Mobile Web for 1/2 the World by 2020

According to the GSMA, half of the world's population will be using mobile devices to access the Internet by 2020. It is calculated that there were 2.2 billion mobile Internet subscribers in 2013, representing approximately 30% of the global population. GSMA forecasts that an additional 1.6 billion citizens worldwide will become mobile internet users over the next six years, bringing the total number to 3.8 billion, or around half of the world's expected population in 2020.

Almost all of the additional mobile internet users expected over the next six years are expected to come from the developing world. The number of mobile Internet users in the developing world is expected to double from 1.5 billion in 2013 to 3 billion by 2020, rising from 25% of the developing world population to 45% over the period. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 17% of the population were mobile internet subscribers in 2013, but penetration is forecast to increase to 37% by 2020.