October 31, 2005

The Top-10 Languages used on the Internet. The number of recorded internet users has reached the staggering figure of 812,931,592 worldwide. Leading in absolute terms, with more than 35% of total internet users, English is smashed by those 526,288,835 users that access internet in a different language. While a considerable share of people from non English-speaking countries are more or less proficient in the language, recent data has shown that in China 85% of the users prefer to access pages in their native language. That figure is 84% for Japan, 82% for Brazil and Spain, 81% for Argentina and Peru and 79% for Germany.

What about L33T?

posted by Zanshin 18 years ago
  • Interesting, especially in light of the US government's recent refusal to turn over governance of domain name assignation to the UN. Since two-thirds of worldwide internet users don't speak English as a primary language, a case could be made that multinational control over these processes is appropriate.
  • 你们大家,你们 动 性交;交媾;[三字经]干 没什么(回答感谢用语)
  • that's easy for you to say...
  • mare, I have no idea what you're saying. 你究竟在说什么，朋友？
  • なに、まれ？
  • 你们大家 --> You (pl.) everybody 你们--> you (pl.) 动 --> move, take action 性交 --> sexual intercourse 交媾--> sexual intercourse as referred to in the 三字经 [a classical text for helping kids memorise characters] 干--> sexual intercourse (crude), cognate with fuck 没什么--> there isn't any (回答感谢用语) --> ("a phrase used to reply with thanks") I fear you were attempting an improper suggestion of some kind there mare.
  • Guilty.
  • I wish i knew how to read all that. I'm surprised at how low English usage is on the Internet. But probably shouldn't be, given the huge number of new Internet users in the far east.
  • Hey, wait a sec! Where's India in the list?
  • Lots of native English speakers in India, believe it or not - and there are hundreds of different 'local' languages.