can be further from the truth. One of the most painful mistakes companies make about Web globalization is assuming that it's easy. It's not. If it were, Amazon would be in a dozen markets right now instead of five.



By John Yunker
jyunker@bytelevel.com