1The Internet has been considered, since its outset, as a rather sophisticated and complex informational and communications technology (see e.g., Castells, 2001). However, from the perspectives of its end users, individuals located anywhere worldwide, Internet technology is relatively easy to operate, at least for its primary uses, such as web search and e-mailing. The Internet further offers a platform for endless uses or applications. Literacy is the only requirement for practical use by individuals other than for audiovisual activities. The personal adoption of the Internet and its use require access to computer terminals, as well as access to the Internet system. Computer terminals for Internet use include PCs (personal computers) at home, at work, or in Internet cafes, as well as tablets, portable computers, and smartphones. Access to the system can be achieved by subscriptions, either through ISPs (Internet service providers) or cellular phone companies, as well as through Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) connectivity, which is frequently available in public spaces free of charge. These basic facilities and services have become widely available worldwide, even in developing countries.
2This paper explores the contemporary penetration levels of major Internet applications replacing physical activities, notably those for social networking, at the country level. This exploration aims at two ends. First, to learn, as far as data availability permits, whether high penetration levels typify large or small countries, given that a decade ago it was for smaller countries to lead in Internet penetration levels. Second, to see whether it is for wealthier countries, among the largest countries by population, to lead penetration levels for major Internet applications, notably those for social networking, considering the digital divide that existed in the past between wealthier and Internet-rich countries, on the one hand, and Internet-poor and economically poorer ones, on the other.
3This global country-based examination is of importance almost thirty years following the introduction of the commercial Internet back in 1995 and nearly twenty years since the introduction of the platform Web 2.0, which has facilitated the emergence of significant networking systems. If the international penetration levels for the Internet, smartphones, and riding networking applications have been vast and deep, we may assume that most national populations can use virtual interpersonal communications for social and political purposes. Furthermore, we may consider the potential emergence of several wide global networking systems permitting global entertainment and cultural information exchanges.
4No clear theoretical or empirical frameworks suggest some systematic relationships between country size and economic status or processes. The relationship between country size and economic development varies by study time and chosen study variables. Thus, the relationship between country size and economic growth has been approached repeatedly, with varying conclusions. Hence, for example, Rose (2006) studied data from 200 countries and concluded that small countries are more open to international trade than larger ones but are relatively similar regarding other economic parameters. However, it was shown in another study that smaller countries are subject to more volatile business cycles than bigger ones (Furceri and Karras, 2007). Numerous years earlier, it was argued that there is no association between country size, economic development, and economic growth (Khalaf, 1979). With a mixture of variables representing size rather than population only, Furcery and Karras (2007) concluded that the negative relationship between country size and economic development is amplified (Alouini and Hubert, 2019).
5Similarly, varied trends prevail when the relationships between the Internet and economic development are studied internationally. The penetration processes for the Internet and its related devices (mainly smartphones) and platforms (e.g., social networking and online shopping) have been studied and discussed at the country level, mainly from the perspective of its interrelationship with economic development (e.g., Dohse and Lim, 2018; Pradhan et al., 2016; Chinn and Fairlie, 2007; Harb, 2017).
6Like the relationship between country size and economic development, the assessment of differentiating factors for Internet penetration levels has changed over the years since the introduction of the commercial Internet back in 1995. Thus, it was for Hargittai (1999), studying the OECD countries, to suggest that it was mainly for the regulatory environment, followed by per capita GDP, to explain differences in Internet adoption. This latter factor of per capita GDP was also strikingly found as associated with Internet penetration levels in a global study by Kiiski and Pohjola (2002). Another international study by Norris (2000) pointed to per capita GDP, albeit coupled with R&D spending, as explanatory factors for the emergence of the digital divide among countries regarding Internet penetration.
7A decade later, a global study by Chinn and Fairlie (2010) found a more diversified group of factors for the digital divide among countries, which included income, human capital, youth penetration ratio, telephone density, legal equality, and banking sector development (see also Pick and Nishida, 2015). Later, in 2015, in a study focusing on Nigeria only (Umezuruike et al., 2015), the digital divide was related not just to the gap between those who have access to the internet and those who don't but also to those who have restricted access to the Internet as compared to those who had an unlimited one. Restricted Internet access was mainly expressed through the availability of access to broadband connectivity, which in Nigeria (as well as in other developing countries) was limited by poor electrical power systems, pricing, right of way, distance, infrastructures, and unequal distribution of computer systems.
