Compiled by Emily DiFilippo and Vicky Nolan
Workers Play Too Much
Employees are supposed to be working during business hours, but it's hard to see productivity when those hours are among the busiest for online gaming sites. Telemate.Net Software Inc. estimates that more than 6 million employees play online games while at work--depleting company time, employee productivity and bandwidth resources. Top game sites like Microsoft Gaming Zone, Gamesville and Pogo receive up to 500,000 hits per day, mainly during working hours. Meanwhile, the number of game sites
increases five percent each month, many of which require high-speed connections and special plug-ins like Shockwave, Flash and Java.
Telemate.Net's NetSpective offers 100 reports tracking online surfing, with categories ranging from pornography to obscene/tasteless to gambling sites. "Easy access to powerful network connections, a faster paced work environment where the boss cannot look over every shoulder 24/7 is the perfect situation for some employers to take advantage of their Internet access to cyber-slack," said a Telemate.Net spokesman.
www.telemate.net
Problem Gambling and Alcoholism May Be Related
"We found that there probably are genetic risk factors that increase the probability of becoming an alcoholic and increase the probability of becoming a problem gambler," Dr. Wendy S. Slutske of the University of Missouri-Columbia told Reuters Health. A university study into this matter included 6,744 male twins, some of who had some kind of gambling or alcohol problem. Among the study's findings was that the male twins who were gambling addicts were more likely to also have a drinking problem. Based upon these results, the study's authors believe that there may be a genetic link that may lead to alcoholism and possibly problem gambling. On the other hand, Slutske indicated that one habit might have an effect on the other.
A Leader in the Browser Wars
Microsoft, hands down, is leading the browser wars. Statmarket reports that 86.08 percent of Internet users worldwide use Microsoft's Internet Explorer, up from 64.06 percent in February 1999. Netscape, meanwhile, accounts for 13.90 percent of total users, with 0.02 percent using other browsers.
Microsoft also dominates the operating system market, with 93.63 percent of Internet users worldwide using a Microsoft OS system. Macintosh accounts for 2.53 percent and Unix OS accounts for 0.36 percent of OS.
www.statmarket.com
Online US B2C to Top US$29.3 Billion
Gartner Research reports that business-to-consumer sales over the Internet will surpass $29.3 billion in the U.S. and have already increased 75 percent since 1999. Computer products and consumer electronic retailers are among the high-end, with revenue likely to reach $59.7 by 2004, up from $7.5 billion last year. Another winner in online B2C sales is the banking and financial services industry. Gartner suggests revenues will nearly quadruple from $3.6 billion in 1999 to $12.3 billion in 2004.
www.gartner.com
Chinese Internet for the Common People
Internet use in China, though largely limited to those with college degrees, is becoming more popular with youths and low income individuals. According to the "Net Knowledge China" report by imasia, the average Chinese Internet user is 30 years old, university educated and earns the equivalent of $225 per month. 72 percent of those online in China are college graduates. However, imasia predicts that the average age of Internet users is going to drop as more 16 to 20-year-olds are getting online. They also believe that a larger number of lower income workers will be using the Net since 39 percent of users who have been online for less than 6 months do not have college degrees.
Northern Internet Habits
According to Neilson NetRatings, the average Canadian Internet user goes online more often and visits more sites than the does the average American. The average Canadian user logged onto the Net about 20 times during May and visited around 18 individual sites. In contrast, the average American user only went online about 18 times and only visited about 10 individual sites. Canadians also remain online about 30 minutes longer than Americans. Favorite servers in Canada include MSN, Yahoo!, AOL, Lycos, and
Microsoft. Interestingly, there are about 10 times as many Americans with Internet access as Canadians.
The Wireless Revolution
At the end of 1999, 5.4 billion SMS (or short text messages) were sent worldwide via cell phones every month. Logica predicts that the volume of SMS will increase annually by 170 percent, and 100 billion SMS will be sent monthly by December of 2002. This will also increase the popularity of other technologies such as WAP and 3G and will thus create a "wireless communications revolution." The Japanese are already surpassing the US in SMS usage; 2 billion SMS were sent in Japan in December of 1999 while only 200 million were sent in the US. By December 2002, the Japanese are expected to be sending 36 billion SMS per month while the US will only be sending 10 billion. SMS use is also higher in South America than it is in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.