Since January, several companies have published their own projections of Internet users. The differences are significant: Estimates range from 164 million by Nielsen Online to 217 million by J.P. Morgan.
The differences are directly attributable to methodologies and definitions used. eMarketer defines an Internet user as any person who accesses the Internet from any location—home, work, school, a wireless hot spot, etc.—at least once per month. That is, a minimum of 12 times per year.
To make an apples-to-apples comparison, eMarketer calculated adult Internet users, 18 and older, and compared the number with data provided by comScore and Nielsen. Both firms’ figures are for August 2008.
