Azernews.Az

By Alimat Aliyeva

Cloudflare has published its annual review for the year, revealing that global internet traffic has continued to grow, with key players such as Google, OpenAI, Binance, WhatsApp, and Facebook maintaining their dominance across various industries, Azernews reports.

In 2024, global internet traffic increased by 17.2 percent. As in the previous year, growth was initially slow until mid-August, after which it began to rise steadily until the end of November.

Mobile devices account for the majority of traffic in nearly 100 regions, with a global share of 41.3 percent. Of this, almost a third comes from Apple iOS devices. Android dominates in 29 regions, accounting for over 90 percent of the traffic. Notably, in eight regions, iOS devices contribute more than 60 percent of the mobile traffic share.

In 2024, there were 225 major internet outages worldwide. Cloudflare's security systems successfully neutralized 6.5 percent of global traffic, identified as potentially dangerous. In the United States, this figure rose to 5.1 percent, while in South Korea, it dropped slightly to 8.1 percent. In 44 countries, over 10 percent of the traffic was neutralized. The gambling industry, now the most attacked, surpassed finance as the most targeted sector.

An interesting trend highlighted in the report is the rapid growth of satellite internet, particularly with the expansion of Starlink services. Starlink's global traffic grew by over 330 percent in 2024, largely driven by its launch in Malawi (South Africa) in July 2023, where traffic surged 38 times in 2024.

The report also noted the continued dominance of major platforms. Google maintained its position as the most popular internet service globally, while OpenAI remained a leader in the generative AI space. Binance continued to lead in the cryptocurrency sector, and WhatsApp remained the top messaging platform. Telegram surged to third place, overtaking Viber and WeChat, while Facebook remained the most visited social network. YouTube retained its status as the leading video platform.

Yandex, the Russian search engine, was ranked second globally after Google, though with a significantly smaller share—Google controls 88.5 percent of global search traffic, while Yandex holds just 3.1 percent. Additionally, Yandex Browser became the third most popular browser on Android, with a 1.4 percent market share, while Google Chrome led with 65.8 percent.

The report also underscores the growing reliance on cloud infrastructure and AI-driven technologies in various industries, as well as the increasing geopolitical implications of global internet connectivity. With satellite internet expanding rapidly, regions with previously limited access are now more connected than ever, presenting new opportunities and challenges for both businesses and governments.