Brazilians Lengthen Time Spent Online
Citizens of Brazil are spending more and more time online, says a study conducted recently by Ibope eRatings.
According to the research, time spent online on residential computers increased by 27 percent since June 2001 to reach an average of 10 hours per user. Registered users also increased from 575,000 in June 2001 to more than 1.58 million in June 2002. Overall, Internet users increased their numbers by 2.9 percent from June to July 2002 to reach 7.8 million domestic users.
A little more than 14 million Brazilians--eight percent of the population--have Internet access at home. Visitors to the most popular Brazilian portal, the Universo Online Portal, numbered 5.29 million in July.
Internet Addicts Get Their Fix at Work
Internet research company Websense recently released data showing that Internet addiction can be costly to employers and there is a large gap between perceived use of the Internet and actual Internet activity among employees.
A full 25 percent of workers polled were symptomatic of being addicted to the Internet, while only 8 percent of companies acknowledged cyber-addiction at all. The survey also uncovered that some Internet-addicted workers spend more than an entire workday on personal surfing.
Shopping Web sites seem to be the most addictive, with 24 percent of employees citing this type of site as having the most addictive content. News sites followed at 23 percent, pornography at 18 percent, gambling at 8 percent and auction sites at 6 percent.
The big news for employers came when the study found that 67 percent of workers access news sites for personal use while at work. Additionally, 37 percent said they access auction and shopping sites for personal use, while another 4 percent admit to accessing pornography and gambling online while at work.
"Studies have shown that from 25 to 50 percent of cyber-addiction is occurring at the workplace," said Marlene Maheu, CEO of Pioneer Development Resources Inc., a company that develops Internet health products.
Hong Kong Leads World in Broadband Connections
A recent report published by Nielsen//NetRatings shows Hong Kong is on top of the list of countries with the most broadband users.
"Our survey also revealed that the high broadband usage rate is growing at a healthy clip in Hong Kong, up 8 percent since the first quarter. By contrast, the growth rate for broadband use in the U.S. is down from 2001, due to the comparably high subscription prices, lack of compelling content and limited geographic accessibility. In fact, nearly 10 percent of active broadband users in the U.S. are in the New York area, a location similar to the dense, urban setting of Hong Kong," said Lisa Strand, director and chief analyst of Nielsen//NetRatings.
Research Online, Buy Offline
Recently-released research from Forrester shows that a large chunk of European Internet users are more comfortable researching online and then buying the products at brick-and-mortar stores.
The study shows that 22 percent of Europeans exhibit the behavior of researching online and purchasing offline.
Among reasons cited for preferring to make the purchase offline are shipping costs being too high (32 percent) and uneasiness about online shopping (29 percent). The study also appears to debunk the myth that shoppers who research online will be loyal to the store where they did their research--48 percent of these cross-channel shoppers chose a supplier that was different from the one they did their research with.