8Smart telephony began to spread globally in the early 2000s, following its development in Japan in 1999 (see Kellerman, 2020). The universal adoption of mobile telephony, which we will note in the following section, coupled with the growing need for digital communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, has created a rather delicate digital divide. The focus now has moved to the level of broadband connectivity, measured by speed generations (3G-5G), rather than the previous focus on the very access to a mobile broadband system and the even earlier focus on the very access to the Internet. This change in the international digital divide from the availability of Internet access to its speed levels has also been associated with a change in the explaining factors, from the past dominance of economic development, which explained the divide in its earlier phases, to current more complex patterns of economic, infrastructure, and demographic factors in the contemporary divide.
9From a long-range perspective of communications penetration leadership, it was shown in 1999 that the US and Scandinavian countries have historically adopted new communications technologies (Kellerman, 1999). A similar trend was found in the early 2010s regarding the adoption of major service and economic online activities, such as shopping, banking, travel reservation, government, and health (Kellerman, 2014). Side by side with this trend, at the time, it was found that virtual social networking was led by developing countries, as well as by smaller ones, rather than by the US and Scandinavian nations (Kellerman, 2014). The data presented in the following sections aim to find out whether these trends reflected only the early adoption waves of these new technologies and applications or whether they have continued one decade later, namely into the early 2020s, and thus presenting some continuous tendencies.
10Given the past trends in Internet penetration, this study focuses on two research questions:
11Internet penetration levels: Using 2022-2023 country data (in Tables 1-4 below), does the trend of leadership by small countries, which was evidenced in 2010 (Kellerman, 2014), still prevail?
12Internet applications penetration: Using 2022-2023 country data (in Tables 1-4 below), is penetration leadership of Internet applications still maintained by a mix of wealthier and developing countries, as was the case in 2010 (Kellerman, 2014)?
13Our discussions in the following sections will be based on selected country data that has been available for the leading countries, mainly the numbers of individuals who have adopted the Internet and its networking applications. We will present data for the penetration levels of networking and other applications within the digital population of these countries.
14The sources for the data are rather varied since all the data sources are secondary. Thus, some of the information originates from governmental statistics, alongside business and estimation sources. Data were not retrieved per specific country but for a complete series of countries by variable. This implies persistence in the comparative basis for each variable. Some minor incorrection may be assumed since all the data are at the rather macro country level.
15Following a short review of previous studies, we will present three global patterns. We will begin with the section entitled ‘Pattern 1’ which will include an interpretation of country data for digital populations, or the population that adopted the Internet, as well as an interpretation of data on smartphone adoption levels within this population. These interpretations will be followed by the section entitled ‘Pattern 2’, which will include analyses of country data for the adoption of the major platforms for social networking: Facebook, Twitter (X), WhatsApp, Instagram, and TikTok. Finally, the ‘Pattern 3’ section will present country data for the use of e-mail and online shopping, which will be interpreted in comparison with those for virtual social networking. The common thread between these two latter Internet applications is that they both have at least a potential for some international exchanges among their subscribers, as compared to banking, travel reservations, government, and health services, all of which have a relatively local or domestic context.
16Table 1 presents the 25 largest countries worldwide by their population. In early 2023, some 80% of the populations of these countries were digital, i.e., they were connected to the Internet. Furthermore, some two-thirds of the digital population of these countries were smartphone users. A 2022 Pew Research Center study of 18 developed countries in the three global cores plus Israel noted a median of 93% for the penetration level of the Internet (Wike et al., 2022). An earlier 2019 Pew study that also included developing countries identified some lower Internet penetration rates among the latter, though for all countries, it was over 50% (Schumacher and Kent, 2020).
