IDEX Online Research: Internet Spanning the Globe, U.S. Market Has Most Users

For jewelers, the U.S. market is by far the largest market in the world, consuming roughly 50 percent of all jewelry produced globally. Likewise, the Internet market in the U.S. is one of the most developed in the world, as the table below illustrates. U.S. internet users have high levels of discretionary income; that makes the American market particularly attractive to online retailers.  

The table below summarizes world internet usage by major continent. While markets in Asia and Europe have more consumers on the Internet, their markets are highly fragmented, both by geography and by language. Further, they are still far less developed – as measured by “Internet penetration” – than North America.  

Internet Users By Language

In addition to the huge market potential in the U.S., about one-third of all global Internet users read or speak English. Thus, an English language website has the potential to reach the largest target group of consumers in the world. The following table illustrates the most prevalent languages used by online surfers around the world.