64 G l o b al S e a r c h E n g i n e M a r k e t i n g Profile of Russia Online After years of relatively slow adoption rates, there were more than twice as many Russians online in 2010 as in 2007, passing the UK to make it the second largest population online in Europe. Though fewer than half of all Russians are online and most of them live in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia is well on its way to becoming an Internet mega market. Internet World Stats show the country now is the seventh largest Internet market in the world, trailing only Germany, Brazil, India, Japan, the United States, and China. At the current rate of growth, Russia has the potential to be a top-five worldwide Internet market within the next three to five years, and could become the biggest in Europe. Internet penetration and usage in Russia varies a lot between locations. Moscow has 70.8 percent Internet penetration. However, in the northeast part of Russia, Internet penetration drops to 48 percent. In the south part of Russia, Internet penetration drops to only 30 percent. As in most countries, the 18­24-year-olds have the heavi- est concentration of users with 73 percent overall. As you can see in Figure 5.1 , more than 9 out of 10 Muscovites (inhabitants or natives of Muscovy or Moscow) between the ages of 18 and 34 are online. Folks 55 and older trail a long way back with only 7 percent of them online overall and only 20 percent in Moscow.