You've got a great point there but let me add something. The question if percentages or absolute numbers are valuable depends on the goal of your investigation.

You've got a great point there but let me add something. The question if percentages or absolute numbers are valuable depends on the goal of your investigation. When you want to determine the technological advancement of a country going for the relative numbers should be the way to go. However when you want to determine if a country should be a target market for your startup/company absolute numbers are fine. Even though only 22,5% of the Chinese people use the internet 298,000,000 users is still a huge market. Definitely to consider targeting.