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China: Two more years to Internet No. 1?

Harry Fuller Executive editor, CNET News.com
Harry Fuller escaped from television work to be executive editor at CNET News.com.
Harry Fuller

China says it now has over 130 million Internet users. Over 50 million Chinese have broadband.

China continues to trail only the U.S. in total number of web users. Doing some quick math with China's 2006 Internet growth rate of 30 percent: It could surpass the U.S. current total of 210 million users sometime in 2008. I'm assuming the U.S. is maxed out, that Internet growth here will be slender. Few countries in the world surpass 70 percent Internet use, which is where the U.S. stands now.

Rounding out the top five: Japan, Germany and India. With a total population of over a billion people, India potentially could also pass the U.S. in Internet users. But right now it only has an estimated 40 million. That's a paltry 3.6 percent of all Indians.