Despite the global economic slowdown, worldwide use of the Internet continues unabated. By 2013, there will be 2.2 billion Internet users in the world. While every region's Internet population is projected to grow, Asia remains the biggest global growth engine: 17% of the world's online population will live in China in 2013. Although online population does not immediately correlate with online spending, the Internet's power is as strong in the political and cultural arenas as it is in the economic one. Multinational organizations of all kinds must understand the dynamics of the shifting global online population to ensure that they are positioned to take advantage of emerging international opportunities.