Email still rules, says Nielsen/NetRatings

www.telecomasia.net

Email is still the dominant Internet application, according to the latest Nielsen/NetRatings Global Trend survey.

The survey of 12 countries in the past six months found that at least 75% of households with Internet access used email. In Australia, the UK and the Netherlands, 90% of all adults had used email in the period.

By contrast, involvement in chat rooms was lower than 30% in all countries except Brazil and Spain where 41% and 38% respectively used chat rooms.

"Of all the popular Internet applications, email is the global activity of choice," said, Director, Nielsen//NetRatings director Peter Steyn.

"The key to email's popularity is two-fold: it's a cost-effective way to communicate across great distances, and it doesn't require the same high connection speeds as some of the other applications. In most countries in this report, a 56k modem or slower modem is the most popular tool to access the Internet."

In Hong Kong - the only Asian market surveyed - 58% of those who responded and had Internet access used either a cable modem or high-speed telephone connection to access the Internet. The study found that 38% of Hong Kong users had listened to Internet radio in the past six months, second behind Brazil (40%). The results showed 84% had used email, 28% had participated in a chat room, 26% used instant messaging and 34% had looked audio-visual content.

Globally, the number of people with access to the Internet via a home PC increased from 498.2 million in Q4 2001 to 531.3 million in the first quarter of 2002.