Google Inc.'s dominance may seem unassailable in North America, but it's the search giant that is playing catch-up in Asia, according to new survey results released Sunday.

Despite the popularity of Google's Web sites elsewhere in the world, it failed to attract the most visitors in any of the 10 Asian countries surveyed in May by comScore Networks Inc.

Yahoo Inc. fared far better, claiming the most popular sites in Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan, while Microsoft Corp. sites were the most popular in Australia, China, and New Zealand.

The survey also showed that China has the largest online population in Asia, with 91.5 monthly Internet users, followed by Japan with 53.7 million and South Korea with 26.3 million. New Zealand had the fewest monthly users, with 1.9 million.

South Korea topped the list for highest Internet penetration, with 65 percent of its population using the Internet at least once during the month. Australia followed with 62 percent, then New Zealand with 60 percent, comScore said. China and India had the lowest Internet penetration rates, at 9 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

ComScore surveyed people aged 15 years or older who accessed the Internet from a home or work computer. In other findings it reported that:

• nearly 284 million people age 15 or older accessed the Internet from a home or work computer across the Asia Pacific.

• The average person used the Internet on 13.8 days in the month and spent 20.2 hours online. That compared to the global averages of 17.1 days per month and 25.2 hours online, comScore said.

IDG News Service

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