The Bernama website registers some 95 million hits a month. The figure has more than double since the website located at www.bernama.com was revamped in August last year. It had a monthly hits of 40 million at that time.
With internet usage on the rise, the Bernama "on-line electronic newspaper" is expected to chart an even higher figure by year's end.
Internet users in Asia have jumped to 657 million as of March 31, 2009, according to a report by the European Travel Commission's New Media Trend Watch.
Quoting statistics from the Internet World Stats, an international website that features up-to-date world Internet usage, the report said that this latest figure is an increase of 474.9 percent compared to 2000.
Among the top Internet users in Asia as of April 2009 are China with 298 million (or 22.4 percent of the country's population), Japan with 94 million (73.8 percent), India with 81 million (7.1 percent), and South Korea with 36.8 million (76.1 percent).
Indonesia leads the south-east Asian countries with 25 million (10.5 percent) and followed by Vietnam with 20.9 million (24.4 percent) and the Philippines with 20.6 million (21.5 percent).
In May 2007, there were nearly 284 million people aged 15 or older who accessed the Internet from either a home or work computer in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the report.
"The average person in the Asia-Pacific region visited the Internet on 13.8 days in the month and spent 20.2 hours viewing 2,171 pages," it added.
Compared to the global average of 17.1 usage days per month, 25.2 hours per month, and 2,519 pages per month, Asia-Pacific Internet usage is considered to be "somewhat lower than the rest of the world".
Asia top 10 countries:
1. China: 298,000,000 (22.4% of the population in the country)
2. Japan: 94,000,000 (73.8%)
3. India: 81,000,000 (7.1%)
4. South Korea: 36,794,800 (76.1%)
5. Indonesia: 25,000,000 (10.5%)
6. Vietnam: 20,993,374 (24.4%)
7. Philippines: 20,650,000 (21.5%)
8. Pakistan: 17,500,000 (10.1%)
9. Malaysia: 15,868,000 (62.8%)
10 Taiwan: 15,140,000 (66.1%)
(Internet World Stats, April 2009)