Table 1: Leading countries by population, digital population, and smartphone use 2022-3
Data sources: Population: Worldometer, 2023; Digital population: Statista, 2023a; Smartphone users: Statista, 2023b.
|
No.
|
Country (ranking by pop. size)
|
Pop. (in mil.) early 2023
|
Country (ranking by digital pop. size)
|
Digital pop. (in mil.) early 2023
|
Perc. digital pop. early 2023
|
Perc. Smartphone users out of dig. pop. end of 2022
|
|
1
|
China
|
1,439
|
China
|
1,050
|
73
|
68
|
|
2
|
India
|
1,380
|
India
|
692
|
50
|
47
|
|
3
|
US
|
331
|
US
|
311
|
94
|
82
|
|
4
|
Indonesia
|
274
|
Indonesia
|
213
|
78
|
68
|
|
5
|
Pakistan
|
221
|
Brazil
|
182
|
85
|
31
|
|
6
|
Brazil
|
213
|
Russia
|
128
|
88
|
67
|
|
7
|
Nigeria
|
206
|
Nigeria
|
123
|
60
|
38
|
|
8
|
Bangladesh
|
165
|
Japan
|
103
|
82
|
30
|
|
9
|
Russia
|
146
|
Mexico
|
101
|
78
|
74
|
|
10
|
Mexico
|
129
|
Pakistan
|
87
|
39
|
82
|
|
11
|
Japan
|
126
|
Philippines
|
85
|
77
|
62
|
|
12
|
Ethiopia
|
115
|
Egypt
|
81
|
79
|
79
|
|
13
|
Philippines
|
110
|
Vietnam
|
78
|
80
|
67
|
|
14
|
Egypt
|
102
|
Germany
|
78
|
93
|
60
|
|
15
|
Vietnam
|
97
|
Turkey
|
71
|
85
|
64
|
|
16
|
Congo
|
90
|
Iran
|
70
|
83
|
67
|
|
17
|
Turkey
|
84
|
Bangladesh
|
67
|
41
|
30
|
|
18
|
Iran
|
84
|
UK
|
66
|
97
|
75
|
|
19
|
Germany
|
84
|
Thailand
|
61
|
87
|
74
|
|
20
|
Thailand
|
70
|
France
|
60
|
92
|
82
|
|
21
|
UK
|
68
|
Italy
|
51
|
85
|
74
|
|
22
|
France
|
65
|
South Korea
|
51
|
100
|
83
|
|
23
|
Italy
|
60
|
Spain
|
45
|
96
|
93
|
|
24
|
Tanzania
|
60
|
Argentina
|
40
|
89
|
84
|
|
25
|
South Africa
|
59
|
Poland
|
37
|
97
|
74
|
|
|
|
Average
|
|
80.3
|
66.2
|
17The list in Table 1 of the largest countries by their digital population looks like the list of the countries by population, in terms of the included countries, and even partially by their scale order. This attests to the broad penetration of the Internet globally. Missing from the list of digital populations, as compared to the population list, are African countries: Ethiopia, Congo, Tanzania, and South Africa, thus attesting to the partial lagging of the African continent in Internet adoption. Egypt was the only African country appearing in both lists.
18However, when looking for the countries with the highest Internet penetration levels worldwide, this global list for 2023 is led by small European and Middle Eastern countries: Ireland, Norway, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, all with 99% Internet penetration rates, followed by Switzerland and Denmark, with 98% penetration rates (Statista, 2023g). We will see in the following sections, time and again, that smaller and relatively wealthy countries lead global leadership in penetration levels of communications technologies and applications. In contrast, larger countries are more complex in their socio-economic structures, thus presenting more modest penetration levels. Therefore, even among the largest countries, the digital population's penetration rate is highest in wealthier countries. Hence, the list of Internet penetration levels in large countries was led by the UK and Poland (97%), Spain (96%), the US (94%), Germany (93%), and France (92%). Asian countries presented the lowest penetration rates: Pakistan (39%) and Bangladesh (41%).
