The research firm's First Quarter 2002 Global Internet Trends report also showed that e-mail is by far the most popular Internet activity around the globe, edging out chat rooms, instant messaging and more bandwidth-intensive activities, such as watching video content or listening to Internet radio.

"The key to e-mail's popularity is twofold: It's a cost-effective way to communicate across great distances, and it doesn't require the same high connection speeds as some of the other applications," said Nielsen//NetRatings chief of measurement science Richard Goosey.

World Wide Web

According to the research firm, 34 percent of Internet users worldwide are based in the United States and Canada, 27 percent in Europe and the Middle East, 21 percent in Asia-Pacific and 2 percent in Latin America. The rest of the world accounts for the remaining 16 percent.

Nielsen//NetRatings spokesperson Laura Hupprich told NewsFactor that the world's Internet population is growing at a strong, steady rate.

E-Mail Rules

Nielsen//NetRatings reported that 90 percent of adults in the United Kingdom, Australia and The Netherlands said they had used e-mail within the last six months. Other activities had much lower use. For example, less than 30 percent of respondents reported using chat rooms and instant messaging in most countries.

Such activities as watching video content and using Internet radio garnered fewer than 50 percent of users in all countries, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

"I would suspect that e-mail would be most popular for the near- to short-term because the other applications require broadband," Hupprich said.

Quick Fact-Finding

Pew Internet and American Life Project senior research specialist John Horrigan told NewsFactor that e-mail is popular because it gives users freedom in communication.

"You have more power over how you respond," Horrigan said.

But Horrigan noted that while e-mail is likely to remain the most widely used application on the Internet, broadband connections are fueling another activity: quick fact-finding.

According to Horrigan, people increasingly are using the Internet to settle friendly arguments about movies, actors and other topics or to quickly check facts for themselves.

"That's an extremely popular thing, particularly with those who have high-speed connections," Horrigan said. "That will be a growing use of the Internet. It may not be as popular as e-mail, but it will approach it."

High-Speed Hotbed

While Internet video and radio activity may not be challenging e-mail yet, Nielsen//NetRatings' said the latest data show significantly higher rates of Internet video and radio use in areas where high-speed connections are more prevalent.

In Hong Kong, for example, where a reported 58 percent of those with home Internet access use cable modem or high-speed telephone connections, watching video and listening to Internet radio were the most popular online activities, attracting 34 percent and 38 percent of users, respectively.

In the United States, 21 percent of about 105 million home users accessed the Internet via broadband connections in January 2002, Nielsen//NetRatings' Hupprich said.