This study investigated the spatial-temporal variation and trend of the Internet user percentage (IUP) at the country level in the world from 1996 to 2017. Several methods were applied including kernel density estimation, global autocorrelations, sigma-convergence detection, and hierarchical clustering. The results demonstrated that the spatial distribution of IUP at the country level showed significant positive autocorrelations indicating clustered spatial patterns rather than dispersed or random distributions. In addition, the temporal variation of the distribution disparity of IUP showed a decreasing trend at the country level during the study period. Further, sigma convergence of IUP during this period was detected according to the coefficient of variation. Last, the similarity of the IUP variation at the country level presented the spatial clustering feature with spatially contiguous countries in the world. In sum, the finding in this study indicated that Internet penetration may show the promotion of the balanced development trend over time in the world and the spatial characteristics of Internet development should be considered in the future policy globally.

本研究调查了 1996 年至 2017 年世界各国互联网用户百分比 (IUP) 的时空变化和趋势。应用了多种方法，包括核密度估计、全局自相关、sigma-收敛检测和层次聚类. 结果表明，IUP 在国家层面的空间分布显示出显着的正自相关，表明空间模式是聚集的，而不是分散或随机的。此外，研究期间IUP分布差异的时间变化在国家层面呈下降趋势。此外，根据变异系数检测到此期间 IUP 的 sigma 收敛。最后，国家层面 IUP 变异的相似性呈现了与世界上空间相邻国家的空间聚类特征。综上所述，本研究结果表明，互联网普及率可能随着时间的推移呈现出促进世界均衡发展的趋势，未来全球政策应考虑互联网发展的空间特征。