19Smartphone penetration rates among the largest countries by the end of 2022, as measured by the percentage of users within the digital population, are more modest than those for Internet penetration rates. However, these rates are specific for smartphones, whereas mobile phones, in general, have a global distribution that is rather ubiquitous (Kellerman, 2014). The 2022 Pew study of 18 developed countries found a median penetration level of 85% for smartphones among the general population (Wike, 2022). The data in Table 1 present Spain as the only country with a penetration percentage of over 90 (93%), within its digital population, followed by Argentina (84%), South Korea (83%), the US (82%), and France and Pakistan (82%). Spain led in both the penetration rates of the Internet and of smartphones, but Pakistan lagged in Internet penetration while leading in smartphone penetration. Thus, a country may have a sizeable digital population with a relatively smaller one owning smartphones, and vice versa. Countries with relatively low smartphone penetration rates among the largest countries were Japan (30%), which is a developed country in which smartphones were initially developed (Kellerman 2014), Bangladesh (30%), Brazil (31%), and Nigeria (38%).
20The global leaders in smartphone penetration were once again rather small territories and countries. When measured by smartphone penetration into the general population rather than into the digital one in 2021, it was for Macao to lead with 413%, attesting to wide multiple smartphone ownerships, followed by Hong Kong with c.320%, and UAE with c. 180% (Helgilibrary, 2023).
21Therefore, smaller, and relatively wealthy countries lead the global leadership in communication technology penetration levels. Larger countries present more modest penetration levels, but even among them, wealthier countries present the highest penetration rates.
22This section will interpret five networking platforms by their penetration rates: Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. China will be missing from the data for all five platforms, as all five networking platforms are banned there, using some domestic alternative networking platforms, such as Douyin for TikTok instead. As can be seen in Tables 2 and 3, the most popular platform by its penetration rate in the largest country markets in 2023 was Facebook (65.8%), followed by WhatsApp (58.7%), TikTok (52.9%), Instagram (44.0), and Twitter (21.2%). The 2022 Pew study on the use or the penetration of social media in 19 developed countries presented a general median of 72%, with higher rates in the Asia-Pacific region, and lower ones in Germany (Wike 2022). This difference might attest to differing cultural preferences.
Table 2: Leading countries by Facebook and Twitter (X) users in 2023
Data sources: Digital population: Statista, 2023a; Facebook users: Statista, 2023c; Twitter users: Statista, 2023d.
|
Facebook
|
Twitter (X)
|
|
Country
|
No. of users (in mil.)
|
Perc. of digital pop.
|
Country
|
No. of users (in mil.)
|
Perc. of digital pop.
|
|
India
|
314.6
|
45.5
|
US
|
76.9
|
24.7
|
|
US
|
175
|
56.2
|
Japan
|
58.85
|
57.5
|
|
Indonesia
|
119.9
|
56.3
|
India
|
23.6
|
3.4
|
|
Brazil
|
109.05
|
60.0
|
Brazil
|
19.05
|
10.5
|
|
Mexico
|
83.75
|
83.3
|
Indonesia
|
18.45
|
8.7
|
|
Philippines
|
80.3
|
94.3
|
UK
|
18.4
|
27.8
|
|
Vietnam
|
66.2
|
84.9
|
Turkey
|
16.1
|
22.6
|
|
Thailand
|
48.1
|
78.6
|
Saudi Arabia
|
14.1
|
38.9
|
|
Bangladesh
|
43.25
|
64.6
|
Mexico
|
13.9
|
13.8
|
|
Egypt
|
42
|
52.0
|
Thailand
|
11.45
|
18.7
|
|
Pakistan
|
37.3
|
42.7
|
Philippines
|
10.5
|
12.3
|
|
UK
|
34.4
|
52.0
|
France
|
10
|
16.7
|
|
Colombia
|
33.5
|
85.2
|
Spain
|
8.75
|
19.4
|
|
Average
|
|
65.8
|
|
|
21.2
|
Table 3: Leading countries by WhatsApp, Instagram and TikTok users 2023
|
WhatsApp
|
Instagram
|
TikTok
|
|
Country
|
No. of users (in mil.)
|
Per. of digital pop.
|
Country
|
No. of users (in mil.)
|
Per. of digital pop.
|
Country
|
No. of users (in mil.)
