While America ranks as #1 when in comes to sharing files, we are always looking for the new and most efficient means to hook our friends up with the newest music, funniest memes, and latest viral videos. So it comes as no surprise when you see sites such as Facebook getting upwards of 1.38 billion users a month, or YouTube hot on its heels with 1.28 billion.
Following these stats, one would assume the next super-power of file sharing would come from the likes of Twitter, Soundcloud, or Instagram right? Yet while those media hubs do rank high, anywhere from 200 to 255 million users a month, peer-2-peer sharing remains at the forefront of file distribution.
And with the continuing growth and reliance of the internet, one would think that peer-2-peer sharing would be on the decline with such as the three aforementioned sites taking their place; yet the opposite is so. In a 2010 survey, a recorded 28.2 million unique IP addresses were addressed as using P2P as a means of sharing files between friends and communities. That same survey was then redone earlier this year, and recorded by 31.7 million unique IP’s in the USA alone.
Across the board, America still ranks highest in the amount of files shared across all mediums, accounting for 10.57% of the entire Global P2P sharing users. Breaking this staggering percentage down, USA accounts for 13.83% of global music downloads, 11.44% of global TV downloads, and 11.25% of all software downloads. The only bracket in which Americans are not #1 is the downloading of games, attesting to only 6.68% compared to Brazil’s #1 spot of 13.75%.
While these statistics could be a testament to a continued dependance and time spent on the internet, it could also simply be because the internet is more accessible than ever. With its increased accessibility, consumers are more easily allowed to transfer and download files between one another on a daily basis and on the fly, instead of it being a long and drawn out process that it would have been as early only a handful of years ago.
Via DigitalMusicNews
