Canadians Crowned Biggest Internet Users

TORONTO – Must be those long winters: Canadians are the biggest Internet users anywhere, according to ComScore.

The measurement firm reported Canadians on average went online 43.5 hours a month in the last three months of 2010 – double the worldwide average of 23.1 hours a month.

That’s also well up on the average 35.3 hours that Americans spent online during the same period, making the U.S. market the second-most plugged-in internationally.

British online surfers were close behind with an average 32.3 hours spent online during the three months to December 2010.

Besides being home-bound for much of the year, older Canadians are also going online in record numbers, ComScore reported.

The web researcher said around 4.7 million of an estimated 23 million current Canadian Internet surfers are over 55 years-old.

Domestic and international media players have been quick to target Canadian bandwith hogs, including Netflix recently launching a successful pure video streaming subscription service in Canada.

Domestic broadcasters and other content carriers have answered that competitive challenge by launching on-demand services to retain eyeballs as the Canadian market absorbs increasing competition from YouTube, Apple TV and other emerging digital platforms.