|
Per. of digital pop.
|
|
India
|
487.5
|
70.4
|
India
|
229.55
|
33.2
|
US
|
113.3
|
36.4
|
|
Brazil
|
118.5
|
65.2
|
US
|
145.35
|
46.7
|
Indonesia
|
109.9
|
51.6
|
|
Indonesia
|
84.8
|
39.8
|
Brazil
|
113.5
|
62.4
|
Brazil
|
82.2
|
45.2
|
|
US
|
79.6
|
25.6
|
Indonesia
|
89.15
|
41.9
|
Mexico
|
57.5
|
57.2
|
|
Russia
|
67
|
52.5
|
Turkey
|
48.65
|
44.6
|
Russia
|
54.9
|
43.0
|
23We will now examine separately the penetration trends for the five networking platforms in the leading countries for their penetration.
24Facebook includes commercial ads or pages, but it still constitutes an interpersonal networking platform within systems of personal friendship circuits. In 2023, some two-thirds of the digital population of the leading countries by the number of Facebook subscribers belonged to the system. This percentage is equivalent to smartphone ownership, attesting to the vast and relatively widespread adoption of Facebook. The list of leading countries in its adoption is, thus, like the one for digital populations, with Bangladesh and Columbia added.
25Globally leading among the largest countries for Facebook penetration in 2023 were the Philippines (94.3%), followed by Columbia (85.2%), and Vietnam (84.9). The lowest on the list are Pakistan (42.7) and India (45.5%). Thus, it was for countries outside the three cores of developed countries to lead in the penetration of Facebook, with the US (56.2%) and the UK (52.0%) presenting lower rates. Higher or lower adoption rates for any networking platform may be culture-dependent.
26As we noted before regarding Internet and smartphone penetrations, global leadership in Facebook adoption is maintained by rather small countries, such as in Europe in 2022 Cyprus (105.6%), Malta (97.2), and Sweden (91.2%) (Internet World Stats 2023).
27Twitter (X) is the networking platform with the lowest penetration rates globally, probably given its special character regarding the length of messages or tweets. Whereas the US is leading by its number of subscribers, it does not lead in the percentage adoption within the digital population. It is rather for Japan (57.5%) to lead, with Japan being a country that was not even among the 13 leading countries for Facebook adoption, and this is also true for Saudi Arabia (38.9%). This Twitter leadership of Japan and Saudi Arabia attests again to the cultural domestic preferences for the preferred social networking platforms. This is also the case for missing countries. Thus, Bangladesh and Pakistan are not on the list of leading countries, and India had the lowest penetration rate (3.4%), followed by Indonesia (8.7%). Saudi Arabia, France, and Spain are included on the Twitter list, not Facebook. The adoption rate for the US (24.7%) is just slightly above the global average (21.2%).
28WhatsApp is the second most popular networking application, following Facebook, but it has a different objective and nature. It first aims to provide private interpersonal textual, audial, visual, and group communications. However, it is also being increasingly used for business communications.
29The largest digitally populated countries are included in the list of leading WhatsApp countries, with Germany and Italy added and no African countries included. The list was led in 2023 by Italy (72.7%), Spain (71.4%), and India (70.4%). None of these leading penetration rates gets close to those for Facebook. The lowest on the list is the US, with an adoption rate of merely 25.6%! However, similar platforms are used in the US, notably Viber and Telegram.
30As with other parameters of population digitization, the global leaders for the 2021 penetration rates within the digital populations were different countries, except for the fourth one, Argentina (for which the percentage reported for 2023 is lower): Kenya (97%), South Africa (96%), Nigeria (95%), and Argentina (93%) (Rollason, 2021). Three of these four leading countries are African ones! Once again, it is significant to note that the popularity of specific networking platforms seems to be a matter of culture.
31The list of major Instagram countries was led in 2023 by the largest digital populations worldwide, like the one for WhatsApp, with Turkey and Japan replacing Russia and Argentina. This time, Brazil (62.4%) led for 2023, followed by Italy (51.6%). Instagram was much less popular in India (33.2%), which closed the list, followed by Germany (35.4%) and Mexico (36.5%).
