The number of Internet users worldwide increased 10% over the past year amid a surge in India , China and Russia, a survey, quoted by an AFP report, said.
The AFP report, quoting a study by US market research firm comScore Networks, said that 747 million people aged 15 and up used the Internet worldwide in January 2007, a 10% increase from January 2006.
The US still held the largest number of users with 153 million, but growth was just 2%, comScore survey, quoted by AFP, further said.
The report also said China was second overall with 86.7 million, according to comScore, but growth was 20%.
The figure differs from the official Chinese estimate of 137 million, which includes users in cyber cafés and other public locations, the report said.
The strongest growth was seen in India, where the number of users increased 33% to 21.1 million, which India with the eighth largest Internet population, just behind France , the report said.
Russia saw its number of users up 21% to 12.7 million.
In terms of overall Internet users, the highest numbers after the US and China were, in order, Japan, Germany, Britain, South Korea, France, India, Canada and Italy, the report said.