Canada Beats Germany as Most Web-Addicted Nation

TORONTO -- It’s all those Justin Bieber fans: Canadians log more time on the web and social media, including Facebook and YouTube, than any other nation.

The measurement company comScore reports Canada has the highest penetration of Internet access, with around 68% of Canadians routinely surfing online, against 62% in France and Britain.

Close behind is 60% of Germans going online and, south of the border, 59% of Americans.

The laggards are Italians, where only 36% of the population goes online, according to comScore.

Web-addicted Canadians now spend an average 42 hours a month surfing the web, up from 40 hours in 2009, and view an average 147 videos a month on YouTube and other online video websites.

And around 17 million Canadians, or 51% of the population, have Facebook accounts. Canada has a vibrant Twitterverse, with an estimated 5% of the traffic routinely following Canadian-born Justin Bieber as he rules as a pop music sensation.

Despite Canada’s broadband connectivity, Canadians still lag Americans in their embrace of so-called ‘smart TV.’ Netflix is only a recent entrant into the Canadian market, and Google TV and Apple TV have yet to break through north of the border.

The delay is due in part to the country's TV watchdog debating whether to regulate the Internet as major cable and phone carriers steadily buy up major TV networks -- Shaw Communications purchasing Canwest Global Communications Corp., Rogers Communications picking up Citytv and Bell Canada acquiring CTV -- to offer TV to Canadians across multiple digital platforms before American behemoths establish themselves here.