Report: Asia-Pacific Net users to cross 500M

China could be home to the most number of Internet users in the world by end 2008, according to a report released Tuesday.

eMarketer, a research house specializing in e-business and the Internet, reported that China's Internet population reached 176.5 million in 2007, compared to 188.1 million in the United States. The tally for China included Hong Kong.

Ben Macklin, senior analyst at eMarketer, said China would "overtake the United States as the most populous Internet nation in the world" this year. The Internet market in the Asian country, he added, is still relatively immature and together with countries such as Brazil and India, will drive growth in the number of Internet users globally.

Macklin noted that the number of Internet users in the Asia-Pacific region is also expected to grow by about 14.1 percent to 543.8 million, from 476.6 million last year.

The region's Internet population is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.4 percent--the second highest in the world after Latin America--between 2007 and 2012.

By 2012, nearly one in four persons worldwide will access the Internet at least once a month. About half of the total Internet population will come from the Asia-Pacific region.