A new report from the United States Internet Council (USIC) explains that the majority of online users are not native English speakers.

"The Internet continued to grow at a very rapid pace and surpassed a half-billion online users in 2001. In fact, the Internet is growing so rapidly that the architecture of the Internet is being compelled to reshape itself with a new IP structure and new Top Level and multilingual domains. [...] In 2001 the online population crossed the half billion milestone and online demographics began to increasingly reflect offline realities. Significantly, native English speakers lost their dominance in 2001 and now represent approximately 45% of the online population."

Based on this report and a recent Harris poll, it's clear that the now-stagnant US online population no longer dominates the network. In case there was previously any doubt, take notice: the global Internet has arrived.

Not multi-lingual? You may be missing half the Net.