32TikTok is banned in India, so this globally large digital country is not included in the list. Saudi Arabia presented the highest penetration level this time (72.9%), and the US presented the lowest one (36.4%), probably because of China's involvement in this platform.
33Generally, there are cultural domestic preferences for the preferred social networking platforms among the five globally leading ones. However, the global seniority preference in networking platforms belongs to Facebook. Some two-thirds of the digital population of the leading countries by the number of Facebook subscribers belonged to the system in 2023. This percentage is equivalent to smartphone ownership, attesting to Facebook's vast and widespread adoption. The list of leading countries in its adoption is, thus, like the one for digital populations. However, as we noted before regarding Internet and smartphone penetrations, global leadership in Facebook adoption is maintained by relatively small countries.
34Private individuals constitute the significant users of the five social networking and networking platforms we have discussed so far, and their use by individuals does not involve any direct costs per usage. Thus, we have noted the leadership of developing and industrializing countries, among the countries with the largest digital populations, all located outside the three global economic cores. We have further noted the role of small countries in the worldwide adoption rates. Let us now examine two other applications, which are also business-oriented (e-mail), and which involve some cost (online shopping). For both applications, we will look at their usage volume rather than their number of users. The volume of usage may reflect the economic power of these two applications: for e-mails, both individuals and companies tend to use them, and the value of spending in online shopping may be widely different among customers (Table 4).
35As we just noted, e-mails are used by private as well as by institutional and business entities. Commercial e-mails are also sent automatically to large numbers of individuals as spam and by IoT (Internet of Things) as machine-to-machine messages. Given this nature of e-mails, the list of leading countries by the number of e-mails sent and the e-mail per capita measure for 2023 reveals a different list of leading countries compared to the countries that lead in virtual social networking. This list includes major economic powers, such as the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, and one country with a large population, India. In addition, the list includes a series of smaller countries specializing in high-tech or international trade (Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Israel, and Ireland). The per capita e-mail measure is led by Israel (998), followed by Austria (973), and Belgium (753). India (12) and the US (31) close the list.
36Online shopping is not only a matter of adopting a new shopping habit, but its volume by financial value also depends on the economic status of individuals in any given country. Thus, it was for developed countries in all three global cores to be included in the 2023 list of per capita online spending, as well as for China, in which the adoption of online shopping has become wide-ranging. The UK leads the list ($4,201), followed by the US ($3,428), and South Korea ($2,591).
37For yet another measure, namely online banking penetration by country in 2022, only data for Europe were available (Statista, 2023h), and they reveal a Nordic, small-country domination, like the more traditional adoption pattern for new communications technologies (Kellerman, 1999). The European list was, thus, led by Norway (95.8%), followed by Iceland (94.8%), Finland (94.6%), and Denmark (94.4%). The cold winters in the Scandinavian countries might constitute a catalyst for online banking adoption.
38Generally, the global adoption of commercial applications reveals a double dominance of large wealthy countries compared to the joint leadership in social applications by both wealthy and developing large countries. This dominance of large countries is coupled with the dominance of small and relatively wealthy countries, like the trends we noted so far for the penetration of the Internet and its social applications.
39Large developing countries share with large, developed ones some broad penetration patterns of the Internet as a communications platform, as well as smartphones as its mobile terminal and significant social networking platforms. However, global leadership for the penetration levels of these technologies is maintained by small countries, mainly wealthy ones. These global trends have prevailed since the early phases of the worldwide distribution of the Internet, followed by those of smartphones. The early national phases of these penetration processes were associated with levels of economic development, given the need for significant investments in telecommunications infrastructures. In contrast, later phases were related to social and policy aspects. Thus, the findings for research questions 1-2 suggest that the trends identified in this regard for 2010 have prevailed also in 2022-23.
40Specifically, for networking platforms, Facebook leads globally in its adoption, followed by WhatsApp. The changing penetration levels of all five major networking platforms among nations attest to domestic preferences for networking platform adoptions as a token of national cultures.
