New data from IT security firm Cloudflare reveals a surge in popularity for Elon Musk's Starlink internet service, with global web traffic tripling this year.

“Overall, we have seen Starlink traffic more than triple this year. In the United States, Starlink traffic increased more than 2,5 times, and increased 17 times in Brazil. In countries where Starlink will go live in 2023, including Kenya, the Philippines, and Zambia, we saw traffic increase rapidly as soon as the service became available,” Cloudflare writes in its report.

Starlink's satellite broadband internet service has grown exponentially over the past three years. This development is due to the increase in launches by SpaceX of Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.

Starlink is the world's leading internet service provider in space. Jeff Bezos' Project Kuiper service is very late, with only a few satellites in low orbit. Bezos recently had to hire Musk for rocket launches after his rocket company Blue Origin suffered a series of delays over the summer.

Starlink had more than two million users as of September and operated on all seven continents in more than 60 countries.

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