The potential of blogging

Have you ever considered the enormous potential of the internet and of blogging in particular? This relatively new form of publishing and communication is still very much in its infancy – it hasn’t even begun to realise its vast potential.

The Global Figures:

Here are the hard facts:

• Estimated world population: just below 6.6 billion (as of March 10th 2007)
• Estimated internet usage: 1.1 billion (or 16.9% penetration)
• Estimated number of blogs: 60 million (+/- depending on who you read)

The Global Picture of Blogging:

Now consider the number of blog sites. Of those 60 million or so the vast majority are simply “dead”. By that I mean, the person started off with enthusiasm and posted a few entries and then lost interest for whatever reason. Then consider the number of serious bloggers who have multiple sites; for example, I have three sites (plus one on Blogger I no longer contribute to – it’s dead). This must mean that there are far fewer active blogs than the 60 million often quoted and even fewer serious bloggers.

Let’s be conservative and say there are 10 million serious bloggers – those whose blogs are active, meaning they post at least once every month. (I suspect the figure is far less but humour me).

If there are ten million serious bloggers, only 0.15% of the world’s population fall into this category.

Now if you are blogging and you post more frequently, say once a week you are very much in the minority. In reality, very few are seriously into this new publishing trend, especially those who blog daily. The potential for growth is staggering.

The Global Potential:

Now consider the potential readership. The global penetration of the internet is only 1.1 billion or 16.9% of the current world population. Now, there will never be universal access to the internet, not in our lifetimes anyway. But even if the penetration is only 50% of the world’s population, the huge potential for growth in the next decade is exciting. The big growth areas are in Asia and Africa.

If the world penetration of the internet triples over the next decade that would give over 3 billion users world wide. What a staggering growth potential for those who have already established blogs and web sites.

Reference:

• Internet World Stats – World Internet Usage Statistics News and population stats.