41What are the various significances of these global trends? Above all, virtual networking has become an international phenomenon. Since its use by individuals is free of charge, its adoption and use are affordable also for low-income people, notably as compared to the individual use of online shopping, which by its very nature involves the availability of financial resources. In their daily use of virtual networking platforms, people can share their personal and social information swiftly and without distance restrictions. The whole world is potentially reachable for users, assuming that the virtual addresses of addressees are known, either directly or through some network.
42The wide availability of networking platforms may encourage literacy acquisition, which is required for their use. Furthermore, comprehensive connectivity also implies a growing exposure of networking users to economic and political news. This may support the economic and social involvement of networking subscribers. Thus, indirectly and in the long run, virtual networking may bring higher personal and national economic development. In the short run, though, wide subscription rates for networking platforms may only increase the number of workers in the Internet system, such as in ISPs (Internet service providers).
43This paper explored the country penetration levels for major Internet applications replacing physical ones, notably those for social networking. This exploration aimed at two ends. First, to learn, as far as data availability permits, whether high penetration levels typify large or small countries. Second, to see whether it is for wealthier countries, among the largest countries by population, to lead penetration levels for major Internet applications, notably those for social networking.
44Our discussions made use of selected country data that has been available for the leading countries for the number of people using the Internet and its applications. We presented these data also by the penetration levels of these applications, within the digital population of these countries.
45In 1999, it was shown that the US and Scandinavian countries historically led in adopting new communications technologies (Kellerman, 1999). A similar trend was found in the early 2010s regarding the adoption of significant services and economic online activities, such as shopping, banking, travel reservations, government, and health (Kellerman, 2014). Side by side with this latter trend, at the time, it was found that virtual social networking was led by developing countries and smaller ones (Kellerman, 2014). The interpretation of the 2023 data aimed to determine whether these trends reflected only the early adoption waves of these new technologies and applications or whether they continued one decade later, namely into the early 2020s, and thus presented some continuous tendencies.
46The list of the largest countries by their digital population looked like the list of the countries by population, in terms of the included countries, and even partially by their scale order. This attests to the broad penetration of the Internet globally. However, when looking for the countries with the highest Internet penetration levels worldwide, this global list for 2023 was led by small European and Middle Eastern countries. This geographical pattern of global leadership in penetration levels of communications technologies and applications was persistent for the numerous studied applications.
47Five networking platforms were interpreted by their penetration rates: Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter (X). The most popular platform by its penetration rate in the largest country markets in 2023 was Facebook, followed by WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, in this order. They all presented penetration leadership by both developed and developing countries among the largest countries worldwide, alongside global leadership by relatively small countries. Country differences in adoption levels of the several networking platforms stemmed from cultural differences and preferences.
48E-mails are used by individuals, as well as by institutional and business entities. Commercial e-mails are also sent automatically to large numbers of individuals as spam and by IOT as machine-to-machine messages. Given this nature of e-mails, the list of leading countries by the number of e-mails sent and the e-mail per capita measure for 2023 revealed a different list of leading countries compared to those that lead in virtual social networking. This list included significant economic powers, such as the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, side by side with one country with a vast population, India, coupled with a series of smaller countries that specialize in high-tech or international trade (Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Israel, and Ireland).
49Online shopping constitutes a matter of adoption of a new shopping habit. Its volume, though, as measured by its financial value, depends also on the economic status of individuals in any given country. Thus, it was for developed countries in all three global cores to be included in the 2023 list of per capita online spending, side by side with China, in which the adoption of online shopping has become wide-ranging.
50The trends revealed for 2022-2023 were like those identified for 2010 when Facebook was still a six-year-old and the only available virtual platform for networking-based social networking. It may be assumed, therefore, that these trends for Internet-related adoptions present some permanency. These trends are as follows. First, large developing countries lead the penetration levels of cost-free platforms for individuals aimed at social networking. Second, small and wealthier countries still hold the global leadership in terms of penetration levels. Third, domestic cultures may determine the levels of popularity of the several networking platforms. Fourth, business-based applications, such as e-mail, and income-based applications, such as online shopping and online banking, present leading penetration levels by developed countries.